THE 2006 Bermuda Championship officially finished this week, but one important game has been deferred to next Tuesday, so for now I shall only give the results of Round Six. Larry Ebbin (3|0xbd|) 0-1 Nick Faulks (5)

Alvin Amore (3|0xbd|) 1-0 Phil Shadick (3|0xbd|)

Bobby Miller (3) 1-0 Kennedy Simmons (3)

Sami Lill (2|0xbd|) 0-1 Nigel Freeman (3)

Ezra Turner (2|0xbd|) 1-0 Carlton Simmons (2)

John Kessaram (2) 0-1 Alexis Jennings (2)

Darcy Lema (1|0xbd| ) 0-1 (def) Frank Ming (1|0xbd|)

Allen Smith (1) 1-0 Nigel Chudleigh (1|0xbd|)

While this left a close race for most of the top places, to be settled in the final round, it is already clear that the champion’s title will be retained by Nick Faulks. Slightly prematurely, I am therefore going to follow tradition by giving the game which I felt was my most interesting of the tournament.

There were several good candidates, but I have chosen this week’s effort against Larry Ebbin, who has enjoyed a successful tournament which has put him well along the road towards an official FIDE rating.

White: L. Ebbin

Black: N. Faulks

1. e4, c5 2. Bc4, e6 3. Nf3, Nc6 4. 0-0, Qc7 5. a3, Nf6 6. d3, Be7 7. Nc3, h5!?

See Diagram 1. White is building a very solid position, and I felt I needed to destabilise it in some way. Of course the black king may now need to stay in the middle of the board for a while, but that is quite common in the Sicilian Defence.

8. g3

Ebbin weakens the defences of his own king in order to deter . . . h5-h4. Was that really such a serious threat? I’m not sure.

Ng4 9. Nb5, Qb8 10. a4, a6 11. Na3?!

This was the idea behind his previous move, but I think the knight was better placed on c3.

h4! 12. Nxh4

See Diagram 2.

Rxh4!?

12. . . . Nxh2 was probably better, since 13. Kxh2, g4 should lead to a clear advantage for Black.

13.h3!?

I was expecting13. Bf4, when I intended 13. . . . Bd6 14. gxh4, Nxh2 with, I hoped, reasonable compensation for the exchange.

Nxf2 14. Kxf2, Rxh3 15. Qg4, Rh7

See Diagram 3. The blitzkrieg attack is over, but Black is a clear pawn up.

16. Bf4, Ne5 17. Bxe5, Qxe5 18. Rab1

There was no time for such passive play. During the game I was a little concerned about a White attack starting with 18. Rah1, but during the post-mortem we could find nothing convincing for White — so it appears that his game was already lost.

b6

Here and for the next few moves my computer wants Black to play . . . d7-d5, but I saw no reason to take any risks and therefore completed my development first.

19. Ke1, Bb7 20. Qf3, 0-0-0 21. Bb3, d5!

Now nothing can go wrong.

22. Qxf7, Rf8 23. Qxe7, Qxg3+ 24. Kd2, Rh2+ and Ebbin resigned, see Diagram 4. Mate follows in two moves (25. Kc3, Qd5+).

Over the next two Tuesdays we shall be holding a six-round quickplay tournament, with each player having a total of 25 minutes for all of their moves. There will be no entry fee, please be at the Chamber of Commerce no later than 7.45 p.m. to sign up.