This year’s Secondary Inter-school Chess Championship has been abandoned.
President of the Barbados Chess Federation, Alan Herbert, said the decision was made after some schools indicated they were no longer interested in competing.
“The decision was taken after we had reached out to all the schools who have entered the competition . . . to confirm whether or not they would be interested in competing and, unfortunately, more than half of the schools said . . . they did not want to compete,” he told Nation Sport.
“It would have made no sense trying to complete the competition with less than half of the original schools willing to play.”
Eight schools, Harrison College, Queen’s College, St Leonard’s Boys, Combermere, Princess Margaret, St George, Christ Church Foundation and Graydon Sealy Secondary registered for the competition, which started earlier in the year with three rounds being completed before the national lockdown to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
The first Inter-school Chess Championship was played in 1979 and saw five schools, including the Barbados Community College competing.
Herbert explained that the federation had already made preparations for the staging of the event but factors such as safety were among the greatest concerns.
The competition was to be concluded on August 15 at the Wildey Gymnasium.
A decision was also not to stage the Primary Schools Championship this year.
Over the board tournaments will resume tomorrow, with the start of the National Championships’ second qualifier at the Chess Centre, Brandons, St Michael. (RG)
