Some weeks ago I mentioned in this column that we had a few new chess players at the club. This week I will tell you about one of them.

He is Joel Bamogo (pictured). Joel entered the Bermuda Championship Seven Round Tournament that started on July 3 and will end this week.

He grew up in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso was called the Republic of Upper Volta before it gained Independence from France in 1960.

At the age of 18 Bamogo left for college in Morocco and then France. There his studies took him into the financial markets as a quantitative analyst.

Then he was off to Bermuda where he has been working for the past two years in the reinsurance industry. Bamogo was a checkers champ some years ago and has also done some modelling on the side. Like many other Bermuda residents, he likes a good party as well.

He has known how to play chess s for about 15 years but he did not play very often. Then about a year ago he found himself playing more often with his friend Eric Cotry, who also used to come to Harbour Nights.

Cotry brought him to the Chess Club after work. Around that time we had another tournament going on, the Eric Kemper Memorial. It was too late for Bamogo to join that tournament. However, since Cotry introduced him to the club a few months ago, he finds it a great place to learn what it is like to play in strong competitions and he is loving it.

In this week's game he was paired up with Kennedy Simmons in round two. It is Bamogo playing White and Simmons playing Black.

In diagram 1, Bamogo has a very good pawn chain all on black squares and yet his king has not castled. It's always good to attack a non-castled king.

In diagram 2, Bamogo not only has an open rook file but he has a pin on Simmons' queen as well.

In diagram 3, Simmons is trying to give Bamogo a rook for a bishop that is worth less just to get his king to a good square. It was a good thing that Bamogo did not capture the rook on e8 because in diagram 4 Simmons did not have to resign it was checkmate.

Well done for someone in his very first tournament.

White: Joel Bamogo

Black: Kennedy Simmons

2007 Bermuda Championship

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d5 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Nf3 Bf5 5. a3 e6 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 Qd7 8. c5 0-0-0 9. e3 a6 10. b4 g5 11. Bg3 Nh5 12. b5 Nxg3 13. hxg3 axb5 14. Bxb5 Bg7 15. Qa4 Qe7 16. Qa8+ Nb8 17. c6 bxc6 18. Bxc6 Rde8 19. Qb7+ Kd8 20. Qxb8