Chess Federation prepares to host big tournaments

The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Chess Federation is preparing to stage the annual Tyrone Jack Memorial Chess Championships next month.

And around the first quarter of next year, there are plans for another tournament, the Chatoyer International, which will draw representation from Chess Clubs outside of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).

These plans were revealed at a press briefing, the first since a contingent from the SVG Chess Federation returned from the 44th Chess Olympiad, which was held in India from July 28 – August 10, 2022.

Present at the press briefing were some of the executive members of the Federation, in Israel Bruce, president; committee members- Bryan Cottle ,Chair of the Committee for Competitions and Development; and Oris Robinson, Chair of the Committee for Education and Training.

The press briefing was convened mainly to update on the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Chess Olympiad 2022, and the upcoming local tournaments.

The Annual Tyrone Jack Championship is the national chess championship which was first held in December, 2021 and won by Dr. Chinedu Benjamin Enemchukwu.

Speaking about the tournament, Cottle explained that “It is called the Tyrone Jack Memorial Tournament in memory of Mr. Tyrone Jack, who was an ardent chess player, and who was really very interested and instrumental in the setting up of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Chess Federation.”

Jack died before his dream could be realized, so with permission of his widow, Joann Jack, this tournament was named in his honour.

Cottle said this year’s tournament to be held on December 10-11, 2022, will consist of three divisions – Open, Female, and Junior, and will be held at the University of the West Indies Open Campus.

“Last year was a smaller tournament so this year, we are hoping for bigger and better things as we grow the sport of chess here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Cottle said.

“ The fact that this year was an Olympiad and for the first time, we had a team from St. Vincent and the Grenadines competing in the World Chess Olympiad has sparked a lot of interest in the game,” he added.

“We are hoping to capitalize on that and bring out from wherever they are hiding all of those persons in St. Vincent and the Grenadines who are fans, who are aficionados of this wonderful game.”

Responding to a question about the participation of students, Federation president, Bruce said “Letters have in fact been sent to all the schools throughout St. Vincent and Grenadines by the Ministry of Education asking encouraging them to participate and or attend the second annual Tyrone’s Memorial.”

Regarding SVG’s participation at the Chess Olympiad, Bruce said “When we left St. Vincent (and the Grenadines), we had one player that had a rating as per FIDE.

We returned with four of the five players all duly rated within the federated (world ranking) scheme.”

Dr. Chinedu Benjamin Enemchukwu is now a Conditional FIDE Master in chess, and Bryan Cottle, currently a Conditional Candidate Master in chess. Five players represented St. Vincent and Grenadines in Brian Cottle, Chinedu Enemchukwu, Ugur Mentes, James Schneider, Oris Robinson and Israel Bruce.

It is expected that within the coming months, Cottle and Enemchukwu will get enough play time to obtain the few points they need to be permanently declared Candidate Masters of Chess, which is a lifelong title.

“As they continue to play, they will move up the ranks all the way to two international masters and grandmasters,” Bruce added.

Speaking about the overall performance of SVG at the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad, Bruce said the team played a total of 44 games and in terms of points, won 18, which gave a win ratio of 41%. “They drew 1%, and lost 48% of the games that we played, respectively”.

The Caribbean countries which placed higher than St. Vincent and the Grenadines during the 44th Chess Olympiad, are Dominica, Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Bruce pointed out that all of these countries, save Dominica, had administrative structures many years before SVG, and Dominica placed higher because they drew more games at the Olympiad than SVG.

Meanwhile plans are being formulated for the hosting of the inaugural Chatoyer Invitational Chess Tournament.

“That tournament is hoping to draw players from across the region, and possible outside of the Caribbean region. The whole idea is to have that tournament being delivered around the time when we celebrate the life and time of our national hero, [the Right Excellent] Joseph Chatoyer. We hope to have conversations with the Ministry of Tourism and other relevant ministries to see how we can collaborate and coordinate to make this happen,” Bruce said at the press briefing.