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Board 1 GM Rozentalis Eduardas - IM Mas Hafizulhelmi
Mas opponent plays a passive line against the Sicilian. I do not understand Mas 7th move 7...Ne5 allowing his opponent to double his pawns. Mas could have just played 7..e5 to transpose to a Ruy Lopez type of game. Or even 7...g6 to keep the Sicilian flavour.

7:50 PM: Just got back from office. Not much changed in this game, Mas maintains a solid if passive position.

8:38 PM: Mas can take the c2 pawn now. He is just checking if his queen will get trapped.

8:44PM: Mas won c2 pawn. Now he can even think about trying for a win. Both players reached the crucial forty moves.

9:03 PM: If you are wondoring why Black is the one playing for win here, it is because of the weakened white king position.

9:14 PM: Mas puts his bishop on b8 aiming for g5 to open the diagonal to h2 for mate. White forced to give his c-pawn to distract him.

9:22 PM: Rozentalis managed to exchange a rook and close the h2-b8 diagonal. But the cost is great. Mas pieces previously hiding behind his pawns are now unleashed. The rook on d7 controls the important d-file. White still have problems to solve.

9:33 PM: Mas has a very interesting move now, 51...Qb5 to force queen exchange. White has many weak pawns and in a rook and bishop ending will lose.

9:38 PM: Mas played 51...Qxa5. This may be a blunder. No. Now 52.Bc8 Qd5+ 53. Qxd5 Rxd5 54. Bxa6 Kxf6. Although there are opposite colored bishops, Black still retains winning chances. In any case, White will have to suffer a long defensive task

9:43 PM: White played 54. Re1? instead of re-capturing the a-pawn. Now he is going to be two pawns down. This is less than grandmasterly play.

10:06 PM: Didn't 63...Kg4 instead of 63...Kf6 wins? They been at it for five hours now. I'm tired myself cannot imagine what it is like sitting there with the clock ticking away.

10:13PM : Mas seems to have tricked his grandmaster opponent. Looks like he will win the f-pawn. I'm tired and not sure of myself anymore :) Looks like it though.

10:16 PM: Mas exchanges the last white pawn instead of trying to win it. He has two connected passed pawns in this opposite colored bishops ending. With rooks on it is winnable. With two to three minutes each on the clock, someone's bound to make an error. Question is who?


Board 2 IM Mok Tze-Meng - GM Sulskis Sarunas
This is a very strange opening coming from a grandmaster. 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Be6!?
Mok replied with 4.d3 which I do not think is the best way to refute the black move.

I'm beginning to like Mok's position. His opponent has opened up the game with 13..d5. Now Mok should exchange light square bishops. His knight has nominal superiority over the bishop. He should then exchange as many major pieces as he can to go into a N v B ending.

17.Qe4 is not the best. After 17..Qd7 White cannot play 18.Qc4 due to 18..e4 winning material. Mok should have played 17.Rad1 first.

7:52 PM: As expected a N v B ending is reached. The knight is not worse than a bishop here. At least a draw for Mok.

8:03 PM: Mok just played a very risky looking move 35. exf5. This looks like an attempt to win. His opponent is short of time which is in Mok's favour. Besides someone need to win as Khai Boon just resigned.

After 35...gxf5 36. Ne8+ Ke6 37. Ng7+ Kf6 38. Nxh5 Kg6 39 g4 Mok wins a pawn but his knight will be trapped on the edge of the board for a long time.

8:12 PM: The GM plays 36...Ke7 37. Ng7 h4!? He tries to give up the f-pawn instead and hope to penetrate with his king to white king-side. 37. Nxf5 Kf6 38. Nh6 Kg5 but maybe he overlooks that 39.Ng4 is attacking his bishop and gives white a tempo.

8:33 PM: Black has reached the time control (additional thirty minutes added to both clocks). We can expect Mok to go for a long think to look for a winning plan.

8:42 PM: Mok plays 41. b4. Better plan is 41. Kd3 to bring the king to e2. Then play Nf2 to re-locate the knight to the centre.

8:55 PM: Mok brings his king to d3. If he can see the Ke2 plan then it is a point in the pocket.

9:04 PM: Mok is thinking a long time. Hope he sees that he can play 43. Ke2 as 43...e4 can be answered by 44. Nf2! exf3 45. Kxf3 and white later creates a passed pawn with g4

9:11 PM: Mok just played 43. Ke2. Now the plan is to bring the knight to d6 attacking the b7 pawn. After black plays ..b6 then white continues pushing the pawn to b5 followed by Nc8 to win the a-pawn.

9:47 PM: Mok missed a simple win. 48. Nd6+ followed by Nc4 should be winning because after 48...Ke6 49. Nc4 Bg1 50. Ne3 and the white king reaches e4 unimpeded.

9:55 PM: Mok has allowed the black king too near to his king-side pawns, without creating enough threats on the queen-side. I think the win is in doubt now.

Board 3 GM Malisauskas Vidmantas - Tan Khai Boon
Khai Boon's game is a Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation. Good chance for him to hold a draw.

Updated:
I don't think Khai Boon has the experience to handle his position. A loss is likely here.

7:53 PM: White has three passed pawns for a piece. Expect Khai Boon to resign anytime now.

Board 4 IM Zagorskis Darius - FM Long Peter
Started as a Reti Opening, but the Peter plays d4 to transpose into a Catalan. 11.Nf3 is a bit passive maybe 11. Nb3.

Nevertheless, Peter is quite good at this type of positions where he is not run off the board by his opponent's tactics. He tends to blunder in time pressure, so he should try to keep up with his opponent on time.

7:54 PM: Peter has exchanged all the major pieces to go to a B+N v B+N ending. He is not worse here. Expect a draw.

8:36 PM: Peter has reached forty moves *sigh of relief here* lol

8:54 PM: Opponent offers draw! Good job, Peter

Overall notes
So far everybody is doing all right. The next hour will show if our players can demonstrate the strategic depth to maintain their positions.

7:55 PM: All games went according to my expectations. We can expect 1.5 points unless Mok tries to win his slightly better ending. Don't forget, 1.5 points is the same as 1 point.

8:17 PM: Looks like Mok opponent has blundered in time trouble. We can expect a full point from him. Now hoping for Mas and Peter to draw to give us a tie.

8:44 PM: Mok misses the simpler plan though I think he still is winning. Mas position looks much improved, maybe trying to win now!

8:55 PM: Peter draws. Its up to Mok and Mas now

9:15 PM: Mok is winning. Mas with real winning chances now. A 2.5 - 1.5 win for Malaysia against Lithuania will be an upset.

9:55 PM: Mok has missed the win plan. It will be real difficult now. Mas played some nice moves to maintain winning chances in a rook and opposite colored bishops ending.

10:02 PM: After 60..Bb6 I do not think Mok is winning anymore. Black just puts his king on g2 and defends the e5 pawn with his bishop. If white captures on e5, then exchange of pieces followed by ..Kxf3 and reaches the a8 square for the draw

Mas may have made it more difficult to win with 63...Kf6.

10:18 PM: Mok's game will be drawn. Mas might still win to draw the match.

10:23 PM: Mas wins so we will draw the match. Congratulations to the team for a good fight! Too bad Mok missed his win else it could be a great day.