When Dame Lois made first move
ON Tuesday, a national holiday, Bermuda laid to rest Dame Lois Browne Evans.All Bermuda took time away from their daily routine to bid her a final farewell. Even the early morning sun failed to shine and there was a fog over the whole island for several hours.
Every year in February the Bermuda Chess Association has one of its biggest tournaments — the Bermuda International Open. There is also an Invitational Tournament which starts weeks before the Open.
Sponsor Nick Faulks goes out of his way to ensure that all these players have a good time. For two years he had a special tournament taking place at the Mermaid Beach with 12 players playing 13 games, plus a special ten-round match between Michael Adams (of England) and Yasser Seirawan (of the United States) that took place in 1999.
Seen in a photograph (above) of this event is Dame Lois giving a speech to all the players before she made the first move.
Standing next to her as she made a joke about her knowledge of chess is Yasser Seirawan. Seated is Michael Adams and standing next to him is arbiter Carol Jarecki, laughing as she enjoys Dame Lois’ jokes.
Here is the game where she made the first move for Seirawan playing White. Adams is playing Black.
In diagram 1, it is nine moves into the game before a piece is captured with Bxc3+.
In diagram 2, Adams’ queen is about to attack the two bishops but Seirawan defends by moving his queen to h3 — as you see in diagram 3. After move 41 with b5 and a pass pawn in the making for a queen, Seirawan resigned.
Michael Adams — Blac>Mermaid Beach Club match, 1999
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qb3 c5 6. a3 Ba5 7. Bg5 Bb7 8. e3 0-0 9. Rd1 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 Qe7 11. Be2 d6 12. 0-0 Nbd7 13. Nd2 Rfc8 14. f3 h6 15. Bh4 Qe8 16. e4 Nh5 17. f4 f5 18. d5 Nhf6 19. Bf3 fxe4 20. Nxe4 Nxe4 21. Bxe4 exd5 22. Bf5 Rc7 23. cxd5 Nf8 24. c4 Qh5 25. Qh3 Bc8 26. Bxc8 Raxc8 27. f5 Re8 28. Rde1 Rcc8 29. f6 gxf6 30. Qg3+ Qg6 31. Rxf6 Qxg3 32. Bxg3 Rxe1+ 33. Bxe1 Re8 34. Bg3 Re4 35. Bxd6 Nh7 36. Rg6+ Kf7 37. Rxh6 Nf6 38. h3 Rxc4 39. Bb8 Kg7 40. Rxf6 Kxf6 41. h4 b5
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