Minister for Tourism Dr Francis Zammit Dimech has officially opened the first round of the Paradise Resort Summer Chess tournament.

He mentioned the recent Inter School event which had a bumper attraction.

He also recalled that the current tournament had been initiated by organiser Joe Grech in 1980 in the run-up to the FIDE Olympiad held at the Mediterranean Conference Hall in Valletta. He thanked the sponsors of the tournament, led by Paradise Bay Holiday Resort. The Minister then made a symbolic chess move to officially launch the tournament; for this move he chose a table on which there were a young lady, Kirsty Aquilina and a young visitor from Australia, Luke Farrugia.

This open tournament has been an attraction of several Malta Championship holders and this time it is no exception.

However the organisers are anxious to turn the event into a launching ground for aspiring new chess practitioners.

This year there are several new names, among them Saliba Karl, Fenech Glenn, Farrugia Chris, Camilleri Grant, Buhagiar Luke Joseph, Bezzina Andrew, and Agius Darryl.

One hopes to see their names featuring in future chess organised activities. Three prominent schools encouraging chess are St Elias, De La Salle and St Michael’s and they are strongly represented.

The draws were made according to the Swiss System and the first round went into play. Each player had two hours to finish his whole game with sudden death following the drop of the flag.

Four games lasted almost the whole four-hour session and this is an indication of how each battle was fought tooth and nail.

The next round at Paradise Bay will be next Saturday and starts at 3pm. The public may attend and watch the games in progress.