At the end of day two of the Mutual Open Junior Chess Championships, the leader board has rapidly declined to seven players from the starting thirty.

Sharing the Mutual top spot are six Bajans, Justin Kirton of St. George Secondary, National Under-20 Champion Mark-John Alleyne, Jamel Richards of Louis Lynch, Olaudah Pryce of St. Leonards Boys, Muralidhar Areti of Queens College and former Junior King Dwayne Gilkes, while Allan Munro from Trinidad is the lone foreign player.

Kirton, a former Barbados Junior Champion, consolidated his assault on this year's title with two well fought wins in round two against Nissian Pow of Trinidad and round 3 against Kevin Allman of Harrison College.

Mark-John Alleyne also had a good day dispatching Alex Carrington of Louis Lynch in his morning match and Imran Hosein of Trinidad after lunch.

Jamel Richards, who placed 4^th in last year's Mutual Open Junior, stayed with the leaders by taking out Shamar Crichlow of Lodge School and Deighton Griffith's Corey Morgan. Olaudah Pryce won against school mate Nicholas Forde and Kofi Hinds of Combermere.

Results of the other Bajan leaders include Muralidhar Areti who gained his points against former Under-12 Champion, 10 year old  Saeed Norville of Hill Top Preparatory and Lodge School's Anthony Francis Worrell, and Dwayne Gilkes who won against Brian Branch of Lodge and Community College's Dwayne Harding.

Trinidad's top Junior Allan Munro however finished with the day's top honour by upsetting number 1 seed Junior Taitt in the final match of the day. In what was a close match, Taitt failed to find a break through, ran short on time and faltered under the pressure as his allotted time expired. Munro's other win of the day came against compatriot Christopher Raphael, the current Trinidad Under 10 and 12 Champion.

Play continues with Round 4 action at 9:00 a.m. at the Community College on Wednesday, the key matches seeing Kirton against Pryce, Richards vs. Alleyne, Gilkes vs. Areti and Munro playing down against Allman.

Allan Herbert--Barbados Chess Federation