Dinner with Jimmy

My Singaporean friend, Jimmy Ng hosted a dinner for his team after the first day of the Merdeka Team Rapid. His team, Unexplained, consisted of IM Yu Lie, WGM  Zhang XiaoWen , Ng Ee Vern,Cheah Eu Gene and Jimmy himself had a good performance and finished in the prize list. I was invited to join in.

Ng Ee Vern is an ex-student of mine. I still remember when his father brought him to me at age 10 or thereabouts. Ee Vern showed aptitude for the game at that young age. He went on to capture the National title in later years.

Simple rook endings?

This is the position from Bacrot Etienne against Ray Robson in the FIDE World Cup. The players had gone into tie-breaks and after 65 moves the following position was reached.

Bacrot - Robson, FIDE World Cup tie-breaks

IM Jimmy Liew - FM Nicholas Chan, Merdeka Team

IM Jimmy Liew - FM Nicholas Chan
Merdeka Team, Round 7

1. d4 c5 2. d5 e6 3. c4 exd5 4. cxd5 d6 5. Nc3 Ne7 6. h4 a6 7. a4 Ng6 8. h5 Ne5
9. f4 Ng4 10. e4 Be7 11. Nf3 Bf6 12. h6

Black cannot take with 12...Nxh6 because 13. e5 will be very strong. If 12...gxh6 , white will regain the weak h-pawn and control the open h-file. Besides the black knight on g4 will have no retreat squares.

2nd in Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Seniors

The tournament was won for the second time by Uzbek GM Dimitri Kayumov who had a big lead over the rest. I managed a second placing in the Seniors tournament. Thanks largely to the last round game between Filipinos IM Luis Chiong and  Efren Bagamasbad.  Luis Chiong had a half point lead over me and needed only a draw in the last game to take the second spot on better tie-break.

The Filipino IM was in trouble in the middle-game. Somehow he managed to survive to the ending. Thereupon he sacrificied his bishop and knight for black's two remaining pawns, thinking that he had a theoretical draw. Now, two knights ending is drawn except when the opponent has a remaining pawn. Furthermore the win can only be achieved if the pawn is blocked on certain squares. In this game the pawn was blocked correctly. Black displayed some good technique to force the white king into a corner reaching the following position with black to move -

IM Luis Chiong - Efren Bagamasbad

Black won with 1....Kd2! 2. Ka2 Kc2 3. Ka1 Ne4! and white resigned. The end is close - 4. g5 Nc3 5. g6  Na5 6. g7 Nb3 mate.

DATMO 2011 is over

I just came back from the closing ceremony. China's Li Shi Long is this year's winner although he was only seeded seventh on rating. He was undefeated. I was watching some of his games and thought he is the most boring player at the event. But boring (or solid play) brought home the trophy for him.

In fact he was in trouble in two games. Against IM Oliver Barbosa he was two pawns down and against IM Oliver Dimakiling he was one pawn down. His results in these two games? He drew with Dimaliling and won against Barbosa! That's the mark of a strong player , turning unfavourable games around.

So what's his secret? From my observations I can say two factors. One is that he is a very disciplined player. He almost never gets up from the board. He concentrates one hundred percent in every game. The other is his ability to calculate moves. Quite impressive. Those who thinks that technical is less important needs their heads examined.

The only other that interested me was how the local players fared. There were five prizes for Malaysians. The first prize was won by IM Lim Yee Weng (no surprise here). The second to fifth were won (in order) by Cheah Cheok Fun, Ajeet Singh Roshan, Elgin Lee,and Justin Ong. They edged out our top juniors , Lim Zhuo Ren, Sumant Subramaniam and Mark Siew. The best Malaysian ladies prize went to Narayanan Renitha who was ahead of Nur Nabila Azman Hisham on tie-break by half a point.

Those were the days - correction

Quah Seng Sun has corrected me on the people in the picture in the post Those were the days

I mistook Koo Hock Song for Mr. Gong Wooi Mau. But..but... that's not Tan Kai Ming? Man, you can knock me over with a feather.

I'm even starting to doubt that boy in the middle is me. Thanks a lot, Seng Sun, for destroying my memories. The reason I think it is me - the hair style and a picture of me at the board came out in the Chinese press that my father cut out and showed me, not sure if it is the same picture though.

The only one we know for sure who is in the picture - Kotov!

Glass ceiling

Another great cartoon

Stories beyond the board - Homeless yet compassionate

A homeless man jumps into a river to save his rabbit, after someone tossed the rabbit over the bridge.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0712/rabbit.html

Latest: Lim Zhuo Ren ends World Junior with loss

Lim Zhuo Ren has lost his last round game to finish with a total of 5 points out of 13 rounds. That is only about 38%. The only bright spot is he more or less played to his current rating.

A true hero

Last night, I watched the final of the badminton World Championship between our Lee Chong Wei and China's Lin Dan. Naturally I was rooting for Chong Wei to win his first World Championship. In the rubber game, twice in a row, Chong Wei was one point from winning the match. A single mistake would have ended the match for Lin Dan. But fate was not kind to Chong Wei or possibly Lin Dan possessed nerves of steel. The Chinese eventually won two consecutive points to win the World title for the fourth time.

Datuk Lee Chong Wei

Watching Chong Wei at the prize presentation, you can see how dejected he must have been. Only a player will know the heartache , when the holy grail is within your grasp and it slips away. Watching this video I felt sympathy for our champion. You will understand his emotional state of mind when you realize how much sacrifices a true champion has to make and yet not achieve his ambition of winning the World Championship and the Olympic gold.

Despite this setback, for many Malaysians like me, Lee Chong Wei is a true hero for he has consistently brought back honors for the country. We await the day that he brings back Malaysia's first Olympic gold.