Edwards cops third place at T&T International Open

Barbadian Emar Edwards performed outstandingly to cop third place in the Trinidad and Tobago International Open chess tournament.

Edwards, who was seeded at no. 12 of the 58 entrants in the Open section, finished with seven out of a maximum points when the six-day event ended on Thursday at the Hilton Trinidad.

The 24-year-old, who is well known in road tennis circles, defeated two players with higher ratings on the way to winning the bronze medal.

Edwards’ biggest victory came when he beat no. 5 seed Kishore Ramadhar in the sixth round and he also got the better of no. 11 seed Daenon Ramsumair in the penultimate round.

The former national Under-18 champion started the final round in third place as one of five players on six points and with an outside chance of claiming gold.

With the two front-runners winning their games, it put the top spot out of reach but Edwards confirmed his place on the podium by overcoming 14^th seed, Woman Candidate Master Shemilah James.

At the beginning of the tournament, Edwards suffered a surprise defeat in the second round against no. 27 seed Jerome Richardson. He then completed four successive victories to move into third place at the end of the sixth round.

Those string of wins pitted him against top seed, Patrick Terhuven  in the seventh round but Edwards was unable to conquer the German.

Terhuven took the gold medal with eight points, while no. 3 seed, Candidate Master Ravishen Singh of Trinidad and Tobago was second with seven and a half points.

The Trinidad and Tobago International Open also featured a masters section which was won by Grandmaster Robby Kevlishvili of the Netherlands ahead of Trinidad and Tobago FIDE Masters Ryan Harper and Joshua Johnson.

Former president of the Barbados Chess Federation Rohan Waithe served as chief arbiter for the event. (BCF)