I have received the following announcement for the Malaysian Chess Festival for 2015. This year it will be held in September.
The Dato' Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DAT Chess Centre) will be organizing the 12th Malaysian Chess Festival 2015 as follows:
18 - 19 September 2015
ASTRO Merdeka Rapid Team Chess Championship
20 September 2015
6th SWENSEN's Age Group Chess Championship
20 - 28 September 2015 (FIDE Rated / Title Tournament)
12th IGB Dato' Arthur Tan International Malaysian Open Chess Championship
6th KLK Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng International Seniors Open Chess Championship
Malaysia Chess Challenge
Entry
Forms are attached. Please register early so that we can accept you!
Last year we had to reject many entries especially Merdeka and Swensen
because of space constraints.
My email address has also changed, please use all the emails in your reply. Thank you
The 2015 Malaysian Masters (Women) started off today with ten participants in a round robin format. The tournament will be played over five days starting today till Wednesday , 3rd June 2015 at Dewan Ho Koh Chye at the Olympic Hotel in Jalan Hang Jebat.
The new Masters Champion is Nur Najiha Azman Hisham with a clear half point lead over the rest of the field. Najiha defeated Camilia in the final round to tally 7.5 points.
Tan Li Ting managed to win her last round against Alia Bakri but could only come second once Najiha won. The other front runners , Nur Nabila and Puteri Rifqah Fahada also won and maintained their standings as third and fourth respectively.
At the end of the tournament, there was a simple closing with MCF Secretary giving out the certificates to all the players. The trophy will be awarded to Nur Najiha during the Malaysian Chess Festival scheduled for September.
The full crosstable below:
Now the game which decided the champion with some light notes.
This aggressive move is more show than real threat. It is hard to believe that Black can whip up an attack on the king-side without help from white. 12. Nd2 d5 13. b4 Ng4 14. Nf3
14. Nxe4 dxe4 15. Be2 will show black that the advance on the king-side with 11...g5
is uncalled for.
14... c6 15. Ne5 Nxe5 16. dxe5 g4 17. b5
Again 17. Bxe4 dxe4 and Black has no attack although the opposite colored bishops could be good
for a draw.
Prepares to double rooks on the b-file but black has been amassing pieces on the king-side and a
sacrifice on f3 is coming.
26... Rag8 27. Rxb7?
White was in serious time trouble with less than two minutes on the clock and facing serious problems with her king. But still giving up the exchange is as good as resigning. The only defence is 27. Rbb1 in order to answer Nf3 28. gxf3 (There is an interesting mate after 28. Qf4 g3! 29. h3 Qxh3+ 30. gxh3 g2 mate) 28... gxf3 with 29. Rg1 Rg2 30. Rxg2 Rxg2 31. Qf4 and the king-side holds and white has his own threats on the b-file for counter-play 27... Rxb7 28. Be2 Ne4 29. Kg1 Qh4 30. g3 Qh5 31. Rc1 Ng5 32. Qd3 Nf3+ 33. Bxf3 gxf3 34. Qf1 Qg5 35. a5 h5 36. a6
36. Qa6 with the idea of Qxe6 and Qf6+ exchanging queens was the only chance
not to lose outright.
36... Rh7 0-1
White cannot prevent the opening of the h-file with h5-h4 and so resigned.
The 2015 Malaysian Masters (Women) is a ten player round robin format. The tournament will be played over five days starting Saturday 30th May till Wednesday , 3rd June 2015 at the Dewan Ho Koh Chye at the Olympic Hotel in Jalan Hang Jebat.
Today is the final round of the Masters. Nur Najiha is in the lead with 6.5 points , half a point over the second place Tan Li Ting. A loss for Najiha and a win for Li TIng could change the eventual winner.
Final round pairings
Najiha faces Camilia and needs only a draw to ensure a tie for first at the minimum. This may seem easy as Camilia has drawn all eight games (!) but I believe Camilia will be trying to win in order to get a place in this year's squad. Tan Li Ting plays Alia Bakri and both will be trying to win, the former in order to have realistic chances of finishing first and the latter also needs the win to have some slim chance in making the squad.
Tan Li Ting
Camilia
If things go her way, she could be champion.
Camilia, undefeated but also winless, unless she can change that in the final round.
Melanie v. Nithya
Nithya (picture above) is playing Melanie and needs to win to have any chances to make the squad
Najihah Mohd.Saufi
Najihaha is probably the most relaxed player in the last round,
The 2015 Malaysian Masters (Women) is a ten player round robin format. The tournament will be played over five days starting Saturday 30th May till Wednesday , 3rd June 2015 at the Dewan Ho Koh Chye at the Olympic Hotel in Jalan Hang Jebat.
Round five was a repeat of round three where results were concerned with four white wins and a draw.
Camilia could have made it a five white wins if she won the following ending.
Camilia - Nur Nabila, Round 5
Now 51 h4 would have won since knights are extremely bad at stopping rook pawns. Instead she played
51. g4?!! fxg4 52. hxg4 Kc5 53. f4 perhaps expecting the two passed pawns to win easily. Kd6 54. Kf6 Kd7 If the king reaches the queening squares the draw is unavoidable so 55. Kf7 Ne6 56. f5 Ng5+ 57. Kg6 Nf3 58. f6 Ke6 59. g5 Nxg5 1/2-1/2
The top three in the standings won so the positions are unchanged. The standings after round five:
