Fong Yit San - IM Mas , SEA Selection

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Fong Yit San could have a winning game against our IM Mas Hafizul. With so much going on, I did not have time to give that game. Now that things are quietened down, it is time to return to the SEA Games Selection.

Fong Yit San - IM Mas

I saw this position as I was about to leave after my game. At first glance, I thought Bxf6 left black in a very difficult if not lost postion. White actually played 20.e5 and after  20... Nd7 21.
Rxf8+ Nxf8 22. c4 Rb8 23. Rb3 Qc7 24. Bf4 Ng6 25. Bg3 Ne7 26. cxd5 Rxb3 27.
axb3 cxd5 28. Bd3 Bb7 29. h3 Nc6 30. Qe2 Nb4 31. Bxh7+ Kxh7 a draw was agreed.

After 20. Bxf6 black has two recapture  (A)20...Rxf6 and (B) 20...gxf6. We look at the first option which is the weaker one since it leaves the back rank undefended.

(A) 20...Rxf6 21. Rxf6 gxf6 The point is that the black king is exposed. But can the reduced material take advantage of the weakness? 22. exd5 Now black has two way to recapture
(A1) 22...cxd5 23. Rg3+Kh8  24. Qb4  Qf7 (24...Bd7 25 Qe7 and there is no stopping Qg7 or Qxf6) 25. Bh5 wins the queen or mates.

(A2) 22...exd5 23. Rg3+ Kh8 24. Qh6 (24. Qb4 c5 )  Qe7 (25...Qf7 26. Bh5) 25. Re3 Qd8  26. Bh5  Bd7  27. Be8! 

This tactic forces black to give up the queen

Qxe8  28. Qxf6+  Kg8 29. Rg3+ Qg6  30. Rxg6+ hxg6  31. Qxg6+ Kh8  32. Qf7 with an easy win.


(B) 20... gxf6 21. exd5 
(B1) 21...cxd5 22. c4  dxc4 23.Rg3+  Kh8 24. Rxf6 Re8 25. Qc3 e5 26. Qxe5!
(B2) 21...exd5 22. Qh6! White simply threatens Rg3+ and Qxf8. Surprisingly there is no defence to this, example 22...Qe7 23. Re3 or 22..Qf7 23...Bh5 22....Be6 23. Rg3+ Kh8 24. Rxf6 and again no answer to the threats of Rxe6 and Rxf8.

It's Gelfand!

Boris Gelfand beat Grischuk in a Gruenfeld Defence last night to earn the right to challenge Anand for the World Title next year.

Grischuk played a rather unusual Gruenfeld with a position which Chinese ace Wang Yue used successfully before against Leitao in 2010. However not challenging the white centre has its problems and soon after Grischuk got into a lost position. The whole game lasted only 34 moves.

Candidates Final, Game 6

The sixth game of the standard control part of the Candidates Final match between Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk is under-way. This is the last game with standard time controls. The winner of this game 6 will proceed to challenge World Champion Anand for the title in 2012. In case it is a draw, the players still proceed....to the rapid tie-breakers, that is.

Last night, I thought Grischuk might finally win a game here (all his regular games against Aronian and Kramnik were draws). Playing White, he had a space advantage against Gelfand. But an inaccuracy - just one - allowed Gelfand to break out of the tight spot and trade pieces to a draw.

Tonight Gelfand has the white pieces. He will try to win but if we look at the trend, this will be another draw. Out of the total 21 regular games that both have played in Kazan, only one has been decisive. I predict they will roll the dice in the rapids ( four games ), and maybe the blitz as well.

Asian Youth, Subic Bay

Thanks to this site , we can see the standings of our participants. And it does not look good. Seven rounds have been played and two more to go. Let me highlight for you.

One player has 4.5 points and that is Teh De Zen. This is a name I have been seeing a lot of and all of it is good. She is in fourth place in the Girls Under-10. She is one full point behind the three players above her. Besides she has already met all of them securing only one draw. All the three leaders have also played each other. Therefore it is extremely unlikely she will manage to overtake any of them and  win a top three placing.

I do not doubt she is a talent. I just wondor if in a couple of years she will follow the same path of our other young talents or will she be the exception? Talents need nurturing, who if anyone is helping her? Anyone in MCF reading this or are they still asleep?

There are six Malaysians with four points, Tan Yong Zhao (Open Under-12), Teh De Juan and
Wong Yinn Long (Open Under-10), Tan Jun Ying (Open Under-8), Nithyalakshmi Sivanesan (Girls Under-12) , Teh Ming Min (Girls Under-10).
It might seem that they are doing alright. In reality they are unable to match the top players in their respective groups, there is a very big difference in strength.

Again I might sound like a broken record, but MCF should start doing something for the juniors. Just beating Singapore in an annual match is really no big deal.

Candidates Final begins

The Candidates Final between Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk has just started. It kind of just hit me. One of these guys will be playing a World Championship match with Anand next year. And with all due respect to both of them...what??? Anand - Gelfand or Anand - Grischuk for the world champion title? How many of you think they are able to dethrone Anand?

My opinion is Anand will destroy either of them.  Will there even be any sponsors for such a match?

I think Anand will be very relieved he does not have to face more dangerous contenders such as Aronian, Topalov or even Kramnik.

Candidates Final, Gelfand versus Grischuk

I have been quietly following the Candidates Matches over the last couple of weeks. If you have not been following, its ok because it is pretty boring.

The Candidates Matches are played over four standard games. Then tie-breaks of four rapid games. If by then a winner has not been decided, blitz games (up to five games) will be played with the first player to win going through. If it is still tied after five games then a final Armaggedon game with five minutes for one side and four for the other. The player with four minutes gets draw odds. The winner of this Candidates gets to face World Champion Anand for the title in 2012.

If anyone were to predict that Topalov, Aronian and Kramnik will not feature in the final, everyone will think him crazy. Surprise. Kamsky eliminated Topalov and Grischuk took out Aronian. The semis featured Gelfand-Kamsky and Kramnik-Grischuk. All standard time control games were drawn. The tie-breaks were played last night.

Kramnik - Grischuk

Grischuk is also a poker player (according to sources, a professional one at that) and he came up with a strategy just like the card game where one bets everything on the last card. In chess terms, draw all the standard and rapid games and stake everything on the blitz. In the rapids, as white , Grischuk offered draws in fourteen moves and another game in just eight moves. Kramnik obliged, after all he has white in the next games right? Still, he could not win a single game with White either and the match went to blitz tie-breaks.

In the first game, Grischuk out-played Kramnik and won a pawn and the game. In the second, it was again Grischuk who had all the winning chances. He took no risks and steered the game into a drawn rook ending and thus qualified for the final.

Gelfand - Kamsky

It was quite excruciating to watch Gelfand and Kamsky. Both players could not be faulted for not trying , just that  the quality of the games were not really satisfying. Especially Gelfand was missing a lot of stuff.

Kamsky-Gelfand, Rapid Game 2

This is the second game from the Gelfand-Kamsky rapid tiebreaks.  Kamsky has just played 19.exf5 and Gelfand re-captured with 19...Bxf5. Both have missed that black wins after 19...Bxd5 20. cxd5 Qxc1 21. Rxc1 Rxc1+ 22. Ne1 Ba5 and winning everything.

Gelfand-Kamsky, Rapid Game 3

This is the third game from the Gelfand-Kamsky rapid tiebreaks. Gelfand had played his bishop from e3 to g5 followed by the last move 16. a3?? reaching the diagram on the left. 16...c4 and now 17.dxc4 Nc5 traps the queen.If only that bishop was still on e3. 17.Qxc4 Bxf3 18. Bxf3 Rxc4 and Kamsky won.

Despite all these oversights, Gelfand still beat Kamsky in the blitz and gets to meet Grischuk in the final.






I really hope Gelfand does not win the finals because this kind of chess will be very embarrassing for him in  a title match with Anand.

Rook Endings at SEA Selection - Part 2

Let us examine a few more basic positions. 

Philidor position - Black to move draw

 On the left is the Philidor position. This is a standard drawing position where the pawn and attacking king has not advanced beyond the 5th rank. Black's King holds the Queening square, and the Black Rook holds the sixth rank.

Black merely plays his rook back and forth on his own 3rd rank. To improve his position, white has to advance his pawn , whereupon black will transfer his rook down the board to give checks. 1...Rc6 2. e6 Rc1! 3. Kg6 Rg1+ 4.Kf5 Rf1+ etc etc.

In the position, moving away from the 3rd rank will be dangerous but not losing yet. However you need to be aware of the winning possibilities e.g 1...Rb1 2. Kf6 Rf1+ 3. Ke6 Re1 4. Ra8+ Kg7 5. Kd6 Kf7! (black prevents the pawn from advancing) 6. Ra7+  Ke8 7. Ke6 Kf8 reaches the same position. A further try to win is 8. Ra8+ Kg7 9. Re8 (White supports the pawn and prepares to move his king out of the way) Ra1! and we will reach positions similar to the next diagram eventually.

Black to move and draw

The attacking side can win if the pawn reaches the seventh rank successfully. But even here there is a possible draw if the defender can position his pieces correctly. In the diagram on the left we can see there is a short side (red arrow) and a long side ( indicated by the blue arrow). If the defending king can get to the short side and his rook occupy the long side he can draw provided there is three files separating his rook from the king. In the diagram with black rook is only two files away from the king and now he loses. 1...Rb8+ 2.Kd7 Rb7+ 3. Kd6 Rb8 4. Kc7 (We can see why three files are needed. If the rook was already on the a-file then this would not work because black can continue checking 4...Ra7+ , now this is not possible) 4...Ra8 5. Ra3! (Only this moves win 5.Re1? Kf7 6.Kd7 Ra7+ and the white king can escape checks but will lose the pawn) 7.Kd6 Ra6+ 8. Kc5 Ra5+ 9. Kb6 Ra8 etc.

Lucena position, black loses

The Lucena position has the defending king on one side of the pawn and the rook on the other. If white's king tries to vacate the queening square, he cannot escape rook checks. E.g 1. Kd7 Rd1+ 2. Ke6 Re1+ 3. Kf6 Rf1+ and so on. The winning maneuver is called bridge building. 1. Rc4 Rf2 2.Kd7 Rd2+ 3. Ke6 Re2+ 4. Kd6 Rd2+ 5.Ke5 Re2+ 6.Re5 and the pawn queens.

1st rank defence

 The above diagram shows a situation where the pawn has advanced too fast and the attacking side failed to control the queening square. White draws by moving his rook along the first rank. 1. Re1 Rb2 2. Ra1 Rc2 3. Re1 etc.

Now we can get to the actual game armed with all these knowledge.

Fong Yit Ho-IM Mok, Round 8

Black has a very active position. Compare the two rooks , black rook is attacking the h-pawn and white rook is passively defending it from behind. Passive defence usually loses in rook endings. In order to have any chance of drawing, white must transfer his rook to the other side and start attacking enemy pawns.  56....e4 57. fxe4 fxe4 58. Ke3 Ke5 59. f3 f5 60. fxe4 fxe4 61. a4  Yit Ho understands that he must open the queen-side and try to exchange as many pawns as possible


Rf4 62. axb5 axb5 63. Rc1 Its now or never, passive defence loses quickly. Rf3+ 64. Ke2 Rxh3 65. Rc5+ Kd4   66. Rxb5 Rh2+ 67. Kf1 Ke3 This seems the most obvious but is not the best way to win. Simplest is 65...h4 66. Rh5 e3 67. b5 Rf2+  68.Ke1 (68.Kg1 Rf4 followed by ...e3)  Rb2 69. Rxh4+ Kd3 and the mate threat wins e.g 70. Kf1 Rb1+ 71. Kg2 e2 . 68. Rd5 68..Rb8 h4 69. Kg1 Rb2 70. b5 Rxb6 71. b6 Rb2 72. Rb7  h3 73. Kh1 and surprisingly black cannot win as the white pawn on b6 prevents any bridge building maneuver e.g 73...Ke2 74. Kh2 e3 75. Kxh3 Kf2 76. Rf7+  Ke1 77. b7 e2 and neither side can progress. 69...h4 70. b5 Rb2 ( h3 71. Kg2 Rb2 72. Rd8 Rxb3 73. Rb8 reaches a similar drawn position)

70. Rh5?? (This exchanges into one of the basic lost positions. As shown just now, white can draw by defending his last b-pawn. 70. Rd8 h3 71. Kg1 Rxb3 72. Rb8) Rxb3 71. Rxh4 Rb1+ 72. Kg2 Rxb5 


Can white draw this position? Few points -
a) black pawn is still on 5th rank
b) white king is in the correct side (short side)
c) white rook is badly placed and need to re-locate to the long side


As it turns out, white cannot prevent black reaching Lucena position e.g 73. Ra1 Ke2 74. Ra8 Rg5+ 75.Kh3 d6 76. Re1 Kf2 77. Rf8+ Ke1 78. Kh4 Rg7 79. Kh3 e2 80 Re1 Rg5 etc

73. Kf1 Rb1+ 74. Kg2 Kd3 75. Rh8 Ke2?? Black can take advantage of the white rook placing by advancing immediately, 75...e3 76. Rd8+ (otherwise 77...e2 it is over) Ke2 77. Ra8 Ke1 78. Rh8 Rb2+ 79. Kf3 e2 and there is no stopping the pawn.


76. Ra8! Rb2 77. Ra1 Rc2 78. Rb1? White should not give up the a-file. 78.Kg3 draws


Ra2 79. Rc1?? Kd2 80. Rb1 Ke2 80...Ke3+ 81. Kg3 Ke2 82. Kg2 e3 (see diagram below)

 83. Kg3 Ra8 84. Rb2+ Kd1 85 Rb1+Kc2 86. Rb7 Re7 and queens. If white goes to 81.Kg1 then Kf3 82. Rb8 e3 83. Rf1+ Ke2 84. Rd8 Ke1 85. Rd7 e2 and reaches the Lucena position.


81. Rc1 e3 82. Rb1 Rd2?? What happens if black tries 82...Ra8 83. Rb2+ Kd1 84. Rb1+ Kc2 85. Rb7 Re7 the problem is the white king is on g2 and not g3 as in the previous note and he can play 86. Kf1 Kd2 87. Rd7+ and draws. But actually black can win with 82...Kd3+

a) 83. Kf1 Kd2 84.Kg2 Ke2 (white is in zugzwang and must give up the back rank) 85. Rb8 Ra1 86. Rb7 Kd2 87. Rd7+ Ke1 88. Kf3 e2 89. Kg2 Ra8 reaches Lucena again.
b)83. Kf3 Kd2 84.  Kg2 Ke2 reaches the diagram above.

83. Ra1 Rb2 84.Rc1 Kd3+ 85. Kf1 Rf2+  85...Kd2 86. Ra1e2+ 87. Kf2 draws

86. Ke1 Rh2 87. Rd1+ Ke4 88. Rd8 1/2-1/2

As you can see, a "simple" looking rook ending is not really that simple especially with a clock ticking away at your side.

Rook Endings at SEA Selection - Part 1

Important Note: This is one of the blog posts that because of the I will make sticky by creating a menu (at the top of the page) called Important Posts. You can always access this article by going to the Important Posts menu and click on the corresponding link there.

The most common ending that occurred in practical play are rook endings. This is why I always teach my students this ending first. Early in my career I went through a classic book, Rook Endings (over 200 pages) by Levenfish and Smyslov. Believe me, if you know this ending well, you will save many half points.

Now the difficulty with playing endgames is that while most endgame books that you study give you the basic positions. But these are not the positions that you start with in your actual games. There is always a critical position just prior to one of these basic positions where you need to choose the most advantageous position to head for. And the only way you can make the right decision is to know these positions by heart.

So at the recent SEA Games selection, I was lucky to observe a few games with this particular ending.

My first position is from the Women's selection involving Nur Nabila and Sarika Subramaniam. A draw would see a three way tie between Nabila , Mi Yen and Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada for the fourth place. According to tie-break Mi Yen would take the fourth spot.

Because of the complexity of this ending, I suggest you use an actual board and pieces to go through the analysis. You will gain more understanding and remember the plans and ideas much better rather than reading moves off the screen.

Before we start examining the game, we should know the relevant basic draws.

Position 1, N and R pawn draws

Against a rook or knight pawn, the defending side can rely on the first rank defence. Black just keeps moving his rook back and forth along the first rank. White cannot improve his position. 1. Rb7+ Ka8 2. Ra7+ Kb8 etc. The pawn cannot be queened.

Position 2, bishop pawn wins

For bishop and centre pawns it is easy win. 1. Rb7+ Ka8 (or Kc8) 2. Ra7+ Kb8 3. c7+ Kc8 4. Ra8+ Kd7 5. Rxe8 Kxe8 6. c8=Q

Nabila-Sarika, Round 9

Now let's examine the actual game.

62...Kf6 It would be most tragic if black plays 62...Kd5?? 63. Re7 followed by mate on e5. 63. Kc4 Ke6 64. d5+ White has nothing better but to try this cxd5+ 65. Kd4 (black is in zugzwang and must lose back the pawn) Rf8 Better move is 65....Rh8 and black is sure of winning the white a-pawn 66. Ke3 This should not change the result. Black can now continue 66...Rh8 67. Rxb7 Rh3+! 68. Kd4 Rh4+ 69. Kd3 Rxa4 reaching a drawn game. The idea is that once the white king is cut off from supporting the passed pawn, the draw is assured. The rook and pawn rarely can force through to queen without the support of king.  66.. Rb8 67.Rh7 d4+? There was no reason to give up the pawn. 68. Kxd4 Rd8+ 69. Kc4 Rd7 70. Rh8 Exchange of rooks lead to a drawn pawn ending 70. Rxd7 Kxd7 71. Kb5 Kc7 72. Kxa5 Kc6 73. Kb4 b6 74. cxb6 Kxb6. 70...Rc7? In most rook ending, we must keep the rook active - 70...Rd1! 71.Kb5 Rb1+ 72. Kxa5 Kd5 73 Rc8 Rb2 and white cannot improve his position. 71. Kb5 

After 71. Kb5

 Kd5?? The king cannot reach the corner after this move.The last chance to reach a draw was 71...Kd7!  Perhaps Sarika thought the exchange of rooks would lose for her because white captures the a-pawn for free. However 72. Rh7+ Kc8 73. Rxc7+ Kxc7 74. Kxa5 Kc6 75. Kb4 b6 exchanges into a drawn RP ending.

72. Rb8 Ke6 73. Kb6 (The difference is that the black king is not cut off from the queen-side - 73. Rd8 Rc6 holds) Rc6+! (If you remember the two earlier basic positions , Black does not mind giving the a-pawn for white's c-pawn ) 74. Kxb7 Rxc5 75. Ra8 Kd7 76. Rxa5 Rxa5 77. Kxa5 Kc8 and black reaches a drawn rook pawn ending.
 72. Rd8+ Ke6 73. Rd6+ Ke7 Black king is now cut off along the d-file and cannot reach the right side corner. Black is lost. 74. Kb6  Rc8 75. Rh6 Kd8 76. Rh8+ Kd7 77. Rh7+ Kd8 78.
Rxb7 Ra8 79. c6 Rc8 80. Kc5 Rc7 81. Rxc7 Kxc7 82. Kb5 Kb8 83. Kxa5 Kc7 84. Kb5
Kb8 85. Kb6 Ka8 86. Kc7 Ka7 87. Kd8 1-0

SEA Games Rating gains/loss

It's no secret why our top rated players do not like playing in local events (unless we have to that is). Analysis of the rating gains/losses below -

	Mens
	Name	Points	Rtg	+/-
IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	7	2418	-2.5
IM	Liew Chee-Meng-Jimmy	6	2302	-2.2
IM	Lim Yee-Weng	6	2248	5.1
	Subramaniam Sumant	5.5	2065	29
	Wahiduddin Kamalarifin	5.5	2169	11.1
	Lim Zhuo Ren	4.5	2080	11.3
IM	Mok Tze-Meng	4	2394	-30.8
	Fong Yit San	3.5	1945	17.3
	Tan Jun Feng	1.5	1849	-0.8
	Fong Yit Ho	1.5	1995	-19.6
	Womens
	Name	Points	Rtg	+/-
WFM	Nur Najiha Hisham	6.5	1819	17.4
	Camilia Bt Johari	6	1721	54.5
WCM	Nur Nabila Azman Hisham	6	1886	-0.9
	Tan Li Ting	6	1827	27
WCM	Fong Mi Yen	5.5	1890	-2.5
	Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada	5.5	1822	0
	Azhar Puteri Munajjah Az-Zahra	3	1732	0
	Wahiduddin Nurul Huda	2.5	1977	-99.3
	Sarika Subramaniam	2	0
	Tang Kar Khei	2	0

Despite winning the event IM Mas lost some points as did I. The biggest casualty is IM Mok who "bled" a massive 30 points. The benefactors are Sumant who gained 29 points and surprisingly Yit San who also gained due to his low rating. His brother was not so fortunate, finishing at the bottom cost him to lose twenty points.

In the women's event, Nurul Huda must be regretting her poor showing. She lost a massive 99 points. The biggest gainer here is Camilia with 54.5 points even more than Sumant. Both Tan Li Ting and Nur Najiha also gained.

Note that both Camilia and Li Ting scored the same number of points but Camilia gained twice as much points as Li Ting. This is because Camilia's own rating is much lower than Li Ting.

SEA Games Selection Final Ranking

The selection for the SEA Games later this year in Palembang, Indonesia is over. Top seed IM Mas justfied is ranking as Malaysia Number 1 by winning the event with a full point lead. Both IMs Jimmy Liew and Lim Yee Weng tied for second.  IM Mok had a disastrous outing and could only finish in seventh place. Sumant Subramaniam looked likely to take the last spot but an unexpected loss in the last round to Lim Zhuo Ren saw a two way tie with Wahiduddin Kamalarifin. They have to go into a play-off after all tie-breaks could not produce a winner. Sumant  won the first game and when I left at 8:00 PM the second game was still in progress.

Final standings -

1	IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi													7.0
2	IM	Lim Yee-Weng													6.0
3	IM	Liew Chee-Meng-Jimmy													6.0
4		Subramaniam Sumant													5.5
		Wahiduddin Kamalarifin													5.5
6		Lim Zhuo Ren													4.5
7	IM	Mok Tze-Meng													4.0
8		Fong Yit San													3.5
9		Tan Jun Feng													1.5
		Fong Yit Ho													1.5

 

Things were more tense in the women's event. At the start of the final round, no less than six players had a chance for the top four placings, Nur Najiha Hisham,  Tan Li Ting,Camilia Bt Johari , Nur Nabila Azman Hisham, Fong Mi Yen and Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada.

On paper, Fong Mi Yen had the easiest opponent and was expected to win and take her place in the top four. However the unexpected happened and she lost to tail-ender Azhar Puteri Munajjah Az-Zahra. Her sister Azhar Puteri could only draw against an in-form Nur Najiha and she had to wait for the other games to finish to see if she could tie for one of the places. However Nur Nabila beat Sarika Subramaniam in a rook ending (it looked like a possible draw at one stage) and Camilia lost to Tan Li Ting.


1    WFM    Nur Najiha Hisham        6.5   
2   Tan Li Ting    1827       6.0 
3   Camilia Bt Johari      6.0 
4    WCM    Nur Nabila Azman Hisham   6.0
5    WCM    Fong Mi Yen     5.5
6    Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada     5.5
7    Azhar Puteri Munajjah Az-Zahra      3.0
8    Wahiduddin Nurul Huda      2.5  
9    Sarika Subramaniam  2.0   
10  Tang Kar Khei      2.0   

Games from Selangor Open

Jimmy Liew - Srinath Narayanan

19. f4! Nd7? It was better to sacrifice back a pawn with 19...c4 to gain a tempo., 20.Nxc4 Nxc4 21. Qxc4 Nc7 22. 0-0 with better position for white.  20. Nxc8   Now black has serious weaknesses on the white squares around his king. 20...Rxc8 21. Bg4 Nc7 22. Bg3   Readying the attack 22...Rb8 23. Qc2 Bd4 24. Be6+ Nxe6 25. dxe6 Black knight is driven further away from the defence of the king since black cannot capture on e6 with the queen. 25... Nb6 26. O-O-O Bxc3 27. bxc3 Nc4 28. Rh6 e2 Black hopes for 29. Rdh1 Ne3 30. Qd3 Nf5 31. Rxh7 Qxh7 32. Rxh7 Kxh7 and avoids getting mated 29. Qxe2 b5 30. Rdh1 Qg7 31. Qd3 Rb7 32. g6 Rfb8 33. Rxh7 Qf6 34. e7

Black is helpless after 34...Nb6 (to stop Qd5+) 35. Rh8 Qxh8 36.
Rxh8 Kxh8 37. Qxd6. If 34...Rxe7 then 35. Qd5+ Re6 36. Rh8+ Kg7 37. R1h7+ Kxg6
38.Qh5 mate

1-0

Jimmy Liew - Nicholas Chan

In this position I came up with a spectacular  20. Rxf7 This is a big gamble trusting my instinct that there must be something over the board although I could not see it right there.  Nicholas declined with Qxb2 To rub it in, I had spent a considerable amount of time whereas he just took a few minutes. Perhaps he trusted me too much.  However the computer found some very nice moves to support the attack. The complications start with 20....Bd4+ (Black must block the white queen from getting to d5 where it delivers mate on f7 or g8) 21. Kh1 Kxf7 22 Bc4+ Kf8 23. Qh5!! ( I did not see this move on the board only considering 23. Qf3+? Nf6 24. Rf1 when white really does not have enough for the attack e.g 24....Ne5 and black is already safe) 23... Bf2! (the only move to prevent mate!)

24. Rxf2 Re1+ 25. Bf1 Rbe8 (Necessary as white threatened Rxf6 and Bxe1) 26. d7 Rd8 27. Qxh7 (Now 27.Rxf6 no longer works because after 27...Qxf6 the bishop on f1 is hanging.) Ne7 28. Qh4 (Threaten Rxf6 again) Re6 29. Qh5+ Kf8 30. h3  (Escape square so the bishop on f1 can move) Rxd7 31. Bc4 and white has more than sufficient compensation in the form of the exposed black king.
Qxb2 21. Rxd7 Qxc3 22. Rc1 The engine likes 22. Bxe5 Qxe5 23. Bf3 which looks better for black as the position is simplified.

Qe3+ 23. Bf2 Bxh2+ 24. Kf1 Rf8 25. Bc4+ Kh8 26. Rf7 Rxf7 27. Bxf7 Qf4 28. d7 Rd8 29. Be6 Qf6 30. Bh3 Rf8 31. Rc2 Bg3 32. Qe1 ?  The only move was 32.Rd2 Bc7 (33...Bxf2 34. d8=Q attacking the queen on f6 renders the discovered check ineffective. 33. Qf3 Qe5 34. Qd5 Qa1+ 35.Rd1 Qf6 and white has some compensation in the advanced d-pawn.

 32... Ne5 (Black threatens 33...Nd3 winning material.) 33. Rd2 Nc6 {Suddenly it is over.
The d-pawn is neutralized and black just swaps all major pieces to win the
ending.} 34. Kg1 Bxf2+ 35. Rxf2 Qxf2+ 36. Qxf2 Rxf2 37. Kxf2 Kg8 38. Ke3 Kf7
39. Ke4 Ke7 40. Kd5 Nb8 41. Kxc5 Nxd7+ 42. Kd4 Kd6 43. Bf5 h6 44. Bc2 b6 45.
Ke4 g6 46. Kd4 Ne5 47. Be4 b5 48. axb5 axb5 49. Bc2 Nc6+ 50. Ke3 g5 51. Ke4 Kc5
52. Bd1 Nd4 53. Ke5 Kc4 54. Kf6 Kc3 55. Kg6 b4 56. Kxh6 Nc2 57. Kxg5 (57. Bh5
b3 58. Bf7 b2 59. Ba2 Nb4 60. Bb1 Kd2 61. Kxg5 Kc1 62. Bf5 Nc2 {is the
standard win in this ending}) 57... b3 58. g4 b2 0-1