SEA Games Blindfold, Round 2

There are ten players in this event from five countries. We will play a round robin of nine round with two rounds per day at 3:00 P.M. and 5:00 PM. In the first round, players from same country are paired. The only players to fight it out were Malaysia and Philippines. All others drew quickly. Results of round one

GM John Paul Gomez 1 - 0 GM Darwin Laylo
IM Lioe Dede 0.5-0.5 IM Purnama Tirta Chandra
IM Mok Tze Meng 0 - 1 IM Jimmy Liew
GM Nguyen Anh Dung 0.5 - 0.5 GM Le Quang Liem
IM Myo Naing 0.5 - 0.5 GM Zaw Win Lay

Results of Round 2

GM Darwin Laylo 1- 0 Zaw Win Lay
GM Le Quang Liem 1-0  IM Myo Naing
IM Jimmy Liew 0.5 - 0.5 GM Nguyen Anh Dung
IM Purnama Tirta Chandra 0.5 0.5  IM Mok Tze Meng
GM John Paul Gomez 1 - 0  IM Lioe Dede


In this type of event there are bound to be
some incidents. In round two , IM Mok claimed a three-fold repetition draw which opponent disputed. Even after the arbiter had determined that the claim was valid,  the Indonesian master still did not agree. Arbiter actually had to verbally warn him that the decision was final.

There are a few interesting rules in this totally new event. The time control is twenty minutes with twenty second increments from move one.

For serious rule infractions a player will be given a yellow card similar as in football. After two yellow cards, the third infraction will be a red card which will result in the loss of the game.

Players sit at a empty chess board. They write their move on a piece of paper in long form notation (e.g e2-e4). Doing otherwise will result in a verbal warning. The second time the player will be shown a yellow card. The player on the move shows the move to the opponent and passes it to the game controller (there are two controllers for each game). The controllers verify the moves and play it on a chess board at the side (not visible to the players). An illegal move results in a yellow card.

Players are not allowed to get up from the board until the game is over. This is actually to prevent them from getting a view of the actual position on the chess board besides them though I doubt anyone actually would want to in view of the short time control.

Standings after Round 2


2.0 points
GM John Paul Gomez 

1.5 points
IM Jimmy Liew
IM Purnama Tirta Chandra
GM Nguyen Anh Dung
GM Le Quang Liem


1.0 points

GM Darwin Laylo

0.5 points
IM Mok Tze Meng
 IM Lioe Dede
 GM Zaw Win Lay
  IM Myo Naing

Round 3 pairings.

IM Lioe Dede vs. GM Darwin Laylo
IM Mok Tze Meng vs. GM John Paul Gomez
GM Nguyen Anh Dung  vs. IM Purnama Tirta Chandra
IM Myo Naing vs IM Jimmy Liew
GM Zaw Win Lay vs. GM Le Quang Liem

IM Jimmy Liew - IM Mok, Jimmy wins

GM Nguyen Anh Dung - IM Jimmy Liew, draw

IM Mok - IM Purnama, draw