Barbados chess players performed credibly at the St. Lucia Easter Chess Classic held over the Easter weekend.
The event was played in the hybrid format, which is where the players play from one central location under the charge of a referee and play via the internet on a chess playing platform. The tournament had two sections, an Under 2000 section and an Under 1400 section.
Barbados was represented by five players in each section and would have hoped that players like C.A.C. under 14 silver medalist Hannah Wilson, her brother Louis along with Renaldo Rochester would have put in strong performances.
Renaldo Rochester 7th in Under 2000 rating Section.
In the Under 2000 section, the top Barbados performer was Renaldo Rochester who finished 7th form 33 players with 4 ½ points. Rochester was initially up with the leaders and had three points from four games at the half ways points. However, he could only muster three draws in his final three games to finish off the event. Rochester did manage draws against the second and third place finishers Remone Johnson of Jamaica and Gilbert Abalos from Cayman Islands.
Louis Wilson also finished on 4 ½ points but finished 9th on the tie-break. If  Louis had won and not drawn his last round game, he would have finished third in the event. The same goes for Rochester.
Hannah Wilson finished with four points from her 7 games. She suffered several upset defeats against lower rated players. Travis Grant finished on three points while Mileke Sinckler finished on 1 ½ points. Mileke’s performance is however worth mentioning as he was in the tougher section of the event and would have done enough to acquire his own international rating. Chinake Kudakwashe of Cayman Islands won the section with 6 points from his 7 games.
In the Under 1400 section, Aaron Jaikaran finished with 5 points to be joint third, but 7th on tie-break from the 50-player field. Jaikaran was solid throughout the tournament with 3 wins and 4 draws, and not losing a game.
Aaron Jaikaran joints 5th in the Under 1400 Section.
Kanye Williams finished on 4 ½ points to finish 11th. He drew with the second-place finisher Abner Furquhar of Antigua, but a loss and not a win in his last round game against Jaheim Smart of Jamaica meant he missed out on a second placed finish.
Eden Gibson (4 points) , Chaz Reifer-Belle(3 points), Derick Boyce(3 points) and Charis Stuart(3 points) all performed credibly, especially those players in their first regional event.
Bajans in Martinique
Also, over the Easter week, local boy Travis Grant and Barbados based Chris White participated in the 10e Open International de Martinique – Memorial Joel Gratien chess event on the beautiful French isle.
Grant finished in 21st from 60 players with five points from nine but managed to defeat a number of higher rated opponents like Raymond Marbot and Serge Marie-Magdeleine, both of Martinique.
Chris White in Martinique.
White did even better as he finished joint 10th but 13th on tie-break on 5 ½ points. White missed out on a top five finish when he lost his last round game to Florian Tastet of Guadeloupe but did himself proud as he defeated woman international master Mounika Akshaya Bommini of India and then drew with grandmaster Christian Bauer of France, the eventual winner of the event. These two players are rated much higher than White.
Bajans throughout the World
Justin Blackman based in Spain continues to perform well also. Last month Justin picked up another 11 valuable rating points, as he won both his games in the Lliga Catalana 2023 Primera Division Grupo 1 while playing for his club team. He won against  Luis Luna Cortes and  Miquel Fabre Massana, both of Spain. He is now just slightly less rated than current national champion, Martyn Del Castilho.
Last month also saw former national junior player Nitin Mahtani who played in the Hart House Reading Week 2023 – U2200 event in February, where he finished 16th from 38 players. A loss in the last round pushed him down the pack as if he had won, he would have finished joint 5th. (PR/KD)
