THE PREMIER CHESS TOURNAMENT within the English-speaking Caribbean, the Sagicor Open Junior Chess Championships, will start today at National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) headquarters.

As this year's event gets under way, a record number of chess players are expected to participate. Making up the list of competitors will be about 60 members of the Barbados Under-12, 14, 16, 20 and girls national junior squads, plus many other local players along with about 25 overseas players from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Surinam, The Bahamas, Aruba and newcomers St Lucia.

Among the big names in local chess to compete at these championships are international rank junior player Martyn Del Castilho. A household name in local chess, Castilho will be looking to create local history by winning this event for a third consecutive time.

Under-16 chess champion and internationally ranked player Justin Blackman, Barbados Community College student and also internationally ranked player Shamell Howell, Under-20 chess champion Wendell Meusa along with rising stars Alex Jackman, Craig Clermond and rapidly improving female player Corrine Howard, are also among the top players.

Leading the charge for the overseas players are newly crowned women FIDE Master and first runner-up in last year's Sagicor Championships Deborah Richards from Jamaica, and rising stars from Trinidad and Tobago Christopher Raphael, Justin Salloum and Keron Cabrallis.

Freida Nicholls will deliver the feature address. Other officials expected to be on hand are Sagicor representative Tracy Lloyd, Barbados Chess Federation president Dr Kumar Areti and a representative from NUPW.

The morning proceedings begin at 10 a.m.

All interested persons can follow the tournament by going to the chess federation website at www.barbados.org/chess. (PR)