Three the hard-way, Rochester, Depradine and Parsons lead at chess

The third round of the 2025 CB Gilkes chess tournament was a tumultuous affair that saw both the number one and number two seeds in FIDE master Dr Philip Corbin and Emar Edwards both fall to upset defeats at the hands of Lawrence Depradine and Ronaldo Rochster respectively.

DrCorbin played one of his pet opening lines in the Smith Morra attack against Depradine’s Sicilian defence, but Depradine calmly took the gambit pawn and played accurately to record a memorable victory. Depradine’s stint at the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Hungary obviously showed some benefit here.

Rochester, on the other hand, was even more overwhelming in his victory over Edwards. After the initial opening skirmishes where Edwards could not get an advantage, it was Rochester who won a piece and eventually the game after a long-fought battle.

These results put Depradine and Rochester in a joint three-way tie for first with Justin Parsons who defeated Chanon Riefer-Belle in their round three match. Savion Little currently sits solely in fourth position as he overcame Boris Thompson in their encounter.

Other results saw victories for veteran Othneil Harewood, Mileke Sinckler, Jerimiah Farley, Allan Herbert, Aaron Jaikaran, Cyprian La Touche and Jonathan Griffith.  Tyrell Mc Collin and Caleb Latchman battled to a draw.

In the next round the top pairings will see Depradine against Parsons and Little with the white pieces against Rochester. Action will conclude this weekend at the Coles Building, Bay Street with final games on Sunday at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. (KD/PR)