Asian Continental - Personal report

The 2013 Asian Continental ended on Sunday 26th May. The final results is pretty much covered by Peter here. Kevin has also mentioned he will report at his blog. Tables do not tell the full story so this is my personal account.

Arriving at the airport in Manila, I was not too surprised that there was no one to meet me. The airport is not the main airport in Manila and I figured the logistics person only went to the main Ninoy Aquino airport. I was ready for this eventuality but to my dismay I found my mobile roaming did not work. Luckily there was wireless available and I quickly got in touch with Peter using Whatsapp. It turned out that Peter was in Australia but he still called the local logistic person. A strange two to one communication process with the local guy talking to Peter by phone while I used my wireless connection. Finally Peter informed me to "look for them and show some chess moves". I pondered on that for a while. What should I do? Make like a horse and knight? (Ok, enough with the humor and get on to the chess).

First round I met the Filipino GM John P. Gomez. I allowed my bishop to be exchanged by his knight. Not a good idea against these grandmasters. Before I let, IM Mas commented to me that this is one tournament where you can lose to a grandmaster and drop down twenty boards and still meet another grandmaster. This time I thought I'll take the fight to the GM.

Round 2 , Dao Thien Hai - Jimmy Liew, White won

White could have played 23.Qb7+ Kd7 24. Ne4 bxa5 25. b6 Na6 26. Kh1 Rhf8 when black is able to hold. Instead I was surprised by  

23. Nf1

Now 23...Qe4 24. Nd2 and white can go back into the line in the notes above. I decided not to allow this and played the other queen move which turned out to be losing.  

23... Qa3

23... Qe4 24. Nd2 Qe3 25. Qb7+ Kd7 as in the note above

 24. Qb7+ Kd7 25. Nb3

This move shows that the black queen is out of play on a3. Black is lost as white will just open up lines against the exposed black king. These grandmasters are good!  

26. e3 d3 27. Rd1 Nd7 28. Rxd3 Nxe5 29. Rxd8 Rxd8 30.Qe4 f6 31. Nd4 Rxd4

A mis-calculation in time trouble.

 31... Ng5 32. Nc6+ Ke8 33. Qf5 Nxc6 34. bxc6 Qd3 35. Qxd3 Rxd3 36. Rc2 $14) 32. exd4 Ng5 33. Qe3 Qxe3 34. Nxe3 Nef3+ 35. Kg2 Ne1+ 36. Kf1 Nd3 37. Rd2 1-0 

Round 3, Jimmy Liew - Manuel Efren

 

White has the good knight versus black bishop. To win, white must penetrate with the queen but the squares, c6, c7 and c8 are pretty much covered 37. b5 Kh7 38. Qb4 Kg7 39. a4 ? 39. Qa3 was a simple way to penetrate 39... Kf7 40. g3 ? 40. Qf8+ Kxf8 41. Nxg6+ wins easily. Still I managed to win after a long fight.

Round 4 , Jimmy Liew - Nguyen van huy , draw

With time trouble looming on the horizon I decided to give up the two bishops to reach what I thought should be a winning bishop ending. 34.Bxd5 exd5 35. Be3 Bb8 36. b4 a6! Otherwise white plays b5 and ties the bishop to the defence of the pawn on a7 37. a4 Ke6 

 

I had expected to win this position in the following manner - 38. b5 axb5 39. a5 Kd7 40. a6 Kc6 41. a7 Bxa7 42. Bxa7 and the g-pawn wins for white. But with the position in front of me I realized black just keeps his king on the king-side and plays ...Kg5 to win the g-pawn. With three more moves to the time-control on 40, I played aimless moves.  

38. Bd4 Bg3 39. Bc3 Kd6 40. Bf6 Be1 41. Bc3 Bg3 42. Bd4 Kc6 43. Bc3 1/2-1/2

 In fact from the diagram above, white has an easy win by giving up the g-pawn and penetrate to b7 with his king. 38. a5! Ke5 39. Bg1 Ke6 (Or 39... Kf6 40. b5 axb5 41. Kc3 Kg5 42. Kb4 Kxg4 43. Kxb5 with pretty much the same play) 40. b5 axb5 41. a6 Kf6 ( 41... b4 42. Bd4 Kd6 43. Kc2) 42. Kc3 Kg5 43. Kb4 Kxg4 44. Kxb5 Kf3 45. Kc6 g5 46. Kb7 wins.

My round five game is covered here.

In round six I met a local Filipino chess coach.

Round 6, Jimmy Liew - Randy Randy Segarra, draw

 After a bad opening, I recovered and even managed to win a pawn.


18...Ncxd5 19. Nxd5 Nxd5 ??

The only move was 19... Qxd5 20. Qxd5 Nxd5 21. Be4 Rxe4 22. fxe4 Nf6 Black has compensation after capturing on e4

20. Re1?

I had a momentary chess blindness when I calculated 20. Be4 Bb7 21. Rd1 Nxe3+ 22.
Bxe3 Bxe4 23. Bxc5 Bxf3+ and I thought I had to take with the king when I
will get mated. However the queen is now cleared to take on f3, 24. Qxf3 wins.

After 20. Re1 the game was drawn after I contained black's attack and reached an ending.

Round 7, Tran Tuan Minh-Jimmy Liew, white won

28....h5 ? I thought to stabilize the king-side before starting play on the queen-side. I did not actually overlook white's next move but considered it not dangerous. How wrong I was! 29. Rxd6 Bxd6 30. Rxd6 Rc7 31.Kf4 Nf8 32. Ke3 Ne6 33. Bxe6 I never expected white to give up his bishop and I reacted terribly. 33..Rxe6 ?? I was still in middle-game mode and only thinking of active play for my rooks. 33...fxe6 gives white only a slight advantage in the end-game. 34. Rd8+ Kh7 35. Ra8 Rb7 36. b3 Rb4 37. Rxa5 c4 38. bxc4 Rxc4 39. Kd3 Rb4 40. Rxh5+ Kg8 41. Rc5 It is clear my plan has gone wrong and white has a winning material advantage. Round eight was a horrible game where I blundered a piece after the opening. I can only say that I attended the final FIDE trainers session that morning which was followed by an exam which ended at 3:00PM and then went straight to the tournament!

It is not easy to realize white's advantage (B v N).

 24... Qg6 ? 

 24... Qg1+ 25. Kc2 Nb6 26. Bg4+ Kc7 27. Rxd8 Kxd8 28. Qxb7 Qc5+ 29. Kb1 Qg1+ with perpetual  

25. Bg4+ Kc7 26. Bf5 Qc6 27. Rxd8 Qxe4+ 28. Bxe4 Kxd8 29. Bxb7

White has not won yet because his pawn on e5 is indefensible.  

29...Nb6 30. Kc2 Nc4 31. Kc3 Nxe5 32. Kd4 f6 33. Kd5 ?

This loses a pawn which both players did not notice  

33.. Ke7

33... Nd3 34. b3 Nc1 picks up one of white's pawns  

34. b4 h5 35. a4 g5 36. a5 Kd7 37. b5 Kc7 38. Ba8 Kb8 39. Bc6 Kc7 40. Ke6 !

I calculated the long sequence leading to a straightforward win.

 40...Nxc6 41. bxc6 Kxc6 42. Kxf6 Kb5 43. Kxg5 Kxa5 44. g4

My opponent was expecting 44. Kxh5 Kb4 45. g4 a5 46. g5 a4 47. g6 a3 48. g7 a2 49. g8=Q a1=Q with some practical chances for him.

44...hxg4 45. Kxg4 Kb4 46. h4 a5 47. h5 a4 48. h6 a3 49. h7 a2 50. h8=Q Kb3 51. Qa1 1-0

So my final score was +2 =2 -5 for total of three points out of nine.