UWI Mona team doing well in Dallas

Claire Clarke, Contributor

The University of the West Indies Mona chess team surged to the top tables from a field of 28 at the end of round three on Wednesday at the 2011 Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championships in Dallas, Texas.

Team UWI Mona is one of two groups of chess players overseas this week representing Jamaica in two separate tournaments. The second group is playing a junior tournament in Florida.

At the Pan American Inter-collegiate Championships, the UWI Mona team of National Master Damion Davy, reigning National Champion Zachray Ramsay, Stuart James and Miguel Asher, reigning National Junior Champion, are alongside teams from UWI Cave Hill, University of Toronto A and B and the University of New Mexico as units outside of the United States (US).

After a wipe-out start in the first round with a loss to Colombia University, featuring the International Master Eli Vovsha, team UWI Mona returned to trounce their second-round opponents, Florida Atlantic University, 4-0. Then, in the third round, they beat Arizona State University 2.5-1.5 to advance to the coveted table 1.

Three more rounds are left to be played in the 2011 Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Champion-ships, which end tomorrow. In round four, team UWI Mona face off with Washington University. Both teams are on two points after three rounds.

In Florida, there are 26 junior players participating in the 13th Annual Junior Orange Bowl International Scholastic Chess Championship, which ended yesterday. In Miami, Jamaica has representatives from National Master Ryan Blackwood's Chess Whizz Kids and Candidate Master Adrian Palmer's Chess Enterprise have charges playing in the following age group sections: nine and under, 10-12, 13-15 and 16-19.

Other countries represented at the 13th Annual Junior Orange Bowl International Scholastic Chess Championship include Trinidad and Tobago, China, Russia, Ecuador, Venezuela and the US.

NM Blackwood left the island with a positive outlook and believes Jamaica can win some sections. Going to the final round, Jamaica looks very strong in the Under-Six, Under-Nine, Under-12 and Under-16 sections. The youngsters are entered individually but their points are accumulated in four-person teams.

ChessMate Analysis 5

Today we look at Stuart James' game in round three of the Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championships.

A little lesson here in what happens when you nudge away the defender of a critical square. Using the white pieces, James has the more comfortable position. See diagram five. It is move 14 with white to play and James decides that the knight on c6 has more than acceptable influence on the centre, so he steps up with a credible threat. See diagram five.

So 14.Qb5 Nd8 sets off a chain of events that leads inevitably to the loss of piece and eventually the game. 15.d4 exd4 16.cxd4 Bb4 17.e5! and now the knight on f6 will perish because it is pinned to the Queen and cannot move 17. É. Qf7 18.exf6 gxf6 19.Bh6 Rg8 20.Rac1! This rook move creates the penetration that every player strives for, a rook gauging for possession of the seventh rank. 20. É.. f5 21.Bf4 Rg4 22.Rxc7! With nothing to fear since should black capture the rook on c7 this would swiftly lead to mate with 23. Qxe8+ Kg7, 24. Nh5++ So black continues 22 É.. Qg8 23.Ng5 Rxg5 24.Bxg5 Rf8 25.Be7 1-0.

ChessMate Glossary

WGM: Women Grand Master. On the female side there are a mirror range of titles that all start with W to designate that they are female-based titles. We shall discuss more of this next week.

Upcoming tournaments

Next month January 21-22: John Powell Open Memorial

Email feedback, send in your games or upcoming tournaments to yourchessmate@yahoo.com and join the Facebook page chessmate. Claire Clarke is a former Women's National Champion, three-time Jamaica Women's team Chess Olympiad representative, trained journalist and editor.