THIS week will be the last round for the Eric Kemper Memorial Tournament. What started out as a very strong tournament with lots of players has now come to an end. There were a few times when an opponent did not show up to play. I know that we are reaching that time of year when people want to go on holiday, but some of the players do not have that excuse — they just did not show up and didn’t have the courtesy to inform their opponents.

And it really is a shame that a player has to come all the way from Somerset only to find his opponent was a no-show — not even a phone call. This is just what happened to Ricardo Davis (pictured) last week.

Ricardo is a new player to the Chess Club and this is his first tournament. Although I said new that was only in regard to tournament playing.

He has known how to play chess for more than 30 years, way back when he was in the Boy Scouts. Since then he has played the odd game here and there, sometimes in someone’s home or at a sports bar.

He has often, of late, played with Kennedy Simmons, who is also from Somerset. It was during these times that Davis learned that if he could win a game against Simmons, who else could he beat?

In one of his visits to the sports bar he played two games with Phillip Pearson. It was a good thing that Davis made notes of the game with Pearson, because I can now enter the game in chess base format and you can read it or play it out on your chess set at home.

Davis is hoping to become a member of the Chess Club and then he can get a rating from FIDE — especially since the next tournament coming up is the Bermuda Chess Championship.

Nick Faulks was last year’s title holder and who knows who is going to be this year’s winner? You could well be looking at him right now — and Davis might be thinking the same thing!

Anyway, this is his game with Pearson, with Pearson playing white and Davis playing black.

In diagram 1, it proved to be a costly move for Pearson, as he gave up the protection of his bishop just for an attack on the rook file. This move would have been good if he had captured the knight on e7 first.

In diagram 2, move 22, Bxe4 would have been a better move than to use his queen.

In diagram 3, Davis had just moved pawn to f4 and Pearson had overlooked the checkmate as you can see in diagram 4.

According to his (Davis’) notes, “I played my defence game and he allowed me to settle and move forward so I took control and never looked back until checkmate.”

Phillip Pearson: White

Ricardo Davis: Black

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d6 3. c4 c6 4. Be2 Ne7 5. Nf3 Nd7 6. Bf4 g6 7. Nc3 Bg7 8. Qd2 b6 9. Bxd6 Bb7 10. a4 0-0 11. Qg5 Bf6 12. Qh6 Bg7 13. Qf4 Nf6 14. Ng5 Nh5 15. Bxh5 gxh5 16. Qh4 Qxd6 17. Qxh5 h6 18. Nf3 c5 19. 0-0 cxd4 20. Nb5 Qf4 21. Nbxd4 Bxd4 22. Nxd4 Qxe4 23. Qf3 Qxf3 24. gxf3 Nf5 25. Nxf5 exf5 26. Kg2 Kh7 27. Rad1 Rg8+ 28. Kh3 Bxf3 29. Rg1 Bxd1 30. Rxd1 Rac8 31. Rd7 Rxc4 32. Rxf7+ Kh8 33. Rxa7 Rc5 34. Ra6 f4 35. Rxb6 Rh5

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