The second phase of the National Chess Championship – the Candidates – sponsored by Simonds Farsons Cisk, came to an end recently.

As expected the top seeded players placed from first to fourth and secured a place in this year’s Malta Chess Finals to be held in October.

The tournament was won by veteran player and National Master Harry Camilleri who proved yet again that when a chess player grows older he will only mature and get sharper and sharper. Camilleri played excellent chess and

achieved a performance rating of 2,251. A super result considering the strong field of contenders that turned up this year.

David Cilia Vincenti placed second with 5/7 after beating Stephen Farrugia in the final round. Farrugia was outplayed from the start and can consider this as his worst show in seven games.

Joe Gauci, the third seeded player, managed to react in time after losing one game to Cilia Vincenti in round five. Gauci defeated Filipina Aguilera in round six and Mark Cardona in round seven to cling third place overall.

Cardona, 15, managed fourth place, and this will be his second appearance in the national finals. In fifth and sixth place one finds Paul Mizzi and Horace Cassar. Mizzi played consistently throughout and with a little luck could have managed another half point from his encounters.

Cassar on his part, managed to draw two important games, one against Camilleri in a bishop and knight versus rook end-game in the last round, and the other against Cardona to secure sixth place.

On the lower part of the table the best result was achieved by Sam Sacco with three and a half points. This improved his personal rating by 81 points!

Clarence Psaila, at the bottom of the final table, also had a relatively good tournament and is improving his level fast. He has improved his rating by a significant 60 point margin. Psaila played in the Candidates thanks to his qualification from the preliminaries earlier on this year.