Cave shocks Swede Grandmaster

Cave’s sensational victory is the first time in history that at the highest level of team tournaments a player from an English speaking Caribbean country has defeated a grandmaster.

With 147 countries participating Trinidad and Tobago and Christo Cave stood tall causing great excitement in the dressing room and among all players and followers at home.

President of Trinidad and Tobago Chess Association Bhisham Soondarsingh immediately e-mailed congratulations to Cave and the national team.

Sweden is highly rated in the tournament at number 31. As in the upcoming World Cup football finals TT was matched against Sweden in the first round.

Cave, easily the best chess player TT has produced, has won the national championship for a record 13 times in the last 16 years.

His shock victory in the first round at the Olympiad continued and after six rounds he has a perfect score of five victories in the five games he has played.

To date he is ranked as the leading player in the competition.

The other chessists on the national team are national champion FM Ryan Harper, NM Yogendranath Ramsingh, NM Cristo Cave, FM Mario Merritt, Ravishen Singh and Dr Edison Chang.

Ravishen Singh earned a silver medal on Board 4 in the 2002 World Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia.

The present team is managed by former national champion NM Cecil Lee.

So far Jamaica is surprisingly ahead of Barbados by half a point and Trinidad by 1 point.

Jamaican Russel Porter also scored a shock win over Finland Grand Master Heikki Westerinen in the third round to make it a double for the Caribbean.

They upset Finland by forcing a 2- 2 draw.

With seven more rounds to go in the 13-round tournament a side the battle is on for the highest position among the three Caribbean rivals.

Barbados were ranked 97th, Jamacia 104th and TT 105th at the start of tournament.

The TT women’s team having returned to the World Chess Olympiad in 2004 after an absence of 18 years is putting up a game fight having been given a low ranking.

Jane Kennedy, playing on Board 1 has three wins from her six games, LyndyAnn Guiseppi is on 2.5 from four games, Arlene Blackman on 0.5 from five games and Camille Chung is on 0.0 from three games.

The Trinidad and Tobago Chess Association have thanked the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs for the financial assistance given to ensuring the national teams participate at the highest level of the game.

Team pairings for Trinidad and Tobago

Round 1 on 2006/05/21 — Bo. 31 Sweden (SWE) Rtg - 105Trinidad & Tobago (TRI) Rtg 3:1

30.1 GM Hellsten Johan 2564 - FM Harper Ryan 2270 1-0

30.2 GM Hillarp-Persson Tiger 2524- Cave Christo 2254 0-1

30.3 GM Cicak Slavko 2506- FM Merritt Mario 2146 1-0

30.4 IM Carlsson Pontus 2433 -Singh Ravishen 2133 1-0

Round 2 on 2006/05/22 —

Bo.105 Trinidad & Tobago (TRI) Rtg- 89 Iraq (IRQ) Rtg 2:2

43.1 FM Harper Ryan 2270 - FM Hussein N A 2334 1 - 0

43.2 Cave Christo 2254 - FM Atia A Jomah 2348 1-0

43.3 FM Merritt Mario 2146-IM A Jawad Ahmed 2329 0 - 1

43.4 Chang Dr Eddison 1896 - Laith Ali 2179 0-1

Round 3 on 2006/05/23 —

Bo. 82 Kyrgystan (KGZ) Rtg - 105 Trinidad & Tobago (TRI)Rtg 4:0

51.1 GM Yurtaev Leonid 2519 - FMHarper Ryan 2270 1-0

51.2 Shukuraliev Algis 2267- Ramsingh Yogendranath 2196 1-0

51.3 Samakov Nurdin 2271-Singh Ravishen 2133 1-0

51.4 Maznitsin Andrey 2187- Chang Dr Eddison 1896 1-0

Round 4 on 2006/05/24 —

Bo. 105 Trinidad & Tobago (TRI) Rtg -120 Honduras (HON)Rtg 2:1

61.1 Ramsingh Yogendranath 2196 - Zamora Roberto 22050 - 1

61.2 Cave Christo 2254 - CM Medina Javier 2249 1 - 0

61.3 FM Merritt Mario 2146 - FM Montesinos Jorge 2057 1-0

61.4 Chang Dr Eddison1896 - Medina Ricardo 2007

Round 5 on 2006/05/25 —

Bo.126 Bahrain (BRN) Rtg-105 Trinidad & Tobago (TRI) Rtg2:2

57.1 Al Afoo Shaker 2196- FM Harper Ryan 2270 1-0

57.2 Alghasra Ali Mohamed Hasan Ahme 2152 - Ramsingh Yogendranath 2196 0-1

57.3 Ayyad Maher Abduljalil Saleh Ma 2102- Cave Christo 2254 0-1

57.4 Ayyad Husain Abduljalil Saleh M0 -FM Merritt Mario2146 1-0

Round 6 on 2006/05/27 —

Bo.105 Trinidad & Tobago (TRI) Rtg-39 Mozambique (MOZ) Rtg 3:1

59.1 FM Harper Ryan 2270-Andrade Ivan Sales 2104 1- 0

59.2Ramsingh Yogendranath 2196-Maia Mariano Tesoura De 0 0-1

59.3 Cave Christo 2254-Brumo Marques Victor Brigida 0 1-0

59.4 Singh Ravishen 2133-Vilhete Vania Fausto Da T. 0 1-0

Christo Cave matches

Cave, Christo (2254) Trinidad - Hillarp-Persson, Tiger (2524) Sweden

37th Chess Olympiad 2006 gener (Turin, Italia), 2006.05.21

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Lg7 3.Sc3 d6 4.h3 a6 5.Sf3 L5 6.a4 L4 7.Se2 Lb7 8.Sg3 Sd7 9.Ld3 c5 10.c3 Sgf6 11.De2 O-O 12.O-O Lxc3 13.Lxc3 Dc7 14.Te1 Tfe8 15.Ld2 e6 16.Tab1 Lc6 17.Ta1 Teb8 18.Teb1 Txb1+ 19.Lxb1 Db7 20.Lf4 Se8 21.Ld3 d5 22.Tb1 Dc8 23.exd5 Lxd5 24.Se5 cxd4 25.cxd4 Sxe5 26.Lxe5 Dc6 27.a5 Dc3 28.Lxa6 Dxa5 29.Lb7 Td8 30.Lxd5 Dxd5 31.Tb5 Dc6 32.Tc5 Dd7 33.Sf1 f6 34.Lg3 Kf7 35.Tc4 Db5 36.Dc2 f5 37.Dc3 g5 38.Tb4 Dd7 39.Le5 Sf6 40.Db3 Kg6 41.Tb7 De8 42.Se3 Td7 43.Tb6 Te7 44.g4 f4 45.Sc4 Da8 46.Sd6 Da1+ 47.Kg2 Da8+ 48.Kh2 h5 49.Dd3+ Kh6 50.Lxf6 Lxf6 51.Sf5+ exf5 52.Txf6+ Kg7 53.Dxf5— 1-0

Atia A, Jomah (2348) Iraq- Cave, Christo (2254) Trinidad

37th Chess Olympiad 2006 gener (Turin, Italia), 2006.05.22

1.d4 Sf6 2.c3 g6 3.Lg5 Lg7 4.Sd2 d5 5.e3 O-O 6.Sgf3 c6 7.Ld3 Sbd7 8.O-O Te8 9.e4 dxe4 10.Sxe4 Sxe4 11.Lxe4 Db6 12.Dc2 e5 13.dxe5 Sxe5 14.Sxe5 Txe5 15.Le3 c5 16.Tad1 Lf5 17.Lxf5 Txf5 18.L4 Lf8 19.De4 Dc7 20.Dc4 a6 21.g3 L5 22.De4 Tc8 23.Lf4 Da7 24.Ld6 Lxd6 25.Txd6 cxb4 26.cxb4 Kg7 27.De2 h5 28.Tfd1 Da8 29.h4 Te8 30.Db2+ Kh7 31.Dd4 Tfe5 32.Kh2 Te1 33.Dd5 Dxd5 34.T1xd5 T1e2 35.Td2 T8e3 36.Kg2 Txd2 37.Txd2 Ta3 38.Kf1 Kg7 39.Kg2 Kf6 40.Kf1 Kf5 41.Kg2 Ta4 42.Tb2 f6 43.Kf3 Ta3+ 44.Kg2 Ke4 45.Td2 Ta4 46.Td6 Ke5 47.Tc6 Txa2 48.Kf3 Ta3+ 49.Ke2 Tb3 50.Txa6 Txb4 51.Ta8 Tb2+ 52.Ke3 Kf5 53.Ta6 L4 54.Tb6 Tb1 55.f3 L3 56.Tb5+ Ke6 57.Kf4 Kd6 58.Tb8 Kd5 59.Td8+ Kc4 60.Tc8+ Kd3 61.Td8+ Ke2 62.Te8+ Kf2 63.Tb8 Tc1 64.Tb4 Tc3 65.Ke4 Txf3— 0-1

Medina, Javier (2249) Honduras- Cave, Christo (2254) Trinidad

37th Chess Olympiad 2006 (Turin, Italia), 2006.05.24

1.d4 Sf6 2.Sc3 d5 3.Lg5 Sbd7 4.e3 g6 5.Le2 Lg7 6.h4 h6 7.Lf4 c6 8.Sf3 Da5 9.Dd2 L5 10.a3 Db6 11.Ld3 a6 12.O-O c5 13.Se5 c4 14.Le2 Lb7 15.Lf3 Td8 16.Tad1 Se4 17.Lxe4 dxe4 18.Sxd7 Txd7 19.De2 De6 20.Lg3 O-O 21.f3 f5 22.fxe4 Lxe4 23.Sxe4 Dxe4 24.c3 Tf6 25.Le5 Te6 26.Lxg7 Kxg7 27.Tde1 Dxh4 28.Tf4 Dg3 29.Tf3 Dg5 30.Df2 Te4 31.Tf4 Td6 32.Txe4 fxe4 33.Df4 Df5 34.g4 Dd5 35.Tf1 Tf6 36.Dc7 Dd6 — 0-1