Young­sters tak­ing part in Wednes­day's In­di­an Ar­rival Day One Day Rapid Play chess tour­na­ment at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Ch­agua­nas, will have a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty to see a gen­uine piece of his­to­ry of this cen­turies-old sport. On dis­play will be an an­cient chess set brought from Ra­jisthan, In­dia, by Ved Jan­wani, Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor of In­dus Mer­chant Ltd, spon­sors of the tour­na­ment. Ac­cord­ing to his­to­ri­ans of the game, chess orig­i­nat­ed in In­dia and even­tu­al­ly spread to the west along the an­cient trade routes. Over the cen­turies the pieces evolved in­to the present queen, king, rook, bish­op, knight and pawn.

The tour­na­ment will be played in four age cat­e­gories, Un­der 12, Un­der 14, Un­der 20 and Novices. Cash prizes, tro­phies and oth­er items will be pre­sent­ed to win­ners in each cat­e­go­ry. The eighth an­nu­al event is be­ing or­gan­ised for the first time this year by the T&T Chess Foun­da­tion. Pres­i­dent Edi­son Raphael said he was de­light­ed that the Foun­da­tion was asked to present the pop­u­lar event which would al­so help ju­niors pre­pare for the Caribbean Chess Car­ni­val to be held at Queen's Park Oval from Au­gust 2 to 5. Raphael not­ed that young­sters of the In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty in T&T were tak­ing an in­creas­ing in­ter­est in the sport al­though a num­ber of In­do-Trinida­di­ans had emerged at the top over the years, in­clud­ing na­tion­al cham­pi­ons Rudy Mo­hipp (1973, 1974), Yo­gen­dranath Ram­s­ingh (1985, 1988) and Rav­ishen Singh who won the ti­tle in 2008.