Jamaican wins first Margaret Prince Memorial Female Tournament

Jamaican Raehanna Brown completed a clean sweep of the boards to win the inaugural Margaret Prince Memorial Rapid Online Female Chess Tournament over the weekend.

The 16-year-old no. 6 seed upstaged the top two seeds, fellow Jamaican Rachel Miller and Barbados’ Julissa Figueroa to take the honours in the two-day event with a maximum seven points.

The event, which was organised by the Women’s Chess Sub-Committee of the Barbados Chess Federation, attracted 58 players from six countries, including Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Curacao and Cayman Islands.

It was played in honour of Margaret Prince, Barbados’ first ever women’s chess champion who was one of the most vocal advocates for women’s chess and a founding member of the Barbados Ladies Chess Association

Ailén Mena of Curacao was second with six points while Miller, who ended with five and a half points, took third place on the tie break ahead of Laia Swaminathan of Cayman Islands and Aulanni Kidd of Jamaica.

Figueroa was the highest placed Barbadian, finishing seventh with five points, the same as 11-year-old Chanon Reifer-Belle who took ninth place.

Lydia Nurse, making a return to competitive chess after a few years’ absence, also scored five points to complete the top ten.

Hannah Wilson, who recently captured Barbados’ first ever medal at the Pan American Youth Chess Festival, was 12^th with four and a half points.

Gaybrianna Moore, Barbados’ most successful player at last month’s FIDE Online Olympiad, finished with four points to take 19^th place. Two other Barbadians also scored four points – Rashida Corbin (21^st) and Alesha Lovell (24^th).

The event was supported by the Barbados Olympic Association’s Women in Sport Commission. (BCF)