PROGRESS in the 2005 Bermuda Closed Championship continues at a snail’s pace, with at least two players each week finding that they cannot be at the club to play their game on club night. As a result, we have decided to extend the tournament by one week, so that next Tuesday can be devoted to “catch-up” games and the following week really will see the grand finale of the event. With fingers crossed, I hope to be able to give a significant update in the next column.

Meanwhile, I make no apology for devoting the rest of this one to my own recent chess exploits, since last weekend I made what has become an annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas, to play in the National Open.

I was, of course, in the lower half of the draw, so could expect to play a strong opponent in the first round, but was still delighted to find myself paired with Grandmaster Walter Browne, a legendary figure in US chess.

While never quite fulfilling his huge early promise, during his long career he has won several major international tournaments as well as six US Championships. He remains a highly dangerous opponent, and maintains a FIDE rating around 2450.

Browne was always plagued by problems with the clock, and as I discovered he has even now not overcome these.

White : GM W. Browne

Black : N. Faulks

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6

The Kan Variation of the Sicilian Defence, which had been my choice against 1. e4 since last year’s Olympiad in Majorca.

5. Nc3 b5 6. Be3 Bb7 7. f3 Nc6 8. Qd2

See diagram 1. Browne is playing the English Attack set-up, which is not supposed to be very effective against the system I am using. I had therefore never looked very closely at this line, which needless to say was a mistake.

Nxd4 9. Bxd4 Ne7 10. 0-0-0<$>

Suddenly my position looks rocky. 10. . . . Nc6 the move I would like to play, is met by 11. Bb6! when the bishop is untouchable because of the mate on d7.

Qc8!? 11. Bc5 Ng6

Again the bishop could not be taken.

12. Bxf8 Nxf8

See diagram 2. I had foreseen the combing bombshell, but there wasn’t much I could do to stop it.

13. Bxb5 axb5 14. Nxb5 Ra6 15. Nd6+ Rxd6 16. Qxd6

I have a bishop and knight for a rook and two pawns — not a terrible material disadvantage, but White’s queenside pawns look very dangerous.

Qc6 17. Qxe6<$>

I was quite happy to see the queens off the board.

Bxc6 18. c4 e5 19. Kc2 Ne6 20. Kc3 Ke7 21. Rd2 Rc8 22. Ra1 f6 23. a4 Nd4<$>

This knight really is as good as it looks. After the game Browne felt that he should possibly have given up a rook to remove it.

24. a5 Bb5 25. b3 Ba6

See diagram 3. White clearly has the better chances, but I have managed to make it quite difficult for him to advance his pawns. Furthermore, he had already used most of his time allotment for the first 40 moves.

26. Ra4 Rc5 27. Rda2 Nc6 28. Ra1 Kd6 29. Rd1+ Nd4 30. Kb2 Ke7 31. Rc1 Nc6

Browne now had 20 seconds to make his next nine moves and was very agitated, bashing the clock button after each move. I had about three minutes. He now played the breakthrough which he had been planning.

32. b4!? Rxc4 33. Rxc4 Bxc4

We have reached diagram 4. I assumed that he had calculated correctly, and feared that he would shortly win one of my pieces, and then the game. However, when pressing my clock I noticed that he had overstepped the time limit. This came as a great surprise to both of us, but fortunately an arbiter had been paying close attention, and was able to confirm that on an earlier move Browne had banged the clock so hard that the button “bounced” and his timer had kept running. Since I had managed to keep an updated scoresheet, proving that 40 moves had not been played, I had won.

On the plane coming home I finally had a chance to look more closely at the final position, and I now don’t see how he was going to win. I had intended to meet 34. a5 with 34. . . . Na7, and then what? Clearly, I was fortunate to get the full point, but I think I earned the draw, and even that is a result I would have been bragging about for some time.