My Chess Journal

DATCC Week 2

2009-04-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

We meet Terang Bersih Persatuan Catur Wanita (don't know where they come up with the name 'terang bersih' kinda funny :-))

I guess lady luck is smiling when we manage to beat them 4-0,

First to win is ...ahemm!, yours truly. I played against Nabila, never an easy opponent, but somehow manage to win when she played in rather passive manner.

Second to win is Hairulov, in a fiery game against Khairunnisa, the lady blogger unable to find the defence to fend off Hairul's sacrificial attack.

Third is Irwan (againt Haslindah), not sure about the game but looks like Irwan has the winning position throughout the game.

Fourth and the last game to finish in entire round is Aziz (against Roslina Marmono). In his typical controlled game, Aziz squeeze the position litle by litle until finally Roslina was force to give up a piece, the rest is technique..and a mumble (jokingly) from Mr Hamid that maybe someone should inform Aziz to give the ladies team half a point!

DATCC 1 week

2009-04-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

DATCC Week 1
I read with great interest about this team event’s details ... every Wednesday evening , FIDE rated,all play all team event...wow! decided there and then i have to take part. I ‘advertise’ myself on several shoutboxs and one fine day i received SMS from Hairulov asking me whether i am interested to be in his team (Nusa Mahkota). Ofcourse Hairul.
There are 6 players in our team. Myself, Aziz, Hairul, Shamsol, Rusdi and Irwan.
Before the beginning of the first round, Mr Hamid informed all players that he expects a bigger turnout for this event and since there are only 10 teams (and the prize is big) he propose either double round robins or a round robin follow up with an individual 9 rounds tourney. I favoured the latter but since most of the players prefer double round robins, double round robin it is!
Below is my first round game against IM Mas.
(2) Ilham - Mas [D00]
DATCC, 22.04.2009

1.d4 Nf6
2.Nc3 d5
3.e4 Introducing Blackmar Counter Gambit 3...dxe4
4.f3 exf3
5.Nxf3 Bg4
Not the most feared move. 5...Bf5 followed by 6.c6 is perhaps more accurate
6.Bd3 Theory recommend 6.h3 immediately putting a question mark to this bishop but i prefer 6.Bd3 since from my experience, black bishop is a liability to be here 6...e6
7.Be3 Bb4 7...Be7 perhaps is better since black bishop is doing nothing at b4
8.0–0 Nbd7 Nc6 is better
9.Qe1 Bh5
10.Qh4 Bxf3
11.Rxf3 Even though white is a pawn down, Fritz prefer white position due to active position of white pieces (+/= 0.35) 11...Qe7 What to do now? I rejected Raf1 since it is obvious black is not going to castle king side. I played 12.a3 (Fritz = 0.21) with the idea of maintaining two bishops and opening the b file, just in case black castle queenside. Fritz suggested the complicate 12. Nb5 (+/- 0.75)
12.a3 Bxc3
13.bxc3 h6
14.Qg3 0–0–0 Wow! he really castle queenside!
15.a4 Attack! 15...Kb8
16.a5 Nd5
17.Bd2 f5
18.c4 Mas suggest 18.Qe1 before playing c4 with the idea of preventing black's Nb4 18...Nb4
19.c5 Nxd3
20.Rxd3 Nf6
21.a6 My team mate Rusdi suggest immediate 21. Rb1 which is not bad as per below variations show [21.Rb1 Ne4 22.Qe1 e5 23.Rdb3 Rxd4 24.Rxb7+ Ka8 Kc8 25.c6 is force mate in 16 moves 25.Be3 Qxc5 slight advantage for white] 21...Ne4
22.Qe1 b6
23.Bf4 Ka8
24.cxb6 cxb6
25.Be5 Rc8
26.Re3 threatening 27.Rxe4 fxe4 28.Qe4 mate! 26...Rhd8
27.Rc1 Rc4
28.Rb3?? [28.Rxe4! fxe4 29.Qxe4+ Rd5 30.Rf1 Rc8 31.Qg6 Rd7 32.Qe4+ Rd5
Black, eventhough material up is almost paralysed to prevent white play on F file and h1a8 diagonal, the position is dead equal.] 28...Rdc8
29.c3 after this move the game is all black Qd7
30.Ra3 Qb5
31.Rb1 Qc6
32.Rc1 Nxc3
33.Rca1 Ne4
34.h3 g5
35.Kh2 h5
36.Rd3 Qd5
37.Rda3 Rc2
38.Rd3 g4 White resigned a few moves later 0–1

Aziz draw his game against Abdullah Che Hassan, a pity since he is in total control of the game after some timid back rank manouevre by Dollah.
Not sure exactly what is going on in Sam’s game against Nik Farouqi but glancing from my place, it is a tough fight and a very interesting game.
Rusdi lost to Udani when his strategy of steering the game away from Main line –Giucco Piano misfired.

CAS Allegro First Quarter 2009

2009-02-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

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

Ian Udani 6

Sumant Subramaniam 6

Fariz Shafrudin 5.5

Anas Nazreen 5.5

Mas Hafizulhilmi 5.5

Gerald Soh 5.5

Nabil Azman Hisham 5.5

Zambri 5.5

Norazman Ismail 5.5

Ahmad Fadzil Nayan 5

Nor Ilhamuddin 5

CNY Chess Tournament Day Two

2009-02-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

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!