HERE are the results of the FIDE Rated Tournament that ended last week after nine rounds, with Gary Cooper half a point clear of Sami Lill.Scores:

1. Gary Cooper 8

2. Sami Lill 7|0xbd|

3. Nigel Chudleigh 5|0xbd|

4. Phil Shadick 5|0xbd|

5. Larry Ebbin 4|0xbd|

6. Frank Ming 4|0xbd|

7. Kumi Bradshaw 3|0xbd|

8. Ezra Turner 3

9. Bobby Miller 1|0xbd|

10. Alvin Amore 1|0xbd|

In other news, Raymond (Ray) Trott has received a FIDE rating. He had played in the Bermuda International Open in February.

The next tournament that has started is for three weeks. If you want to play on a Tuesday night feel free to come to the Chamber of Commerce at 7.30 p.m.

With weeks to go, already chess players are asking me if I am going to set up my tables on Harbour Nights for fun free chess games. The answer is yes I will, but I am hoping to have some help lifting the tables to set them up. This is one of the reasons I did not do it last year, even though some players said they would help.

One chess player who often came to Harbour Nights was Alexis Jennings (pictured). He played with the tourists who came from the cruise ships. He has taken on the locals as well and won most of his games. He did not enter the last tournament because it was full and needed only ten players.

A few years ago he came to the Chess Club to play in the Bermuda Championship Tournament. In this tournament he was paired against Frank Ming. Frank’s knight moved from h5 to f4 to stop Alexis’ queen from going to the g2 square for checkmate. This was move 36 — at that time it was protected by the queen. But Alexis cut off the protection, plus attacked the knight with his 36 move e5 as in diagram 1. (which looks a lot like diagram 2.)

The only thing now is the pinned knight can’t move; so Frank tried to trade queens with his move Qd3. But Alexis captured the knight as you can see in diagram 3, plus he now has an attack on the rook.

Frank’s best move was to move his rook to e1 or his queen to a3. In diagram 4, a pawn moved to e1 and was just promoted to a queen. But after Frank’s next move he captured it so Alexis will not have two queens. Then four moves later Frank resigned.

Frank Ming: White

Alexis Jennings: Black<$>

Bermuda Chess Championship

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8 4. Bc4 e6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. d3 Be7 7. Bf4 a6 8. Qe2 h6 9. h3 c6 10. d4 Nbd7 11. g4 b5 12. Bd3 Qb6 13. Be3 Nd5 14. Nxd5 cxd5 15. Qd2 Bb7 16. 0-0 Nf6 17. Ne5 Ne4 18. Bxe4 dxe4 19. d5 Qd6 20. Bf4 Qxd5 21. Qa5 e3 22. f3 e2 23. Rf2 Bc5 24. Qe1 Qd4 25. Bg3 Qxb2 26. Nd3 Bxf2+ 27. Bxf2 Qxc2 28. Nc5 Bxf3 29. Rc1 Qxa2 30. Qc3 Qd5 31. Nd3 0-0 32. Nf4 Qe4 33. Nh5 f6 34. Qc7 Rf7 35. Qd6 Bh1 36. Nf4 e5 37. Qd3 Qxf4 38. Kxh1 Qxc1+ 39. Kg2 e1Q 40. Bxe1 Qxe1 41. h4 e4 42. Qd5 Re8 43. Kh3 e3 44. h5 e>

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