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.