Two national championships are running concurrently in the Caribbean: Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T).  Both tournaments are at the halfway point and there are a few surprise on the charts.

In the T&T championship, FM Ryan Harper and Sean Perryman have supplanted perennial favorite Christo Cave as the leader. Cave has amazingly suffered two consecutive defeats for perhaps the first time in his championship run. He has now tumbled to 5th-6th position on 4-2. Harper will face stiff competition in the coming rounds, but will try to win his 2nd national crown since 2002 when he vanquished the field with 11-0. Perryman will face Harper in an 8th round matchup with hopes of breaking into sole lead.

In Barbados, junior champion Martyn Del Castilho still holds a share of the lead, but he has been joined by the surging performance of FM Delisle Warner and the surprising play of another junior, Justin Kirton. All are on 6-1. Kirton has already upset Warner and will face FM Dr. Philip Corbin in the last round. Corbin has been inconsistent and is fortunate to have only lost two games. He is -2 and chances for an 8th title are fading rapidly. Meanwhile Warner is hitting his stride and after tonight he will have already played the toughest opponents. The tournament will resume tonight with the marquee matchup being Warner vs. Del Castilho. Webcast will resume on Wednesday.

Posted by The Chess Drum: 3 October 2005