Preparation for the Olympiad

Final Selection - Belize District Teams that will represent the district at the Olympiad on April 25th, 2009

April 4th:Belize District Tournament. They picked excellent names for their teams,that has a reference to the history of the game: Royal Infantry, Royal Advisers, Royal Calvary, Royal Elephants, The Generals. It is believed that chess was invented in the 6th century in India, and initially the pieces represented different divisions of the Indian army. It was created as a game of strategy and tactics to improve those skills in the high ranked military leaders. It is so great to see the now our Belizean kids to exercise and develop the same type of analytical skills. Winners of the district tournament:

UNDER 8 years old section

1^ST YoungMin Gomez :Youth for peace chess club (All Saints School)

2^nd Aditya Varde :Belize Elementary School

3^rd Miki Yanai: Youth for peace chess club (St. Joseph School)

9 & 10 YEARS

1^ST Dwayne Rodriguez :Youth for peace chess club (Holy Redeemer School)

2^nd Oryn Swazo:St. Joseph School

3^rd Brandon Swazo:Hummingbird Elementary School

11 & 12 YEARS

1^st Kokil Gomez:Youth for peace chess club (All Saints School)

2^nd Christian Burns:St. Joseph School

3^rd Daniel Bradley:Hummingbird Elementary School

4^th Marco May:St. Joseph School (ALTERNATE)

13 & 14 YEARS

1^st Takaki Yanai:Youth for peace chess club (St. Joseph School)

2^nd Andre Garbutt :Anglican Cathedral College

3^rd Adrian Mclaughlin :Nazarene High School

15 & OVER

1^st Juan Vernon :Youth for Peace chess club (St. Johns College)

2^nd Elvin Argueta :Anglican Cathedral College

3^rd Virgilio Murillo :nglican Cathedral College

4^th Jose Tobar :Anglican Cathedral College (ALTERNATE)

ALL GIRLS TEAM

1^ST Edith Charles Worth: St. Johns Vianney School

2^nd Emlyn Williams :St. Joseph School

3^rd Carissa Sabido :St. Joseph School

4^th Alyssa Wong :St. Joseph School

March 14th: Practice tournament- it was truly terrific event. Chess players came willing to learn the new skills that are required for the district tournament and for the Olympiad. After the successful day of practice tournament there were more practice sessions to help them to get accustomed to the clock and notation, very important skill for serious chess players.

Please remember that running all those events takes a lot of time and energy and resources! Help your district, get invovled, contact David Martinez(Belize District Association President) at: david.martinez@bowenbz.com.

The first Embassy to get on Board!

Mexican Embassy is the first one in Belize who embraced the importance of the chess program for children. They hosted BNYCF level 1 training in Belize city for 34 participants, which included principals, teachers, police officers who came to learn the game of chess and how to introduce it to the children. It was a high energy, fun and productive event and the follow up, level 2 of training, is scheduled for Nov 15th. Mexican Embassy not only generously offered their facility for the event, they are actually training their staff to start 2 chess clubs in the nearest future: one in Belize city and one in Belmopan!

click here to see more Pictures

Youth For Peace Chess Club

David Martinez worked with two schools in the past school year: Salvation Army and St. Joseph School. Both teams successfully attended Belize Chess Olympiad on May 3, 2008 . Salvation Army team got the 2nd place in the tough competition against 35 other teams.
Since then David continued working with kids and was able to start the club that meets on Saturdays in the space donated by the Youth For Peace Organization.
The club operates on Saturdays at 2pm sharp to 5 pm. at church st. Belize city next to the btl building at the main office of the UPF (universal peace federation). They welcome any person starting from the age of 6 and over. It is free of cost. The youth for peace chess club is the home of the salvation army chess club which is ready for any challenge.

Future plans: to do events such as match up against other district and play them for fun; go to Corozal and play with the chess clubs over there and in other districts.
To contact David please e-mail him at: davidvalle2003@yahoo.com


Kids are trained by Elton Mclaughlin ( drawed with a german master of 2350 rating at a tournament in Belize) and David Martinez(whose strength is similar to Elton) and John Vernon(former junior champion).

Father's day tournament

Mr. Glen Reneau invited David's kids for the Blitz tournament. It was a great experience for them to meet players from Belize Elementary and Hummingbird Schools.