Magnificent Chess

The Magnificent Chess Foundation and the University of the West Indies (UWI) Chess Society will stage the Magnificent Chess UWI Masters Tournament at two venues. The tournament, which will be rated by the FIDE, the international governing body for chess, will take place at the Medallion Hall Hotel, Hope Road, on March 16 and 17 and at the UWI Assembly Hall from March 19 to 22.

The international chess Masters will challenge Jamaica’s three top-rated players. The three Jamaicans include Fide Master Warren Elliott (Jamaica’s highest internationally rated player), Fide Master Jomo Pitterson (Jamaica’s top performer over the last two years and Jamaica’s unbeaten star of the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany) and National Master Shane Matthews, Jamaica’s record seven-time national champion. These Jamaicans are pursuing an ‘International Chess Master’ title which would be a first for Jamaica.

The Jamaicans will face their toughest competition locally as several players of note have been invited from Barbados, Cuba and Sweden to participate in the event. One such is International Chess Grandmaster Alfonso Romero Holmes, one of Spain’s top Grand Masters, who has played against many of the world’s top players and who performed well for Spain at the 2002 Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia, dispatching many grandmasters to win a medal on board three.