With 5 rounds of the 9 in the Barbados – St. Kitts and Nevis hybrid chess event completed, young Bajan chess player Jeremiah Farley leads the event with 4 ½ points.
A hybrid chess event is where the players play on an internet chess playing platform, but the players in a particular country will play from a central location under the supervision of an arbiter (chess referee) . In this event, they are 5 FIDE rated players from Barbados and 5 unrated players from St. Kitts and Nevis, with St. Kitts players seeking to acquire their ratings by a creditable performance in the event. It is a round – robin event where each player will have to play the other player in the event.

Farley after a draw against former local ladies’ chess champion Julissa Figueroa in his first-round game, has racked up four straight wins to be the sole leader of the event. In his last game, he defeated Isabella Jeetlal of St. Kitts in fine style to hit the front of the field.

A trio of fellow Bajans share the second spot with four points each and all within striking distance of the leader. These are the number one seed in the event Adam Roachford, Cyprian La Touche and Allan Herbert.

In the last round, Herbert overcame compatriot Figueroa after a long affair, while Roachford and La Touche won convincingly against Nohar Anganoo and Kaedan Fyfield- Jones of St. Kitts. By the showing of the players so far, the winner of the event will probably come from one of the Bajan players who lay in the first four positions. When these players do meet each other over next weekend for the climax of the event, the results will be of the utmost importance, and any slip up will be catastrophic.