I HAVE finally taken a longer look at the Bermuda team’s games from the recent Olympiad in Turin, and shall start my summary with a review of the performance of Zuzana Kovacova (pictured)<$>, our top board.Her tournament started with a very interesting effort against the Colombian grandmaster Gildardo Garcia, in which she held some advantage for a long time before eventually losing a very tough game. This was followed by a solid draw, and in round three we faced quite a strong team from Namibia. Here is what happened on top board.

White: Z. Kovacova

Black: Charles Eichab

1. e4, e5 2. Nf3, Nf6

Black plays the Petroff Defence.

3. Nc3

A very sensible alternative to the usual 3. Nxe5. This move invites a Four Knights Game.

Bb4!?

An interesting idea, after 4. Nex5, 0-0 Black will regain the pawn.

4. d3, d6 5. Be2, 0-0 6. 0-0, h6 7. h3, Be6 8. a3, Bxc3 9. bxc3, Nc6 10. Re1

See Diagram 1. Battle lines have been drawn, and while Zuzana has accepted a slightly impaired pawn structure she puts her faith in the long term potential of the bishop pair.

d5!?

It’s always tempting to “equalise” by playing this break, but perhaps it was a little impatient here.

11. exd5, Nxd5 12. Bd2, Qd6 13. Bf1, Rae8 14. d4!

Eichab must take this pawn, but now White undoubles her own pawns and opens up the position for the bishops.

exd4 15. cxd4, Nde7 16. c3, Na5

It isn’t easy to find a plan for Black.

17. Qa4, b6 18. c4, Bd7 19. Qc2, Nb7 20. Bc3, Bf5 21. Qb2

See Diagram 2. Without much fuss White has built up a significant advantage f6 He could not avoid playing this weakening move.

22. Rad1, c6 23. Nh4, Bh7 24. Be2, Qc7 25. Bh5, g6

Also necessary, but now the black king is seriously underprotected.

26. Be2, g5 27. Nf3, Nd6 8. d5!

This is the breakthrough.

Ne4 29. d6!?

A nice move to play, even if 29. Nd4 was possibly more straightforward.

Nd6 30. Bxf6 Nef5 31. Be5!

See Diagram 3. At first sight Black’s next move looks panicky, but on closer inspection he is already in a lot of trouble. A sample line is 31. . . . Rd8 32. g4, Ng7 33. Qd2, Nge8 34. Nxg5! winning.

Rxe5?

But this is hopeless, and makes the rest of the game easy.

32. Nxe5, c5 33. Bf3, Nd4 34. Bd5+, Kh8 35. Nc6, Nxc4 36. Qc3

See Diagram 4.

Ne5? 37. Nxe5

Black resigned.<$>

This was followed by another good win in round four, but after that things didn’t go quite so well, and over the course of the event at least three promising positions slipped away into unlucky losses — all of them, it must be said, against strong opposition. Her final score of 6/13 against opponents of average rating close to 2200 was no disgrace, and deservedly resulted in the gain of a handful of rating points, but might have been much better.