By S. Siapha Mulbah
A new batch of champions in all categories of the National Chess Championship has been welcomed by the Liberia Chess Federation after a competitive 11-round event that lasted for about two weeks in Monrovia.
David Leroy Debblay and Georgina Sackie were announced as the winners of the closed session and women category of the championship respectively, bringing to an end the era of dominance by both Bobby Ballah and Abigail Karyah, who had topped the competition in the last two to three years.
In 2021 and 2022, Bobby Ballah won the open session of the National Championship hosted by the Federation, making him the only Liberian male to retain the championship twice in a row, while Abigail Karyah won the competition three times in a row as the only Liberian female player to be recorded for such achievement for 2020, 2021, and 2022.
The new champions were announced by the president of the Federation over the weekend at the closing ceremony of the 2023 National Chess Championship, following the presentation of the tournament report by Kemoh Samukai.
According to the Federation’s president, Thomas Karyah, having new players winning the championship means that Chess is evolving in the country; having explicit confidence in old players, rather than new ones, makes it risky nowadays to get a straight prediction.
He said the game is growing and those on the board need to keep their heads up and make sure that their games continue to improve on par with the game, because they will have to take on more future challenges on both local and international scenes.
Karyah also reaffirmed that the champions, along with other players, will represent Liberia at the upcoming World Chess World Cup in Budapest, Hungary, in September of this year.
David Leroy Debblay put in an outstanding performance, securing a remarkable 9/11 score which enabled him to win his first national title.
During the event, a notable highlight was played by Thomas Saah, a former national champion, who finished in second place with 8.5/11. He needed just a draw in the final round to claim the title for himself the second time, but was defeated by Daniel Kolliemalen, paving the way for champion Debblay.
A junior player who took a risk abandoning his category for the senior competition, Obediah Saah, also recorded himself in the Federation, ending in the fourth spot with 8.5 points.
Young Saah plainly won himself the junior champion title and will be making his debut for the Liberia Chess National team in September 2024.
In the Women’s Section, Georgina Sackie, a young player that has played the game over three years without tasting the title, hit on her major rival in a double match rapid playoff, after they both settled at equilibrium in score and all tie-break criteria at the end of the championship.
Georgiana delivered a fairy tale ending, noting that it was her wish to end the long-time dominance of Abigail Karyah that had an empire to claim the National Women’s Championship for this year.
As a result, the country’s former female champion, Abigail, ended in the second place of the women’s log, and she congratulated the winners with the courage to make a comeback at the next edition.
Samuel Williams also won the youth championship that was contested by 15 young players from both the communities and the Chess in Education program that has been initiated at some schools across the country by the Federation.
