Barbados consolidated their strong start and strengthened their medal prospects in three categories Friday after the midway stage of the seventh Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Youth Chess Festival in Puerto Rico.
The leading Barbadian performer is Orlando Husbands in the Under-18 Category. He is on four points and has moved a clear point ahead of his nearest rivals, Puerto Ricans, woman FIDE Master Nelly Comas Collon and Gamaliel Figueroa Calderon.
Husbands, a student of The Lodge School and the 2012 CAC Under-14 gold medallist, cleared his path to the leader board with wins in the third and fourth rounds against Angel Beauchamp Perez and Collon.
In the Under-16 division, Bryan Prescod, also of The Lodge School, retained his top of the tables position with 3 ½ points, having drawn in the third round against Jose Acevedo and won in the fourth round against compatriot Kemp Lynch.
Lynch, a student at Graydon Sealy Secondary and the Barbados Under-16 champion, slipped to sixth place in the standings with 2 ½ points, having won against Sharon McDowell, of Honduras, in the third round and lost to Prescod in the fourth round.
The Under-14 age category has developed to be the most competitive section with six players – two of whom are Bajan – tied on 3 points.
Pedro Agudelo Palta, of Colombia, tops the standings by virtue of the better tie break score and, having held the Bajans Allon Richards and Yu Tien Poon to draws in the third and fourth rounds, looks to be the player with the clearest path to the Under-14 gold medal.
Richards, a student of Foundation School, is in second position with the better tie break score, having also drawn his fourth round match against Jaun Jose Davila Blanco, of Puerto Rico. Barbados Under-14 champion, Yu Tien Poon, of The Lodge School, is in third spot on the tie break, also having drawn in the third round against Davila Blanco.
Gabriela Cumberbatch, a student at Harrison College and the sole Bajan female, scored her first win of the tournament in the third round against Puerto Rico’s Eduardo Melendez Lopez.
A loss in the fourth round against Trinidad and Tobago’s Sylvan Yearwood pushed her back to 15th place in the standings and third among the girls.
In the Under-10 category, Kyle Sandiford, of Providence Elementary, dropped his first points of the tournament with a loss in the third round 3 to tournament leader Jorge Tobar Beltran, of Colombia, and a draw in the fourth round against candidate Master Joel Santiago Fernandez, of Puerto Rico. (PR)