CAS Allegro First Quarter 2009

Date:15 February 2009

Venue:Level 4, Kompleks Wilayah

Yeap, it was held at level 4, Kompleks Wilayah. It is basically car park level with a restaurant and some space that they have turn it to a chess hall and office. Pretty basic but still better something than nothing.

First face i saw is Mas Hafizulhelmi followed by Kamaludin and Udani. I know immediately it is going to be a strong weekend tournament.

I was seeded number 10 out of 99 contestants.

I begin the tournament with 3 out of 3. This followed by two losses (Anas, Bakri) and later managed to win the last two games to finish at no 11! Lost some rating points here.

Final result

1. Ian Udani 6


2. Sumant Subramaniam 6


3. Fariz Shafrudin 5.5


4. Anas Nazreen 5.5


5. Mas Hafizulhilmi 5.5


6. Gerald Soh 5.5


7. Nabil Azman Hisham 5.5


8. Zambri 5.5


9. Norazman Ismail 5.5


10. Ahmad Fadzil Nayan 5


11. Nor Ilhamuddin 5

CNY Chess Tournament Day Two

I started the day with two wins (Marzuki and Faizal Andin). Anyway I have to admit that against Faizal Andin, I was lucky to swindle the game to my favour. He was completely winning the game (not to mention time advantage as well) before blundered the game away by allowing me to exchange rook. After that my pawns are simply unstoppable. Not a game that Faizal would like to remember and not a win that I proud of.

In a next round I was not so lucky when I lost to Zarul Shafiq at the first board battle. With that win, Zarul assured of at least sharing a 1st place. I blame this lost to my thirst. Organizer has promised free drinks to all player through out the tournament but somehow they only give a can to each player on the first day.

Somewhere at middle of the table, chaos erupted when a deaf player (in completely losing position), claimed a draw when his opponent, Syed the blogger, put the pawn at the center of two squares and an outsider adjust that pawn to it corect square. Initially he claimed for a draw but later claimed for a win! Suhairi (arbiter) of course could not entertain such an out-of-this-world request and when he refuse to continue the game, Syed has been declared as a winner.

Last round I was paired against Azman Hisham and after a messy fight, i managed to win and ended the tournament at 5.5 out 7 and RM180 richer! well, to be more exact maybe richer by RM145 after deducting RM35 expensive entrance fee.

Top 10

1.Zarul Syafiq 6.5

2.Fadli Zakaria 5.5

3.Salman Mistam 5.5

4.Nor Ilhamuddin 5.5

5.Faizal Andin 5.5

6.Nik Nazri 5

7.Roslan Sulaiman 5

8.Nur Nabila AH 5

9.Izz Saifuddin 5

10.Abd Shukor 5

CNY Chess Tournament Day One

Controversial and uncertainty are two words that best describe this tournament. Controversial is because it is held during CNY and some netizen considered that as racial discrimination.Woaa! I will not go deeper into that but suffice to say that there are many tournaments that was held during Christmas, Wesak, Hari Gawai, Pesta Keamatan etcetera. Why can't during CNY?

Uncertainty because suddenly, the organizer (under reasons best known to them) decide to reduce the prize by half and limit the entry to those with national rating of below 1800. Quickly I checked my national rating and was relieved to find out that mine is 1783. But still, based on how things developed over the last few days, there is still possibility that they could still did not allow me to enter base on the fact that my rating was once above 1800 and currently my Fide rating is 2000 above.

At about 9 o'clock I arrived at the tournament hall. Regular faces (rival!?) that I saw are Fadli (busied with his laptop), Faizal Andin, Abdul Sukor, smiling face of Mr Balendran, Norazman (either seriously blitzing or continuosly showing his latest 'brilliance' win against NM Kamal at Shah Alam), full force of Azman Hisham's clan, almost full force of Zulkafli's clan and many others. Pretty strong field i would say and suddenly, it is obvious that it will not be a walk in the park for me like I previously thought.

I ended the day scoring 2.5 out of 3 (draw with Amira Shahmina and a win against Izz Saifuddin- i predict bright future for him in chess), not bad for someone who was seeded number 24!