2024 Barbados Interschool Primary Chess Championship: Charles F Broome 'A' Team Dominates Competition, Secures Victory

Charles F Broome’s ‘A’ team swept aside all their opponents to emphatically win the 2024 Barbados Interschool Primary Chess championship held at the Wildey Gymnasium earlier in the week.

Charles F Broome ‘A’ finished on a perfect 25 points, to finish a commanding seven points ahead of the second placed St Giles ‘A’, while Charles F Broome’s ‘B’ team placed third with 15 points, to edge out St Giles ‘B’, Beyond the Box Education and Sharon Primary on the tie-break.

The event was played over two days with a five-round format and featured 20 teams from just over a dozen primary schools.

The winning team consisted of Chaz Reifer-Belle, Nathan Simmons-Patterson, Janiyah Browne, Darren Toppin and Nathan Culpepper with Kymani Gayle as the reserve.

Charles F Broome ‘A’ entered the competition as favorites, as it possessed several age-category champions or national representatives in its ranks in the likes of Reifer-Belle, Browne, and Gayle. However, its total domination was of credit to their coach Corie Elcock.

The first five members of the team won respective board prizes.

Only two St George ‘C’ players, Shakeem Applewaithe and Joash Sealy, also won all of their matches.

The St Giles ‘A’ team comprising of Nyall Bushell, Aaron Tash, Kyi chai Straughan, Callum Foster and Donte Christian finished a commendable second. They won four of their five matches, suffering only one defeat at the hands of the eventual winners. Tash, Straughan and Foster all won special prizes in their respective boards, meaning that they scored more the 67 per cent of the available maximum points.

The Charles F Broome ‘B’ team of Amelia Mottley, Nia Clarke, Daisha Rose-Parris, Liam Byer, Arielle Gittens and Akeli Grazette came in third to give their school more glory.

This was a restart to the Primary Interschool team championship after the Covid pandemic and president of the Barbados Chess Federation (BCF), Allan Herbrt said he was elated to see over a 100 students taking part in the event.

(PR)