13th February, 2003

THE American humorist Mark Twain once rightly observed, that "Sometimes a dose of Bermuda is just what the doctor ordered." This could go a long way in explaining the popularity of the annual Bermuda Chess Festival.

As tournaments go, they donít come anymore idyllic than an invitation to play on the tropical paradise island, which not surprisingly was a recent recipient of the FIDE award for the best invitational tournament.
The 20th edition of the Festival was organized as efficiently as ever by the Bermuda Chess Association, in the guise of two ex-pat tax exiles from the City, Nick Faulks and Nigel Freeman, and featured two Grandmaster groups, a blitz tournament and, bolstered by an influx of players jetting in from the US, culminating with a Weekend Open.

The Bermuda Invitationals recently ended with the fifth strongest tournament ever in the Americas. Surprisingly, the ultra-strong GM ëAí (category 9, with an average rating of 2601) was won by Giovanni Vescovi of Brazil, who played the tournament of life to take outright first with a final score of 8/11, taking the $4,000 first prize by a half a point ahead of top-seed Peter Svidler from Russia.

In the Grandmaster ëBí event (category 10, with an average rating of 2478), Daniel Fridman of Latvia took the first prize of $1,500 on 8/11, a half a point ahead of 15-year-old Hikaru Nakamura, who nevertheless got the conciliation prize of his third and final GM norm to become the youngest ever US Grandmaster, thus beating Bobby Fischer's 44-year-old age record.

GM ëAí: 1 GM G Vescovi (Brazil) 8/11; 2 GM P Svidler (Russia) 7.5; 3 GM T Markowski (Poland) 7; 4 GM A Motylev (Russia) 6; 5 GM K Miton (Poland) 5.5; 6-8 GM B Macieja (Poland), GM S Movsesian (Slovenia), GM A Volokitin, (Ukraine) 5; 9-10 GM A Gershon (Israel), GM A Shabalov (USA) 4.5; 11-12 GM L Christiansen (USA), 12 GM M Al-Modiahki (Qatar) 4.

GM ëBí: 1 GM D Fridman (Latvia) 8/11; 2 IM H Nakamura (USA) 7.5; 3 IM E Perelshteyn (USA) 7; 4 GM R Schmaltz (Germany) 6.5; 5-6 IM C Moreno (Spain), IM E Berg (Sweden) 5.5; 7-9 IM G Seul (Germany), GM H Kallio (Finland), IM W Paschall (USA) 5; 10 IM V Dinstuhl (Germany) 4.5; 11 GM P Blatny (Czech Republic) 3.5; 12 IM M Mulyar (USA) 3.

A Volokitin ñ G Vescovi
Bermuda GM ëAî, (5)
Ruy Lopez
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0-0 9 h3 Bb7 10 d4 Re8 11 Nbd2 Bf8 12 a4 h6 13 Bc2 exd4 14 cxd4 Nb4 15 Bb1 c5 16 d5 Nd7 17 Ra3 f5 18 Nh2 c4 19 Rg3 Nc5 20 exf5 Rxe1+ 21 Qxe1 Nbd3 22 Bxd3 Nxd3 23 Qe6+ Kh8 24 Ng4 Qe8 25 Re3 Qxe6 26 dxe6 Be7 27 Nb3 bxa4 28 Na5 Nxc1 29 Nxb7 Rb8 30 Na5 c3 31 bxc3 a3 32 c4 a2 33 Ra3 d5 34 Ra4 Rb4 35 Rxa2 Nxa2 36 cxd5 Nc3 37 Ne3 Rb1+ 38 Kh2 Rb5 39 Nc6 Bd6+ 40 f4 Nxd5 41 Nxd5 Rxd5 42 e7 Bxe7 43 Nxe7 Rc5 44 Kg3 a5 45 Kg4 a4 46 Kh5 a3 47 Kg6 a2 48 Kf7 Rc7 0-1

JOHN B HENDERSON