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Bermuda Open 2002
| John Fernandez Reports
Round 5 3rd February 2002 "Photo Finish" The winner of the Bermuda Open historically gets their name engraved on a bowl, aptly called the “Bermuda Bowl”. Somewhat akin to Hockey’s Stanley Cup, the winner’s name will live on etched the trophy forever. However, they can’t take the trophy home, probably owing to the Bermuda budget which does not call for men in white gloves to go wherever the trophy goes for the calendar year. The first winner? In 1983, GM Andrew Soltis won the event. Nineteen years later, he’s still back, and tied for first going into the final round. After their six hour marathons ended, Messrs. Berg, Handke, Nyback and Vuckovic were given 30 minutes to rest and get ready for another grueling marathon. This time the pack of leaders had grown to seven players when Hikaru Nakamura got past Michael Shahade, Gregory Shahade got past Joel Salman, and Andrew Soltis got past Dore Sheppard. The major question was which of these seven players would walk away with the Bermuda Bowl, preferably filled with lots of Rum Swizzle? (I know, I know, what happens if they all draw, and a bunch of people on three points win? Let’s put it this way, I don’t think I want to imagine such a scenario, and neither did the organizers.) As for the games, well, this is where the story gets interesting. At the end of the event, there is usually a traditional closing ceremony, held at a nice bar or banquet hall. The ceremony this time was held about twenty minutes down the road, so taxis were hired for this purpose, slated to arrive at 7:00PM, when first time control would be over. The problem? At 7:30PM, the top board games weren’t finished, and those of us that were done really wanted to stick around and see the end of these exciting games! After much prodding and screaming from some irate taxi drivers, most of the players, myself included, hopped in the taxis and moseyed down the road to the closing ceremony. After all, the Super Bowl was starting! Many Europeans probably don’t understand the game of football, much less the significance of the Super Bowl, after all it’s mostly media hype, commercial interests, and a cavalcade of sponsors paying over $1 Million US Dollars in order to get thirty seconds in front of a huge audience of all of America. The closest sporting event I can think of in Europe would be the Champion’s League Final match, for those who wish some comparison, except imagine a football match with the gross national product of, say, a reasonably small nation (besides Kalmykia.) Owing to the fascinating football game, and the fact that all drinks had been paid for in advance (Thanks Nick!), we quickly forgot about chess and became engrossed in the one of the most exciting Super Bowls in recent memory, if not ever. Just as things were getting good, a bunch of players who were on the top boards walked in. What happened? In the first game to end, Gregory Shahade and Andrew Soltis drew, knocking each other out of Bermuda Bowl contention. The other three games would be decisive affairs. Most exciting was the Board 3 game between Florian Handke and Heikki Kallio: IM Florian Handke (2450) - GM Heikki Kallio (2522) 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Bd2 Not the most common move against the Center Counter, but it has been played by Kasparov and Karpov, so it can't be so bad. [The main line is considered to be 5.Nf3 ] 5...c6 in order to allow the Black queen to head back to d8. 6.Bc4 Bf5 7.Qe2 This is a very agressive set-up by White. Florian makes his intentions clear: he wishes to rip Kallio's head off. 7...Qd8 8.Nf3 e6 [You are more than welcome to grab 8...Bxc2 when you happen to be behind a zillion tempos. If you think you're going to survive, well, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.] 9.Ne5!? Sacrificing the d4 pawn! Amazingly enough, this has all been played before, however, the players seemed to be of extremely weak strength, and one player blundered soon after. [9.0-0-0 , holding on to everything, has been played more often.] 9...Qxd4 A yummy center pawn can't be passed up in this manner. 10.0-0-0 Bc5?!N [10...Be7 Black reacted better in the stem game: 11.Bh6 (Completing development by 11.Rhe1 may be more sane.) 11...Qh4! 12.Bxg7?? Qg5+-+ Couto,S-Rosa,A / Sao Paulo 1998] 11.Bh6
11...Qh4 12.Bxg7 getting back the sacrificed material. 12...Rg8 [The difference here is that 12...Qg5+ can be met by 13.Qd2! and now the bishop is immune due to mate: 13...Qxg7 14.Qd8# It turns out that the "passive" Bishop on e7 in the game defended a critical square, while the more "active" bishop on c5 turned a winning variation into a losing one. Funny game, this chess.] 13.Qd2 [Consolodating via 13.Bxf6 Qxf6 14.g3 may seem more logical, but too boring.] 13...Nd5 14.Nxd5 exd5 15.Rhe1 with now some very very very messy complications. 15...Be6 16.g3 Qe7 17.Qh6 With all six pieces participating in the attack, and Black's queenside undeveloped, one have to love White here. 17...Nd7 [An attempt to reduce the attacking pieces via 17...Rxg7 backfires violently: 18.Qxg7 dxc4 19.f4! and the threat of f5 is just fatal.] 18.Nxd7 Kxd7 19.Bf6 [I like 19.Bd3 better, with the idea of going f4-f5.] 19...Qf8 20.Qxh7?! temporarily grabbing another pawn, but allowing Black to start untangling [Keeping the tension with 20.Qd2 may have been better] 20...Rg6 21.Bd4 Bxd4 22.Rxd4 Kc7 23.Bf1 Rh6 24.Qd3 Rxh2 25.Qf3= all of a sudden, the position is now level. 25...Qd6 26.Bd3 Re8 27.Rf4 Setting up a brutal trap into which Black falls! 27...Bg4? [After 27...Kb8 it's not very clear where White can pretend to have his advantage.] 28.Rxf7+ Kb6 It looks like Black is attacking the Queen and the Rook and they can't be defended, but Handke saw deeper: 29.Rxb7+!!
29...Kxb7 30.Qf7+ Bd7 [30...Qd7 31.Qxe8 Qxe8 32.Rxe8 Rxf2 is just too slow and horrible a death to contemplate.] 31.Rxe8 Rh1+ 32.Kd2 Qb4+ 33.Ke3 Perhaps Kallio had thought that the White king was exposed here, but that's not the case, it's perfectly safe! Kallio decides to defend his Bishop by 33...Qg4 34.f3 Qg5+ 35.Kd4! Forward to safety! White makes some moves which seem to be strange in this phase of the game, but he's getting Black to put his pieces on the wrong squares where eventually they will run out of checks. 35...Kb6 36.Qxd7 Qf6+ 37.Ke3 Qg5+ 38.f4 Qxg3+ 39.Kd2 Qxf4+ 40.Kc3 And the checks have run out. It's now the Black king that is running out of squares. 40...Rh4 41.Qd8+ Kc5 42.Qa5+
and it's game, set, match. 1-0 So we had three players who tied for first: IM Emanuel Berg, IM Florian Handke and GM Bojan Vuckovic. All had played roughly ten hours of chess since nine in the morning, and now they had to play- more chess! See, the Bermuda Bowl should only go to the winner, and well, having multiple winners just doesn’t work. After all, there is a special prize for the winner that can’t be divided, being free airfare from New York and a free room (not shared!) for the 2003 event. Therefore, the three players had to have a round robin event to see who would win. Having a playoff in a bar is an interesting experience, but it’s made more interesting when half the bar is stone drunk, and the rest of them are screaming loudly at the Super Bowl, which had gotten quite exciting, as the New England Patriots’ 17-3 lead was whittled away in the fourth and final quarter by the offensive juggernaut St. Louis Rams. Despite the screaming, the boys played on. In the first game of this round robin, Florian Handke got white against Emanuel Berg, while Pascal Charbonneau and Dennis de Vreugt furiously wrote down the moves of the game. IM Florian Handke (2450) - IM Emanuel Berg (2500) 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 The Trompowsky can be played against anything! (Except 1... e6, 1... h6 and 1... f6 of course.) This gained popularity against the Dutch when Kasparov essayed it against Miguel Illescas in Dos Hermanas in 1996. 2...h6 While this may be a principled move, I've never liked it. The kingside light squares are now really weak. 3.Bh4 c5 "I'd only play this in Blitz" - Berg. This is a pretty sharp system to face in Blitz, but he doesn't trust it in slow chess- I wonder why? [The attempt to trap the bishop by 3...g5 backfires rather violently to 4.e3 (Or even 4.e4 !) ] 4.dxc5N [The main move here is: 4.e3 but after 4...Qb6 don't fall for a typical Trompowsky trap: 5.dxc5?? Qb4+] 4...Qa5+ 5.Nc3 g5 Now that the king has the d8 square, the Bishop really is trapped. 6.e4 gxh4 7.Qh5+ Kd8 8.Qxf5 Bg7 9.0-0-0? [9.Nge2 is much better.] 9...Bxc3 10.bxc3 Qxc3
With one of the most bizarre pawn structures seen in a while. 11.Nf3 Qa1+ 12.Kd2 Qf6 13.Qd5 Nc6 14.Bb5 Qf4+ 15.Kc3 Nf6 All of a sudden the pieces have completely leapt out and White is toast. Everything's falling. The repercussions for 9. 0-0-0 are swift and painful. 16.Qb3 Nxe4+ 17.Kb2 Nxf2 winning more material. However, it's Blitz, and no one wins a game by resigning, so you might as well play on and see if something good will happen, especially considering the fact that Black is still playing without his Rooks or Bishop! 18.Bxc6 bxc6 19.Nd4 Nxd1+ 20.Rxd1 Ke8 [White has a threat! 20...Ba6?? 21.Ne6+ winning the queen!] 21.Qd3 Rb8+ 22.Ka1 The king doesn't feel very safe here. 22...Rf8 23.Re1 Ba6 24.Qg6+ Kd8 25.Rd1? Qxd4+! and mate in 2. [25...Qxd4+ 26.Rxd4 Rf1+ 27.Rd1 Rxd1#]
0-1 Astonishingly enough, that was not the only playoff that was held in order to determine a champion. A prize of free airfare from New York and room was also awarded to the highest player without a FIDE title. Four non-titled players had scored 3.5 out of 5 and had to play off for the final prize: Asuka Nakamura, Roger Patterson, Dore Sheppard and Jerry Simon. After two rounds of the three round round-robin, both players had one win and one loss, so the final round was decisive. Asuka Nakamura and Dore Sheppard both won their games to force yet another playoff. In the two game match, Asuka won two exciting games in order to win the prize. Certainly he’ll be back next year.
Asuka is the older brother of IM Hikaru Nakamura. Originally eclipsed by his younger brother, he’s grown to accept Hikaru’s strength and has gotten on with his own chess player. The highlight of his tournament was his 94 move win over Dutch GM Dennis de Vreugt, slowly squeezing his opening advantage slowly into a queen endgame to win his first game against a GM at a slow time control. Dore Sheppard (----) - Asuka Nakamura (2139)
In this position, both sides seem to have equal chances, White recovering from a middlegame where he was getting the worse of things. However, he very quickly makes a mistake. 30.Qf3? Rf6 Now the f2 pawn falls with check. 31.Qe3 Rxf2+ 32.Kg1 Qxe3 33.Nxe3 Rb2 34.Bc4 defending the b3 pawn and also looking at attacking the f7 pawn. 34...h6 35.Nf5 Nc2 36.Ra4 Ra7 37.Rd1 A typical blitz situation: Black snapped a pawn, but White got a flurry of feline activity for it, and now has some massive threats. 37...Ne7 a logical reaction, trying to exchange off one of the attackers. 38.Rd8+ Kh7 39.Nd6? [Why not? 39.Bxf7 ?] 39...Nc6! attacking and defending! 40.Rc8 N6d4 and now BLACK gets the activity. Knights are always one of the hardest pieces to deal with when defending in Blitz. The roar of these knights is deafening. 41.Bxf7 Ne3!
With the deadly threat of Nf3+ followed by Rh2#. 42.Bh5 Ne2+?! It really makes no sense to trade off one of the attackers, but then again when both sides have less than a minute for the game, it's notoriously difficult to come up with sensible moves. [In a slow game you might have seen 42...Rg2+ 43.Kh1 Rxg3 44.Kh2 Nf1+ 45.Kh1 Rxh3+ 46.Kg2 Rxh5 47.Kxf1 with the impending queening of some kingside pawns.] 43.Bxe2 Rxe2 44.Ra1 [44.Nc4 , trying to trade off the other knight might have been safer, taking his chances in the double rook ending.] 44...Rd7 45.Rc6 Rg2+ 46.Kh1 Rxg3 47.Kh2 Rg2+ 48.Kh1 Re2 [Much better was 48...Rd2! with the brutal idea of: 49.Nc4 Nxc4 50.bxc4 R7d4 51.Rc5 Rxe4 52.Rcxa5 Rc2 53.c5 Ree2 and the rooks on the seventh rank will prove to be complete monsters.] 49.Rxa5 Rd2 50.Raa6 Rd8 51.Nf5 Nxf5 [Black could have won the game with 51...Rd1+ 52.Kh2 R8d2+ 53.Kg3 Rg1+ 54.Kf3 Nd1! . Had he not had about 20 seconds for the rest of the game, he would have found it.] 52.exf5 Rf2 All of a sudden White has some salvation in the rook endgame. After 53. Kg1 Rxf5, the reduced material gives both sides some interesting chances. However, this is a great case of the double attack coming into play. White sees that Black is threatening the f-pawn, but not that the rook vacated the way for its partner behind it. The consequences of this oversight are swift and brutal.
After the playoffs ended, and Adam Vinatieri kicked a game winning field goal to cause one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, all the players funneled into the back room for the prize ceremony. These ceremonies are held the typical Bermudian way, filled with laughter and good times, and with a great heart. All the players received their checks. One of the special prizes which was given to various players was special hand blown glass Bermuda Longtail birds, elegant sculptures of beautiful colored glass handmade on the island. Below are some fun pictures of the winners, and of a few good moments during the prize giving ceremony. See you in Bermuda next year!
Final Standings:
1: IM Emanuel Berg SWE 2500
GM Bojan Vuckovic YUG 2455
IM Florian Handke GER 2450 4.5
4: GM Pawel Blehm POL 2535
IM Gregory Shahade USA 2454
IM Eugene Perelshteyn USA 2452
GM Andrew Soltis USA 2409 4.0
8: GM Larry Christiansen USA 2571
GM Marcin Kaminski POL 2497
IM Tomi Nyback FIN 2448
IM Hikaru Nakamura USA 2430
WGM Elisabeth Paehtz GER 2383
IM Johan Alvarez VEN 2379
FM Joel Salman USA 2241
Roger Patterson CAN 2173
Asuka Nakamura USA 2139
Jerry Simon USA ----
Dore Sheppard USA ---- 3.5
19: GM Heikki Kallio FIN 2522
GM Dennis de Vreugt NED 2446
FM Pascal Charbonneau CAN 2386
GM Arthur Bisguier USA 2310
FM Mikhail Belorusov USA 2299
FM Michael Shahade USA 2287
Denis Strenzwilk USA 2227
FM Sunil Weeramantry SRI 2213
Tony Simpson BER 2205
Andrei Moffat CAN 2158
John Fernandez USA 2079
Nick Faulks BER 2069
Noah Belcher USA ---- 3.0
32: IM Sipke Ernst NED 2459
Dale Sharp USA 2062
Ezra Ararat BER ----
Christopher Belcher USA ----
Nigel Freeman BER ----
Douglas Pacchiana USA ----
Ken Troutman BER ---- 2.5
39: GM Alexandre Lesiege CAN 2572
Dana Belcher USA ----
Kumi Bradshaw BER ----
Jordan Cunningham BER ----
Brian Davis BER ----
Bob Gillanders CAN ----
Paul Herzman USA ----
Aly Lalani BER ----
Gary McGowan USA ----
Bruce Miller USA ----
Larry Monk BER ----
Tucker Moore BER ----
Dan Rideout BER ----
Paul Roschman CAN ----
Quito Swan BER ----
Raymond Trott BER ----
Ed Westing USA ----
Scott Yvonne BER ---- 2.0
57: Kennedy Simmons BER ----
Marcy Soltis USA ----
James Tolley BER ----
Amanda Weinberg USA ---- 1.5
61: Trace Easton BER ----
Larry Ebbin BER ----
Bobby Miller BER ----
Oliver Pacchiana USA ----
Mark Richardson BER ----
Brian Stephenson BER ----
Carlton Williams BER ---- 1.0
68: Noah Browne BER ----
William Faulks BER ----
Marc Andre Laramee BER ----
Evan Scott BER ---- 0.5
72: Barry Skinner BER ----
Mark Menezes BER ---- 0.0
You can reach John Fernandez via e-mail at jfernandez@jfern.com The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center. |
53.f6?? Rd1# 0-1
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