International master Orlando Husbands is the 2022 Rapid Online Chess champion after some forceful play over the two days of the last weekend. The event was played on the Tornelo platform with a time control of 15 minutes with 10 second increment for each player. 

In a tough field which included Barbados’s top chess players like Fide masters Martyn Del Castilho and Justin Blackman and past national champion international master Delilse Warner, Husbands continued his recent top form in amassing 6 ½ points from his 7 games. 

Husbands had taken firm control of the event at the end of the first day, when in rounds 4, he defeated Emar Edwards who at that time was the only other player with maximum points. In a very interesting game Edwards playing the white pieces launched an intriguing attack straight out of the opening and many pundits thought that his position looked very promising. However, Husbands played resiliently and when he turned up the pressure on Edwards, it was just too much and even Edwards’s  fancy dance moves could not deny Husbands the victory. 

Husbands then racked up consecutive victories until his final game. He was fortunate to defeat Adam Roachford in round 6, being a piece exchange down, but delivered a quick draw against eventual second place finisher Del Castilho in the final round to garner his title. Del Castilho finished second on 5 ½ points having been upset by Edwards in round three.

Justin Parsons, who has also been in sparkling form of late finished third on 5 ½ points. Losing out on the tie-break to Del Castilho.

The best Under 1400 rating category prize went to  Adan Roachford. 

Figueroa is women’s champion

The female championship was run as part as the open event due to under subscription. Woman candidate master Julissa Figueroa finished as the female champion with 4 ½ points. Top female junior Hannah Wilson was second on four points and Alesha Wilson placed third. The best Under 1400 rating female player was Paige Johnson.

The event saw 26 local players taking part. Being an online event, it allowed not only players here in Barbados, but some such as Blackman who is studying in Spain and Warner who is based in St. Kitts to participate in the event.  Chess remains one of the few sports that can be played via the internet.

The two top players from each section will go on to represent Barbados in the Central American and Caribbean games chess qualifying event, in the hope of the reaching the finals to be played in El Salvador next week.

Justin Parsons won the Open section of the 2022 Michael Forde Memorial chess tournament in grand style by scoring 8 points from a possible 9.

The tournament was played as a ten player round robin event, which is with each player having to play each other once. Parsons went into the tournament as the second seed, with Chris White of England being the highest rated player in the event.

Parsons’s tournament got off to a rocky start, when he lost in the first round to current Under 14 Central American and Caribbean silver medalist Hannah Wilson. This defeat motivated Parsons as he quickly began to amass consecutive victories, and after four rounds, he was now only a half point behind the then leader Cyprian LaTouche.

A loss by LaTouche in round five to fellow veteran Othneil Harewood allowed Parsons to leapfrog him into the lead and from here, there was no looking back. Parsons continued to rack up victory after victory while La Touche fell away with three consecutive defeats in the final three rounds of the 9-round event.

Adam Roachford gave a spirited account of himself to finish in second position on 6 ½ points. His only losses coming to the eventual winner and LaTouche, while drawing against Louis Wilson. He however was able to knock off the top seed White.

White finished in third on 5 ½ points, ahead of the likes of Allan Herbert and Hannah Wilson on five. Louis Wilson, Harewood, Travis Grant and Ernest King then brought up the rest of the field in that respective order.

The first two finishers were both representatives of Barbados at the recent Chess Olympiad in India and their results can no doubt be partially attributed to the coaching they would have received for that event.