Cave roars back in de Verteuil Chess Open

Defending champion Christo Cave roared back into contention in the Knights Chess Club’s de Verteuil Memorial Open when he defeated Chess Olympiad silver medallist Ravishen Singh.

This was in the penultimate round of the tournament last Thursday at the DRETCHI Building, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain. Facing off with the white pieces against the erstwhile lone front runner, Cave made short work of his opponent, ruthlessly destroying the Sicilian Defence started by Singh. Singh had to forego castling, in the process losing two pawns which further exposed his king to Cave’s Queen and Rook encircling attack. Singh’s capture of Cave’s King Bishop only served to accelerate the threat of inevitable mate in the face of which he resigned. This win brings Cave’s points tally to five, the same as Singh’s. However the tournament is still open with at least three other players qualifying to contest top gun position in the final round. Cesar Ramos won in nail-biting fashion against Michael Pouchet’s Caro-Kann/Advance Variation. Under increasing time pressure Pouchet ill-advisedly advanced his G-pawn opening his castle’s gates to Queen, Rooks and Knight after the FXG pawn exchange. With mere seconds remaining on the clock, Ramos won the battle of nerves by efficiently executing a back rank mate. He will now meet Ravishen Singh in the final round of contention for the title.

Eddison Chang emerged as a serious contender for the championship by defeating National Master Cecil Lee, in his favourite English Opening. Chang replied with the Ultra Symmetrical Variation and Lee gave up his queen for a rook in an attempted counter to Chang’s increasing pressure on his King. With the loss of the exchange Chang’s offensive intensified to the point where Lee resigned on the 35th move. Chang meets Cave in the final round. Continuing his fine recovery after an early loss, Frank Yee defeated Andrew Bowles, the latter employing a Sicilian/Dragon Variation and, in an apparent exchange miscalculation, gave up his White Bishop for a pawn. Thereafter Yee’s superior material was too much for Bowles to handle and resignation came in the face of impending mate by Yee’s advanced pieces. Yee is also a title contender and meets Michael Pouchet tomorrow.

In other results Guelmo Rosales defeated Nicholas Chin; Kishore Ramadhar defaulted to Ken Fitzpatrick; Prakash Persad defeated Sylvan Seaforth; David Maynard defeated Arlene Blackman; Ian Ramrattan defeated Bryan Valentine; Jesse Sudan defaulted to Leonard Duncan; Prince Primus drew against Louis Wiltshire; Sherwin Duke defeated Alpacino Smith; David Christopher defaulted to Carl Jacobs; Michael Marcano defeated Chay Gomez; and Robert Daniel defeated Satyam Maharaj. As it stands Singh is joined on five points by Cave, Ramos; Yee and Chang are on four and a half; Pouchet, Rosales, Fitzpatrick and Persad are on four; Lee, Duncan, Bowles, Chin, Maynard and Ramrattan are on three and a half; Ramadhar and Duke are on three; Seaforth, Marcano, Wiltshire, Primus, Jacobs, Valentine and Blackman are on two and a half; Sudan, Daniel and Smith are on two points; Everon and Gomez are on one and a half; and Maharaj is on one point.