There is a lot to be said about someone who comes just to work for others, especially without pay.That person is David Shanks. David, pictured below, does all the pairings" for the tournament each week. He also sorts out the players' ratings after each match. This to me is a job in itself. He is like our own arbiter (referee), ensuring that the rules of play are strictly observed, and establishing that the time limit has not been exceeded. And if a player cannot make his match on a Tuesday night, they should notify him in advance so he can get in touch with their opponent.

While I was writing about David I began to think "Some of the things that make you feel good about yourself make others feel good about you too." This is also what I have seen in a lot of the players I have written about.

David does not get to play in too many tournaments but here is one in which he did. One of his game was against Aly Lalani on October 2 2001. This game ended up with four queens on the board, which does not take place that often. David Shanks is playing white and Aly Lanlani is playing black.

I looked at Aly's position in diagram 1. move 31...c5 and thought that, if he had only moved his c pawn to c6 it would have cut David's queen out of back rank and the game for awhile, also he might have got a pawn as well.

In diagram 2. the race is on to get an extra queen with a pawn promotion and Aly goes first with move 42 b1=queen.

Now all four queens are on the board as in diagram 3.

The only trouble is that Aly's King has no defence. Although he has two queens they are not there to protect the King. Plus he cannot even put David's King in check.

But as you can see in diagram 4, after David put Aly in check with the g queen, there is no way out and Aly resigned. Well done David.

Happy holidays to you all.