SCHOOL teacher Manoj Kumar took out the Courts Homecentres Open Chess Championship at the Fiji Olympic House yesterday.

Candidate master Kumar finished with 4.5 points from five games while fellow candidate master Calvin Prasad was second with four points. Dr Neel Arora settled for third with 2.5 points.

Fiji Chess Federation president Dr Virgilio De Asa said both Kumar and Prasad had a bright future in the game. "Manoj is playing really well and turned the tables after he lost to Calvin in last week's Chess League," he said.

"It was a good tournament. As expected there was a big tussle between the country's top two players.

"We are thinking of sending the two to participate in the Asian Championship next year.

Kong Man Yuen, an accounting student from the USP won the junior grade. Esha Raicar, a Class Five pupil of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial School was voted the best primary schools player and Dhiraj Chand, a Form Six student of MGM, was the best in the secondary schools grade.