What a fantastic result I had in chess these past two weeks! A new sponsor has taken interest in trying to strengthen Bahamian chess and organized the inaugural Nassau Cup Invitational Chess Championship at the beautiful Old Fort Bay Club on the west side of New Providence island. All the top players from the Bahamas were there, and to show just how tough the field played against each other, the national champion Kendrick Knowles finished in next to last place.
I started very well with three straight wins. I had a tough loss in the fourth round to FIDE master Cecil 'Carver' Moncur, where I should have drawn the endgame but played it too passively. Then I won the next game to finish the first weekend with four out of five points.
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| Beating Bahamas National Champion Knowles in round 3 |
I started the following weekend well, too, with a win over CM Elton Joseph to move to five out of six, but then I hit a slump by pushing too hard. I lost two games in a row where in each of them if I didn't push so hard I could have drawn. I was still in first place due to how hard everyone was battling, but now it was by only a half a point over FM Moncur. But in the next round I handily beat FM Moncur to nearly put it away, and I finished it off with a win in the final round to complete the event with seven out of ten and clear first place.
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| Beating FM Moncur in the penultimate round |
On the final weekend, Cuban Grandmaster Renier Gonzalez was a special guest and watched all the games and analyzed with the players between rounds.
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| Me with Grandmaster Renier Gonzalez of Cuba |
Even former US Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady stopped by to watch for a bit! This was the biggest prize I have ever won before, and it was in a gorgeous setting. I couldn't be happier except if I had just not lost those three games.
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| Grandmaster Gonzalez, me, and the sponsor |
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