In 1978, Van Tilbury moved to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands to establish residency and play chess competitively. He won a gold medal for the best individual score on Board 1 in the 1984 Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 1977 he won the Washington, D.C., Open and also the Jamaican Open in 1981. In recent years he played top board for the British Virgin Islands.