National Closed - leader falls again

The 2013 National Chess Closed is being held in University Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu.The nine round Swiss is is held from 28th May to 2nd June with two rounds, one in the morning at 9:00 AM and the other in the afternoon at 3:00 PM. The final round will start tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM.

The leader, Wong Jianwen was defeated by Aron Teh in the pen-ultimate round. The former over-looked an exchange and he struggled into a R+P v B+P ending until ninety moves. Aron showed some good technique to bring in the full point.

Aron Teh - Wong Jianwen, Round 8

White needs to bring his king to g6 to win.

1. Rc1 Kf4 2. Rf1+ Kg4 3. Kf7 Kg5 4. Ke6 Kg4 5. Rg1+ Kf4 6. Rh1 Kg4 7. Rh8 Kf4 8. Rf8

The white rook wants to give itself for the bishop but black will have none of it

8... Bb2 9. Rd8 !

Aron sees the winning plan

9... Bf6 10. Rd5 Kg4 11. Kf7 Kg5 12. Rb5

Zugzwang! If the bishop moves, white pushes his pawn f6+ and wins

12... Kg4 13. Kg6 

Objective achieved! The next step is to drive the black king further away and capture the black pawn on g7

13... Kf4 14. Rb8 Ke4 15. Rf8 Bb2 16. Kg5 Bc3 17. Rf7 Bb2 18. Kg4 Bf6 19. Ra7 Ke5 20. Ra6 Kd5 21.Re6 Bd8 22. Kh5 Ba5 23. Kg6 Bc3 24. Re7 Bb2 25. Rxg7 1-0

As we go into the final round tomorrow morning, the lead is shared by Fong Yit San and Aron Teh with 6.5 points Incidentally these are the very two I picked  as the ones to watch for 2013 and not Mark Siew.

Following half a point behind are Wong Jianwen and Zulkifli Muhd Syazwan with six points. One of these four will be the 2013 national champion. Yeoh Li Tian dropped out of the race when he drew his eight round game. So tomorrow will be an exciting finale.


The top three pairings will decide the champion -


 

Jianwen still have a chance to be champion if he wins and Aron loses and Yit San does not win. Good luck to everyone!

There is no such excitement over at the women's section. Nur Nabila has a one point lead over Nur Najiha who in turn has a one point lead over a group of five pointers. The interest will centre on who will take the third and last qualifying spot for the Malaysian Masters.