Bajan Chess Players Making Moves

Bajan Chess Players Making Moves

It has been a busy week for Bajan chess players as they pushed pawns locally, in North America and as far as Europe with some degree of success.

 

Firstly, Renaldo Rochester after a long layoff returned to capture the Paul King Memorial tournament in dramatic fashion The tournament was only decided in the last round when Rochester defeated veteran Othneil Harewood to climb to 6 ½ points from 7 games and finish a half point ahead of Harewood who had won all his games up until then.

Cyprian La Touche finished with a last round win to reach third on 5 ½ points having only lost to Harewood and drawn with the eventual winner Rochester. The last round also saw victories for other players Eden Gibson and Tarquin Clark.

With Rochester returning to the board and showing such prowess, his progress will be closely monitored as in his junior days, he was a contemporary of the likes of current national senior players like international master Orlando Husbands, Justin Parsons and Emar Edwards.

 

And speaking of the latter two, Parsons and Edwards spent the Martin Luther King bank holiday weekend participating in the Liberty Bell Open in Philadelphia, U.S.A. Both players participated in the Under 2100 rating section of the event and both players finished on 5 points from 7 games to finish 12th, Parsons and 14th for Edwards, just ½ point outside the prizes in the hundred player field.

Parsons was steady throughout the event only losing in round three and six and winning his other games. His last round win against Shelly Mays of the United States who was the top-rated player in the event was his best result.

Edwards on the other hand, started slowly, having only two points from his first four games, but finished strong to win his last three matches to reach 5 points as well. In the last round Edwards defeated Robert J Fischer, a player having the same name of the famous past American world chess champion. He can now clearly state that he is the only Barbadian player who has defeated “Robert Fischer”.

 

While across the Atlantic in Spain, another senior national player Fide master Justin Blackman was also flying the Bajan flag proudly.

Blackman took part in a team event, the Barcelona Catalan Cup – Beatriz Alfonso memorial in Barcelona. Blackman played for the Agusti A1 team which finished 4th out of 148 teams in the rapid event with 25 points.

A team had a minimum of 4 players in the 9-round event, with players from all over the world participating and at all levels from amateurs to grandmaster. Blackman contributed heavily to his team scoring, racking up 6 ½ points from his 9 games. His best results were a draw against international master Lazaro Lorenzo De La Riva of Spain and defeating Fide master  Albareda Xavier Duran, players rated higher than him.

Blackmans team consisted of David Ayzo and Josue Exposito, both from Spain and Mohammed Zohaib from Pakistan.  The overall winners were Colon Sabadell Chessy A team led by grandmaster and prolific chess author Victor Moskalenko with 28 ½ points.

 

This weekend will again see Barbados chess players battling against stiff regional competition as separate open and female two member teams attempt to qualify for the 2023 C.A.C games where chess will be an event for the first time in the game’s history.

The qualifying event will be played in hybrid format, that is via the internet under the supervision of a chess referee form one location.

The Open team will consist of top local players international master Orlando Husbands and Fide master Martyn del Castilho, while the female team will consist of woman candidate master Julissa Figueroa and top junior female player Hannah Wilson.

In the open section, the top 15 teams will qualify from the event for the finals in El Salvador.

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Husbands Wins 2022 National Blitz Chess Championship

Husbands Wins 2022 National Blitz Chess Championship

International master Orlando Husbands continues to add to his recent accolades when he captured the Blitz chess championship in dramatic fashion over the last weekend.

Blitz chess is a fast form of chess played where each player has three minutes with a 30 second increment from move one for each player and is akin to T20 cricket.

 

Husbands had to hold off a stiff challenge from Justin Parsons and had to go to a tie-break 3 game playoff to defend his title as both players had finished the initial tournament with 8 points from 9 games.

Eventually after two competitive games Husbands won the play-off two games to nil and begun the year as he finished last year with a coveted tournament victory

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Both Husbands and Parsons had showed their recent good form by topping the event, Parsons had one lost to Husbands and Husbands suffered a massive upset against the top female junior player Hannah Wilson in round 8. This result is what led to the playoff.

 

Finishing in third position was Adam Roachford who scored 6 ½ points. He suffered losses against the two top players but again gave the eventual winner of the event a run for his money.

Louis Wilson took the 1600 – 1400 Rating prize with 5 points from 9 but struggled in some of his games due to the faster time control.

 

Dr. Carlos Chase and Samuel Greenidge shared the Under 1400/ Unrated prize, both scoring 5 points also. Dr. Chase would have garnered bragging rights in the event when he defeated fellow physician Dr. Alfred Sparman in the penultimate round.

 

Hannah Wilson wins female championship

Again, the female championship was played with the open as it was undersubscribed. Hannah Wilson proved her prowess by winning the title with 7 ½ points from 9. Chanon Reifer-Belle finished in second with 5 ½ points, while Kiarra Eversley finished third with 4 points. The winner of the Under 1400/ Unrated prize was Erika Alkins with 3 points.

Twenty players partook in the event, with a mixture of youth and experience to make it an exciting start to the chess year.

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Husbands is Rapid Online Chess Champion

Husbands is Rapid Online Chess Champion

International master Orlando Husbands is the 2022 Rapid Online Chess champion after some forceful play over the two days of the last weekend. The event was played on the Tornelo platform with a time control of 15 minutes with 10 second increment for each player. 

In a tough field which included Barbados’s top chess players like Fide masters Martyn Del Castilho and Justin Blackman and past national champion international master Delilse Warner, Husbands continued his recent top form in amassing 6 ½ points from his 7 games. 

Husbands had taken firm control of the event at the end of the first day, when in rounds 4, he defeated Emar Edwards who at that time was the only other player with maximum points. In a very interesting game Edwards playing the white pieces launched an intriguing attack straight out of the opening and many pundits thought that his position looked very promising. However, Husbands played resiliently and when he turned up the pressure on Edwards, it was just too much and even Edwards’s  fancy dance moves could not deny Husbands the victory. 

Husbands then racked up consecutive victories until his final game. He was fortunate to defeat Adam Roachford in round 6, being a piece exchange down, but delivered a quick draw against eventual second place finisher Del Castilho in the final round to garner his title. Del Castilho finished second on 5 ½ points having been upset by Edwards in round three.

Justin Parsons, who has also been in sparkling form of late finished third on 5 ½ points. Losing out on the tie-break to Del Castilho.

The best Under 1400 rating category prize went to  Adan Roachford. 

Figueroa is women’s champion

The female championship was run as part as the open event due to under subscription. Woman candidate master Julissa Figueroa finished as the female champion with 4 ½ points. Top female junior Hannah Wilson was second on four points and Alesha Wilson placed third. The best Under 1400 rating female player was Paige Johnson.

 

The event saw 26 local players taking part. Being an online event, it allowed not only players here in Barbados, but some such as Blackman who is studying in Spain and Warner who is based in St. Kitts to participate in the event.  Chess remains one of the few sports that can be played via the internet.

The two top players from each section will go on to represent Barbados in the Central American and Caribbean games chess qualifying event, in the hope of the reaching the finals to be played in El Salvador next week.

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Husbands Participates in Caribbean Versus China Chess Match

Husbands Participates in Caribbean Versus China Chess Match

Barbados’s top chess player international master Orlando Husbands represented the Caribbean team in an online match with a Chinese team recently.

Husbands was part of a four-member team which also included grand master Jimenez Luis Lazaro Aguero of Cuba, women’s FIDE master Catherine Kaslan of Suriname and Jessica Callendar of Guyana.

They played against a team of similar sex composition (2 males and 2 females) from China which included Renjie HUANG, Chenxi ZHAO, women international masters Tianqi YAN and Ruotong CHU.

The match would be a Scheveningen, where each player would get to play each player on the opposing team twice with both the black and white colors.

On the men’s side of the equation, the average combined ratings of the two players were similar, however the females of the Chinese team were much higher rated than the Caribbean girls. This clear advantage to the Chinese team would be the deciding factor in the match.

Husbands represents

On the first day of the match Husbands faced the two Chinese male players. He was able to score half point from his two games against Chenxi Zhoa, but could not get off the mark against Renjie Huang.

However, on the next day Husbands fortunes turned around as he had to battle the two Chinese female players. Husbands was resounding as he defeated both Tianqi Yan and Ruotong Chu 1 ½ – ½ points in their 2 game match ups.

Grandmaster Aguero of Cuba was the highest point scorer on the Caribbean team with 5 ½ points from his 8 games. He lost none of his mini matches, drawing against the two male Chinese players and defeating both the females.

The Chinese team duly won the match by 23 to 9 points winning 7 of 8 matches and drawing one.

 

International Arbiter from Barbados, Kelvin Daniel, who was the Caribbean representative on the arbiters’ team expressed his satisfaction with the high standard of organization of the event and with the media coverage in China and the governmental support from the Asian powerhouse in organizing the event. Kudos must also go to the Surinam federation who organized the initial event from which the Caribbean team was selected from.

This match allowed Caribbean players to be exposed to a high standard of chess as China is a chess superpower. It is hoped that such an event can be repeated and maybe in an over the board format.

 

 

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Parsons wins Michael Forde Memorial Open Chess Championships

Parsons wins Michael Forde Memorial Open Chess Championships

Justin Parsons won the Open section of the 2022 Michael Forde Memorial chess tournament in grand style by scoring 8 points from a possible 9.

 

The tournament was played as a ten player round robin event, which is with each player having to play each other once. Parsons went into the tournament as the second seed, with Chris White of England being the highest rated player in the event.

 

Parsons’s tournament got off to a rocky start, when he lost in the first round to current Under 14 Central American and Caribbean silver medalist Hannah Wilson. This defeat motivated Parsons as he quickly began to amass consecutive victories, and after four rounds, he was now only a half point behind the then leader Cyprian LaTouche.

 

A loss by LaTouche in round five to fellow veteran Othneil Harewood allowed Parsons to leapfrog him into the lead and from here, there was no looking back. Parsons continued to rack up victory after victory while La Touche fell away with three consecutive defeats in the final three rounds of the 9-round event.

 

Adam Roachford gave a spirited account of himself to finish in second position on 6 ½ points. His only losses coming to the eventual winner and LaTouche, while drawing against Louis Wilson. He however was able to knock off the top seed White.

 

White finished in third on 5 ½ points, ahead of the likes of Allan Herbert and Hannah Wilson on five. Louis Wilson, Harewood, Travis Grant and Ernest King then brought up the rest of the field in that respective order.

The first two finishers were both representatives of Barbados at the recent Chess Olympiad in India and their results can no doubt be partially attributed to the coaching they would have received for that event.

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Chanon Reifer-Belle has won the Under 1400 section of the Michael Forde Memorial

Chanon Reifer-Belle has won the Under 1400 rating section of the Michael Forde Memorial

Chanon Reifer-Belle has won the Under 1400 rating section of the Michael Forde Memorial chess tournament held from Independence Day to the preceding weekend at the Coles Building on Bay Street, Bridgetown.

 

The event was played as a 10 player round robin, that is where all players will play the others and was held in honor of Forde who was an educator and pioneer in school chess development.

 

The field included fellow chess Olympiad female representative Kiarra Eversley who was the top-rated player, some aspiring juniors, as well as some newcomers to the chess scene.

 

Reifer-Belle recently returning from the Central American and Caribbean championship, dominated the field and by rounds 5 in which she defeated the then co – leader Jacob Layson, it was clear that she would be the one looking to top the field. Her toughest game would have come in round 3, where she had to use her greater experience to defeat Alesha Lovell in a long endgame.

 

Reifer-Belle had already won the event when she went into the last round against Eversley, but quickly overpowered her older opponent to win and amass a perfect score.

 

Finishing in second was Jacob Layson, with 7 ½ points. Layson played solidly throughout the event and could be well pleased with his effort in only his second tournament. His victory against the top rated Eversley was no doubt a moment to savor. With his direct and pragmatic approach, he will no doubt be one to look out for in the future.

 

There was a tie between Eversley and Lovell in third position with both players finishing on 6 points. Lovell finishing ahead on the tie-break which was the mutual result between the two players. Lovell having won the encounter between the two.

The next placed players finished on four points and these were Alex Sargeant and Eden Gibson.

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Wilson wins Silver for Barbados at CAC Youth Chess Championship

Wilson wins Silver for Barbados at CAC Youth Chess Championship

Barbados top junior female player Hannah Wilson has won the silver medal at the 2022 Central American and Caribbean(C.A.C) Under 14 female chess championship which was played in Tegucigalpa, Honduras over the last week.

Wilson went in as the number one seed and was the Under 12 female champion from last year and was the fancied player in the field. Things however went awry for Wilson when she lost to the eventual winner Daniela Deycy Raymundo of Guatemala in round three. From here Wilson would have to play catch- up for the rest of the tournament. She immediately started the chase in earnest from the next round, when she defeated Aradhana Singh of Trinidad, and the leader Raymundo drew against Esther Lobo from Panama. Both players then won all their games up to the final round when Wilson won but Raymundo drew their respective games.

This meant that both players finished on 7 ½ points from 9. But Raymundo would win on the fact that the first tie-break was the direct result of their match and Raymundo had been victorious over Wilson then. So, Raymundo would gain the gold medal and Wilson the silver. Lobo came third on 7 points.

The other Bajan in this section of the event was Chanon Reifer-Belle. Reifer-Belle found the going a little tough but finished with a credible 50 %. She initially was ranked 5th of the 15 players from 7 countries, but she finally finished in 7th position.

Barbados also had two players in the Under 18 combined sections. Louis Wilson was our open representative and Gaybrianna Moore our female. The two sections were combined after enough females had not registered for a separate female event.

Louis started brightly and was in joint 8th position with 2 ½ points after 4 rounds. He however managed only two points in his final 5 games and could finish no higher than 13th spot in the 29-player field.

Gaybrianna Moore finished in 23rd place overall and 6th among the girls in the combined field with 3 ½ points. The Open section was won by Alan Otero of Cuba, while Sofia Mayorga of Costa Rica was the top female.

The C.A.C Youth festival had just over 250 players representing 9 countries in 18 age category sections from Under 8 to Under 18 Male/Female .(BCF)

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Wilson and Reifer-Belle Claim Chess Crowns

Wilson and Reifer-Belle Claim Chess Crowns

Top junior female chess player Hannah Wilson of the Queens College school duly won the 2022 Under 13 Female Scholastics chess championship in convincing fashion over the last weekend.

Wilson dispatched all opponents in a small field to continue to add to her hardware for the year. The reigning local female champion was in a no-nonsense mood as she won all her games to score five points and finish a point ahead of Naomi Lewis of Harrison College in second, with Tedra Gibson (Combermere) finishing another point back in third on three points.

Concurrently Chaz Refer- Belle of Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary was also putting in a similarly exemplary performance as he won all five of his matches to capture the Under 9 Open Scholastics event. This was combined with the Under 7 event.

Tayari Wallace finished in second place on four points only losing to the eventual winner. Akeli Grazette was in third place with a score of 2 points.

Jaeda Herbert scored three points to become the Under 9 scholastics female champion. Asura Nosakhere was the Under 7 champion.

The next event on the Barbados Chess Federation calendar is the Michael Forde Memorial event which will take place at the Coles Building, Bay Street, Bridgetown from November 29. (BCF)

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Jaikaran Victorious in 2022 Under 13 Open Scholastics Chess Championship

Jaikaran Wins Under 13 Open Scholastics Chess Championship 2022

Aaron Jaikaran of Harrison College was crowned the National Scholastics Under 13 Open chess champion of Barbados when the event was completed recently at the St. Michael School.

Jaikaran defeated Nathan Reid in the last round of the event, to edge home on the first tie-break which was the result of the direct encounter between players who finished on the same number of points. Both players had finished on 5 points from 6 games.

Reid had looked impressive throughout the event as he had defeated more fancied opponents like Eden Gibson and Samuel Greenidge of Queen’s College in rounds 4 and 5. Reid went into the final round with the sole lead on five points, and once he had avoided defeat to Jaikaran, he would have clinched his first national title.

However, Jaikaran who had suffered an upset at the hands of Deryck Boyce in round two, was the player who was always pressing during the high intensity match. Reid attempted to trade off the major pieces in an attempt to reach a draw. He however fell to a tactical shot that gave Jaikaran an advantage of a superior piece ending, which Jaikaran duly converted.

This result thus gave Jaikaran a well-deserved title to add to his Under 11 scholastic title that he had won earlier in the year.

Reid should be proud of his second-place finish in his first major event and seems a talented player with a good temperament. Eden Gibson finished in third on 4 ½ points, while Samuel Greenridge finished fourth, ahead on tie-break on 4 points, ahead of Alexi Frederick and Liam Yearwood.

Almost two dozen players made this event an exciting and memorable event. (BCF)

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Wilson upstages favourites to win VEXX Tournament

Louis Wilson upset higher rated opponents to win the VEXX Tournament. (BCF Pictures)

Wilson upstages favourites to win VEXX Tournament

Teenager Louis Wilson upstaged more seasoned opponents to convincingly win the Barbados Chess Federation’s (BCF) VEXX Tournament.

The 17-year-old Wilson overcame the challenge of senior Barbados representatives Justin Parsons and Emar Edwards to comfortably take top spot when the five-day event ended on Wednesday night at the Coles Building on Bay Street, Bridgetown.

Wilson, the older brother of reigning ladies national champion, Hannah Wilson, finished with six and a half out of a maximum seven points, ending a point and half more than both Parsons and Edwards, who were part of Barbados’ team at the 44th FIDE Olympiad in Chennai, India in August.

A former national Under-16 champion, Wilson, who was seeded at No. 4, emerged as the favourite to win the event after defeating second seeded Parsons on Sunday night and third seeded Edwards the following night.  He duly took the top prize after beating veterans Othneil Harewood and Cyprian La Touche in the final two rounds.

Wilson’s quest for a 100 per cent winning record was denied when he had to settle for a draw in the third round against top seed, England-born Chris White, one of four new players entered in the tournament.

Both Parsons and Edwards finished with five points but Parsons took second place on account of winning the head to head clash in the third round.

Twelve-year-old Chanon Reifer-Belle, who won gold medals in the online rapid and blitz events at the Pan American Youth Championships earlier this year, placed fourth with four and a half points. Among her victories was an upset win against Parsons in the last round.

Harewood took fifth place on the tie-break ahead of La Touche and Alex Sargeant after all three players ended on four points.

The tournament, which was not open to players who finished in the top three spots at the National Championship and Ladies National Championship in April, attracted 16 players. Among the newcomers to BCF competitions was president of the Barbados Amateur Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation, Dr. Alfred Sparman.

The BCF will now turn its attention to the 2022 Annual General Meeting which is scheduled for Saturday at the Coles Building. (BCF)

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