JAMAICAN CHESS GREATS

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Every generation has its sports heroes, but there are rare, transcendental individuals whose names will be etched in the annals of sports history forever. Just to name a few: Athletics – Usain Bolt; Baseball – George Herman “Babe” Ruth; Basketball – Michael Jordan; Boxing – Muhammad Ali; Cricket – Brian Lara; Football – Edson Arantes do Nascimento (“Pele”); Golf – Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods; and Ice Hockey – Wayne Gretzky.

In the Jamaican context, there are a number of players who have indelibly etched their names in Jamaica’s chess history. Among them are FIDE Master Warren Elliott (record 8-time national champion); Woman International Master Deborah Richards-Porter (the English-speaking Caribbean’s first-ever Woman International Master and 10-time Jamaican Women’s Champion); International Master Jomo Pitterson (Jamaica’s first-ever International Master); International Master Shane “the Magician” Matthews (7-time national champion and Jamaica’s second International Master); late International Arbiter FIDE Master John Powell (former Jamaica Chess Federation {JCF} President, master chess administrator and the only Jamaican male player to have won a medal at the Chess Olympiad – 1984 in Thessaloniki, Greece); National Master Sheldon Wong (former national champion who won a brilliancy prize at the 1976 World Junior Chess Championships in Groningen, The Netherlands); and the pioneering “triumvirate” – National Master Harold Chan, National Master Thomas Figueroa and Candidate Master Robert Wheeler – the first three persons to have achieved the National Master” title in Jamaica (1975).