World Youth chess Championship

17 – 29th November 2007

Antalya/Turkey

Bajans Fight Gallantly in  Round Five (5) of World Youth Chess Championships

The Bajan connection of Martyn Del Castilho, Justin Blackman and Alex Jackman fought gallantly in Round Five (5) of the World Youth Chess Championships in Antalya, Turkey to add another point to the Barbados Score.

Justin  Blackman Playing in the World Under 16 Section played Black against Mordechai Halan (Unrated) from Israel and employed the Sicilian: Richter-Rauzer, his opponent Sacrificed the exchange at move 15 and later gained two pawns to equalize after a tense struggle, the game ended up a Rook Vs Knight endgame and was drawn at move 60 after four hours of play giving Barbados another half a point.

Alex Jackman playing in the World Under 14 section played the black pieces against South Africa’s Werner Kannemeyer, the South African played d4 and Jackman employed the Slav Defense by move 19 Jackman had wrestled the initiative from the South African, the game petered out into a tame draw at move 46 and three hours of play gaining a half point for Barbados.

Martyn Del Del Castilho played the white pieces against Andres Gallego of Columbia rated 2271.  Del Castilho played e4 which was met by c5 (Sicilian Defense) the Scheveningen system was employed, Martyn advanced his pawns on his King side attacking blacks’ King position but black successfully counter- attacked in the center and after the smoke cleared, and a number of pieces exchanged off the board, Del Castilho was left with a pawn down, three pawn islands and no attack.  The final position saw black invading with his rooks and controlling the 7^th Rank, non-the less Del Castilho fought gallantly, took the game its full length, but succumbed to the superior position of black at move 44 and five hours of play.

At the end of round five (4) Del Castilho has a total of two (2) points from four (5) games and needs to win in round 6 to keep even, Justin Blackman has a total of 2  point form 5 games and Alex Jackman now has 11/2 point from 5 games these two will have to pull out all the stops to retain their number of FIDE ratings.

You can follow the exciting action on the Barbados Chess Federation’s Web site by logging on to www.barbados,org/chess.

Reporting from the Limra International Hotel, Antalya, Turkey.

Tele: 0.242.824.53.00 Room number (3515)

Peter Dawson

Chess Coach,

President B.C.F.