Upsets mark DeVerteuil chess

The competition is being staged at the RHAND Credit Union Building, 57-61 Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain.

The event, sponsored by RHAND, has attracted most of the top chessists in the country and will be rated by FIDE, the world chess governing body.

It is expected that a significant number of participants will qualify for ratings that will be recognised in international chess events.

Harper, who is the defending champion, lost to the Swedish player in 37 moves. He played the white pieces and adopted the Max Lange Attack against Hedlund’s Two Knights Defense.

In striving to sustain the pressure of two of his advanced centre pawns Harper left himself wide open on the Queen side to Black’s mobile queen which duly decimated Harper’s pawns on that side of the board.

Harper’s cause was completely lost when he had to surrender a Bishop consequent on an unforeseen double attack on the Bishop and a Rook.

Unbeaten in his four matches, Hedlund with four points, is now running neck and neck with 2002 Olympiad Silver Medalist Ravishen Singh on the same score. In his contest against FM Frank Yee, Singh, playing the black pieces in a Sicilian Defense/Paulsen Variation, managed to obtain control of two queenside files. With control of the space on that side of the board, he was able to eliminate Yee’s remaining queenside pawn to make way for the promotion of his own “a” pawn.

Yee resigned after his position was further weakened by a forced exchange of rooks which facilitated the promotion of the pawn.

Last Thursday night’s Round 4 was chockfull of other upsets with 13-time national champion FM Christo Cave succumbing to FM Mario Merritt.

Under-18 player Chantal Fitzpatrick defeated FIDE rated senior Leonard Duncan in a thrilling and time-defying end game; National Under-12 Champion Keron Cabralis dispatched his over-confident Under-20 counterpart Marcus Joseph; Nicholas Chin drawing with last year’s runner up David Christopher; and Hayden Lee outplayed National Master Cecil Lee.

In another exciting clash National Under-18 Champion Esan Wiltshire gave Dr Eddison Chang an unexpected scare in a game which Wiltshire dominated and which he should have won with more careful play.

He had the good doctor’s pieces completely tied up but, facing imminent mate, the experienced Chang was able to extricate himself with dogged play.

In the end Chang was able to free his erstwhile restricted Bishop and Rook which proved his youthful opponent’s undoing.In other Round 4 results Andrew Bowles defeated Jonathan Chong; Adebayo Adeniji lost by default to Alex Winter-Roach; Alpacino Smith lost to Rohan Heerah; David Fortune lost by default to Carlyle Singh; Kenneth Fitzpatrick lost to Justin Salloum; Avinash Maharaj lost to Ian Solomon; Vandorf Smith defeated Sean Lastique; Jarryon Paul defeated Javanna Smith; Shamah Khan lost to Frank Sears; Dr Hector Gallemaso defeated Prince Primus; Jayson Paul defeated Colin Knight; John Everon defeated Jonathan Paul; Rafael Guerrero drew with Carl Jacobs.

Round 5 pairings are as follows (current points standings in brackets): R Singh (4) vs N Hedlund (4); Dr E Chang (3) vs M Merritt (3.5); A Winter-Roach (3) vs F Yee (3); C Fitzpatrick (3) vs A Bowles (3); H Lee (3) vs K Cabralis (3); J Salloum (2.5) vs R Harper (2.5); C Cave (2.5) vs N Chin (2.5); R Heerah (2.5) vs C Singh (2.5); D Christopher (2.5) vs L Duncan (2); J Chong (2) vs E Wiltshire (2); I Solomon (2) vs Dr H Gallemaso (2); A Adeniji (2) vs V Smith (2); F Sears (2) vs Jarryon Paul (2); M Joseph (2) vs C. Lee (1.5); K. Fitzpatrick (1.5) vs A Smith (1.5); J Everon (1.5) vs Jayson Paul (1.5); P Primus (1) vs S. Lastique (1); C Knight (1) vs A Maharaj (1); C Jacobs (.5) vs S Khan (1); Jonathan Paul (0) vs R Guerrero (.5).