Malta Chess Federation players returned to Malta last Tuesday after an excellent performance at the second Small Nations Cup in the Faroe Islands, located half-way between Scotland and Iceland. Malta was seeded ninth out of 10 countries, and placed fifth. The tournament was supported by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs - World Chess Federation).

The Maltese contingent comprised four players, Colin Pace (Capt.) with FIDE rating 2152 on Board 1, Joseph Gauci 2134 Board 2, Alex Pettersson 1972 Board 3, and Clarence Psaila 1939 on Board 4.

Notably, most of the Maltese contingent performed well above their normal rating, with Colin Pace drawing against Grandmaster (GM) Igor Efimov (Monaco), and Alex Petterson drawing against Woman Grand Master (WGM) Elvira Berend (Luxembourg). Clarence Psaila performed exceptionally well achieving an overall tournament rating of 2127, and clinching pole position as top scorer on Board 4. Malta’s average rating for the tournament was 2049.

The tournament was won by Luxembourg, with runner-up Faroe Islands, Monaco in third place, and subsequently Andorra, Malta, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Jersey, and San Marino.