St. Stanislaus College (SSC) `A’ Team played unbeaten to claim the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCY&S) National Schools Chess Championship on Sunday at the Carifesta Avenue Sports Complex.

Champions! Members of the successful St. Stanislaus Chess Team. Standing from left are Ron Motilall, Aslam Hussain, David Stephenson (Coach), Ashnant Satamand and Kevin Williams.

They swept the team category after entering the tournament as underdogs to   Mackenzie High School, West Demerara Secondary and Queen’s College, the  favoured squads.

St. Stanislaus defeated JC Chandisingh Secondary, Mae’s School and Marian Academy with scores of 3 ½ – ½, 4 – 0 and 3 ½ – ½ respectively.

Their toughest challenge came in round four against West Demerera Secondary which ended in a draw (2 – 2) and they also held Mackenzie High School `A’ team to a draw.

With the two strongest teams out of their way, SSC went on to defeat St. Stanislaus ‘B’ (2 ½ – 1 ½ ) in round six, then brushed aside Mackenzie High `B’ team 4-0.

St. Stanislaus `A’ finished on top with six points, West Demerara Secondary and Mackenzie `A’ both finished on five points each.
However, West Demerara Secondary took the second position based on the tie breaker system.

Queen’s College `B’ team played with one player down after round three to finish fourth, while Mackenzie `B’ took the fifth spot.
The eventual victor’s team comprised of Ron Motilall, Ashnant Satamand, Aslam Hussain and Kevin Williams.

In the individual category, Stanley Ming Jr.  of Georgetown International Academy scored with five solid wins and two draws to finish on top with six points.

His two draws came against Saeed Ali and Sham Khan. Ali of Richard Ishmael Secondary and Khan of Tutorial High School each ended on five-and-a-half points, but Ali took the second position based on the tie-break system.

Raan Motilall of West Demerara Secondary took the fourth position, while Faraad Baksh also of West Demerara Secondary was fifth.