National title goes to Pace

The 71st national championship final, organised by the Malta Chess Federation, came to a close recently at the Simonds Farsons Cisk Visitors Lounge in Mriehel, with Colin Pace being crowned as the new Malta champion.

This is Pace's second national title after his maiden success in 2003.

This year was particularly important for Pace, 27.

Besides playing in all competitions held locally, he took part in a relatively strong international competition in Tunisia. This event was held in preparation for the Olympiad in Torino.

By virtue of the good results he obtained at the Olympiad, Pace was awarded the title of Candidate Master by the international chess federation, FIDE.

Pace started his chess career at St Paul's Missionary College where he soon established himself as one of the top players around. His current chess rating is 2,171.

Although relatively young, Pace has participated in the international chess Olympiad five times, namely, at Yerevan in Armenia (1996), Elista in the Russian republic of Kalmykia (1998), Bled, Slovenia (2002), Calvia, Spain (2004) and this year in Torino.