ETHAN Lee, Rajiv Lee and Ricardo Narine are in the top three spots of the three-day Junior Chess Qualifiers, which is scheduled to be concluded today at the National Stadium.

The event, sponsored by Beep Products and De Sinco Ltd, is being played at the National Stadium in Providence.

All three young players are unbeaten in their first four games of the tournament.

Ethan Lee faced off against Kyle Couchman in an exhausting four-hour struggle for dominance in the final round on Sunday—the second day of the event.

Both players were solid in their approach and created opportunities, but the much-improved Lee was able to gain a small advantage over his opponent as the endgame began. The quality of the players were on display as it took an additional two hours for a winner to be decided.

Given that both players’ time had elapsed, they were playing in the 30 seconds per move increment. Couchman held defiantly, in his attempt for a draw, but Lee converted the position to a win with seconds left on both of their clocks.

Lee racked up his other wins against Landon Mohabir, Kishan Puran and Tejasvarun Kandavel in the first three rounds.

Narine, on the other hand, was paired against his former schoolmate, Queen’s College’s Raveon Adonis in Round Four.

Explosive positions, filled with tactics, erupted from the very beginning of the match, as the players fought for an edge; in the end, it was Narine who prevailed.

He won his other points against Javier Davenand, Morven Barran and Anasie Fredericks.

Rajiv Lee and Jessica Callender took a different approach from the other players in Round Four, as the positional dance for dominance began right after the opening.

This game was not won with brute calculation and prediction, but with experienced precision. The two traded into an endgame where Lee simply had a better position than Callender, whilst being up no pieces. Callender held valiantly, but the clash ended with Lee winning enough pieces because of his position to claim victory.

Additionally, Rajiv defeated Jacob McDonald, Udhyam Lekhraj and Justin Goberdhan.

Pooja Lam and Sasha Shariff, also unbeaten for the first three games, would have been right up there with the boys, except that the fourth game saw them matched against each other, which ended in a draw.

They each amassed 3.5 points.

Rounds Five and Six take place today at the Stadium.

Board one features a highly anticipated game between Ethan Lee and Rajiv Lee, these two veterans of national and international events are expected to battle hard.

Almost 70 junior chess players are competing in the De Sinco-sponsored tournament from across five regions.

The top 10 players will be selected to play the National Qualifiers.