FIDE Master Ryan Harper has re-established himself as the leading chess player in the country by winning the 2010 national championship, his fifth lien on the title. The 32-year-old Republic Bank employee left little doubt about his superiority by virtually running away with the 11-round Swiss final. He finished with ten wins and one loss. At the end of the contest played over the last month at Cascadia Hotel, St Ann's, Harper was a clear two and a half points ahead of his closest rival, former champion NM Marcus Joseph who had defeated him last year to seize the national crown. Joseph, 22-year-old computer science and mathematics student at UWI, took second place with seven and a half points. David Christopher, winner of the recent Promenade Chess Club championship, challenged strongly in the earlier rounds but went under in his last two games. He finished on seven points together with Alex Winter Roach who also had a good tournament, sharing the third and fourth prizes with Christopher. NM Ravishen Singh, who jointly topped the recent DeVerteuil Memorial Open with Sean Perryman, collected six and a half points to finish fifth.
Junior star 14-year-old FM Keron Cabralis and FM Mario Merritt scored six points each to share the sixth and seventh prizes. Vishnu Singh, student of Presentation College, Chaguanas, gained the eighth berth with a creditable score of five points. Harper whose international exploits have made him one of the strongest players in the English-speaking Caribbean, is the first T&T player to earn the FIDE Master title, securing the norm at the Subzonal in Venezuela in 1999. Three years later, the ex-QRC boy smashed his way into the record books again by winning the national title for the first time with a perfect score of 11 points from 11 rounds. His victory ended the remarkable ten-year run of NM Christo Cave who had taken the chess crown a total of 13 times. In 2005 Harper again secured the national title in the first of a hat-trick of wins. Now he is the champion for the fifth time and the dominance of his victory makes the prospect of his equalling or exceeding Cave's exceptional record a most fascinating one. What does he think of his chances?
Not one for long speeches, Harper replies: "All I can say is that I will continue to play chess. Whatever happens then happens." To recount Harper's chess exploits both at home and abroad would require much more space than this column affords; however, it is an on-going journey that has taken him to several major international tournaments, including the Hastings Congress in England, the Marshall Chess Club International and the CCA-ICC International in New York, the HB Global Challenge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Guelph Pro-Am International in Toronto, Canada. Against this formidable competition, the T&T FM not only held his own but also scored victories against a number of GMs and IMs and missed attaining the IM norm on three occasions by very slim margins.
At the Marshall Chess Club, for example, he defeated the 2697-rated Russian GM Girorgi Kacheishvilli and missed the IM norm by one point. A win in the final round would have realised his dream, but he lost in refusing to settle for an obvious draw. In Toronto he outplayed two GMs, Mark Tseilin and Herman Jonkman and missed striking the IM norm by half a point. He suffered the same fate at the CCA-ICC International.
As one of the English-speaking Caribbean's top players, Harper outscored the region's best at the Heroes' Day International Masters in Barbados in 2008 and again in 2009. This year, as captain of the country's team to the Olympiad in Russia, Harper had the best performance among T&T players. This was his fifth outing to the premier event at which, in 2006, he gained his highest ELO rating of 2270. There is little doubt that Harper has the ability to join the prestigious company of international chess masters and, hopefully, the coming year will see him finally achieving that elusive goal. It seems important to note that, in this quest, the T&T champion is something of a pioneer as he has journeyed to these foreign internationals on his own emotional steam and at his own expense. Players following in his wake, however, may have it a little easier with this year's launching of the Umada Cup in Port-of-Spain, the second annual international to the T&T Chess Foundation's Caribbean Chess Carnival. To the bright young players seeking honours in the sport of chess, Harper's success and dedication must serve as a source of inspiration. This status is enhanced by his coaching activities and the administrative contribution he makes as first vice president of the T&T Chess Association.