Chess: How does White win?

Thursday's chess...

DURING the past couple of decades the Bermuda party has been one of the social highlights of the biennial world team Olympiad. As the grandmasters downed rum and tequila, some of them wondered what was in it for Bermuda's engaging duo of Nick Faulks and Nigel Freeman.

The answer was networking. When expat City financiers Faulks and Freeman launched the annual Bermuda Chess Festival a decade or so back, they had an enthusiastic response from the nucleus of Olympiad party-goers who well remembered the swell times they had at their shindigs.

Apart from bringing grandmasters to the tiny British overseas territory, the networking has also seen Freeman being elected to one of the top posts at the governing body of chess as the Fide Treasurer – and he's arguably the acceptable face of the often beleaguered and troubled governing body by having a reputation of being honest and straight-talking.

Recently Freeman though had to put back on his local official's hat as he hosted the fabled Bermuda International Open at the Fairmont Southampton Resort & Country Club, which took place 11-13 February.

This year there was a big tie for first with 4/5 between GMs Pascal Charbonneau, Larry Christiansen, Nick DeFirmian, Alexander Ivanov and IM Dmitri Schneider. But US veteran Christiansen showed there was life in the old dog yet by taking the title after a blitz playoff.

L Christiansen - J Fernandez

Bermuda Open, (2)

Leningrad Dutch

1 c4 f5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 d4 d6 4 Nf3 g6 5 g3 Bg7 6 Bg2 0–0 7 0–0 Nc6 8 d5 Ne5 9 Qb3 Ned7 10 Qc2 Nc5 11 b4 Nfe4 12 Bb2 Nxc3 13 Bxc3 Bxc3 14 Qxc3 Ne4 15 Qe3 a5 16 a3 axb4 17 axb4 Rxa1 18 Rxa1 e5 19 dxe6 Bxe6 20 Rc1 Bf7 21 Nd2 Nxd2 22 Qxd2 b6 23 e3 Qf6 24 h4 Re8 25 c5 bxc5 26 bxc5 dxc5 27 Rxc5 Qd6 28 Qc1 Re7 29 h5 Kg7 30 Qc3+ Kh6 31 hxg6 Bxg6 32 Bf3 Rf7 33 Rc6 Qd8 34 Qe5 Qe7 35 Qd4 Qg5 36 Kg2 Qe7 37 Bd5 Rg7 38 Rf6! Kg5 39 Qh4 mate 1-0