The Jamaican junior chess team of 23 players recently returned to the island from a gruelling nine rounds in the 2018 Pan American Chess Championships held in Santiago, Chile, between July 21 and 29.

The tournament hosted over 600 players from 22 countries across the Americas.

Although Jamaica didn’t place in the top three, which went to the USA, Peru and Argentina, the Chilean organisers were impressed with the performance of the Jamaican team.

In an interview held during the event, organisers expressed how challenging the Pan American Championship is and that it was very impressive that many of the players on the Jamaican team had been able to secure 50 per cent of points (4.5 out of 9).

The two highest-performing players of the team were Aaron McKoy, who secured 5.5 points in the Under 8 Absolute section in his very first international tournament, and FIDE Master (FM) Joshua Christie, who secured 5.5 points in the Under-18 Absolute section.

The team also saw Candidate Master (CM) Rachel Miller placing eighth in her category, this being the last time she will compete as a junior for Jamaica. CM Miller, who scored five points, was the only player on the team to place in the top 10 of any category, illustrating the competitiveness of the tournament.

In fact, this is only the fifth time in history that any person from the English-speaking Caribbean has placed in the top 10 of the Pan American Youth Chess tournament. The first was also CM Rachel Miller who placed ninth in U14 Females in Brazil in 2013; then International Master (IM) Orlando Husbands of Barbados, who placed seventh in the Under-18 Absolute in Mexico in 2014; and then again seventh in the same category in 2015 in Colombia; then Cameron Coe, who placed sixth in the Under-8 Absolute section in Uruguay in 2016.

Other notable performances included the boys finishing on five points — Darren McKennis in the Under-12 Absolute section, Corbin Harvey in the Under-10 Absolute section, and Cameron Coe, who competed in the Under-8 Absolute section. On the girls’ side, those finishing on five points included Adani Clarke in the Under-16 Female section and Laila Griffiths, who had a very strong performance in the competitive Under-12 Female section.

Head of delegation and the chief coach for the team, National Master (NM) Mikhail Solomon, was pleased with the performance of the team this year. “Team Jamaica faced really challenging conditions during the tournament, given the logistics of the event, and a very cold playing hall. They did extremely well and a number of our previously unrated players will now get a FIDE rating, and a few players like Laila Griffiths will gain significant rating points from the tournament.”

Solomon also expressed his gratitude to the sponsors and parents who were able to support the juniors’ participation in this event. “This exposure is like no other and will certainly develop the games of those players who participated and help to elevate the level of chess locally, so we are very thankful to all who made it possible.”

Players on the Jamaica team included Under-8 Female Najean Brown; Under-8 Absolute Cameron Coe, Aaron McKoy, Joshua Smikle; Under-10 Female WCM Zaina O’Connor; Under-10 Absolute Corbin Harvey; Under-12 Female Laila Griffiths, Arielle McKoy, Amy Stephenson, Gabriella Watson; Under-12 Absolute Addison Abrahams, Darren McKennis, Jaden Shaw, John Stephenson; Under-14 Female Raehanna Brown; Under-14 Absolute Nicholas Lyn, Ronaldo Thompson; Under-16 Female Adani Clarke; Under-16 Absolute Lontae Walker; Under-18 Female Rachel Miller; Under-18 Absolute Joshua Christie, Malik Gayle, and Nikit Gupta.