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.

Englishman Chris White and Cuban Isan Ortiz were the winners of the two sections of 2023 Heroes Day chess tournament that was played over the Heroes Day weekend at the Coles Building, Bay Street, Bridgetown.

White won the Open section of the tournament with an outstanding 7 ½ points from a possible 9, losing no games, winning 6 and drawing three. He finished off the event with an easy draw against Samuel Alcindor of Martinique knowing that no other player could challenge his score.

Finishing second in the 30-player field was Marvin Guillaume of Martinique. In his last round game, he defeated the second ranked player in the section, Kemp Lynch of Barbados. Guillaume caught Lynch with a neat tactical shot which allowed him to gain the advantage which he duly converted. Guillaume edged out Hannah Wilson of Barbados on the tiebreak by having defeated her in their head-to-head encounter.

Wilson eventually finished in third place and was the highest placed local player in the field. This was an outstanding performance considering that she went into the event as the 11^th seed. She finished an impressive event by defeating the number one seed Lionel Buisson of Martinique in the last round.

Gilles Suez- Panama of Martinique finished fourth on 6 points. Mathis Hugyhues-Beaufond and Alcindor finished 5^th to 6^th on 5 points.

Mathis received the best 1600 – 1300 rating prize, while local Katrina Blackman won the best female prize with 5 points. Mileke Sinckler and Noah Clarke won the best rating prize for those rated below 1300.

Masters’ Section

The masters’ section was dominated by the Cuban grandmasters Isan Ortiz and Luis Aguero. Ortiz on his second visit to Barbados, won the 6-player double round robin event with 6 ½ points form his 10 games to edge out Aguero on the tie-break. In joint third to fourth was  grandmasters Christian Rios of Colombia and Neuris Delgado of Paraguay, while the Bajan pair of international master Orlando Husbands and Fide master Martyn Del Castilho brought up the rear of the field.

The tournament provided the local players with a quality level of competition needed by them in preparation for future events like the Continental championships and the Central American and Caribbean championships. Hannah Wilson and Katrina Blackman will be first out of the gates as they participate in the XIV CONTINENTAL WOMEN’S CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE AMERICAS 2023 in Habana, Cuba over the next week.

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.