Master Report 1

In the first round of this great new chess festival the Master Tournament saw no less than four decisive results and a lot of fighting chess. The top seeds certainly didn’t have an easy start in the tournament. GM Jha Sriram (2432) from India did manage to beat IM Jose Luis Vilela De Acuna (2323) from Cuba with the black pieces. After White allowed his dark-squared bishop to be exchanged, Black got a serious positional advantage, which he used to full effect. WGM Alina L’Ami (2361) from Rumania and IM Luis Lazaro Aguero Jimenez (2422) from Cuba drew their game after long tough fight.

FM Roger Matoewi (2119), who has been Surinam Champion ten times, almost caused a major upset by bringing Dutch IM Thomas Willemze (2418), who has spent several months in Surinam to help build the local chess culture, on the verge of losing. Only after surviving some scary moments, the latter managed to win in the endgame.

FM Ryan Harper (2284) from Trinidad and Tobago, who is publisher and editor of Ace Chess Magazine, which is designed to promote chess in the Caribbean, had a clean attacking game with the white pieces in the main line of the Sicilian Najdorf against local FM Dewperkash Gajadin (2138). After Black made a theoretical mistake in the early middlegame, White got a very powerful initiative.

Current Surinam Champion Romario Sanches (2037), who is still young, lost his game against IM Gerardo Lebredo Zaragoitia (2218) from Cuba, but he did gain more international experience, which is the one of the ideas behind the Srefidensi Chess Celebration.
 

IM Merijn van Delft