Young tal­ents will gath­er on Sat­ur­day to bat­tle at the Ken­neth Fitz­patrick Memo­r­i­al Ju­nior Chess Tour­na­ment at Cen­te­nary Hall, St Mary’s Col­lege, Pem­broke Street in Port-of-Spain.

This FIDE-rat­ed event will cel­e­brate the en­dur­ing lega­cy of the late Ken­neth Fitz­patrick, a pas­sion­ate for­mer play­er, teacher and chess ad­min­is­tra­tor for a day of com­pe­ti­tion and ca­ma­raderie.

The tour­na­ment aims to at­tract a di­verse group of par­tic­i­pants, rang­ing from be­gin­ners to more ex­pe­ri­enced play­ers, with the goal of fos­ter­ing a deep­er love and ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the game.

The event will fea­ture a range of thrilling match­es, with prizes award­ed to top per­form­ers across all cat­e­gories. In ad­di­tion to tro­phies and medals, there will al­so be a ran­dom draw for ad­di­tion­al gift prizes.

“The Ken­neth Fitz­patrick Memo­r­i­al Ju­nior Chess Tour­na­ment is not on­ly a chance to show­case the skills of our lo­cal youth but al­so an op­por­tu­ni­ty to cel­e­brate Ken’s love for chess and his life­long ded­i­ca­tion to the com­mu­ni­ty,” said Chan­tal Fitz­patrick, Ken’s daugh­ter.

“This event, be­ing held in his ho­n­our, serves as a tes­ta­ment to his in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tions, en­sur­ing that his lega­cy con­tin­ues to in­flu­ence fu­ture gen­er­a­tions,” said Edi­son Raphael Ken’s friend and for­mer pres­i­dent of the T&T Chess As­so­ci­a­tion (TTCA).

“In ad­di­tion to the com­pet­i­tive spir­it, the event will em­pha­size learn­ing, net­work­ing and cre­at­ing last­ing con­nec­tions among play­ers. We look for­ward to see­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of chess tal­ent come to­geth­er to ho­n­our a man whose con­tri­bu­tions to the game will nev­er be for­got­ten.”

The tour­na­ment is be­ing sup­port­ed by the friends and fam­i­ly of the late chess ad­min­is­tra­tor and man­aged by the TTCA.

Pres­i­dent of the TTCA, Son­ja John­son, was al­so hap­py to be host­ing this memo­r­i­al event as she said, “We are ho­n­oured to be host­ing this event on be­half of the fam­i­ly of Ken­neth Fitz­patrick. He was tru­ly pas­sion­ate about chess and was a key play­er in the de­vel­op­ment of chess at the ju­nior lev­el!”

Play starts at 10 am but play­ers are asked to ar­rive at 9.30 am. They will com­pete in three cat­e­gories - Un­der-12, U-16 and U-20. The en­try fee is $60.

About Ken­neth Fitz­patrick

He was a promi­nent fig­ure in the chess com­mu­ni­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly known for his ded­i­ca­tion to de­vel­op­ing ju­nior play­ers. His jour­ney in chess be­gan at the age of 15 when he be­came a ju­nior chess play­er him­self. This ear­ly in­volve­ment laid the foun­da­tion for his life­long com­mit­ment to the game, which spanned over 50 years. His role evolved to ad­min­is­tra­tor and ad­vo­cate for the game. He be­lieved in the pos­i­tive im­pact of chess, par­tic­u­lar­ly among youth.