Malaysian Masters 2015 (Women): Najiha victorious

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.

[Event "Malaysian Masters 2015 (Women)"]
[Site "Wisma OCM, Kuala Lumpur"]
[Date "2015.06.03"]
[Round "9.3"]
[White "Johari, Camilia"]
[Black "Azman Hisham, Nur Najiha"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "1924"]
[BlackElo "1957"]
[EventDate "2015.05.30"]
[EventRounds "9"]


1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. Qxc3 Ne4 7. Qc2 f5 8.
Nf3 d6 9. e3 Nd7 10. Bd3 Ndf6 11. O-O g5 !? 

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.

17... Ng5 18. a4 Rf7 19. Ba3 Rg7 20. bxc6 bxc6 21. cxd5 cxd5 22.
Qc5 Bb7 23. Rab1 Qe8 24. Qd4 Qh5 25. Kh1 Kh8 26. Rb3 ?

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.

Malaysian Masters 2015 (Women): Who will be champion?

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,

Malaysian Masters 2015 (Women): Round 5

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:

Malaysian Masters 2015 (Women): Round 4 highlights

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.

Three draws were featured today, two of them quiet affairs with both white and black players trading pieces to equal endings. 

However, the following should have ended in a win for black.

Melanie Koo - Tan Li Ting, Round 4

Despite the aggresive white king position, black's outside passed pawn will decide the game. At the end of the tournament, Li Ting will surely regret giving away the half point with her next move.

 50. ... b5 ??
This does not work since the black king is too far from the king-side.

Black gains the opposition and wins after 50... f6 51. f5 (51. Ke6 b5 52. axb5 axb5 53. Kd5 Kb6) 51...
Kd7 52. Kc4 Kc6 53. Kd4 Kd6

51. axb5 axb5 52. Kc5 g5 53. Kxb5 
This is the easiest way to a draw although 53. fxg5 is also possible after 53... Kd7 54. Kxb5 Kd6 55. Kc4 Ke5 56. Kc5! Kf4 57. Kd6 Kxg5 58. Ke5 f6+ 59. Ke6 Kg6 60. Ke7 Kg5 61. Ke6 and no progress can be made.

53... Kd6 54. Kc4 gxf4 55.Kd4 1/2-1/2

Replay the game below

Najihah Mohd Saufi - Nur Najiha Azman Hisham, Round 4

The game started as a Smith-Morra Gambit with white catching the black king in the centre. Now white has a great chance to finish the game. She starts correctly with

28. Bxf6 Qxf6 
28... Bxf6 29. Bxd5! crashes through since exd5 30. Re7+ wins the black queen.

29. Qxg4 Qg5 30. Qf3+ Bf6

The position is critical for black and white should look for the killer blows. The most obvious is
31. Rxe6 Rxe6 32. Bxd5 Rc1 (the only move to avoid complete collapse) 33. Bxe6+ Kg7 and White has two pawns and despite the opposite colored bishops can still try to win due to the exposed black king.

Instead white can take advantage of the over-loaded black queen. 31. h4! Qxh4 32. Rxe6 Rxe6 33. Qxd5  and White has a winning attack.

 31. Qe2 This is less decisive but white is still in a very strong position because of the exposed black king 31... Rcc6 32. Qxb5 d4

A desperate try to exchange queens. After 33. Qb7+ Kf8 34. Rxe6 Rxe6 35. Bxe6 Rxe6 36. Qc8+ Kg7 37. Qxe6 white wins comfortably but instead she blunders overlooking her queen.

33. Rxe6 ??  33... Qxb5 34. Rxc6+ Kg6 35. Ba4 Qb4 36. Bc2+ Kf7 37. Rc7+ Be7 38. Rcxe7+ Qxe7 39. Rxe7+ Kxe7 40. f4 Rb6 41. b3 Rc6 42. Be4 Re6 43. Bf3 d3 44. Kf2 Kd6 45. g4 d2 46. Be2 Kd5 47. f5 Re8 48. h4 Kd4 49. g5 hxg5 50. hxg5 Re5 51. g6 Rxf5+ 0-1

Replay the game below

Malaysian Masters 2015 (Women): Round 3

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 three was a most bloody day with four out of the five games being decisive and white on the winning side.

Najihah Mohd Saufi - Alia Bakri, Round 3

 This simple looking ending is not that simple and Black lost to a much lower rated player after 31...Rc6 ?

The best chance was 31...Re7 and if 32. Rc5 to defend the pawn with 32...Rd7 and then bring the king to the defence of the d5 pawn.

32. Rc5! Now black is forced to exchange and give white a potential passed pawn on the queen-side
 Rxc5 33. dxc5
Kf6 34. b4 Ke6 

Despite pawns are equal, black is worse as he cannot create his own passed pawn on the king-side due to the white pawn on e3. Now 34... Ke5 35. b5 and 35...d5 is not possible because of 36 exd4+ Kxd4 37 c6 queening the pawn.

35. a4 a6 36. b5 a5 37. h4 Ke5 38. g4 fxg4+ 39. Kxg4 h6 40. Kf3 Ke6 41. Kf4 g5+ 

Black is in zugzwang. 41...Kf6 loses to 42 c6 bxc6 43 b6.

42. hxg5 hxg5+ 43. Kxg5 Ke5 44. Kg4 Ke4 45. c6 bxc6 46. bxc6 Kxe3 47. c7 d4 48. c8=Q d3 49. Qc5+ Ke2 50. Qxa5 1-0

After winning a pawn, Nabila made a horrible blunder with 31...Rxc2?? overlooking an in-between move. It always pays to check every possible capture!

Camilia had the better pawn structure though it is not easy to find a good plan. The game was agreed drawn.

Malaysian Masters 2015 (Women)

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 first round saw some interesting mistakes. Renitha Narayanan could have scored a win if she had seen a simple tactic.

Tan Li Ting-Renitha Narayanan

White to move sees that the knight cannot be taken since after 34. fxe4 Qe3+ 35. Kf1 Nxa4 36. Qxa4 Qxe4, the white king is too exposed.

34.Ng2?? whereupon Renitha immediately played 34...Qd8 and lost a rook ending a pawn down after some major exchanges. Instead she could have won with 34... Nxa4 35. Qxa4 Nc3 simply winning a rook for knight.

Renitha's blindness continued in round two where she simply overlooked her queen was en prise.

Alia - Renitha

Black played 34...Bxd4?? and resigned immediately after 35. Qxa5


Also in round two I came across the following interesting ending.

Nur Nabila-Puteri Rifqah

Black is in some danger and should now play ...f6-f5 blocking the king-side.

37...h5? 38. f5+ Kxf5 39. Kxd5 Ne5 40. e4+ Kg4 41. Kd6 Kf4 42. Kc7 Nc4

Black recognizes her position is hopeless and goes for the best practical chance.

43. Kxb7 Nxa5+ 44. Bxa5 Kxe4 45. Kc6 Ke3 

Black's objective is simple; to exchange all white pawns on the king-side

46. g3??

This is a  crucial loss of tempo. White was too short of time to find the winning plan. 46. Bb6+
Ke2 47. Kd5 Kf1 48. g4 hxg4 49. Ke6 (White wins this position as he is able to
stop the black pawns.) Kg2 50. Bc7 Kf2 51. Kf5 Kf3 52. Bd6 Ke3 53. Kxg4 Ke4 54.
Kh5 f5 55. Kg5 g6 56. h4 wins.

46... Kf3 47. Bc7 Kg2 48. Kd5

Now 48. g4 hxg4 49. Kd5 Kf3 is a draw as white cannot stop the f-pawn from rolling forward. 50. Ke6 Ke4 and starts pushing the f-pawn.

48... Kxh2 49. Ke4 Kg2
More to the point was 49... Kh3 50. Kf3 g5 intending ...g4 and than ...h4 exchanging
white's pawn.

50. Kf5 Kf3 51. Bb8 g6+ 52. Kxg6 Kg4 53. Kxf6 h4 54. gxh4 Kxh4 1/2-1/2