THERE had been a positive turnout at this year’s Fiji Chess National Championship with a good number of children participants at the Fiji Olympic House in Flagstaff, Suva.
General secretary Hilda Vukikomoala said they were pleased to have parents bring in their children to compete at the final national tournament of the year.
“We are very happy to have many young participants and developing players who are coming up and being very competitive, so we are proud of that and next year we hope to have more players join us,” said Vukikomoala.
The federation has managed to run competitions every month during the year for players in the country.
“The beauty about chess is once people learn the sport it’s very addictive and it has many intellectual benefits.
“We are very happy that we have a new executive board which is doing very well and we have managed to have a sponsored tournament every month this year,” she said.
“We would like to give our special thanks to all the companies that have been sponsoring throughout the year and to all the parents who bring their children and all those who put in the hard work to ensure that we have chess tournaments,” she added.
The winner in the women’s category was Gloria Sukhu, second place was Hilda Vukikomoala and third place Kabrina Terubera winning on a tie break for third place against Tanvi Prasad.
In the open category, Manoj Kumar came out strong winning the title while Prashant Sarup came in second place.
The tournament also saw great play from aspiring youngsters Aesha Sharma, Semisi Vukikomoala, Rudr Prasad and Makayla Sukhu.
