Barbados won two official silver medals, four other medals in sub-categories and finished third at the 7th Carifta Chess Championships in Suriname on Monday.
Vanessa Greenidge and Kyle Sandiford secured second places in the Under-16 girls’ and boys’ categories respectively after recording victories in the seventh and final round of games at the Ministry of Finance Building in Paramaribo.
There was great joy in the Barbados camp after Greenidge claimed the island’s first medal with a victory over Suriname’s Woman FIDE Master Catherine Kaslan to move to six points and be assured of silver despite the results of other games.
It was the first outing in the Under-16 division for Greenidge after earning silver in the Under-12 section last year.
Sandiford also won his final round game to move to five and a half points but anxiously had to await the outcome of other games after starting the day in third place as one of seven players on the same number of points. He finished level with Ethan Croeze of Aruba but was favoured on the tie-break for the silver.
Barbados enjoyed a satisfactory final day on the boards, winning 12 games, losing six and drawing four and also counted a number of medals outside of the official Under-20, Under-16 and Under-12 categories.
Greenidge was awarded the gold medal in the Under-14 sub-category, while eight-year-old Hannah Wilson, the youngest member of the team, finished seventh in the girls’ Under-12 category with four points, but walked away with the gold medal in the Under-10 sub-category.
Rory Prescod, who placed 11th in the boys’ Under-12 division with four and half points, took bronze in the Under-10 sub-category.
Shane Maughn and captain Nitin Mahtani finished fourth and fifth respectively in the boys’ Under-20 category with four and a half points and Maughn collected bronze in the Under-18 sub-category.
Barbados finished third in the overall standings on 56 points, one fewer than last year’s winners Jamaica, while hosts Suriname, with strength in numbers, emerged runaway champions with 129 points.
They fielded more than a hundred of the 171 participants and with points awarded from first to tenth places in the three official categories, benefitted from their significant number of entries.
Apart from Greenidge, Sandiford, Wilson, Maughn and Mahtani, the other Barbadians with top ten finishes in the official categories were Jaydn Gill (sixth in the boys’ Under-12 with five points), Azaria Johnson (seventh in girls’ Under-16 with four points), Kiarra Eversley (fifth in girls’ Under-20 with two and a half points) and Gabriela Cumberbatch (seventh in girls’ Under-20 with two points). (BCF)
