2005 Coore Rapid Chess Open

Porter vs. Brown on board 1

The inaugural Coore Rapid Chess Open was held on Sunday, July 17th, 2005 at Campion College. There was a concern, leading up to the tournament, that it would have been necessary to postpone it due to the threat of Hurricane Emily the day before. Although it was rainy and somewhat windy while Emily passed, the day of the event was quite sunny.

The tournament lasted 5 rounds, but each consisted of two games, where the players played their opponents with each colour. So if one played all rounds, one would end up playing 10 games total! The time control was 20 minutes on each clock, with no increment. Naturally this resulted in several blitz finishes.

Porter, runner-up in the 2005 Jamaica National Championship, got clear first, with 8.5 points and no losses, ahead of National Champion FM Elliott, who only managed to tie for 3rd with 7 points. How did that happen?

Well, although it sounds far fetched, Elliott did get mopped up by Equitable Brown, suffering a 0-2 loss in their mini match. Brown then went on to take second place. The first of the two games was probably a theoretical draw, with R+N (Brown) vs R+p (Elliott). At one point, Elliott tried to claim a draw, but was told to play on by the arbiter. Alas, Elliott's clock could not hold out much more, and so the game was decided on time. Undoubtedly under tremendous psychological pressure from having lost the first game, Elliott's efforts were intensified to attempt to redeem himself and salvage some respect, but the result proved to be disastrous.

At this point there was a lunch break, and it appears that Elliott managed to get back into the swing of things, as he resumed with a good run, winning 4 straight games. However, he ran into a little accident in the final round against the youngster Brandon Wilson, where he actually dropped a queen!

FM Elliott preparing to succumb to Brandon Wilson

Speaking of Wilson, had there been a prize for the luckiest player, he would have received it. In the penultimate round before he received his gift from Elliott, he managed to win a completely lost position to Melisha Smith. Although Wilson was down a whole rook, and into endgame, Smith, under time pressure, and lacking experience, blundered terribly to allow Wilson to recapture a rook and ultimately victory. (Quite unfortunate for the girl). Consequently, he finished on the same number of points as Elliott, and also NM Byfield, who all jointly shared 3rd place.

NM Wheeler, A.Mellace, NM Byfield, NM Rowe (starting top left, going clockwise)

As seen in the picture above, and also from a careful look at the cross table, one will notice that NM Rowe was indeed a participant in the tournament. It is unfortunate for him that he did not finish in the prize receiving positions, as he certainly could have. He managed to lose 2 games where he had at least a draw in one (against Porter), and certainly advantage in the other (against Wheeler).

Congratulations to Porter who once again demonstrated his strength among the Jamaican players.

NM Russell Porter receiving prize from VP Peter Myers

Equitable Brown receiving prize

FM Elliott receiving prize

The tournament was sponsored by Anthony Coore