THE invitational grandmaster competition being held at the Harmony Club is now at its halfway point, and is proving to be as successful as ever. The six players are all finding their surroundings very comfortable, and understand that there is nothing the organisers can do about the weather — we are hoping for an improvement in the second week!

The grandmasters battling for the prize fund are as follows.

[bul] Top seed Boris Gelfand, ranked No. 16 the the world, is at age 36 already one of the game's "elder statesmen". Now representing Israel, he learned his chess in the old Soviet Union and has spent his adult life as a professional player at the very highest level.

Boris was here in 2004 for the tournament played at Fourways Inn, and looked all the way a winner until he suffered an upset loss in the first round. He clearly intends to finish the job this year, and began well with a first round victory.

[bul] Andrei Volokitin, ranked No. 20, is still only 18, and returns two years after making a strong impression at the 2003 tournament held at the Fairmont Southampton Princess Hotel. He was a member of the victorious Ukraine team at the 2004 Olympiad, and looks set for a secure place in the world's top ten before too long.

Andrei suffered an unexpected loss in the first round, but quickly bounced back with a win to regain a 50 per cent score.

[bul] Twenty-one-year-old Lenier Dominguez is, at No. 41, the highest rated of the crop of very strong young players coming through in Cuba. He came to the attention of the chess world with an excellent performance in the 2004 World Championship held in Tripoli. Lenier's first three games have produced a win, a draw and a loss.

[bul] Giovanni Vescovi, from Brazil, has visited Bermuda so many times that we are wondering whether he might be eligible to play for the national team. He is ranked No. 52, which has not shown much change in the past two years, but that may be because he has at the same time been moving towards his final examinations for qualification as a lawyer.

In any case, Giovanni always seems to play above his rating on this island — he was responsible for snatching the championship away from Gelfand last year. After starting with two draws, Vescovi won his third game to join his old rival in the lead.

[bul] There seems to be some confusion about the name of the Indian World Junior Champion. We are assured that he should be called Harikrishna Pentala, although official chess sources reverse these names.

In any case, he is 18 years old, and has risen to world No. 68. Following the remarkable successes of his compatriot Vishy Anand (another name reversal!) a group of young Indian players are becoming a major threat on the world stage, and we are lucky to see Harikrishna during his seemingly inevitable rise to the top.

[bul] Perennial visitor Bartek Macieja, from Poland, is currently ranked No. 89, although he has been a good deal higher. Like Vescovi, he divides his time between chess and academic studies, since he is equally talented as a physicist.

Furthermore, he is one of the most active board members of the Association of Professional Chess players and, as regular readers of this column will have realised, chess politics are at present immensely time-consuming. None of this prevents him from competing at the highest level, and playing highly imaginative games.

The tournament continues until next Wednesday, and the games are being carried live on our web site, www.bermuda.bm/chess.

Finally, one more reminder about the 2005 Bermuda International Open, which takes place at the Fairmont Southampton Princess Hotel over the weekend of February 11-13.

All local players really should try to take advantage of the opportunity to play against international visitors, so for more details go to our web site, call me on 238-2313 or come to the Harmony Club during the GM event.