ON Tuesday of this week, I’m happy to say the Chess Club resumes (after a break of some months) for the last tournament before Christmas. And we welcome back two people to whom the club is most indebted and they are Nick Faulks and Nigel Freeman.Without the tireless efforts of these two members there really would be no Chess Club. So it is with great pleasure, we welcome them back.

Nigel and Nick have organised our tournaments, the Bermuda Open Championship, which takes place in February and also our presence at the World Chess Olympaid.

Nick has also been responsible for a lot of international players getting their grandmaster norm. A Norm is the number of points a player must gain in a tournament to gain qualification for the title of International master. In a Closed Invitational Tournament, which also takes place in February (just before the Bermuda International Open), Nick invites these players to Bermuda for an “all play all” tournament so that one can achieve a higher FIDE rating. These are the steps to becoming a Chess Grandmaster.

Nick also provides a coach to help us during every Olympiad to show us the techniques of other Olympiad players.

Now to Nigel Freeman — there is not one player around the world who has been to Bermuda and has not heard the name Nigel Freeman. Believe you me, there are hundreds of people who look forward to seeing Nigel — in his Bermuda shorts, standing at the door to welcome them to our Bermuda party. This party is what they often ask him about whenever they first see him.

During the last Olympiad this year in Turin, Italy, Nigel was elected treasurer of the Federation Internationale des Echecs, that is FIDE as we know it.

Now to their game, which was in a FIDE-rated tournament which was in October 2005. Nick Faulks was playing White and Nigel Freeman, Black.

In Diagram 1 is the position from Nick’s 14th move Qxd4<$> Nigel came back with his own attack on Nick’s queen as seen in Diagram 2 with fxe5<$> And in Diagram 3 Nick is answering a threat with a threat, but it cost him a knight for positional play.

In Diagram 4 Nick could have captured the rook with Bxf7+ <$>but the queen and rook are under attack. The game ended in a draw.

In my book the two N’s are two winners anyway.

Nick Faulks — White

Nigel Freeman — Black<$>

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. h4 Bxg5 7. hxg5 Qxg5 8. Qd3 h6 9. Nf3 Qe7 10. 0-0-0 0-0 11. Qe3 f6 12. Bd3 c5 13. Rh3 cxd4 14. Qxd4 fxe5 15. Nxd5 exd5 16. Qxd5+ Rf7 17. Bg6 Nf6 18. Qxf7+ Qxf7 19. Bxf7+ Kxf7 20. Nxe5+ Ke6 21. Re

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