Mars beats Callender to remain perfect in Pegasus Chess League

Davion Mars survived a difficult position and mounted a strong counterattack to defeat Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Jessica Callender in Round Three of the Pegasus Weekly Chess League on Monday evening.
The victory at the Atlantic Meeting Room of the Pegasus Hotel kept Mars unbeaten with three points from three rounds. Keron Sandiford also maintained a perfect record after defeating Raymond Sookdeo.
Mars and Sandiford are the only players yet to drop points and will meet in a major Round Four showdown.
Playing with the white pieces on Board One, Callender began cautiously against Mars, a returning national player and mechanical engineer. The contest later developed into a complicated middlegame in which both players had chances.
A deeper review of the game showed that Callender missed a critical continuation around move 14 that could have given her an advantage of approximately +1. Despite that missed opportunity, she worked her way through the complications and emerged with an extra pawn, the bishop pair and the more favourable position.
Mars, however, refused to defend passively. He launched a dangerous counterattack and forced Callender to solve a series of difficult problems.
With her remaining time eventually falling below one minute, Callender struggled to find the best defensive moves. Several inaccuracies followed as Mars increased the pressure, and she eventually ran out of time.
The defeat was Callender’s first of the league, and caused her to slip to fourth place on two points.
Ryan McKay moved into third position, also on two points, after defeating Juliana Persaud.
Further down the standings, Martin Poon climbed three places after drawing with Odinnie Reece to move on to 1.5 points. Sachin Beharry also advanced three positions and now has 1.5 points, while Jaden Taylor earned his first point of the season and moved up two places.
With four rounds remaining, several players are still within striking distance of the leaders as the inaugural season continues.
The league is organised by Drayton’s Chess Club in partnership with the Pegasus Chess Club and the Guyana Chess Federation.
Round-by-round results, standings and other league updates are available on the Drayton’s Chess Club Facebook page.