Jamaica's and the English-speaking Caribbean's top female player, Woman International Master (WIM) Deborah Richards Porter ended her campaign to qualify for the 2018 Women's World Chess Championship when she defeated the top seed International Master (IM) Paula Andrea Rodriguez Rueda in the final round of the FIDE Zonal 2.3 Tournament.
The tournament, which recently concluded in El Salvador, served as a qualifier for the Women's World Chess Championship to be held next year in Khanty Mansysk, Russia.
Rodriguez Rueda, the top female player in Colombia, was one win away from taking the top spot, but was forced to concede to the Jamaican Chess Queen after three hours of tumultuous battle. Rueda extended her hand to resign, as she was one move away from being checkmated.
This was WIM Richard Porter's best victory to date, which propelled her to a solid 5 1/2 points from nine games, to finish fourth after tiebreaks were employed, just half point outside of potentially qualifying for the Women's World Chess Championship.
The top three finishers all finished on six points which required a round robin playoff to determine who would secure the spot to Khanty Mansysk. WIM Danitza Fernanda Vázquez Maccarini of Puerto Rico, defeated her two Cuban opponents to become the winner of the event and qualify to the 2018 Women's World Chess Championship.
Richards Porter is the first player from the English-speaking Caribbean to qualify for the Zonal which saw her competing with 21 other top female players from Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Part-sponsorship for WIM Deborah Richards Porter's trip to the Zonals was provided by the Kasparov Chess Federation and part-sponsorship also came from the R&D Chess Academy.
No comments:
Post a Comment