AAYUSH Jain convincingly won the IA FM John Powell Memorial Open Chess Tournament, which was played over two days (February 3-4) at Liguanea Chess Club.

The six-round event was played in four sections — the Open section, U1600 Absolute, U1300 Absolute, and U1300 Female. This annual event is named in honour of Jamaica’s Hall of Fame recipient, former Jamaican international and Jamaica Chess Federation Secretary and President, International Arbiter and FIDE Master John Powell.

Ardenne High School’s Aayush Jain won the Open section with 5.5 points from six games, the only blemish being a draw with second-place finisher Nathan Belinfante who finished with 4.5 points. J-Loy Chin (St Jago High School) finished third on tiebreak with four points, ahead of John Stephenson (Wolmer’s Boys’ School), Aaron McKoy (Campion College) and Gabriella Watson (Immaculate Conception High School for Girls), who all also finished with four points.

The top female player in the Open section was Gabriella Watson.

The best U1600 Absolute player was Sajay Mcintosh who won on tiebreak from Jayden Foreshaw (St Jago High School), after both finished with an excellent five points. Third place went to Ronak Shergil (Campion College) who had 4.5 points, edging out Tashane Bailey who finished with four points.

The U1300 Absolute section was a five (5)-round event, with Maurice Gayle from Jamaica College emerging victorious with a perfect four points. On tiebreak Liam Logan (St Andrew Prep. School) finished ahead of Dedipya Sunkara and Jevaughny Oliver (St Jago High School), all of whom had four points.

Tsahai Clarke (St Jago High School) also finished with a perfect five points from five games to win the U1300 Female section. Elisha Patel came second on tiebreak, with four points, ahead of Kayla Moses who also had four points.

JCF Chair of Publications Richard Shaw expressed, “This is an incredible feat for Aayush as he also closed out the JCF 2023 calendar year with a win in the Frederick Cameron Open Chess Tournament. He is moving from strength to strength and we are expecting big things from him in 2024. This tournament had the participation of numerous juniors who love the sport and enjoy playing chess. We look forward to an exciting 2024.”

Approximately 76 participants took part in this event. The next tournament on the calendar for this year will be the Open and Women’s Jamaica Chess Championship. It’s scheduled to begin this month and will identify the top player and female player for 2024.