5th KLK Seniors

The Malaysian Chess Festival incorporated the 5th KLK Senior Event. I managed a second placing, my third in this event.

This game in the eight round clinched the 2nd place for me. My opponent, the Singaporean IM Chan Peng Kong, was tied for first with GM Fominyh while I was half a point behind. I needed to win this position to overtake the IM and get into second position.

IM Chan - IM Liew

Here I was faced with three choices - 35...Nxe5, 35...Nxb2 or 35...b6

A: 35... Nxe5 36. Kf4 Nf7 37. Bg6 Nd6 38. Ke5 Kd7 39. b3 Ke7 Black has a extra pawn but I rejected this line as I could not be sure that white could set up a positional draw with bishop against knight. Looking back this was the best chance for the win.

B: 35... Nxb2 36. Kf4 Kd7 37. Kg5 Ke7 38. Kg6 Kf8 39. Bxb7 Nc4 Black wins the e-pawn and ends up in a similar ending as (A).

So what I choose was the worse possible choice. I might even lose if not careful.

35...b6 

The idea being that my king was now free to move up the board and create threats.

36. Kf4 Kd7 37. b3!

The best chance. White traps the black knight on a3

37... Nxa3 38. Bd3 Kc6 39. Kg5 Kd5 40. Kg6 Kd4

40....Kd4

This is the move I was banking on for the win.

41. Kxg7?

Even though I had anticipated this move on my 35th move, it still came as a shock. I had calculated that this was losing for white. Did I miss something? Was I lost?

In fact 41. Kxg7 is a mistake although it looks very appealing over the board. The white h-pawn looks impossible to stop.

White can get a draw by retreating the bishop
A) 41. Be2 Nc2 42. Kxg7 Ne3 43. Kf6 Nd5+ 44. Kg5 Kxe5 45. h4 Nf4 46. h5
Nxh5 47. Bxh5 a5 48. Kg4 Kd4 49. Bf7 e5 50. Kf3 Kd3 51. Bc4+ Kd4 52. Bb5 Kc3 =

B)Ba6 Nc2 42. Kxg7 Kxe5 43. h4 Kf4 44. Kf6 Kg4 45. Kxe6 Nd4+ 46. Kd5
Nxb3 47. Kc6 picks up the remaining black pawns.

41...Kxd3 

The bishop must be taken

42. h4 

It looks impossible that the white h-pawn can be stopped but like General McArthur, the black knight on a3 will "return" in time.

Now I saw two moves Nc2 or Nb5 and I was not sure which was best.

42... Nb5 ??

 42... Nc2 43. h5 Ne3 44. Kf6 (44. h6 Nf5+ 45. Kg6 Nxh6 46. Kxh6 Ke4 , both white pawns are neutralized and black wins.

43. h5 Nd4 44. Kf6 Nf5 45. Kxe6 Ng7+ 46. Kd5??

White can still draw after 46. Kf7 Nxh5 47. e6 Ng3 48. Kf6 ! (48. e7?? Nf5 49. e8=Q Nd6+ forks the king and queen). The knight cannot approach except to repeat the check on h5.

46... Nxh5 47. b4 Kc3 48. b5 Kb4 49. Kd6 Kxb5 0-1

100 rating point in one tournament

I never thought it is possible to gain a hundred points in a single tournament. But I was pleasantly surprised to see one of our local players achieve this at the Malaysian Chess Festival that concluded on Sunday.

Nithya is only rated 1710 yet she choose to enter the tougher Open section instead of the Challengers. She played five titled players , drawing a grandmaster! Though she lost three of her last four games it was still an amazing result. Check out the screen shot below.

This rating gain should put her in the Malaysian women's top ten on the next FIDE list. Well done.

Malaysian Chess Festival : Important Announcement

CLOSING OF REGISTRATION FOR MALAYSIAN CHESS FESTIVAL 2014

THE ORGANIZERS WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY MORE REGISTRATION FOR THE:

34^th ASTRO MERDEKA RAPID OPEN TEAM CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP (12 & 13^th Sep)

AND 5^th SWENSEN’S OPEN RAPID AGE-GROUP CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP (14^th Sep)

DUE TO SPACE CONSTRAINTS. - WE JUST DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH SPACE!

REGISTRATION FOR THE

11^th IGB DATO’ ARTHUR TAN INTERNATIONAL OPEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

5^th KLK TAN SRI LEE LOY SENG SENIORS CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

BUKIT KIARA PROPERTIES MALAYSIA CHESS CHALLENGE

WILL ONLY BE ACCEPTED ON PAYMENT OF LATE REGISTRATION FEE!

PAYMENTS MADE ONLINE (FOR ASTRO MERDEKA AND SWENSEN) AFTER 01 SEPT WILL BE REFUNDED !

REGISTRATION DETAILS FOR THE ASTRO MERDEKA AND SWENSEN WILL BE POSTED ONLINE ON TUESDAY 09 SEPT

REGISTRATION DETAILS FOR THE OTHER EVENTS WILL BE POSTED ONLINE ON THURSDAY 11 SEPT

Indian sensation leads Abu Dhabi Masters

The Masters section of the Abu Dhabi Festival is in its eight round. A young Indian IM is leading the field which includes 32 grandmasters. IM Murali Karthekeyan rated at 2462 has six points after drawing two games and winning five beating four grandmasters in a row. His current performance is 2830!

In round six, he won a game against a strong grandmaster with some neat tactics.

The Chinese super GM Wang Hao is the top seed but is not doing well with only five points.

Susan Polgar interviews Olympiad winners

Here is an press conference held by Susan Polgar for the Open winners.  Good questions being posed by reporters and our players and officials should take note of the answers and comments from the Chinese team , we could learn something.

Tromso Olympiad Final Results

The Tromso Olympiad will be remembered for China's first ever gold and the failure of Russia, Ukraine and Armenia to win any medals.


In the Open, the silver went to Hungary on tie-break. A great send-off for GM Judit Polgar who had just announce her retirement. A deserving final olympiad for a great player and classy lady. The big surprise was India taking the bronze, again on tie-break ahead of Russia. A great success for the Indians who are playing without their best player, Anand. The team performed fantastically and only lost two games. Their fourth board , GMAdhiban played every game without loss.

In the Women Olympiad, Russia took gold ahead of China (silver) and Ukraine (bronze).

Board Prizes

Board prizes are awarded to the players with the highest performance on their boards. The most closely watched is the Open Board 1 which was won by Veselin Topalov, even after losing to Vladimir Kramnik.

Note China's Yu Yangyi performance on board three, an unbelievable 2912!

Open Board Prize Winners

Women Board Prize Winners

Malaysian results

Both Malaysian team lost all games in the final round, the men's to Norway and our women's to Australia. This was a tragedy for our girls as they were leading Category "C" before the final round. A draw would still have given them the bronze but the Australians were too strong. The only two consolations was Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada gaining the WFM and WCM norms with her 6/9 score and  the team finished in 54th position out of a seeding of 78th.

The men's team finished in 72nd position better than the seeding of 103rd.  A good result but still, a bit of a distance from the previous Istanbul olympiad where we finished in 64th position.

Judit Polgar announces retirement

A piece in ChessBase about Judit Polgar's retirement from chess. Lots of mixed emotions I have now.

Round 11: Malaysian Women's

I have not been following our Malaysian women's team as there are just too many interesting matches and games in every round. I only knew that they were doing very well. I have just checked their progress and very happy to report their success.

The team has scored 12 match points (same as the men) and lies in 40th position. A very good result as they are original seeded 78th. In the olympiads, there are rating categories with trophies for gold, silver and bronze. Malaysia is leading Category C and a win will give them the gold. For the record, our women's won the bronze in the 2012 Istanbul olympiad.

The fifth board, Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada, is making her first olympiad appearance, and very successfully too. Losing only one game in eight matches, she has 6/8 and a 2105 rating performance. This means that she has the chance to get one WFM norm with a good result in the final game. The years of hard work that she has put in is finally paying off.

In the final round, the team meets Australia.

Round 11: Malaysia meets Norway!

The final round of the Tromso Olympiad will continue on Thursday, 14th August 2014 as today is a rest day. History awaits Malaysia as we are drawn to meet Norway! As the home team, Norway is always playing on the third boards and their matches are always covered on their local TV stations. Our boys will be in the limelight in the final round.

I hope Carlsen will play and give our IM Lim Yee Weng a chance of a life-time to play with a world champion in a proper tournament. Carlsen lost to Ivan Saric in the 10th round so he may not take another risk to lose more rating points.

China is poised to make history as she has a one point lead over second placed Hungary. China plays Poland which has done much better than its original ranking. They beat Bulgaria in the 10th round. A draw may be enough for China to take gold on tie-breakers as they have beaten their nearest rival, Hungary.

The Chinese team have been outstanding on all boards. They only lost one game (Wang Yue against Leko)! GM Ding Liren and GM Yu Yangyi making their first olympiad appearance is the revelation of the tournament. They are not that known on the world stage, although they are familiar names in Asia. Ding Liren is performing at 2801 while Yu Yangyi is at a staggering 2902 and this shows that China fully deserves to be at the top.

Hungary meets Ukraine for a shot at the silver. Ukraine must win to have any medal prospects. Top seed Russia meets third seed France and this is also another possible medal match. All in all, this will be a most exciting finish to the Tromso Olympiad.

Round 10: Malaysia draws Switzerland!

Our Men's team has just completed their games against Switzerland and the surprise result was a draw!
In this match, strangely all black players won!

On first board, IM Lim Yee Weng jumped on a mistake by GM Pelletier and suddenly his bishops became too menacing. Yee Weng finished with winning tactic starting with 25...Bxf2+. The same also happened on third board when IM Georgladis weakened his king-side with the f4 push and again Yit San crashed through the white king-side. This draw puts Malaysia on 12 match points same as the Istanbul team but with an extra round to go. A final round win will put this team on a best ever placing in any olympiad.