The June Chess Rapid competition, that forms part of the 2006 Rapid GrandPrix Chess series, was held at the luxurious Cultural Performance Hall of Palazzo Sliema, the abode of the Societa’ Filarmonica Sliema, and as part of the festivities commemorating the 125th anniversary since the arrival of the Statue of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Sliema. wenty four players turned up for the five round event held on Wednesday the 7th of June.

Junior Champion Mark Cardona won the event thanks to a better tie-break than Noel Yoro both of whom won four games and drew their direct encounter. Yoro was declared second overall.

Colin Pace, fresh from a successful Olympiad performance where he scored a respectable 6.5/10, came third with four points losing to Cardona in round four.

Promising youngster Andre Xuereb won the Best Sliema player award.

The standings at the end of the competition read as follows.

Final Ranking

Rank Name
1 Cardona Mark
2 Yoro Noel
3 Pace Colin
4 Richards John
5 Ibrahim Ayman
6 Aguilar Filipina
7 Fenech Glenn
8 Gauci Joseph
9 Farrugia Stephen
10 Cuschieri Michael
11 Farrugia Chris
12 Xuereb Andre
13 Caruana George
14 Farrugia Alex
15 Bezzina Andrew
16 Shamala Omar
17 Borg Jonathan James
18 Azzopardi Ray
19 Agius Darryl
20 Farrugia Deane
21 Attard Stephen
22 Saliba Mark
23 Buhagiar Niko
24 Bezzina Daniel

Harikrishna, seeded eighth in the 12-player round robin tournament, nullified Nisipeanu’s advantage with white pieces and settled for a fourth place at the end of first day’s play on Saturday.

Harikrishna was amongst the first players to reach the venue following some problems in flight schedule and he spent that time preparing for his biggest tournament till date.