Woman International Grandmaster (WIG) Ilaha Kadimova will be the star of the Caribbean Chess Carnival which comes off at the Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair from August 4-9. Kadimova, former Girls Under-18 World champion, heads a list of masters due to compete in the popular annual tournament which attracts senior and junior players from across the Caribbean. This year, the nine-round Swiss will have an added interest as, at the highest level, women will be vying against men for the cash prizes. Among them will be Woman International Master (WIM) Luisa Duran Reina of Venezuela.

Four International Masters from within the region are registered to play, including Humberto Pecorelli-Garcia of Cuba who will be defending his championship title. The others are Julio Ostos of Venezuela, Gerardo Lebredo of Cuba and Kevin Denny of Barbados. Among the countries listed to take part in the Chess Carnival are Barbados with a 26-member team, Martinique fielding 18 players, the US and Suriname. Several of T&T’s top juniors, including Kevin Cupid, U-18 champion; Christian Ammon, U-12 champion and Justin Labastide, U-8 champion, are expected to compete. One of Suriname’s promising youngsters, 11-year-old Calvin Tjong Tjin, who won the U-10 section of the tournament in 2007 and the U-12 category in the Barbados Open last year, is entered to play this year in the U-20 section.

Born in Gandja, Azerbaidjan, 34 years ago, Kadimova earned the WIG title in 1994 after a distinguished career as a junior star. She was the U-18 Girls World Champion in 1992 and 1993; Champion of USSR in the same age division; Champion of Europe in the U-16 and U-20 categories and World Student Champion. In 1997, Kadimova was ranked 14th among women grandmasters by Fide. Her visit to T&T is historic as she is the first woman grandmaster to play in a tournament in the country. Duran Reina is a rising female star in Venezuela, having done well in several tournaments in the country. Her best performance so far was her victory in the female section of the 2000 Caribbean and Central American Championships where she acquired her WIM status.

The Caribbean tournament was launched by the T&T Chess Foundation in 2003 to bring junior players in the region together. Due to its success, the event was expanded a few years later to include an open senior section which has developed into an annual international event bringing masters from within and outside the region. With regard to the junior section, the tournament will provide the climax to a series of monthly tournaments presented by the Foundation during the year to prepare youngsters for this big event. All participants would benefit from the event but, according to Edison Raphael, president of the Foundation, another important objective of the Chess Carnival “is to provide regional players with an opportunity to acquire and enhance their international rating without having to play in overseas tournaments which can be costly.”