Round 2 action at the 2nd Qualifier for the 2014 national Championships saw many drawn games, but perhaps none was more amazing than the draw between CM Frank Sears and CARIFTA Gold medalist, young Shannon Yearwood.
Shannon dropped a pawn early in the opening but fought back after to make up for her early error. In a knight and pawns endgame against Sears, who is one of T&Ts best endgame specialist, Shannon Yearwood found a lovely knight and pawn sacrifice to force a draw. So wonderful was this game (initially pointed out to us by CM Joshua Johnson) that Frank Sears clapped his young opponent after the game. In the post-game interview, when asked how she felt, Shannon said: “relieved”. She then sat around after her game (the final game of the night) to see analysis on the endgame conducted by Andrew Bowles, Cecil Lee and others. When asked what were his thoughts Sears replied, “she has good temperament”.
Full results of round 2:
Daryl Davis ½ – Cecil Lee ½
Frank Sears ½ – Shannon Yearwood ½
Zurich Smith 0 – Colin Knight 1
David Jones 1 – Rishon Ramlogan 0
Andrew Bowles 1 – Sean Yearwood 0
Ken Fitzpatrick 0 – Leonard Duncan 1
Carlyle Singh 0 – Hayden Lee 1
Mikel Martin ½ – Daniel Bhola ½
Hermes Mentor 1 – Carl Jacobs 0
Bye – Brian Leemoon 1
