After three of the 9 rounds of the 2023 Barbados national open chess championship finals, defending champion FIDE master Martyn Del Castilho leads with three wins from his three games.

Del Castilho has looked impressive in all his matches so far and his last round victory against Renaldo Rochester showed that it will be very tough to deny Del Castilho retaining his title.

International master Orlando Husbands lies in second place  with two and a half points from three games. Husbands was surprisingly held to a draw by the multi discipline talented Emar Edwards in round two. Edwards, not daunted by the large difference in ratings put down a gutsy effort in which he battled in a long game which went to an end game in which in the final position, Edwards might have held an advantage. Husbands, however, bounced back in round three to convincingly bring down Adam Roachford.

FIDE master Dr. Philp Corbin holds down the third spot currently with two points, having one win and two draws. In his last game, he was held to a draw by Justin Parsons in a very entertaining affair.

Edwards sits in joint fourth position on one and a half points along with the current under 16 Central American and Caribbean(CAC) Under 14 female champion Hannah Wilson, whom he defeated in the last round.

The other result in the round saw current under 14 female CAC bronze medalist Chanon Reifer-Belle hold the higher rated Lawrence Depradine to a draw.

The national final is being played as a 10 player round robin event, where each of the players will have to play all the others. There were three qualifying events and the first three placed players from each of those events would have qualified to play in the finals along with the defending champion from last year. This year the finals is historical in that two females in Wilson and Reifer-Belle have advanced to participate.

Action will continue Thursday evening at 6.00 p.m. at the Coles Building on Bay Street, Bridgetown, before climaxing on the two weekend days. An exciting finish to the event is anticipated.

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