After an exciting final round of matches in the 2023 Karl Sealy Memorial Senior Games championships played on Sunday afternoon at the Coles Building, Bridgetown several age category champions were crowned.

In the 40 – 49 age category Travis Grant emerged the winner, Allan Herbert won the 50 – 64 category, ever green Othneil Harewood was victorious in the in the 65 plus section, while Heather Leslie captured the 50 – 64 Female category.

Going into the final and fifth round of the event, four players were tied on three points from four games and each of these were in contention for some share in the age category prizes.

The top board clash saw Grant against the higher rated Philip Roach and on the second board, defending Age 50 – 64 champion, Cyprian LaTouche was matched against Allan Herbert. After four hours of battle in each of the games where no quarter was given and none was sought, Grant defeated Roach and Herbert had outplayed La Touche to score important victories.

With these results, Grant had clinched the age 40 – 49 category and Herbert had dethroned LaTouche  in the 50 – 64 age category. Roach came second and LaTouche third respectively in the category, just ahead of Owen Waldron who also finished on three points.

A win by Othneil Harewood over Ernest King secured him the 65 and over title. Michael  Barker finished second in this section.

In a keen all female clash Heather Leslie defeated Sandie Harewood to claim the female 50 – 64 title. Harewood finished second.

Nitin Mahtani has won the second qualifier for the 2023 national chess championship, the IM Kevin Denny Open with 6 points from 7 games. He won five games and drew two of his games against the eventual second and third place finishers Lawrence Depradine and Emar Edwards who both finished on 5 ½ points.

Mahtani who has been based in Canada while he was studying made an emphatic return to the local chess boards and won an exciting event over the Whitsuntide weekend.

Going into the final round three players shared the lead and these included the players who would eventually finish first to third, Mahtani, Depradine and Edwards.

Mahtani was paired against Tyrell McCollin, Depradine had white against Noah Clarke and Edwards faced Chanon Reifer-Belle with the black pieces. On paper it looked like Edwards had the toughest match with Mahtani having the most comfortable. The overall result of the tournament was dependent on the results of these games.

Mahtani was the one who applied the early pressure as he got a clear advantage against McCollin, and after improving his position, he won convincingly in the end. However, it was not so easy for the other two, as Edwards found himself in some trouble and had to sacrifice a piece against Reifer-Belle to force a draw. Depradine also found himself up against it in his game, with Noah Clarke. He also had to force a draw in the position.

With these results, Mathani won the event to lead Depradine and Edwards in qualifying for the 2023 National chess championship finals.

Reifer-Belle finished fourth on four and a half points, just ahead of Cyprian LaTouche in the tie-break.

The next event in the chess calendar will be the Senior Games, Karl Sealy Memorial which is due to start on June 11. Chess has been a game which has been shown to improve ones memory and help elder persons from Alzheimer’s disease.

Barbados players have found the going tough so far in the 2023 Heroes Day Chess tournament being played over this Heroes Day weekend at the Coles Building, Bay Street, Bridgetown

In the top master’s section, local boys international master Orlando Husbands and FIDE master Martyn Del Castilho are battling in a field which include four grandmasters Neuris Delgado(Paraguay), Cristhian Rios(Colombia) and Luis Aguero and Isan Ortiz, both of Cuba. The event is a double round robin, where each player will play the other twice, each with the white and black pieces.

The locals are seeking to put in strong performances, which would allow them not only to improve their ratings, but achieve a grandmaster norm, which is a high-level performance in a tournament which includes grandmaster opponents.

After 3 rounds of the event, Ortiz, Aguero and Rios share the lead with two points, while Delgado sits in fourth with four points, Husbands has one and Del Castilho brings up the rear with half a point.

The three leaders have each won against the Bajans in the first two rounds and drew their other matches. Husbands defeated Del Castilho in the third round, amidst the other two games tamely drawing. Del Castilho managed a first-round draw against Rios.

The Bajans are fearing only slightly better in the Open section of the event, where 5 players from Martinique and one from England are present in the 28-player field for this 9 round Swiss type event.

The French have so far dominated the event and two of their players Marvin Guillame and Samuel Alcindor sit in the lead with two wins from their two matches along with Englishman Chris White and local Adam Roachford.

Guillame has looked in fine form and would have impressed in round two, when he defeated top junior female player Hannah Wilson, the current Central American and Caribbean Under 14 silver medalist. Guillame was able to stemmy Wilson attacking intentions and was able to exploit his better endgame technique to acquire victory.

Alcindor has also done well, and his defeat of the second ranked player Kemp Lynch was viewed as one of the upsets of the event so far. Alcindor playing with the white pieces simply overwhelmed Lynch who is making a return to over the board chess after a long break.

Christ White in the latest round defeated the recently in form Ronaldo Rochester to claim his share of the lead. Adam Roachford has been the only local player to keep pace with the foreign invaders and he upset the higher rated Katrina Blackman in round two to stake his claim as one of the leaders.

Five other players sit just off the pace with one and a half points. These are Louis Wilson and Julissa Figueroa, along with the Martinique’s Gilles Suez-Panama, Mathis Huyghues- Beaufond and Lionel Buisson. In their last games Wilson and Figueroa drew a long battle, while Suez Panama and Buisson defeated veteran Othniel Harewood and Allan Herbert and Huyghues- Beaufond defeated the much higher rated Justin Parsons, who was a member of the Barbados team to the last chess Olympiad in 2022.

In round three, the key match ups at the top will see Guillame against Alcindor and Roachford against White.

Barbados’s two best female junior chess players shone brilliantly at the XI IRT Híbrido del Sur Sub-1800 2023 hybrid chess event over the weekend, as both Hannah Wilson and Chanon Reifer-Belle finished second in their respective rating categories of the tournament.

A hybrid chess event is where the players play online via a chess platform and are monitored by screen sharing and having their cameras on via Zoom and being all in the same location and under the supervision of an arbiter(referee).

Under 1800 section

Hannah finished on 5 points from 7 games, to finish ½ point behind the eventual winner Angel Gonzalez Viana of Venezuela.
She was steady throughout the event, winning four games, drawing two and only losing to the overall winner.

Hannah’s second place joy in this section was mirrored by the sorrow of her elder brother Louis, who would have led the event going into his final round 7 game with a half point lead over the rest of the field. A draw would have been enough to win the event by tie-break, but Louis played tentatively against Benjamin Romero Espana of Venezuela and eventually he got a piece, his rook, cut off behind enemy lines and as the game progressed Espana was able to use his now mobile piece to eliminate Louis’s pawns that would allow Espana to win the game. With this Louis finished fourth in the tie-break also on five points.

Barbados’s other participant in this section Cyprian La Touche had a subpar outing finishing on three points from his 7 games.

Under 1400 section

Chanon Reifer Belle put in a great performance to finish joint first but second on tie-break on 5 ½ points from her 7 games. Again, just like Louis , Chanon had a tragedy in her final round. She went into that round a clear half point ahead of the field and was set for victory when she allowed herself to repeat the position three times. In chess when this occurs the game is declared a draw. With this result she had to settle for second as Erick David Matos Parra of Venezuela had won his last round game to catch Chanon on points.

Mileke Sinckler, Barbados’s other participant in this section finished on three and a half points and continues to develop.

Under 1200 section

In this 50 players section, Barbados had 6 participants and two players Aaron Jaikaran and Isaiah Archer managed to finish in the top ten. Jaikaran finished in 7^th and Archer in 9^th , with both players in a large group of player finishing on 5 points. Jaikaran was again solid, only losing one game against the eventual third place finisher Oscar Alejandro Amelunge Moreno of Panama.

Of the other Bajan participants, Derick Boyce scored 3 ½ , Rhys Francis – 3, while Ephraim Hope and Samuel Richards scored 2 points each.

In the three sections combined, approximately 90 players from Venezuela, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados participated organized by the Panama Chess Federation. The next tournament on the Barbados Chess federation calendar is the National Under 8, 10 and 14 Youth Championships, to be held on Thursday and Friday this week at Harrison College.