Husbands scores lone win for Barbados Masters

International Master Orlando Husbands was the lone Barbadian to score a victory in the first two rounds of games in the masters section of the Barbados Chess Federation’s Heroes Day Cup.

Husbands defeated the higher rated Trinidadian FIDE Master Ryan Harper when the competition pushed off on Friday night at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex but no Barbadian achieved a win in the second round of games on Saturday.

The masters section, which is by invitation only, features ten players, including five overseas participants and is headed by American FIDE Master Levy Rozman and Cuban International Master Humberto Blanco who both won their first two games.

Husbands was in sixth place on one point and the four other Barbadians – International Master Terry Farley, six-time national champion and FIDE Master Martyn Del Castilho, 2017 Rapid champion Justin Blackman and Candidate Master Bryan Prescod – each had half-point from a loss and a defeat.

Prescod, the lowest rated player in the field, achieved a satisfying result in the first round when he held defending champion and top-ranked American International Master Raven Sturt to a draw.

The tournament, which will be played over nine rounds for a first prize of US$800, is sponsored by the Barbados Olympic Association and the Academy of Sport at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies.

It also features a Challengers section for lower rated players with a top prize of US$600. Twenty-five players are battling for honours in this section and six of them won their first two games – top-ranked Trinidadian Kevin Cupid, seven-time national champion Philip Corbin, Demetrio Moore, Lawrence Depradine, Justin Parsons and Anthony Earlam.