Malaysia is 11th in World Youth Olympiad

Malaysia just missed out on the 10th placing but an 11th spot is still a very good result. The standings are based on game points but if  using match points, we would be 7th! Congratulations to the team, Wong JianWen, Yeoh Li Tian , Elgin Lee, Yeap Eng Chiam and Roshan. Also not forgetting the head of delegation Mr. Lee Ewe Ghee who guided our young players so successfully.

We were lucky to win the final match. It should really have gone the other way.

Roshan returned with a bronze medal for his performance on the reserve board. He is ELO rated 1886 but personally I rate his performance in the 2000s. He won five games and lost two for a 71.5% result.

Russia won the gold 1.5 points ahead of Armenia which took the silver. Iran is the surprise bronze medallists edging out Azerbaijan on tie-breaks.

Highlights from Round 10

Li Tian played the white side of a Scotch Opening very passively. Then he got into a lost double rook ending. The following position was reached -

Yeoh Li Tian - MariusAbramciuc

White has just played 42. Rc2 attacking the black c-pawn. After 42...Rb4 and ...b5 the black pawns are unstoppable. However

42...Rc5??? 43. Rd7+ (Oops...black must be kicking himself, the king has no escape squares)  Rd5 44. Rd2+ Kc3 45. R2xd5 winning a whole rook.

Oleg Gorbanovsky - Yeap Eng Chiam

 White just played 48 Kg4. Eng Chiam grabs the chance to exchange rooks.

48....Rd6! 49. Kf5 Rxg6 50. hxg6 Ke7 51. Ke5 Bg7+ 52. Kd5 a5!

This looks like a terrible move but Eng Chiam has a clever idea in mind.
53. Kc6 Bd4!

The point is that the b-pawn is poisoned e.g 54. Kxb6?? c4+ and it is black who wins. Without the possibility of winning the b-pawn, white has no chance and the game was drawn after some moves.

Roshan - Egor Procop

White has just played 17. Nd6 . Now black should give the exchange with 17...Bxe5 18. Nxe8 Be6! (the knight is not going anywhere). with two pawns and good attacking chances on the white king. Instead

17...Rf8? 18. Bc4 Bxe5 19. Nxf7 

Black thought for a long time here perhaps realizing he is lost!  19...Bd4+ 20. Qxd4 cxd4 21. Nxd8 Rxd8 22. Bg5 and surprisingly black must lose material. e.g 22...Rd6 23. Bf4 or 22. Rd7 Bh6! and the mate on f8 cannot be met.

19...Bxh2+ 20. Kxh2 Qh4+ 21. Kg1 Qxc4 22. Nh6+ Kg7 23. Rxf8 Kxf8 24. Qf3+ 

The black king must run for his life. 24... Bf5 25. Nxf5 gxf5 26. Qxf5+ Kg7 27. Qg5+ Kf7 28. Bd2! bringing out the rook 28...Rg8 29. Qh5+ and the black king will suffer with all white pieces trained on him.

Ke7 25. Bg5+ Kd7 

25... Kd6 26. Nf7+ Kc7 27. Bd8+ followed by a knight fork on king and queen.


26. Rd1 Kc6 27. Nf7 

The simple 27. b3 wins a piece straight away.


Kb6 28. a5+! Ka7 29. Rxd5 Be6 30. Rxc5 Qb4 31. Qe3 Ka8 32. Nd8 Bf5 33. Rc7 h6 34. Nc6 1-0

Malaysia beats Moldova 2.5-1.5

Malaysia has just beaten Moldova 2.5-1.5. The individual scores -

Wong JianWen lost Iovcov Valerii
Yeoh Li Tian bt Abramciuc Marius
Yeap Eng Chiam drew Gorbanovsky Oleg
Roshan Singh bt Procop Egor

Roshan has more to celebrate as he also won the bronze medal on the reserve board. This was an added bonus as he was quite far down the standings at the mid-point. However I think he won his last three games so it is a deserving one.

We were quite lucky in this round. Li Tian was lost in a double rook ending until his opponent blundered away a full rook.

We have to wait for the full results but according to my observations this result means that Malaysia have a chance to be in the top ten though it is likely there will be a tie. Well done, Malaysia.

Malaysia versus Moldova (Updated)

Malaysia is fielding JianWen, Li Tian, Eng Chiam and Roshan. Strange to rest Elgin who was the only one not to lose in round nine. Even though Eng Chiam won in round nine, he was not well. Hopefully he has recovered by now.

After an hour and half of play, my quick assessment for the round.

World Youth U16 Olympiad - Round 9

Malaysia took half point off the strong Russian team thus losing 0.5-3.5.

The draw came from Elgin Lee who drew with FM Terentjev. The rest, Li Tian, JianWen and Eng Chiam all lost to their higher rated opponents.

Malaysia is now sharing the 11-14th place. Russia takes back the lead when Armenia suffered a shock defeat of 1.5-2.5 to Kazakhstan. With only one more round to go, Russia now leads Armenia with 1.5 points and looks likely to take the gold.

Malaysia will meet Moldova in the final round today which will start earlier than usual at 10:00 AM (3:00 PM in Malaysia). I expect our boys to win this match. A big win could then place them within  the top 10.

Eng Chiam's round eight win

[Event "World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad"]
[Site "Kocaeli"]
[Date "2011.10.25"]
[Round "8"]
[White "G.Burduli (GEO)"]
[Black "E.C.Yeap (MAS)"]
[Result "0-1"]
[PlyCount "116"]
[EventDate "2011.10.29"]


1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 a6 3. c4 Qc7 4. Nc3 e6 5. d4 d6 6. Be2 Nf6 7. O-O Be7 8. Bg5
Nbd7 9. h3 h6 10. Be3 e5 11. dxe5 dxe5 12. Nd5 Nxd5 13. exd5 f5 14. Ne1 

The knight has no prospects from this square. It is better to play 14. Nd2 O-O  15. f4 e4  16. Rc1  Bd6 17. Qe1  b6 18. Bh5 Nf6  19. Bg6

14... O-O 15. f4

White is fumbling around unsure what to do for the next few moves. 15. f3  followed by Qc2 and finding some way to re-activate the knight on e1 looked better

15... Bd6  16. fxe5 Nxe5 17. Nf3  Bd7 18. Bd2 Rae8 19. Bc3 Ng6 

Oh What a Night!

And what a night last night was. It was worth staying up to follow our sweet victory over the Georgians. Right now I got this song playing in my head right. All we  need now is for  Ilham to re-pen the lyrics accordingly :)

Malaysia beats Georgia 2.5-1.5 !

Malaysia has beaten Georgia in the eight round of the World Youth U16 Olympiad in Izmit, Turkey.

On the first board, JianWen's queen got too adventurous and found herself trapped in enemy territory.

Roshan Singh equalled the score when he beat Georgia's N.Khormeriki. Roshan demonstrated the black square weaknesses around the black king. Exchanging into a opposite colored bishop with major pieces, black had no defence to the march of the h-pawn. Nice play from Roshan.

Elgin Lee had a big advantage but somehow slipped into a queen and bishop versus queen and knight ending. Still he had the advantage of an outside passed pawn but agreed a draw in the position below.

Elgin Lee-Snadirashvili

Black's only chance is to create threats against the white king otherwise white will just push his passed pawn. 31...h3+ 32. Kh1 Nd3! 33. Bg1 (33.Qxd3 Qb7+ 34 Kh2 Qg2 mate) Qc2 and black have sufficient counter-chances e.g 34. b6 Qd1! (Threatens discovered attack on the white queen) 35. Kh2? Qe2+ 36. Kh1 h2! 37. Bxh2  Qf1+ 38. Bg1 Nf2+ 39 Kh2 Qh3 mate. So a draw was not a bad result.

Eng Chiam had the better game but was in serious time trouble (at one point down to two minutes against opponent's half hour). Despite this, he managed to play extremely well  exchange a pair of rooks followed by the queen to reach a bishop pair against bishop and knight ending. His opponent ended up in more serious time trouble (!) and started losing pawns.Eng Chiam converted the win easily. Amazing.

With Eng Chiam's win, Malaysia beat Georgia 2.5-1.5. Although Georgia is seeded 11th just below Malaysia, this can be considered an upset as Georgia has a long history of chess compared with Malaysia. Well done boys!

Malaysia draws Switzerland!

Round 7 of the World Youth U16 Olympiad is ended. Malaysia has pulled off a draw with the higher-rated Switzerland.

On board 2, Yeoh Li Tian lost badly after playing a Berlin Defence. It proved a wrong choice of opening as he seemed not to understand how to defend this opening. Li Tian now drops to third in the board standings.

Roshan leveled the score with a win when his higher-rated opponent over-estimated his position.

Chess craftsman

India has many skilled craftsmen of wooden chess sets and India is largest exporter of such sets. I know that wooden sets and boards are also made in Poland, Italy and Spain. But I never expected Morocco to have such a skilled craftsman.

It amazes me how he can carve a chess piece in just a few minutes with such primitive tools. That tool that he is using to turn the wood is called a lathe. Pay close attention because at one point he fashioned a wooden ring around the chess piece out of that single piece of wood.