This year will be a memorable one for Knights, the most venerable and prestigious chess club in the country. Knights which, without a doubt, has made the most progressive contribution to development of the sport in T&T, celebrates its 60th anniversary with a number of special events, most notably a novel doubles tournament and another contest featuring players in three ranking categories.
DR expects that these events marking the Diamond Jubilee of Knights will enjoy the fullest support of the country’s chess playing community, a show of appreciation for the stalwart role that the club has played in keeping the celebrated mind game alive and growing.
The history of Knights may not be the full history of the sport in our country since it eventually replaced the formidable RVI which virtually ruled the roost during the pre and post war years with a coterie of notable champions.
Not really concerned about the problem of succession, however, the RVI eventually died a natural death to be succeeded by Knights with a rising tide of enthusiastic young players who injected a fresh competitive energy into the sport.
This “rebirth” was first headed by Horace Pinheiro at the RAFA building on Queen’s Park East and then to the T&TEC building on Flament Street. Pineiro’s successor was Van Stewart, Principal of Queen’s Royal College where Knights began to hold its first open tournaments.
Seeking a more commodious “battle ground,” Knights subsequently transferred its expanding tournament operations to St Francois Girls College in Belmont, then to Drechi on Wrightson Road and, fortunately and finally, to the Rhand Credit Union head office on Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain.
Here the club has found not only a comfortable meeting place for its two major annual tournaments, the Knights Open and the DeVerteuil Memorial, but also a genuine supporter in RHAND General Manager David Maynard who not only participates in the chess action himself but also encourages emerging youngsters with prizes of quality chess books.
After Stewart, Knights changed a number of presidents including Barton Gomez, but it was the late Lucio Araujo, a UWI lecturer in engineering, who served the longest in office, and retired T&T Ambassador Louis Wiltshire, the current president, who, by their alert innovations, have kept the club abreast of the times.
Araujo’s legacy includes the award of cash prizes to tournament winners, the introduction of a rating system for players and launching of the DeVerteuil Memorial in tribute to the “grand old man” of T&T chess.
Looking back, these changes may now appear inevitable but at the time they were still some distance off the horizon for T&T. Araujo, in fact, had to devise his own method for the rating of players as the FIDE system was relativelyl unknown in the country.
Wiltshire, motivated by the proposition that chess players simply want to play chess, has expanded the club’s portfolio of tournaments, first with the Lucio Araujo Invitational, a biennial contest in tribute to his predecessor.
In this event, unrated players are virtually assured of a FIDE rating, a “Melee” tournament divided into 10, 15 and 25 minute segments and, thirdly, a “triology” featuring three rated sections, U1800, U2000, and all other players.
Over the years, champions of the Knights Open have included players who also made their mark in other open and national contests. T
he following list is not comprehensive, but they include such stalwarts as Cristo Cave, Rudy Mohipp, Wendell Chin King, Marcus Cobham, Grahame Taylor, John Raphael, Kwame Payne, Arthur Morris, Courteney Lee, Rene BoissiereHl and Ronnie Camps.
The 43rd Knights Open starts tonight at 7 pm at Rhand and the club expects that the record of 60 participants in 2015 will be surpassed.
Two of the planned anniversary tournaments include a doubles tournament in which two players play against two players on one board alternately and the second will comprise of three ranking categories over 1850, 1650 to 1850 and under 1650.