Chess: St Louis Open tournament |19 March 2020

Young and experienced players took part in the competition

44 players battle in pre-lock down tournament

The St Louis community centre welcomed 44 players on Saturday, precisely two days prior to the total lockdown of all sports activities in the country, where they battled in the St Louis Open chess tournament which featured three categories.

The annual event was open for players of 12 years old and under, 18 years old and under and an open category for players aged from 18 years old and above.

The junior category featured 10 young players, while the under-18 group attracted 23 players.

For the open category, 11 players registered and battled for the top prize.

For all three categories, the competition was played on a seven-round Swiss system which is a non-eliminating tournament format and features a set number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than in a round-robin tournament.

In a Swiss tournament, each competitor (team or individual) does not play each other. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but not the same opponent more than once. The winner is the competitor with the highest aggregate points earned in all rounds.

For the juniors, Selvesh Sentil was the grand winner, finishing ahead of Tharun Balaji and Anush Kumar Velmurugan who were the runner-up and third-place finisher.

In the under-18 category, Darian Dupres finished first ahead of Roysha Mougal and Mohamed Ali-Jina Mohamed Arfan who were second and third respectively.        

Zacharia Kafuko was the grand winner in the open category, surpassing second-placed Viswarajan Pillay. Reigning chess player of the year Ragul Pillay finished third overall in the group.

The St Louis Chess Club and the Seychelles Chess Federation (SCF) wish to thank the district administration, the sponsors, volunteers and everyone who contributed in any way to make the annual event a success.

Under-12 years old

1. Senthil Selvesh

2. Balaji Tharun

3. Anush Kumar Velmurugan

4. Farrel Commetant             

5. Akim Jean-Baptise             

6. Elnathan Melon                             

7. Pandu Rangan Ranesh                               

8. Regina Pandian Anand Narayan                            

9. Velmurugan Pavithra                     

10. Michael Dodin

Under-18 years old

1. Darian Dupres        

2. Roysha Mougal                  

3. Mohamed Ali-Jina Mohamed Arfan                      

4. Ellisha Dufrene                  

5. Angelo Bistoe         

6. Navin Pillay            

7. Bastienne Rishon               

8. Jean-Philip Servina             

9. Alvin Simon            

10. Alexander Shakkiguhan               

11. Bratia Miguel                   

12. Noah Camille       

13. Caleb Chilinda                  

14. Mario Choppy                  

15. Jhugroo Rai                      

16. Muna Ammar                  

17. Pandu Rangan Ruhi Sree             

18. Senthil Vargunan             

19. Tamby Stravens               

20. Ashwin Chetty                  

21. Hemanth Kumar Prathiksha                    

22. Jeyaseelan Jason Andrew            

23. Sekar Aakash

Open Senior

1. Kafuko Zacharia                 

2. Pillay Viswarajan               

3. Ragul Pillay            

4. Prokopyev Sergey              

5. Timothy Kate                      

6. Robin Bonne                       

7. Dania Dupres                     

8. Darc Abel Jeanne               

9. Onkar Pasalkar                  

10. Raja Ganesan                   

11. Rachelle Hoareau

Roland Duval