A NUMBER of experienced national junior players are expected to battle in today’s DeSinco National U12 Rapid Championships, which will be held online on tornelo.com from 14:00hrs.
Over 30 youngsters will battle in today’s Open and Girls competitions.

Stiff rivalry is expected from a seasoned group of male players. Arysh Raghunauth from Queen’s College, Nicholas and Alexander Zhang, Omar Shariff and Mahir Rajkumar from Mae’s School and Jacob MacDonald from School of the Nations all have experience at the Junior World Rapid competition and are all capable of winning.

Raghunauth was second in the tournament in 2020, losing on a tie-breaker to Kyle Couchman who is too old this year to play.

In the U10 and U8 sub-categories, Julian Mohabir is a strong favourite. The U8 player could possibly threaten some of the more seasoned players.

FEMALE COMPETITION
With the federation increasing its number of young female players, this year’s U12 championships will have its own female competition.

Big names such as Anaya Lall, Farrah Gaskin and Kataleya Sam are expected to do well while developing players and newcomers will have to change to enhance their game.
The tournament would be supervised by FIDE Arbiter, John Lee.