BERMUDA’S 2005 season of international chess has come to an end, with the final group of grandmasters departing on Tuesday’s flight to London, and life now returns to normal. Inevitably, there has been enough interesting news over the past week to fill several columns, so I shall give only a brief summary this week.

In the elite six-player grandmaster tournament at the Harmony Club, we saw a repetition of last year’s position at the start of the final round, with top seed Boris Gelfand sitting on a half-point lead. On that occasion his challenger was Giovanni Vescovi, and as luck would have it they were paired against each other — Giovanni won a very long and tense game to reverse the positions.

This time Gelfand’s challenger was the world under 18 champion Harikrishna Pentala, and he did indeed score a good win against Bartek Macieja, but Boris made a solid draw and so held on to a share of first place.

The turnout for the weekend open at the Fairmont Southampton Princess Hotel was a little disappointing, although we did welcome many returning visitors after our Fabian-induced gap in 2004. Really, given that this was for most local players their first chance to face overseas opponents in two years, we should have been able to raise more than nine Bermuda entries.

It was clear from the start that the Open would be a two-horse race between Vescovi and Macieja, the holdovers from the Harmony Club tournament, and from their point of view the event was in practice a five-round knockout. They duly played for the title on Sunday afternoon, and this is what happened.

White : B. Macieja

Black : G. Vescovi

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 e6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 a6<$>

This is the Taimanov Variation of the Sicilian Defence.

6. Be2 Qc7 7. 0-0 Nf6 8. Be3 Be7 9. f4 d6

If Black wanted to keep the game in the true spirit of the Taimanov he would probably play 9. . . . Bb4 Instead he chooses to transpose to the reliable Scheveningen Variation.

10. Qe1 0-0 11. Qg3

See diagram 1. Macieja chooses the most direct attacking line, which has been a major theoretical battleground for 30 years.

Nxd4 12. Bxd4 b5 13. a3 Bb7 14. Rae1<$>

White typically plays his king to h1 around here, but this is not compulsory.

Bc6

Notice that the f6 knight cannot move because of the mate threat on g7.

15. Bd3 Rae8<$>

See diagram 2. This position has been reached in many grandmaster games. 16. Rf3 and 16. Qh3 have both been tried, but Macieja repeats the continuation he played in 2002 against the top German Christopher Lutz.

16. e5 dxe5

Lutz played 16. . . . Nh5, and the game eventually ended in a draw.

17. fxe5 Nd7 18. Rf4 g6 19. b4 a5 20. Nxb5!

This is, in fact, the first new move, 20. Qh3 was played in a 2000 correspondence game, but I don’t expect the players knew that. However, it is safe to assume that Macieja felt more at home here than his opponent.

Bxb5 21. Bxb5 axb4 22. a4 Rb8 23. Qf2 Nb6 24. Rf1

See diagram 3. Even though White has no direct way through, the tripled heavy pieces on the f-file always look very threatening. Vescovi must already be struggling to save this one.

Bd8 25. Bc5 Be7 26. Bd6 Bxd6 27. exd6 Qb7 28. d7 f5

Black’s fundamental problem is that simplifying lines like 28. . . . Nxd7 29. Rxf7, Qb6 30. Qxb6, Nxb6 31. Rxf8+, Rxf8 32. Rxf8+, Kxf8 33. a5 will always lead to a lost ending. Knights are notoriously hopeless at fighting against rook’s pawns.

29. Qe3 Rf6 30. Qe5

White is playing accurate moves, but they really aren’t hard to find now.

Kg7 31. g4 h6 32. h4 g5 33. Rd4 Nd5 34. gxf5 Nf4<$>

See diagram 4. White has many ways to win, but after his next move his opponent can resign.

35. Rfxf4! gxf4 36. d8Q Rxd8 37. Rxd8 Qb6+ 38. Qd4 and here Vescovi did concede.

All readers should by now be aware that an important tournament was due to start at the local club on Tuesday. However, several players who were keen to take part were unable to be there, and others felt that they had played enough serious chess over the previous few days, so we decided to postpone the first round until next Tuesday.

Anyone who wishes to take part in the five-week event should be at the Chamber of Commerce no later than 7.45 p.m. to register.