The second phase of the National Championship – the Candidates – kindly sponsored by Simonds Farsons Cisk, came to an end with the final round.

Unexpectedly, although deservedly, Patrick Zerafa, M’Xlokk, came first after he overcame the top seed of the competition Colin Pace in the last round. Pace paid dearly in the end-game when he lost on time after having consumed

most of the time on his clock deliberating opening and middle-game positions.

Zerafa won five games out of seven beating three much higher rated players in the process.

The second, third and fourth placed players were close behind on five points with David Cilia Vincenti declared as overall second with a superior Bucholtz-score. Duncan Vella was third and Joe Gauci fourth.

Zerafa, Cilia Vincenti, Vella and Gauci now qualify for this year’s chess finals scheduled for October. They will be joined by Andrew Borg and the legendary, 2005 Champion, Harry Camilleri for the National Chess Finals 2006. The National Chess finals is the last phase of the Simonds Farsons Cisk Chess Championship cycle.

Colin Pace and Mark Cardona, both finalists last year, were left stranded in fifth and sixth place followed by Oliver Said.

George Caruana, who is returning to the local chess scene after some years, had a relatively good competition playing above his ranking and ending on fifty per cent score.

Ron Sammut, on the other hand, will quickly put this competition behind him after a disappointing performance whilst Noel Grima and Jesseica Aguilar, who had qualified to the Candidates from the preliminaries of February, must have found the goings a little too tough for them against much higher rated players.