Yeoh Li Tian - GM Adam Horvath

[Event "Historical Melaka International Chess Ch"]
[Site "Hang Tuah World Heritage Hotel"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "8.6"]
[White "Yeoh, Li Tian"]
[Black "Horvath, Adam"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2204"]
[BlackElo "2487"]
[EventDate "2012.04.23"]
[EventRounds "9"]


1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 e6 6. Nf3 d6 7. Bc4 Be7 8. Qe2
O-O 9. O-O b6 10. Nc3  Nxc3 11. bxc3 Bb7 12. exd6 

White plan is to occupy the e5 square. This is a very effective plan against which black has no answer.

Bxd6 13. Ne5 Nd7

Black should look for counter-play. 13... Nc6 14. f4 Ne7 and place the kight on f5. white is unlikely to play g4 as it will weaken the long white diagonal

14. f4 Rc8 15. Bd2 Rc7 16. Bd3 Nf6 17. Rae1

A good centralizing move but white can also try to open lines on the queen-side with a4. white is just waiting to see what black will do.

17...Re8 18. Bb1 g6 19. Rc1 Ba3 20. Rcd1 Bb2 ?!

This allows white to take the bishop pair. ...Be7 is better but the position is roughly equal after that.

21. Nc4 Ba6 22. Bd3 Bxc4 23. Bxc4 Nd5 24. Bb5 Ree7 25. c4 Nc3

25... Bxd4+ 26. Kh1 Nf6 27. Bb4 Red7 ({There is a
nice tactical motif after} 27... Re8 28. Bxe8 Nxe8 29. Bc3 Rd7 30. Rxd4 Rxd4
31. Qe5 +- the rook is pinned because if it moves there is a mate on h8 ) 28.Rd3 {There is no hurry, the rook on d7 is not going anywhere.})

26. Bxc3 Bxc3 27. Qe3 Ba5 

the idea is to stop an a4-a5-a6 push, but the bishop is pretty much a spectator here. 27... Bb4 28. a3 Bd6 29. a4 Bb4 30. Qb3 Qd6 =

28. Ba6

If white plays for a win he can try 28. Rc1 Qc8 29. c5 to create a passer.


28... Qd6 29. a3 Qd8 30. Kh1 Rcd7 31. Rd3 Rd6 32. Rfd1 Red7 33. h3 Qh4 34. Kh2 Rd8 35. g3 Qh5 36. Qe5 Qh6 

36... Qxe5 37. fxe5 R6d7 38. Bb5 Rc7 += White has the advantage as he can prepare to push d5. The bishop on a5 is totally out of play.

37. Bb7 Qf8 38. h4 

White has the space advantage in the centre. This is not enough to win so he prepares to open another battle front, the king-side with h4-h5. Black has to stop this.

38...h5 39. Ba6

If 39. d5 Re8 40. Bc6 Rc8 41. Kg2 (White cannot break the blockade on d6 nor can he open the d-file with dxe6 satisfactory results.)

39... R6d7 40. Bb5 Rd6 41. Ba6 

White signals that he is okay with a draw. The  pre-tournament strategy was to play safe and not take un-necessary risk against the stronger players (IMs and GMs). Let them try to beat you and if they over-extend themselves, than punish them accordingly. This strategy worked well in the Brunei tournament and it worked here as well.

41... Qe7 42. Qe4 Qc7 43. Qe5 Qc6 44. Qb5 Qa8 45. Qe5 Qc6 46. Qb5 Qc7 47. Qe5 Qe7 48. Qe4 Qd7 49. Qg2 Kf8 50. Qb7 Qa4 51. Bb5 Qc2+ 52. Qg2 Qxg2+ 53. Kxg2 

With the exchange of queens, the position is clearly drawn. This did not suit the GM who needed the win to get back amongst the prize contenders.

53...Ke7 54. Kf3 Rc8 55. Ke4 Rc7 56. Re3 Rc8 57. Ba6 Rc7 58. Bb5 Kd8 59. Red3 Ke7 60. Ba6 Rdc6 61. Kf3 Kf6 62. Rb1 Rxc4 ??

 There is not enough compensation but I bet black is banking on the time trouble to hustle
his young opponent.

63. Bxc4 Rxc4 64. Rbd1 Ra4 65. Rc1 b5 66. Rc5 b4 67. Rc4
Ke7

Black is only fighting for a draw after 67... Rxa3 68. Rxa3 bxa3 69. Ra4
Bc3 70. d5 ! a5 71. Rxa3 Bb4 72. Rd3

68. Rb3 Kd6 69. Ke4

69. axb4 Bb6 70. Ke4 Ra2 {black rook is active}

69... f6 70. Rd3 !?

(70. axb4 f5+ 71. Kd3 Bb6 72. Rc8 Kd5 73. Rg8 Ra1 {is not so clear and black has some chances})

70... f5+ 71. Kf3 Kd5 72. Rc5+ Kd6 73. axb4 Bxb4 74. Rb5 a6 75. Rb8 Kd5 76. Rd8+ Bd6 77. Rb3 

This wins but white could have played Re3 straight away. (77. Re3 Rxd4 78. Re5+ Kc6 79. Rxe6 a5 80. Rxg6 a4 81. Rg5 +- {the a-pawn is not dangerous at all. White always has Ra8})

77... Kc6 78. Re3 Rxd4 79. Rxe6 a5 80. Rxg6 a4 81. Ra8 

As noted, Rg5 also wins

 Kb5 82. Rg5 Rd5 83. Rxh5 Bc5 84. g4Rd3+ 85. Ke2 Rg3 86. Rxf5 a3 87. g5 a2 88. h5 Kc4

(88... Rg1 89. h6 a1=Q 90.
Rxa1 Rxa1 91. h7 Rh1 92. g6


black is helpless against the queening white pawns

}) 89. Rxc5+

white finds the simplest win.

 Kxc5 90. Kf2 Rh3 91. Kg2 Rxh5 92.
Rxa2 {Kd5 Re2 and white wins easily.} 1-0

Historical Melaka International - Round 6

Two thirds of the rounds have been played and this is a good place to evaluate the performances of the Malaysian players in the Melaka International Open.

With so many titled players in such a small tournament of only 36 players, there are good possibilities of obtaining some kind of norm. I guess this is why our women SEA representatives, Camilia and Li Ting choose to play in this event rather than the weaker Challengers  which their ratings do allow them to join. This is a very good decision for their progress and improvement.

IM Oliver Dimakilig versus Yeoh Li Tian

[Event "Historical Melaka International Chess Ch"]
[Site "Hang Tuah World Heritage Hotel"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "2.8"]
[White "Dimakiling, Oliver"]
[Black "Yeoh, Li Tian"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2447"]
[BlackElo "2204"]
[Annotator "Liew,Jimmy"]

1. d4 d5 2. e3 Nf6 3. Bd3 Bg4

This shows that white's third move is pre-mature. After 4. Nf3 the knight is pinned.

Kasparov on Karpov

According to this video, Kasparov thinks Karpov is very good in "boring positions".

My view is "boring positions" for Kasparov is not necessary the same to as normal chess players. Karpov has a very interesting style and I did learn a lot about positional play from him.

Five way tie in Dubai Open 2012

Five players have tied for first place in the Dubai Open 2012. Ni Hua is the champion on tie-break.

The 28-year-old Chinese grandmaster edged out  Baadur Jobava,  Mikheil Mchedlishvili, Latvian champion Miezis Normunds and Chanda Sandipan on tiebreak. All five scored 7 points from the 9 rounds.

GM Nigel Short Triumphs at the 12th Bangkok Chess Club Open 2012

Alexander J. Klemm

British GM Nigel Short has won the 12^th Bangkok Chess Club Open 2012 with a last-round draw against IM Nguyen Duc Hoa, whose outstanding performance has earned the Vietnamese player a GM norm. From the beginning of the tournament, Short demonstrated his great fighting spirit. Having won the Gibraltar Chess Festival in January, it was apparent that he had come to Bangkok with a high confidence level and the mission to become the sole champion. Mission accomplished! GM Nigel Short has played with passion and expertise in his fourth consecutive BCC Open tournament and has finally won it. While defending champion GM Jan Gustafsson and Women’s World Champion GM Hou Yifan underperformed, other predominantly Asian participants played very well and often surpassed expectations.

Of ratings and juniors

Eddy Fong wrote a series of posts on ratings and juniors which seemed to have stirred up a lively discussion over at his blog site.

Now I consider Eddy and Tse Pin two of the most knowledgeable people on ratings locally (by the way, Raymond Siew says ratings are irrelevant but do not listen to him, he knows nothing about chess) so I followed the discussion closely without taking part. Later the discussion moved to which group of juniors from 1990s or 2000s were stronger. Many names were mentioned and indeed they are a whos who of juniors from past decades . Mas, Ee Vern, Yee Weng, Zi Jing, Tze Han, Jonathan, Nicholas, Marcus, Ronnie, Anas were some of our best juniors I have seen in my career.

[Start Aside] - Raymond says I have not brought up any strong players. Well, at least two of those names I mentioned were my former students. I leave it up to him to read up our Malaysian history - which he has zero knowledge - to find out who they are. Hmmm, on the other hand , don't bother, I know you are too lazy for that and it makes little difference to me. [End Aside]

Even Rationality got into the act and he has not posted in over a year at his blog. To make him come out of hibernation must be something.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is it is pointless to argue over this. It's like arguing which was our best olympiad  , which by the way is Dubai ;)

'Nuff said!

Top seeds fall in 14th Dubai Open (Updated)

Update: A few readers alerted me to some mistakes. Apparently there were some incorrect results uploaded to Chess Results (where I took the below results screen shot , it shows Maghami have three points and Jobava only two). Actually Jobava won against Maghami.

The prestigious 14th Dubai Open is now in progress in Dubai, UAE. This very strong open has thirty-six grandmasters competing for the USD50,000 prize fund. Three rounds have been played so far.

Top seed GM Baadur Jobava lost his third round game to Iranian GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan. Local readers will remember GM Ghaem who took part in the Merdeka Festival two years ago. Another upset was third seeded GM Akopian Vladimir also losing to IM Karen Grigoryan. In other matches, eight seed GM Tigran Petrosian lost to Indian GM Gopal.

Five players are in the lead with the full three points.

Here is the top standings after round three.

GM Nigel Short takes lead at BCC Open 2012

Alexander J. Klemm

Yesterday’s invitational dinner in the Library Room of the Dusit Thani Hotel was hosted by tournament sponsor and founder of PYN Fund Management Petri Deryng. On this occasion GM Nigel Short called the Bangkok Chess Club Open the best open tournament organized by amateur players that he has ever been to, and GM Jan Gustafsson confirmed that he is only playing two opens this year, Gibraltar and Bangkok! Among the guests were also Women’s World Champion GM Hou Yifan, Her Excellency Ambassador of Finland to Thailand Sirpa Mäenpää, President of Myanmar Chess Federation Mr. Maung Maung Lwin, as well as several more players and organizers. The discussion topics swayed from chess in Asia to issues about double-rounds, from chess player’s faith to the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic. The celebratory mood hit a peak when GM Short started playing chess with filled wine glasses…

Brunei's first IM

Brunei's Yee Soon Wei, young man in his early (?) twenties, with a ready smile and friendly nature makes him one of the most likeable young man I have ever met. I am very happy to report that according to Peter Long here, Brunei has just produced their first IM in this man.

Yee Soon Wei gained his third and final norm with a 5/9 score  at the Grandmaster tournament in Bandar Seri Begawan, which was organized right after the Campomanes Memorial event.  He will have to raise his rating to 2400 which currently stands at 2200, before he is officially awarded the title.

Incidentally, Li Tian beat Soon Wei in the Campomanes tournament.

IM Jakhongir Vakhidov  won the tournament with 7/9 and makes another GM norm. His last norm was at the K.L. Invitation last year in Malaysia.