WE had a fun night at the Chess Club this week. I was hoping to see lots of young people there since they're out of school for summer break. This would have been an ideal time to come to the club to get some free lessons or to improve their skills.

I cannot say it often enough, we need to get some of these students and young teens into the game to learn the art and skill of chess.

All this leads to self-discipline and patience before you make a calculation or judgment. And, as in most sports, you'll have to come up with some kind of strategy to win.

Next Tuesday we will start a tournament to honour a young man who had all the above skills. He is the late Shannon Winston Lawrence (pictured) who passed away June 5, leaving behind his mother Renee, his brothers Jorden and Phillip, Jr. and his sister Tanisha.

Bermuda sorely misses Shannon who went to Spain to represent Bermuda in 1999 in a youth chess tournament. We can never replace Shannon, but we wish we had someone to follow his lead.

For more than three months I have been looking for someone who could do just that to send to the World Youth Championship in Vietnam from October 19-31 this year.

So if you know of a strong young chess player who can go, e-mail me at: ebbnorthrock.bm and just say "Vietnam" and I will send out the information.

Just to show you how good Shannon was at playing chess, here is one of his games. It was Shannon Lawrence playing White and Alexander Ball playing Black.

Set up your chess board and play this game through and you will enjoy it. When you reach move 15, as it is in diagram 1, you will know it is White's move. After move 14 Alexander moved his knight from a5, so Shannon would not have it free.

But from here on almost every attacking move that Shannon makes, he gets something free.

In diagram 2, not only did Shannon get a free pawn but he now has a pin on Alexander's queen and Alexander has no chance of castling.

Diagram 3 shows the only move Alexander can make is to block the check, but Shannon does not exchange queens; instead he gets a free rook and calls check again.

In diagram 4, after Alexander exchanges Shannon's new queen, he resigns; if he hadn't, the next move would have been checkmate anyway.

Send me an e-mail if you want to join this tournament and let's keep his memory alive.

White: Shannon Lawrence

Black: Alexander Ball

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 h6 4. a3 Na5 5. Ba2 d6 6. 0-0 Nf6 7. Nc3 Nh5 8. d4 exd4 9. Nxd4 Nf6 10. Qd3 Be7 11. Nf5 Bxf5 12. exf5 Qd7 13. Nd5 Nxd5 14. Qxd5 Nc6 15. Qxf7+ Kd8 16. Be6 Qe8 17. Qxg7 Ne5 18. Bf4 h5 19. Bxe5 dxe5 20. Rad1+ Bd6 21. Qf6+ Qe7 22. Qxh8+ Qe8 23. Qxe5 Ke7 24. Qg7+ Kd8 25. c4 b6 26. Rfe1 a6 27. Qg5+ Qe7 28. Qh6 c6 29. f6 Qe8 30. Rxd6+ Kc7 31. Rd3 Kb8 32. f7 Qe7 33. f8Q+ Qxf8 34. Qxf8+

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