Chess Paradise: A Week at the Hotel Breezes Resort in Nassau, Bahamas with FM Alisa Melekhina

FM Alisa Melekhina’s photo report depicts her week at the Hotel Breezes resort in Nassau, Bahamas where she was one of four Americans competing in the Orjan Lindroth Memorial Open chess tournament, held from June 5 through 12, 2024.

Imagine celebrating a chess victory, or escaping from a devastating loss, by soaking up the Caribbean sun steps away from the beach. This rare experience is made possible by the new Orjan Lindroth Memorial Chess Open, organized annually in early June by the Bahamas Chess Federation and the Bahamas Chess Institute. Only in its third edition, this hidden gem of a tournament is about to be uncovered.

For players staying on-site, the Hotel Breezes Bahamas Resort and Spa offered everything one would expect from an island vacation: all-inclusive meals, drinks, 80+ degrees Fahrenheit weather, sprawling pools, pickleball and tennis courts, and prime beach access. The popular Grand Hyatt Baha Mar resort and casino was steps away, offering its own upscale dining and shopping options. Whereas a nine-round FIDE tournament with norm possibilities would usually necessitate around-the-clock chess preparation and analysis, the beach weather and accommodations beckoned IM Raja Panjwani and myself to turn this into a hybrid vacation.

After Panjwani’s positive experience last year as part of his quest for a 2500 FIDE Rating (Panjwani has earned all three GM norms), I decided to resurface from semi-retirement and play in my first nine-round event since the pandemic. I was pleasantly surprised at the proximity of Nassau from the east coast: it was an easy three-hour flight from Philadelphia, much like flying to Miami.

Despite the proximity, same time zone, English language, and even one-to-one currency rate, there were not as many American players as I would expect. Other U.S. players included GM Enrico Sevillano, GM Praveen Balakhrishnan, and Tyrell Harriott. Panjwani was joined by fellow Canadian FM Mike Ivanov. The two top seeds in the tournament were Cuban GMs Omar Quintana Almeida and Elier Mesa Miranda. The Open section was rounded out by local Bahamian players, including organizer FM Cecil Moncur, and a full-fledged team from Jamaica that also came out in full force in the parallel U1800 section.

Due to the top-heavy nature of the relatively small Open field, the tournament effectively became a Round Robin after the first few rounds. I played three out of the four GMs, holding down a key final draw against GM Omar Almeida in the final round that paved the way for the top three finishers with 6½/9: GM Elier Miranda, IM Raja Panjwani, and GM Enrico Sevillano. Miranda ultimately won on tiebreaks, while the three winners split the cash prizes for a nice payday of $3,500 each for their efforts.

With 4½ points, I came away with the top female prize and split the top FIDE U2200 for a total of $1,500, making this one of my more successful Open tournaments in terms of placement.

The Open section prize fund was $18,000, with an additional $3,500 prize fund for the Under-1800 section. The generous tournament and class prize structure was made possible due to the tournament’s impressive array of sponsors. Scotia Bank contributed $10,000 this year.

Other benefactors included the estate of Orjan Lindroth, the namesake of the memorial tournament who was an ardent long-time supporter of chess in the Bahamas, Breezes Superclubs for sponsoring the venue, and FIDE which allotted a grant for developing chess countries. This is certainly a worthy cause: the island-nation of the Bahamas has a population just north of 400,000. I saw firsthand what a difference it made to bring top-level chess to local players and rising junior talent who would not typically be exposed to events and foreign players of this caliber.

The opening ceremony kicked off with an exhibition game by two young players of the Pink Pawns program, a non-profit dedicated to empowering Bahamian female chess players co-founded by sisters Arbiter Angel Pride and top local female player Chika Pride.

The organizers and arbiter staff treated the event with the utmost professionalism, which led to a smooth event from start to finish. Head Arbiter IA Andre White previously served at chess Olympiads. The tournament clearly took a page out of the European playbook: DGT boards and clocks provided, arbiters regularly monitoring games and recording results, players’ name cards dutifully set up for each round, super-quick pairings, requiring electronic devices to be checked, and, perhaps most importantly, rounds beginning on time.

As a growing tournament, the organizers took feedback to heart. Issues such as the room temperature being too cold were addressed throughout. An innovation we can look forward to in future editions are potential side events, such as blitz tournaments on days with only one round. The playing schedule included three days with double rounds and three days with one evening round at the time control of game in 90 minutes with a 30-second increment beginning on move one.

As the tournament continues to grow and attracts more professional players, perhaps the schedule will shift to alternating between double and single-day rounds to provide for a more restful schedule. Another idea to make this a fully immersive experience is to build in an additional, full free day to allow players to step out of the resort and try one of the local excursions.

Overall, this tournament exceeded expectations. It was the perfect chess-cation. I look forward to future “paradise” tournaments. The organizers are intent to keep their labor of love running, assuring that, “We will keep going as long as we can.”

For more information and to find out about next year’s tournament, visit the Bahamas Chess Federation website and/or email Click here to show email address.

FM Alisa Melekhina is a World Team Championship gold medalist and long-time competitor in US open tournaments and women’s national and world team invitational events. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law school in May 2014 and is currently practicing as a corporate litigation and eDiscovery partner in NYC. She previously wrote a popular CLO article on balancing law school with chess, along with coverage of the NYC Corporate Chess League, which she co-founded.