Last qualifier for World Mind Games

The last and final qualifier for the World Mind Games started tonight at 10:00 PM. The event finished some 2.5 hours later. The top 15 joins the other qualifiers for the Candidates Tournament which will start on October 27.

I was quite lucky to make the top 15 with 6.5 points. Both Singapore's IM Goh Wei Ming (6 points) and IM Mok Tze Meng (5 points) did not qualify. I felt this was one of the toughest qualifiers with several GMs and IMs taking part most likely since this was the last chance to qualify.

My highlight was beating GM Maxim Dlugy in the second round when he overlooked an in-between move which lost material. I lost two games, one to Wei Ming and drew a winning game against Mok.

I was woefully lacking in the openings but made up for it with some tactical play, honed after playing thousands of bullet chess!


You can read Junior Tay's account of the other qualifiers here and here and here.