Damion Davy is 2011 Jamaican Champ!

Jamaican has a new national champion and yet again, it is another face. After years of dominance by a handful of Jamaican veterans such as Shane Matthews, Warren Elliott and Jomo Pitterson, Jamaica’s talent pool has widened and a few new faces have emerged. With the aforementioned stars absent, the stars of tomorrow took center stage at the 2011 Jamaican National Championship.

This year’s champion is UWI student Damion Davy who adds to his cache of recent accolades. A former two-time Jamaican Junior champion, the young National Master bested the filed of 12 players with an unblemished score of 9/11. Andrew Mellace was second on a tally of 8/11. Peter Myers lead throughout the tournament, but had a virtual collapse losing several games in a row after leading throughout the tournament.

In the women’s competition WFM Deborah Porter won her 10th title as Jamaican women’s champion. While playing inferior competition will not help her standard of play, perhaps her reason for participating in the women’s field is to provide motivation for the others. Let’s hope she gets a challenge in coming years.

Bertram Scott dominated the President’s Invitational amongst a field of young players with 8/11. Jonathan Orgill and Kareem Wright scored 7.5/9 to earn second and third, respectively.

See Zachary Ramsay’s full report at chessjamaica.com.