ractice makes perfect

She leads Malta's top ten not only in terms of rating and titles but also in terms of the number of tourneys and games played. For Theresa Brousson (right in photo), an 11-time National Champion who is well on course to winning a twelfth honour, quality and quantity are but two sides of the same coin. 

Yet another token of her insatiable and fearless appetite for the game was her participation in the St Joseph 1-Day Tournament, where her nearest rival was more than 200 points shy of her pre-tournament rating.

Undeterred by the prospect of a haemorrhage of rating points from an odd defeat, Brousson made a clean sweep of her seven opponents in the A Division, leaving them early on in the tournament to scramble for the lower places. In the end, it was the three players furthest down the pecking order who clinched these, with Josephine Mayo and Mario Camilleri coming in second and third respectively on four wins apiece, and Paul Mifsud taking the ratings prize.   

Another leading player in terms of playing activity, Kevin Pirotta was the winner of the B Division, where he lost only to eventual third-placed Maria Scicluna to pip the top seed Anna Borg by just half a point.

Pirotta and fourth-placed Dave Parkin continue their steep ascent up the ratings hill where Brousson stands ever more firmly on the summit, 80 points clear of her closest pursuer. 

Click here for full results of the St Joseph 1-Day Tournament.

(penned & published by Nicky Vella Laurenti)