Round 6 : Great games and Malaysia wins again

There were some great games being played last night in round six of the Tromso Olympiad. First let me get the Malaysian games out of the way.

My prediction of the results of the Malaysian games was right on as Malaysia beat Namibia 3.5-0.5. The only thing I got wrong was the results of Aron Teh and Fadzil Nayan's games. I am not sure where he went wrong but Aron got into some difficulties and was lucky to reach a drawn R vs B ending.


IM Lim Yee Weng also had a pretty end with a mating attack while Sumant easily won with some tactics which his opponent totally over-looked.

IM Lim Yee Weng - L. Mueller

Black has just played 26...Rc4 and white finished beautifully.

27. Qe7 Bxa4 28. Nf4 Rc6 29. Qe8+ Kh7 30. Ng5+ hxg5 31. hxg5 and mate on h1 is unavoidable

Fadzil's opponent had things under control until  he gave up his bishop for the black knight on c6. The white knight on the queen side was totally out of the action and Fadzil just piled his pieces on the open f-file. The move 30...Bd4!! would have won the queen after 31. Rd1 Rf1+ 32. Rxf1 Qxe7. His opponent preferred to be mated instead.

Handjaba - Fadzil Nayan

After 19. Qxf7 white has the upper hand but a draw will still be logical result. White wanted more and played

19. Qb5 Bh4 20. Bxc6? bxc6 21. Qxc6 Bxf2+ 22. Kh1 Qh5 23. Qd5  Rf4 The threat is ...Qxh2 with mate soon. 24. h3 Qh4 25. Qe6 Rf6 26. Qe7 Rdf8 27. Rxd6 e4 28. Qd8+ Kh7 29. Nc1 Bd4! 30. Rxf6 Qh1+ 31. Kh2 Bg1+ 32. Kh1 Bf2+

A quick glance at our women's where they were playing the strong Germans. Puteri Rifqah did very well to hold a draw against WGM Sarah Hoolt  rated 458 points higher. This was the only half point as the rest of the team lost.

We come to the top games which were a pleasure to watch.


Uzbek GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov shocked GM Vladimir Kramnik with 29. Rxf7 resulting in mate in all variations.

Uzbekistan could have drawn with Russia if Marat Dzhumaev had won against Peter Svidler which he almost did. When you are the overwhelming favorite you tend to play something unusual to take your opponent out of his comfort zone. Svidler did just this with Qa5 and a Dragon like setup but Dzhumaev played logically and even won a pawn from the opening. In the rook ending the Uzbek GM maintained the extra pawn and looked set for the biggest upset of his olympiad.