Local champion Colin Pace was a comfortable winner of this year’s Spring Invitation tournament held over 11 rounds. He scored 10/11 with nine wins and two draws, a remarkable achievement even for the top seeded player.

The all-play-all competition, meant to bring together the very best players residing in Malta on the day, was characterised by the absence of top players Andrew Borg, Joe Gauci and the Zerafa brothers Robert and Patrick. Borg and Gauci decided to dedicate their time preparing for the Mini States of Europe Team competition scheduled for late June in Andorra whereas the Zerafas were forced out due to studies.

Notwithstanding this absence the competition was still very well balanced and hardly fought. At the end of the day Duncan Vella placed second overall whilst three time Malta Champion Peter Sammut Briffa was third albeit with the same number of points as Vella but with an inferior Bucholtz score. Swede Alexander Pettersson was fourth with seven and a half points.

The competition was played using incremental time control with one game every day and one off day for each player.

The final classification for all the participants:

1 Pace Colin 10pts; 2-3 Vella Duncan, Sammut Briffa Peter 8pts; 4 Pettersson Alexander 7½pts; 5 Stefanovic Bora 7pts; 6 Sammut Ron 6pts; 7-8 Psaila Clarence, Saliba Matthew 4½pts; 9 Richards John 4pts; 10 Vella Joseph 2½pts; 11-12 Petterson John, Pascua Philmore 2pts.

Next events from the local Chess scene:

June 27 – U-16 Competition at Stella Maris College.

June/July – Team event, Mini States of Europe, Andorra.