2014 K.L. Open (Part 1)

A little story about how I got to play in the K.L. Open. Peter Long started a K.L. Open event on Facebook. I clicked on "Going" meaning that I will go and watch the games. Next thing I know, my name is in the list of participants and Peter already announced my entry on his blog. Not wanting to embarrass him with a retraction, I went along even though I am not in my best form. This can be seen in the recent National Championships where I finished out of the top three.

In round one, I had an interesting rook ending against an unrated Indonesian

Jimmy Liew - Ferdinand Hutabarat

Black has control of the only open file. However, white has the pawn breaks g4 and d5 so the initiative lies with him. Black's last chance for a draw was  52...Rf1 taking up a position behind the white passed pawn.






Round 2 was another rook ending against the Indian GM Laxman. Black has the situation under control and with the potential outside passed pawn on the queen-side, there should be little to fear.

GM Laxman - IM Jimmy Liew

In round three my first loss to GM Richard Bitoon. Not much to say except the grandmaster understanding of the middle-game was far superior. A couple of bad moves and I drifted into a lost position. Round four was yet another rook ending against the Singaporean kid, Cyrus Low who is much stronger than his rating indicated.

Cyrus Low - IM Jimmy Liew

An extra pawn in a rook ending should be an easy win, so I thought and I played my next move without my thinking which probably threw away the win or at least made it very difficult.