Three players Kriskal Persaud, Ronuel Greenidge and Errol Tiwari were in the lead after two rounds of the national Closed chess championship at the Ocean Spray Hotel, Vlissengen Road yesterday.

The three are on the maximum two points while four players Shiv Nandalall, Loris Nathoo, Andre Griffith and David Khan are on one point each.

Nandalall however must only blame himself for his position. He was up a rook in his second round game last evening against Persaud only to lose with a rook, bishop and four pawns against a Bishop and three pawns endgame.

In fairness to Persaud, who had earlier blundered away his rook, the ending was entirely lost as he had two passed connected pawns.

The big disappointment of the tournament so far has been the performance of Learie Webster. One of the favourites to capture the title, Webster lost both of his games yesterday to finish without a point while Cleveland Hutson one of the finalists pulled out at the last minute citing other pressing commitments.

In the junior category Taffin Khan and Ronald Roberts lead the points standings with two points while Seon Taitt, Sham Khan and Cecil Cox are on one point.

Pre tournament favourite Sherifa Ali has only half a point after drawing her first game and losing to Roberts in the second round.

The competition continues today from 10am at the King’s Plaza Hotel.