Colin Pace has won his first Malta Chess Championship this year. The road to success is never easy and every step is fraught with risks and perils.
In this year's ten-round final, his only loss was against outsider Ron Sammut. He drew with runner-up D. Vella, H. Camilleri and D. Abela but scored double victories over last year's winner Peter Sammut Briffa.
Pace won 7.5/10 and had actually consolidated his title by the ninth round when he was 1.5 points ahead and unassailable in the final round.
Pace appeared as a promising chess player in an inter-school event in 1992.
He was then a student at St Paul's Missionary College from where he later moved to the University where he read Information Technology Programming which through its internet branches, has favoured the globalisation of chess world wide.
Pace's career has led him to the top level of Maltese chess at least since 1994. Ever since, he has figured in the top Championship Finals to which one graduates through the Preliminaries and Candidates tournaments.
To his credit, Pace also has wins in the Malta Junior Championships, the Godfrey Darmanin Trophy, Grand Hotel Summer Tournaments, the top division of Chess Categories, AS Libertas Chess, the Rapids and Blitzes besides others.
He has also represented Malta in several Olympiads, the latest this year in Bled, Slovenia. Pace gained an International Rating in 1996 and it is now 2,160; his Malta rating is 2,169.
The new champion's chess repertoire is quite comprehensive. It is built on a long process of theory including openings as Sicilian Alapin and Najdorf Variations, Giuoco Piano, the King's Indian Defence, Queen's Gambit Declined and their various derivatives and discoveries.
Furthermore, Pace likes to collect exceptional middle game positions where transpositions of moves painstakingly extracted by ingenuity and deep analysis, contrive to transform apparent imminent disasters into artistic victories.
Pace does not limit his chess to self preparation, reading and playing.
He has also run several chess training courses, the most recent being the one at the Russian Centre in Valletta.
Here, a new breed of youthful challengers has emerged with renewed vigour.
Annual general meeting
The Malta Chess Federation will hold their annual general meeting on Sunday, November 30. Nominations for a new committee should reach the secretary by November 10.