Warri is an African cultural retention whose survival undermines the amnesia thrust upon our enslaved African ancestors and their descendants. The skill of playing the game and the intricacies of making Warri boards has persisted through intergenerational transmission. In 1993, a Caribbean Beat Magazine article declared Antigua and Barbuda, “the last bastion of Warri in the Caribbean”. Our players are highly visible internationally as world champions. And perhaps none more so, than International Grandmaster, Trevor Simon CN.
Antiguan-born Trevor “Simple” Simon (CN) represented Antigua and Barbuda on twenty-eight occasions from 1998 to 2023. During this period, he won twenty-seven (27) gold medals and one (1) silver medal. He is an International Grandmaster of Warri, a warri trainer/tutor, administrator, and co-founder of the Antigua and Barbuda Warri Academy. In 2020, after winning his fifth (5th) championship title on his fifth appearance at Palais des Festivals in Cannes France, Simon decided to retire from competition playing. He announced that his focus would be on helping to further develop the game through mentoring, coaching, organising, and promoting the game locally and internationally.
In November 2022, Simon was awarded Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of the Nation (CN), in recognition of his contribution to the sport/sports in general.
Simon is co-founder of the Antigua and Barbuda Warri Academy. The Academy was founded in 2005, officially registered in 2006, by Simon and his then Warri partner September Christian (sadly, now deceased). The Academy’s goal is to teach the sport to students, church, and community groups as well as to impart the value of warri to Antigua & Barbuda and all people of African descent. The underlying objective is to ensure that warri is preserved and maintained as one of Antigua and Barbuda’s heritage sport.
Simon and Christian have conducted workshops on behalf of the World Warri Federation, the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and the Barbados Cultural Foundation. Local schools, businesses, and community groups in Antigua have also benefitted from workshops organised by Simon and Christian. These include: All Saints Secondary, Jennings Secondary, Ottos Comprehensive, Pares, Potters, Villa, Mary E. Pigott, St. Nicholas, Minor Magnet, Optimist Club of St. John’s, APUA, Antigua Commercial Bank, Grace Hill Moravian, Church of the Nazarene, and the Precision Centre.
Trevor “Simple” Simon CN Warri Profile:
(Do not let the “Simple” deceive you!)
Participated in the Mind Sport Olympiad World Championships in England with results as follows: 1998 Gold Medal Winner, 1999 Gold Medal Winner, and 2000 Gold Medal Winner
For his feats, the Mind Sport Olympiad Organising Committee certified and conferred upon him the title of International Grand Master of Warri in 1999.
He was awarded the Antigua’s Sportsman of the Year title in 1999.
Palais des Festivals, Cannes France Invitational International Champion: March 2002, February 2016, and February 2017, February 2019, and March 2020.
Swiss International Gold Medal winner 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Swiss International Silver Medal Winner 2007.
Antigua and Barbuda International Championship Gold Medal winner October of 2013
Kazakhstan Friendly International Warri Championship Gold Medal Winner, April 2015, and September 2017. Czech Republic, Pardubice International Warri Gold Medal Winner July 2016.
Individual and team Gold Medal Winner at the third World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan September 2-9, 2018.
Colombia Championship, March 2023.
Photos courtesy of Trevor Simon CN.
See Trevor Simon CN’s entry in the Map of Creatives here
Click here to access the ABWA-prepared presentation on how to play Warri. 
OR here to download Trevor Simon’s Rules for Playing Warri. 
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