You could say that Davion Mars has been defying the odds from the very start of his life.
Mars was born on December 11, 1995 at the Georgetown Public Hospital to Sharon Blackman and Neville Mars. According to science, he says, he was not supposed to have been born on that date, month or even that year as he was only in his seventh month when he was delivered.
The 24-year-old believes that a series of stressful events led to his untimely birth. He said that his parents were in St. Maarten during the hurricane season of 1995. Due to the weather situation, they faced many challenges, including being cut off from making it into a hurricane shelter. To make matters worse, he told Stabroek Weekend, both his pregnant mother and his father were trapped in the rising waters for hours before being able to escape.
Regardless, Mars said he was healthy as any baby would be when he came into the world. “I was quite chubby when I was a baby with a very large head that plagues me to this day. I was otherwise healthy, though I was told I was a bit mischievous but no less than a normal baby,” he says, before noting that “ironically” he shares the same birth date as one of his “biggest chess inspirations,” the former World Chess Champion Vishwanathan Anand.
Mars’ mother raised him on her own as his father lives and works in St. Maarten. He spent the earliest years of his life in Berbice, after which his family moved to Georgetown, where he enrolled at Sacred Heart Primary before being awarded a place at St. Stanislaus College.
He says his time at the secondary school proved to be “an overall great experience’ although the years did not pass without its challenges. “However, my mother did the best she could, she worked hard to provide the means for me to get through those years successfully, and the results of her sacrifices shine through the person I am today,” he adds.
During his school years, Mars says, people would describe him as timid, quiet, reserved and unpopular. However, his reserved personality did not limit his activities as he could’ve always been found playing cricket during his lunch period.
“Of course [that] was before I discovered chess, which would go on to consume me in ways I could’ve never imagined back then,” he notes.
He wrote both business and science subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations because he says he felt that it would be difficult for him to get a job with only science subjects, especially since he does not come from a wealthy background. “My passion was with the sciences but I also felt that I needed to work in order to assist my family in whatever way I could,” he says, adding that during that very period of his life, his beloved grandmother had fallen ill.
So after completing CSEC he was offered the opportunity by his class teacher, Arlene Rodrigues, to apply for the Republic Bank Youth Link Apprenticeship Program. Mars was shortlisted from over 50 applicants and was selected to be among the 2012/2013 batch and after completing the seven-month program the Bank hired him as a full-time staff member. He said he worked there for five years before leaving to pursue full-time studies in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Guyana, where he is still currently enrolled.
Mars stumbled across chess during his high school years at St Stanislaus. “Ever since then it became a major part of my life and was one of the core aspects of my transformation into the person I am today. I learned the game by observing others in my class play, and by doing my own research at home. The intricacies of the beautiful game continues to provoke my subconscious to this very day,” he explains. “There is so much depth to the game of chess than meets the eye. It’s the only sport that spans across the generational divide, as the eldest and youngest alike can compete on an even playing field against each [other].” Further, he says, one of his inspirations, Yasser Seirawanm, says chess is a battle of ideas, and he agrees with him. “It engages the extremes of your own thinking capacity against that of your opponents and consistent exposure to that kind of environment can trickle down into your everyday lives as well. You become more calculated, better at decision making, better at reasoning, better at assessing consequence before committing to actions, you understand if you create a problem you have to rely only on your mind and the resources available to you in order to solve them. Beyond the stern expressions and the stereotype that you have to be smart to learn the game or that it’s boring, it’s also fun and entertaining once you understand the game and is quite inexpensive in comparison to other physical sports,” he adds.
Mars notes that his first mentor was former National Junior Champion Ron Motilall, whose successes within the local chess scene during those years served as an inspiration for him as a junior player. “Ron had become a benchmark that I felt I needed to surpass. We played many games in school before I saw my first victory against him and that inspired me to try my hand at the tournament level,” he says. Mars adds that his first tournament was the National Schools Championship where he played on the B team and amassed 6/7 points allowing their team to finish third while their A team finished in first place.
Mars further says that since then he has faced many challenges during his journey with the game but he has been training as long as he has been playing. As his passion for the game grew, he said he played with his school mates, co-workers, friends and family. However, he only started training professionally in 2018. He said that he started off training free of charge and as he could not afford formal coaching he had to work extra hard on his own. Meanwhile the demands that came with university life made it difficult to continue his training so he started training online and had private coaching sessions before he began working with Jordanian Sports Academy in Barbados on their summer programme, which was two-fold (chess and football).
He says that he still faces financial challenges as it relates to playing chess. He explained that finding sponsorship or financial support to participate in international events is very difficult. In addition, he says, he has poor vision which directly affects his academic performance and performances at critical tournaments such as Nationals and National Qualifiers tournaments. Despite that he says, “I am still actively trying to make the Olympiad Team heading to Russia in August of this year. Should I achieve this, it would be a childhood dream come true.”
Mars explains that even though there are a few persons that stood by his side and supported him throughout his journey, there were quite a few times when he felt like giving up the pursuit of his chess goals. But the immense encouragement he receives from those persons including his parents, Sherlyta Campayne, Stephan Sutherland, Maharanie Jhillu, Loris Nathoo, Ronuel Greenidge, Christian Jordan Andrew Hing and his entire family, who never hesitate to help him in whatever way they can, has kept him going.
Since he began participating in chess tournaments Mars was awarded Third Place Awards for the National Junior Championship (2011), National Schools Championship (2011), National Schools Championship (2012), National Senior Championship Qualifiers (2016) and the Berbice One Day Rapid (2019). He has won second place awards for National Junior Championship Qualifiers (2013), Pre-Olympiad Blitz and Rapid (2018) and the JBB Blitz (2019). He has also won first place for the 2019 Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) One Day Rapid (2019) and the Merriman’s Mall Chess Champion-ship (2019). Other achievements include, best under 1600/Unrated Player, Srefedensi Chess Celebration, Suriname (2016); Board 1 Representative, University of Guyana Chess Team- Curacao Contingent and GAICO Grand Prix Series; Olympiad Qualification bout: Joint 3rd via current Standings (2019). He achieved his Arena FIDE Master title in 2015 and was awarded FIDE International Instructor Licence in Bridgetown Barbados (2018).
Mars is currently the longest reigning University of Guyana Chess Champion for the years, 2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020.
