Malaysia is 11th in World Youth Olympiad

Malaysia just missed out on the 10th placing but an 11th spot is still a very good result. The standings are based on game points but if  using match points, we would be 7th! Congratulations to the team, Wong JianWen, Yeoh Li Tian , Elgin Lee, Yeap Eng Chiam and Roshan. Also not forgetting the head of delegation Mr. Lee Ewe Ghee who guided our young players so successfully.

We were lucky to win the final match. It should really have gone the other way.

Roshan returned with a bronze medal for his performance on the reserve board. He is ELO rated 1886 but personally I rate his performance in the 2000s. He won five games and lost two for a 71.5% result.

Russia won the gold 1.5 points ahead of Armenia which took the silver. Iran is the surprise bronze medallists edging out Azerbaijan on tie-breaks.

Highlights from Round 10

Li Tian played the white side of a Scotch Opening very passively. Then he got into a lost double rook ending. The following position was reached -

Yeoh Li Tian - MariusAbramciuc

White has just played 42. Rc2 attacking the black c-pawn. After 42...Rb4 and ...b5 the black pawns are unstoppable. However

42...Rc5??? 43. Rd7+ (Oops...black must be kicking himself, the king has no escape squares)  Rd5 44. Rd2+ Kc3 45. R2xd5 winning a whole rook.

Oleg Gorbanovsky - Yeap Eng Chiam

 White just played 48 Kg4. Eng Chiam grabs the chance to exchange rooks.

48....Rd6! 49. Kf5 Rxg6 50. hxg6 Ke7 51. Ke5 Bg7+ 52. Kd5 a5!

This looks like a terrible move but Eng Chiam has a clever idea in mind.
53. Kc6 Bd4!

The point is that the b-pawn is poisoned e.g 54. Kxb6?? c4+ and it is black who wins. Without the possibility of winning the b-pawn, white has no chance and the game was drawn after some moves.

Roshan - Egor Procop

White has just played 17. Nd6 . Now black should give the exchange with 17...Bxe5 18. Nxe8 Be6! (the knight is not going anywhere). with two pawns and good attacking chances on the white king. Instead

17...Rf8? 18. Bc4 Bxe5 19. Nxf7 

Black thought for a long time here perhaps realizing he is lost!  19...Bd4+ 20. Qxd4 cxd4 21. Nxd8 Rxd8 22. Bg5 and surprisingly black must lose material. e.g 22...Rd6 23. Bf4 or 22. Rd7 Bh6! and the mate on f8 cannot be met.

19...Bxh2+ 20. Kxh2 Qh4+ 21. Kg1 Qxc4 22. Nh6+ Kg7 23. Rxf8 Kxf8 24. Qf3+ 

The black king must run for his life. 24... Bf5 25. Nxf5 gxf5 26. Qxf5+ Kg7 27. Qg5+ Kf7 28. Bd2! bringing out the rook 28...Rg8 29. Qh5+ and the black king will suffer with all white pieces trained on him.

Ke7 25. Bg5+ Kd7 

25... Kd6 26. Nf7+ Kc7 27. Bd8+ followed by a knight fork on king and queen.


26. Rd1 Kc6 27. Nf7 

The simple 27. b3 wins a piece straight away.


Kb6 28. a5+! Ka7 29. Rxd5 Be6 30. Rxc5 Qb4 31. Qe3 Ka8 32. Nd8 Bf5 33. Rc7 h6 34. Nc6 1-0

Malaysia beats Moldova 2.5-1.5

Malaysia has just beaten Moldova 2.5-1.5. The individual scores -

Wong JianWen lost Iovcov Valerii
Yeoh Li Tian bt Abramciuc Marius
Yeap Eng Chiam drew Gorbanovsky Oleg
Roshan Singh bt Procop Egor

Roshan has more to celebrate as he also won the bronze medal on the reserve board. This was an added bonus as he was quite far down the standings at the mid-point. However I think he won his last three games so it is a deserving one.

We were quite lucky in this round. Li Tian was lost in a double rook ending until his opponent blundered away a full rook.

We have to wait for the full results but according to my observations this result means that Malaysia have a chance to be in the top ten though it is likely there will be a tie. Well done, Malaysia.

Malaysia versus Moldova (Updated)

Malaysia is fielding JianWen, Li Tian, Eng Chiam and Roshan. Strange to rest Elgin who was the only one not to lose in round nine. Even though Eng Chiam won in round nine, he was not well. Hopefully he has recovered by now.

After an hour and half of play, my quick assessment for the round.

World Youth U16 Olympiad - Round 9

Malaysia took half point off the strong Russian team thus losing 0.5-3.5.

The draw came from Elgin Lee who drew with FM Terentjev. The rest, Li Tian, JianWen and Eng Chiam all lost to their higher rated opponents.

Malaysia is now sharing the 11-14th place. Russia takes back the lead when Armenia suffered a shock defeat of 1.5-2.5 to Kazakhstan. With only one more round to go, Russia now leads Armenia with 1.5 points and looks likely to take the gold.

Malaysia will meet Moldova in the final round today which will start earlier than usual at 10:00 AM (3:00 PM in Malaysia). I expect our boys to win this match. A big win could then place them within  the top 10.

Eng Chiam's round eight win

[Event "World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad"]
[Site "Kocaeli"]
[Date "2011.10.25"]
[Round "8"]
[White "G.Burduli (GEO)"]
[Black "E.C.Yeap (MAS)"]
[Result "0-1"]
[PlyCount "116"]
[EventDate "2011.10.29"]


1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 a6 3. c4 Qc7 4. Nc3 e6 5. d4 d6 6. Be2 Nf6 7. O-O Be7 8. Bg5
Nbd7 9. h3 h6 10. Be3 e5 11. dxe5 dxe5 12. Nd5 Nxd5 13. exd5 f5 14. Ne1 

The knight has no prospects from this square. It is better to play 14. Nd2 O-O  15. f4 e4  16. Rc1  Bd6 17. Qe1  b6 18. Bh5 Nf6  19. Bg6

14... O-O 15. f4

White is fumbling around unsure what to do for the next few moves. 15. f3  followed by Qc2 and finding some way to re-activate the knight on e1 looked better

15... Bd6  16. fxe5 Nxe5 17. Nf3  Bd7 18. Bd2 Rae8 19. Bc3 Ng6 

Oh What a Night!

And what a night last night was. It was worth staying up to follow our sweet victory over the Georgians. Right now I got this song playing in my head right. All we  need now is for  Ilham to re-pen the lyrics accordingly :)

Malaysia beats Georgia 2.5-1.5 !

Malaysia has beaten Georgia in the eight round of the World Youth U16 Olympiad in Izmit, Turkey.

On the first board, JianWen's queen got too adventurous and found herself trapped in enemy territory.

Roshan Singh equalled the score when he beat Georgia's N.Khormeriki. Roshan demonstrated the black square weaknesses around the black king. Exchanging into a opposite colored bishop with major pieces, black had no defence to the march of the h-pawn. Nice play from Roshan.

Elgin Lee had a big advantage but somehow slipped into a queen and bishop versus queen and knight ending. Still he had the advantage of an outside passed pawn but agreed a draw in the position below.

Elgin Lee-Snadirashvili

Black's only chance is to create threats against the white king otherwise white will just push his passed pawn. 31...h3+ 32. Kh1 Nd3! 33. Bg1 (33.Qxd3 Qb7+ 34 Kh2 Qg2 mate) Qc2 and black have sufficient counter-chances e.g 34. b6 Qd1! (Threatens discovered attack on the white queen) 35. Kh2? Qe2+ 36. Kh1 h2! 37. Bxh2  Qf1+ 38. Bg1 Nf2+ 39 Kh2 Qh3 mate. So a draw was not a bad result.

Eng Chiam had the better game but was in serious time trouble (at one point down to two minutes against opponent's half hour). Despite this, he managed to play extremely well  exchange a pair of rooks followed by the queen to reach a bishop pair against bishop and knight ending. His opponent ended up in more serious time trouble (!) and started losing pawns.Eng Chiam converted the win easily. Amazing.

With Eng Chiam's win, Malaysia beat Georgia 2.5-1.5. Although Georgia is seeded 11th just below Malaysia, this can be considered an upset as Georgia has a long history of chess compared with Malaysia. Well done boys!

Malaysia draws Switzerland!

Round 7 of the World Youth U16 Olympiad is ended. Malaysia has pulled off a draw with the higher-rated Switzerland.

On board 2, Yeoh Li Tian lost badly after playing a Berlin Defence. It proved a wrong choice of opening as he seemed not to understand how to defend this opening. Li Tian now drops to third in the board standings.

Roshan leveled the score with a win when his higher-rated opponent over-estimated his position.

Chess craftsman

India has many skilled craftsmen of wooden chess sets and India is largest exporter of such sets. I know that wooden sets and boards are also made in Poland, Italy and Spain. But I never expected Morocco to have such a skilled craftsman.

It amazes me how he can carve a chess piece in just a few minutes with such primitive tools. That tool that he is using to turn the wood is called a lathe. Pay close attention because at one point he fashioned a wooden ring around the chess piece out of that single piece of wood.

World Youth U16 Olympiad - Round 6

Malaysia put up a creditable score against Kazahkstan losing 1.5-2.5.

The sole win was posted by Yeoh Li Tian and Wong JianWen did us proud by drawing against his higher rated opponent. Sadly Eng Chiam lost his game as did Elgin.

Malaysia now drops down to shared 9-10th placing. We meet England Switzerland in the next round. I predict a win loss though it will be a narrow one.

The final position of Li Tian's game is interesting. I am not sure if Black resigned or lost on time

Black to move

Despite having the move - and a check at that - black cannot avoid losing material.White is threatening 1. Ne6+ forking the bishop or 1. Ne3+ forking the rook. Play might continue 1...Rxg2+ 2. Kh3 Re2 3. Ne6+ and wins the bishop

Today is a free day and rounds 7 and 8 will resume on Saturday. Standings after round six below.

World Youth U16 Olympiad - Halfway through

At the half-way mark, Malaysian boys are doing quite well. After five rounds, they now have 12 points.and tied for 5-7th placing!

Individual results -

Name	ELO	South Africa	India	UAE-A	Syria	Turkey	Kazakhstan	Total	% Score
Wong, Jianwen	1960	0		0.5	0			0.5	16.66667
Yeoh, Li Tian	2139	1	0	1	1	1		4	80
Lee, Kah Meng Elgin	1984	1	0	0.5		1		2.5	62.5
Yeap, Eng Chiam	2150	1	0		1	1		3	75
Ajeet Singh Roshan	1886		0	1	0	1		2	50
		3	0	3	2	4		12

Both Li Tian and Eng Chiam are doing well enough to be in contention for board prize though there are still five more rounds to go and anything can happen. Nevertheless here are the standings

Malaysia meets a tough team in the sixth round, Kazakhstan. This will be an important round for Eng Chiam and Li Tian as their opponents are in second place in the board standings just ahead of them. If they defeat them, then both our boys will move into second placing :)

Malaysia beats Turkey 4-0

As I predicted, our boys won their games very comfortably. The best game was played by Eng Chiam. In a middle-game with opposite coloured bishops and major pieces middle-game, he made two line clearing sacrifices to conjure up an attack against the black king.

Yeap Eng Chiam - G.N. Guney

From the diagram, Eng Chiam sac a pawn for attack.

27.c6! bxc6 28. Qh5+  Kf8 29. Rad1 Qc8 30. Rxd8 Qxd8 31. Rd1 Qc8 32. f5! 

A second line opening pawn sac finishes the game.

32...Bxf5 33. Bh6+ Rg7 34. Rf1 Bg4

34...e6 35. g4  Bh7 36. Rxf6+ Kg8 37. Bxg7 Kxg7 38.Rf7 wins.

35. Qg6 Bf3+ 36. Rxf3 exf3 37. Bxg7 and black resigns.

World Youth U16 Olympiad - Round 4

After four rounds, Malaysia have a 50% score and tied for 12th-16th place. In the fourth round,we drew 2-2 with Syria. Yeoh Li Tian and Yeap Eng Chiam delivered the wins. As I said, I expect this two to deliver the points. Especially Eng Chiam on board four should be very effective except against the very top teams.

Round 5 is now in progress and Malaysia is paired with one of the three Turkish teams. The Turkey team is much lower-rated than our players so on paper we should win by a comfortable margin.


JianWen is resting in the on-going round 5 match so Li Tian moves up to board one. He has a slight edge over his Turkish opponent.and I think he should convert into a win. All the other boards are still in the early middle-game and not clear.

World Youth U16 Olympiad

Malaysia's representatives are Wong JianWen, Yeoh Li Tian, Elgin Lee, Yeap Eng Chiam and Roshan Singh. This is also the board order. The team left early Sunday (23rd October) morning. They had to play the first round the very next day.

In round one we were paired with the South African "B" team. On first board, JianWen lost his game but Li Tian, Elgin and Eng Chiam all won to give Malaysia a 3-1 win.

Most of the time the top board will have very difficult task and it seems no different here. The next round tonight will see our boys meeting India who have an IM on first board. However I believe our boys can pull off some upsets on the other boards. My guess is that Li Tian and Eng Chiam will score points for the team in round two. Hopefully JianWen and Elgin can hold against their opponents.

Lets think about it and then do it my way

Time to give the chess a rest and share some funny videos.

"Lets think about it and then do it my way". Priceless!

"You dont even feed my fish"....LOL

Carlsen wins Grand Slam

In the final round, Carlsen drew with Nakamura and Ivancuk with Aronian so the top placings were unchanged. According to the rules a blitz tie-breaker had to be played to decide a champion.

The first game was drawn. In the second , Carlsen had a promising position and converted. Thus he is the champion of the 2011 Grand Slam.

Anand managed to beat Vallejo to put the Spaniard back in the cellar.

Tension in Bilbao

The last round of the Grand Slam in Bilbao is about to start in two hours time. Carlsen and Ivancuk are sharing the lead so anything can still happen. Despite losing the first round, Carlsen has come back into contention beating Ivancuk twice. No mean feat there. World Champion Anand is in an unfamiliar place - last spot!

In the pen-ultimate round all games were decisive with Carlsen beat Ivancuk and Aronian overcame the current world champion , Anand. Surprisingly Anand lost in only twenty-five moves. This game should be worth studying although I do not have time to go into that yet.

Unmasked again

I could not be bothered to do the research. Not when someone keeps moving the goal posts and doing that much mis-direction.

Nothing more can be said and  nothing more need be said. But thanks to Chess Ninja anyway, beside being informative the post is full of humor.

Insofar 2nd Scholarship Open

The second edition of this event was held today at PKNS Complex in Shah Alam. A total of 16 participants which was actually the total that could be accomodated at the venue, HBM Professional Training Centre. We played in a small room and on account it is a week-end there was no air-conditioning!

Results

Champion   IM Jimmy Liew
2nd             Abdul Haq Mohammed
3rd             Check Kin Keuw

Other prizes include :
Veteran        Dr. Wahid Karim
Best 1600    Mohd Raimi Rahim
Best 1500    Bustaman Harun
Best Lady    Raja Noraizah

Truth shall set you free

Raymond Siew likes to quote quotes. Let me also quote a quote he quoted.

"The truth shall set you free"

Two of his favourite lies which he never tire of bringing up every three posting. Firstly, that I pressured Lim Zhuo Ren - "attacked him until he broke down" to write an email to disassociate himself from the likes of Raymond Siew. Secondly, that  I offered LZR a "deal" in the SEA Games selection in return.

Steve Jobs passed away

Sadly, I have learnt that Steve Jobs has just passed away from pancreatic cancer. He was only 56 years old. As a young man he created the Apple company out of his garage. A real visionary he was the mastermind behind such iconic Apple products such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes,


You can read more about the man here.

This speech still moves me today.

What is Article 10.2

A reader has commented in the shoutbox that I should apologize to Najib for my mistake here. This post is created so that we may discuss and debate on Article 10.2.

For the record, before that post was written I had asked Najib's permission. If he did not want me to, I would not have published that. I  consider him a friend and have great respect for him as someone who always try to do the right thing - not easy in this complex world that we live in where the lines between right and wrong are constantly being blurred. We have also discussed this incident privately in emails and understand and respect each other's stand.

Ivancuk and wife robbed

Quite sad to read about this in ChessBase today.

They were robbed at gunpoint while getting into the taxi that were to take them to the airport. Worse, Ivancuk's wife lost her passport which meant she could not accompany him to Bilbao.

The games are to resume in Bilbao tomorrow. Ivancuk is currently leading the tournament.

1st Qin Huangdao Open

While we have been pre-occupied with the on-going Grand Slam in Sao Paolo (now on the way to Bilbao, Spain), a strong open tournament has been going on in China. All the top Chinese are there as expected e.g. Bu XiangZhi, Wang Yue, Li Chao etc.

In the fourth round, the recently crowned Malaysian Open champion Li ShiLong made a major scalp. His opponent is none other than the Vietnamese prodigy and 2717 ELO rated Le Quang Liem. The game is quite good.

Unmasked

The madman continues his agenda of "divide and conquer".

He invited me to unmask him and I have. Most of you will know by now but for the new-comers here are the lies and hypocrisy. If someone lied and cheated, can we trust him not to do so again? Think.

Claimed Lim Zhuo Ren and Sumant as his students. But both have made it clear in black and white that they are not. I always wondered what someone who has not pushed a pawn or pressed the button on a chess clock, what can they teach to real chess-players?

All comments which are unfavourable (and all are) do not see the light of day on his blog to make it seem that he has a lot of supporters.

All these evidence are present for those who  can see.  But he can resort to innuendos and lies without supporting evidence. I said it before and let me say it again. I still invite anybody who have a shred of evidence to prove that I "attacked" any "training program etc etc etc" to come forth and show everyone. 

People who lied and supported cheating have no moral grounds to even mention the term "moral compass". Or do they?

Wall Street protest

Thousands turn up for a peaceful street protest. Police turn up in full force. Eventually the police starts arresting random protestors. Other protestors try unsuccessfully to grab onto their colleagues from being dragged away. They lock arms and chant slogans "let them go, let them go" and "the people united, will never be defeated".

Another street protest in Malaysia? Nope, this happened and is still happening in America, "land of the free".  I was surprised to learn that the protest had been going on since September 17th. Surprised because I have hardly read about it in our main stream media. I found it out when browsing on the WWW.

Kasparov, My Story

The DVD has been posted on Youtube here .

Not sure if this is infringing some copyright. Probably will be taken off Youtube once someone notices. Meanwhile, enjoy it while you can.

I have gone through a few of the videos. Very good insights on the psychology of the game and interesting reactions from Kasparov on the great players such as Karpov,Smyslov, Petrosian and Spassky. And the games he presented were also very interesting and the way Kasparov explains them are also very educational. Quite a lot to learn from these videos. Rather than listening to the madman and nobody in our midst writing nonsense better to study these.

GM explains rook ending

Here David Navarra explains his rook ending against  Radek Wojtaszek at the Tata Steel tournament this year. Very instructive and entertaining.


At one point he mentions he wanted to go to the rest room but his opponent played too quickly for that :)