SMS Gold draws with Gold IS

As expected, the match of the tournament was certainly a nail biting affair. All games were decisive. SMS Gold is certainly going to clinch the title after holding Gold IS to a 2-2 draw and maintaining their one point lead. Unless a miracle occurs which I do not see it happening :)

Yee Weng hung a piece in the opening and though he put up some resistance, just like Chess is Chess, a piece is a piece. I had a good opening and middlegame, though it did not look enough to win. But seeing that my team was going to be at least one point down, I decided I had to do something. This proved a mistake as I managed to make several mistakes and sealed it with a straight blunder to make it 2-0 to SMS Gold.

Abdullah and Udani played fantastically to win their games, thus salvaging some pride. Abdullah made an interesting positional pawn sac. The pressure proved too much for Wai Cheong. Ian's game was a nail biter. Both players were down to last 1-2 minutes for the last moves. Ian had queen and two rooks plus passed pawn on b6 against queen, rook and two knights. He defended well in the time trouble. The end is quite pretty, white giving up queen for rook and queening his b6 pawn while the black queen is trapped on the king-side. This game is worth going through, hopefully I can get the score sheet later.

Gold versus Gold

Tomorrow is the crucial matchup between the top seeds in the DATCC , Gold IS versus SMS Gold. On paper Gold Is is (?) has the edge with 3 IMs on the top boards. In practice it is a different story. Mas has not played any games since the first two rounds and was not available in the first match against SMS Gold.

SMS Gold has two solid top boards who are ready to play every round. Ooi Chern Ee is definitely IM level if he choose to try for the title. And 0f course they have the very very experienced and dependable second board in Mok.

SMS Gold has a one point lead and Gold Is will be aiming for a 3-1 win to overtake them. Both teams will be putting their best line-up tomorrow as it is certain that the winner of this match will win the championship. It will be interesting to see if SMS Gold can call on the services of Nicholas Chan, their hidden ace on the fourth (!) board. If so, it will definitely go down the wire.

My prediction is 2.5 - 1.5 in favor of my team, Gold IS.

Chess is Chess

My first blog post! What am I going to write? The blog title is Chess is Chess but I will be writing not just about chess but myself, my thoughts and everything and anything under the sun. But chess is chess and it will be mostly about chess.

I have been following Mas results in the current Zone 3.3 tournament in Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. After rounds he has 4.5 points, drawing with GM Torre of Philippines and beating GM Bui Vinh of host Vietnam. If he can keep the winning, he just might make a first GM norm. Unfortunately he drew a couple of games early, two of them against low rated players whom he should be expected to beat.

Games starts at 2:00 PM daily, but Round 8 results are not out yet at this time of writing.

See you here again!