CAC Chess Championship…
– Barbados’s Blackman clinches title
Twelve-year-old Chelsea Juma has become Guyana’s youngest FIDE (World Chess Federation) ranked player after gaining her ranking and a wealth of experience with her 14-year-old teammate Sasha Shariff.
Participants in the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Women’s Chess Championship
The Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Women’s Chess Championship, which ran from July 27 to August 3, matched the two Guyanese girls with top-ranked chess players from all across the Caribbean and Central America. Even though they went into the tournament with one other international appearance to their names, the girls played valiantly to receive their rankings.
The Guyanese duo have completed their seven games against rated players from Carifta Championships in Paramaribo, Suriname to this challenging and unpredictable tournament. At the CAC, Chelsea’s performance rating was 1113 and Sasha’s was 1022. As such, they will join Guyana’s four other female FIDE rated players: WFM Maria Thomas (1739); WCM Sheriffa Ali (1363); Jessica Clementson (1203) and Nellisha Johnson (1123).
From the nine rounds played, Juma finished on 1.5 points while Shariff finished on 1 point. Being the only unrated players at the event put the girls at an instant disadvantage, nevertheless, they battled their way through the intense competition featuring players from Barbados, Trinidad, Suriname, Netherlands Antilles and Costa Rica.
A notable game from Juma was her win against three-time Guatemalan Olympiad champ and WCM Julissa Figueroa, who will be playing for Barbados at this year’s 43rd World Chess Olympiad.
Playing the black pieces, WCM Figueroa turned to the “tricky” Paulsen Variation of the Sicilian Defence, but due to a possible “blind spot” left a Bishop undefended which young Juma was keen to capture thus making her opponent resign and sending a shockwave throughout the tournament hall.
While Shariff got some better positions and winning advantages in a lot of her games, the teenager failed to convert those advantages into a full point. Her notable game was Round (1) and eight (8) which she should have definitely won, but was unable to find the winning combinations to receive full points. Additionally, during the tournament, both Shariff and Juma received some training via post analysis and pre analysis of their games from Barbadian IM (FIDE International Master) Orlando Husband and Lawrence Depradine. The tournament and training is all part of Shariff’s planned training before she represents Guyana at the 43rd World Chess Olympiad scheduled to be held inn Batumi, Georgia from September 23-October 16, 2018.
FIDE National Instructor and National Chess Champion CM Wendell Meusa has expressed his gratitude to those who have contributed to the girls’ participation in the tournament.
“Without these few persons who dug into their pockets, these girls would not be able to attend and make history for Guyana and I would like to thank each of them,” Meusa stated. He also echoed a call for private businesses to support the growth and development of chess in Guyana aiming to place the country among the greats once again, as in the late 1970s under former President Linden Forbes Burnham.
The 2018 CAC tournament was won by Barbados’ four-time national women’s champion Katrina Blackman.
In an intense finish to the Championship, the 25-year-old Blackman clinched the US$1000 top prize on a tie-break after finishing level on points with Ailen Oriana Mena of Curaçao.
Both Blackman, the number six seed, and Mena, the number two seed, went into the final round level on six points in a three-way tie at the top of the table. With the pair clinching victories to finish on seven points, Blackman took gold on account of winning their head-to-head clash in the sixth round.
“It feels really nice. Being ranked at number six and actually winning against persons higher rated than me by a lot of points, it feels really good,” Blackman said.
