The Bermuda Championship tournament has only two rounds to go until we find out who is the greatest in Bermuda.

This tournament has produced some ups and downs with a few players who are new to the Chess Club as well. You might recall a few weeks ago I featured Alvin Amore in my column. In that edition I also made mention of David Shanks (pictured), who will soon be going to Canada to live.

However, I made a mistake in thinking that David was from Canada. David was born in Bermuda and Canada is just his other home like so many Bermudians.

David worked at the hospital for six years in the computer department. At the Chess Club David was the rating officer but he also does most of the pairings for each round. He has been doing it for more than ten years now and we are really indebted to him for this.

One of the things about this week's game is that two players are fighting for the centre to try to control the game. Most chess books say that you should conduct most of your attack in the four centre squares. It is Shanks playing White and Frank Ming playing Black.

Ten moves into the game Shanks' knight is attacking Ming's queen, with Nd5 as in diagram 1. But Ming captured the attacking knight instead of moving his queen.

In diagram 2, Ming overlooks the d pawn and is trying to open up the F-file. However, it's White to move and Shanks moves the pawn d5 and forks the queen and knight ¿ as in diagram 3.

Whichever way Ming moves he will lose a piece. In diagram 4, Shanks just blocked the check with his queen on e3. Now if Ming had moved his queen to f7 or traded queen for queen, it might have gained him some time. And with Shanks' queen capturing the rook, Ming resigned.

David Shanks: White

Frank Ming: Black

2007 Bermuda Championship

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Bc5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. d3 h6 6. 0-0 d6 7. Qe2 Bg4 8. Be3 Bd4 9. Rab1 Qe7 10. Nd5 Nxd5 11. Bxd5 Qd7 12. c3 Bb6 13. a3 Be6 14. Bxe6 Qxe6 15. b4 0-0 16. d4 f5 17. d5 Qd7 18. dxc6 Qxc6 19. exf5 Rxf5 20. Qc2 Raf8 21. Bxb6 Rxf3 22. gxf3 cxb6 23. Qb3+ Kh8 24. b5 Qxf3 25. c4 Qg4+ 26. Qg3 Qxc4 27. Rb4 Qe2 28. Qe3 Qa2 29. Rh4 Rf6 30. Rc1 Rg6+ 31. Kh1 Qd5+ 32. Qe4 Qxb5 33. Qxg6

1-0