International master Orlando Husbands led the final three qualifiers for the 2023 Open national chess championship, when he clinched first place in the 2023 Dr. Philip Corbin Open with 6 points from 7 matches having to miss his final round game because of work commitments.

The final matches took place on the Emancipation Day bank holiday at the Coles Building, Bridgetown and was Husbands second consecutive tournament victory this week at the boards.

Husbands was always in firm control of the event and when he defeated the second ranked player in the event Dr. Corbin in round 6, he took an unassailable lead and had already clinched the event with a round to spare.

Adam Roachford came second with 5 points, the same as Dr. Corbin but was ahead in the tie-break as he had won their individual head-to-head encounter in round 3.

Going to the last round at least 5 other players had a chance of joining Husbands in qualifying for the national finals with all the combination and permutations of results possible. However, the final round results saw Roachford taking a draw against Louis Wilson to secure his spot while Dr. Corbin downed a stubborn Allan Herbert to also secure his place in the finals. Julissa Figueroa and Kemp Lynch also winning in the final round would only see them reaching 4 ½ points each, but just falling short of the 5-point tally that would have put them in contention for a possible finals spot.

Figueroa won the prize for the best female performer, while Mileke Sinckler was the best Under 16 player on show from the twenty or so players who battled for the final three national final qualification spots.

The National Open chess championship finals is due to take place in early September and will see three qualifiers each from three qualifiers going forward to meet the defending champion FIDE master Martyn Del Castilho.