FIDE Master (FM) Shreyas Smith and FM Joshua Christie won the NM Thomas Figueroa Memorial Blitz Chess Championship and the CM Neil Fairclough Rapid Chess Championship, respectively.

These two tournaments, played on December 10 and 11, are the two premier speed chess events on the Jamaica Chess Federation’s calendar, and they honour two of Jamaica’s most outstanding players.

FM Christie won the CM Neil Fairclough Rapid Chess Championship with 5.5 points from six games. John Stephenson, from Wolmer’s Boys’ School, was second on tie-break with five points, with Candidate Master (CM) Jaden Shaw, also from Wolmer’s Boys’ High School, finishing third, with five points.

As the competition had the juniors (U20) competing within the Open field the top three (Absolute) were John Stephenson (National Junior Rapid Champion), CM Jaden Shaw, and Shaheem Richards, while the female was Emilia-Rose Leake (National Junior Female Rapid Champion), followed by Amy Stephenson of Wolmer’s Girls.

The NM Thomas Figueroa Memorial Blitz Chess Championship was won by National Champion, FM Shreyas Smith with 10.5 points from 11 games. FM Joshua Christie was second with 10 points and David Bailey was third with seven points.

Again, the Juniors contested the Open field and J-Loy Chin of St Jago High School emerged National Junior Blitz Champion (Absolute) followed by John Stephenson and Alexander Bloomfield, both of Wolmer’s Boys’ School.

WCM Raehanna Brown of Campion College emerged female junior Blitz from Amy Stephenson of Wolmers Girls and Danielle YanKana.

NM Thomas Figueroa was a former National Chess Champion and Jamaica Open Chess Champion. He became the first local player to have a local ELO rating (chess rating) over 2300. He was the most outstanding player in 1975, before his untimely death in the same year.

CM Neil Fairclough is a two-time National Chess Champion. He is a former English-speaking Caribbean Chess Champion and represented Jamaica five times at chess olympiads.

Speed chess is fast chess, which uses fast time controls. It is a preference for many chess players and is fun to watch and to play. It is normally defined by Bullet, Blitz, and Rapid time controls. Since the increase in online chess, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, speed chess has risen in popularity.