Mamak The Return Wins The Dream Team Weekend, 29 May 2010

31 May 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Here’s the report from Najib Wahab on the recently concluded Dream Team Weekend held at the DATCC on the 29th May 2010.

The Dream became a nightmare when only 4 teams showed up for the event and the organizer had to change the tournament format and lower the prize money but all in all, it was a fun weekend for the 16 players who were there (me included).

The tournament format was changed from Swiss to Double Round Robin with 3 rounds being played in the morning, and another 3 rounds in the afternoon, and the winner is determined by the Match points and not by game points.

 In the end, the final ranking was as follows:

At the end of the team event, 6 players stayed on for a double round robin of blitz, with RM10 entry fee and the winner to take all. Zaidan Zulkipli did well to win 9 points out of a possible 10 and together with it, the RM60 prize money.

Here are the following team compositions and the respective scores achieved by each team member.

The organizer felt that the very poor response was because of lack of publicity, the MASUM event held during the same, the 1^st GM Training program also held at the same time, and the long weekend where most players have probably gone back to the “kampong” to take advantage of the long weekend. But the show must go on and it was nice to see that the Chess players who were there, were able to accommodate the bizarre and sad turnout, and turn it into something fun and enjoyable.

Thanks to the 15 players that have come for the tournament – Najib Wahab was and shall remain very grateful for their understanding, support and cooperation for successfully completing the one-day event.

(report and results courtesy of Najib Wahab)

Picture Gallery Of 9th Round Of DATCC KL Team Chess League 2010

31 May 2010 – Here are some random pictures of the 9th Round happenings on the 26th May 2010 at the Dato’ Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur.

  

Pix 1. CS Solutions vs Black Pearl.          Pix 2. Team AU vs PWC.

  

Pix 3. DATCC vs SeaHorse.                   Pix 4. SeaHorse vs DATCC.

  

Pix 5. Gung Ho vs Think Big.                  Pix 6. CS Solutions vs Black Pearl.

   

Pix 7. Tan&Tan vs Kam Mah.                 Pix 8. SeaHorse vs DATCC.

   

Pix 9. 17Chess Club vs Excel Chess Team. Pix 10. Tan&Tan vs Kam Mah.

Dato’ Tan Chin Nam In Chessbase News!

29 May 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Here is an excerpt from a news article about Karpov and Kasparov joining forces for Karpov to become the future FIDE President in the upcoming FIDE elections. And viola! A Malaysian has been linked to Karpov’s Advisory Board. So please read the picture below taken off Chessbase news or click here.

Selangor Open In Danger Of Disappearing

28 May 2010, Kuala Lumpur – In today’s copy of the Star, Living, SS Quah discusses the future of the Selangor Open under the care of the Chess Association of Selangor (CAS), which happens to be one of the longest run chess tournament in the country.

With the sponsorship of this year’s Selangor Open withdrawn, CAS went on its own to sponsor the chess tournament from its own internal funds. To keep the tournament alive for the future, sponsorships should be sought from potential sponsors by CAS.

Efforts towards this direction should already have begun or should continue in earnest for the sake of giving chess a future to grow further. As it is, Malaysia has no grandmasters yet, although it boasts of at least five International Masters. The grind towards increasing the pool of talented chess players and developing them further should continue as a priority.

Please read more from The Star, Living on “Long-running Tourney” by SS Quah or click here.

National Closed Championship 2010, 16-20th June 2010

28 May 2010 - As published on the MCF’s blog about the upcoming National Closed Championship. The 2010 National Closed Championship will be held from 16th-20th June 2010. This year the event will be organised by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia, UKM) in collaboration with the Malaysian Chess Federation, at Dewan Canselor Tun Abdul Razak (DECTAR) Bangi, Selangor. It will be a nine-round Swiss chess tournament.

For further details, download the  entry form here.

(please click on images below to see an enlarged image)

The Tournament Schedule:

The Prizes:

Entry form:

Think Big Is Winner Of 3rd KL Team Chess League 2010

27 May 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Think Big turned on the power on Gung Ho last night and comfortably won the match 3.5-0.5, sealing the winner’s rostrum for the 3rd DATCC KL Team Chess League 2010 with 16 MP and 25.5 board points.

In second place is TEAM AU with 15 MP and 25.5 points. Team AU beat Pricewaterhouse Coopers 2.5-1.5. While in third place is Excel Chess Team with 14 MP and 25.5 points. Excel Chess Team overcomed Nusa Mahkota Chess Club with 2.5-1.5.

In fourth place is KAM MAH with 14 MP and 25 points, just half point behind Excel Chess Team.

Here are the simple round 9 results:-

The board by board results for round 9 of the 3rd DATCC KL Team Chess League 2010:-

Final Ranking of chess league after completing nine full rounds of play.

(source: Najib Wahab, joint arbiter for the event)

9th And Last Round DATCC TEAM LEAGUE

26 May 2010 - Ninth Round begins and Peter Long plays for Team AU on board two beside Ian Udani. In the end, Peter Long drew his board 2 game and Team AU won 2.5:1.5  against Price WaterHouse Coopers in their last round game last night.

Meanwhile results of other matches. Nusa Mahkota won 4-0 against Ad-Hoc; 17ChessClub lost 1.5-2.5 to Excel Chess Team; UKM did not send anyone tonight and lost on two boards where First Saturday Chess Team has two players present. First Saturday 2-0.

Tan&Tan were losing 0-3 to KAM MAH with one board still playing when I left at 10.30 pm. Gung Ho lost 0.5-3.5 Think Big, DATCC won magnificiently 3-1 against Sea Horse who did not field IM Mas tonight. While DATCC had the services of S Balendran, Najib Wahab, Azman Hisham Che Doi and Varien Thien tonight and they performed to perfection except for the first board. CS Solutions Ladies Team were leading 2-1 against Black Pearl. Haslindah Ruslan was still playing on first board when I left.

Last Round Of DATCC KL Team Chess League 2010

24 May 2010, Kuala Lumpur – The last and ninth round of the 3rd DATCC KL Team Chess League will take place this Wednesday evening, 26th May 2010 at the DAT Chess Centre, 4th Floor Car Park, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur. Games start at 7 pm.

See you all at the Dato’ Arthur Tan Chess Centre on Wednesday evening. :)

Since it is the last game of the season, the organisers of the league would want you to witness the closing ceremony at the end of this week’s league match.

Gata Kamsky vs Yuri Shulman, US Final Chess Championship 2010

26 May 2010, St. Louis- In the tie-breaker game between Gata Kamsky against Yuri Shulman where Kamsky playing black only needs to draw to win the championship and that was what he managed to do as black.

With that draw, it secures the 2010 US Chess Championship for GM Gata Kamsky and the title of US Champion 2010. Here is a copy of the game with the diagram at move 66…Nd2. White has a pawn and a white-coloured bishop while black has two pawns and an active knight.

GM Yuri Shulman vs GM Gata Kamsky.

The final rankings are shown below:-

Last year’s US Champion, GM Nakamura ended in third place with 6.0 points. GM Christiansen in 9th place with 5.0 points, GM Benjamin in 13th place with 4.5 points, IM Irina Krush (the only lady chess player) at 15th place and 4.5 points and GM Alex Lenderman, of Kings Of New York-fame, is in 18th place and with 3.5 points.

Kamsky Wins U.S. Chess Championship 2010 In Armageddon Games

26 May 2010 - GM Gata Kamsky beats Shulman in blitz games to win the U.S. Chess Championship 2010 at St. Louis.



(courtesy of St. Louis Chess Club)

Kamsky, Shulman In Final Of US Chess Championship

25 May 2010 - A video recap discussing the chances of the four final players that will qualify for the finals of the U.S. Chess Championship 2010 at St. Louis, USA.

The Sun - High Altitude Chess

25 May 2010- In today's paper The Sun, there is a front page news on chess in Peru where Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia won the '2010 Machu Pichu Challenge'. She played against the Under-16 Girl's World Champion from Peru in the finals. As you can see from the picture, the background is very picturesque and mountainous, typical of Peru.

KL Grand Prix 2010 Finals postponed!

25 May 2010, Kuala Lumpur – In today’s KL chess’s website, Peter Long reports that the grand finale of the Kuala Lumpur Grand Prix is now postponed till the end of the year, citing chess calendar congestion.

He has also listed out the 117 participants that took part in both the Open and Under-12 categories of the Kuala Lumpur Chess Grand Prix 2010. The picture below shows the top 25 players for the open category.

To see your standings, if you had participated in at last one of the four rounds for the past four months, please visit klchess.com or click here.

Sicilian Defence Najdorf - English Attack

Here is a video chess lesson from jrobichess. This video explores the Sicilian Defence Najdorf variation with English Attack line.

US Chess Championship Videos

25 May 2010, St Louis - Here is a video analysis of the chess game between Nakamura and Shulman climax during the US Chess Championship 2010 in Saint Louis, USA.



Video courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club.

4th Leg – Lumut Perak Grand Prix Chess Ch 2010

TAN SRI LEE LOY SENG

Perak Grand Prix Chess Championship 2010

4th LEG - LUMUT (Sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd.)

Organized By: Perak International Chess Association (PICA) & Dato’ Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC)

Date : 16 May 2010  postpone to 23rd May 2010 (Sunday)
Venue : Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Methodist (ACS) Sitiawan, Perak
Due to a mix up in the booking of the tournament hall, we have to postpone the above tournament from 16th May to 23rd May 2010.

(source: perakchess.blogspot.com)

DATCC last board win!

22 May 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Last Wednesday the DATCC Chess Team played against the teen’s team called First Saturday Chess Team in the 8th round of the 3rd DATCC KL Chess Team League 2010. The match ended in a 2-2 draw. However, DATCC’s player on third board, Suhaimi Mustafa Al-Bakri, played a magnificient game against the talented Yat Guo Jie of First Saturday Chess Team.

The Pirc Defence transpired during the game. Suhaimi played black and employed the Pirc Defence against Yat’s pawn storm on the king-side.

Pix 1. White castles queenside and played 9. Kb1 to protect the a2 pawn.

Pix 2. By move 22, black swings his knight into attack with 22…Nc3+.

Pix 3. By move 28…cxb3, it was obvious black had its own pawn storm on the queenside that was unstoppable. White had two last checks on the black king with 29.Qg5+ and black pushed its king to safety 29… Ke8. The last check by white was 31. Rd8+ and it was downhill for white after that.

Pix 4. White is under check with 36…Qa3+ and if Kxd2, then the c2 pawn queens and white loses his precious queen. With black’s two queens against white’s lonely bishop prospect in the end game, white resigned. 0-1 to black.

Suhaimi Mustafa played a cunning cat-and-mouse game in the Pirc Defence. White lost a few critical tempo to allow black to enter the game. The critical move 28.fxe5 was considered a blunder by Fritz and was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Congratulations to Suhaimi for his excellent win on board three for the DATCC chess team.

Berita Catur Di Utusan Online

22 May 2010 - Berita Utusan hari ini membawa sedikit cerita catur dibawah tajuk Rekreasi. Ia mengisahkan dua adik beradik yang bermain catur. Hint berita catur ini juga dibawa oleh hairulovchessmaniacs.blogspot.com.

Sila ke laman Utusan online hari ini untuk membaca cerita lanjut atau klik di sini.

Weekend Office Meeting

22 May 2010, Port Dickson - Fireyrook wanted to enter the Chess Assoc of Selangor Closed this weekend but alas my office has organised a working meeting retreat in Port Dickson. My best wishes to those players and CAS members participating in CAS CLOSED held on Sunday, 23 May 2010. Also to my sister who is having her daughter's wedding reception in USJ 5 today 22 May 2010, my sincere wishes of apology. Official duties comes first. :)

Chess Overboard On Implementing Structured Development Programmes For The Talented Young Malaysian

21 May 2010 – In Chess Overboard by Lim Chong, he discusses how talented young chess players such as Rosazman Mat Rosley,  once found, disappears into thin air the next. He then makes comparisons of IM Mok’s rise to International Master which took him 10 years and achieved at the ripe age of 39. At this rate, it will take another generation of players to see Malaysia’s chances of seeing a grandmaster in the making.

With GM resident Ziaur Rahman’s presence in Malaysia, this should be made full use by the talented group of chess players to guide and accelerate their progress and achievement for the country. A push by MCF in the right direction for this group of kids would do a world of good for the country and create better opportunities for Malaysia to ever see her first grandmaster in chess.

Please read more from Lim Chong’s article on “Fulfilling The Promise” or click here.

Nakamura And 3 Others Lead In U.S. Chess Championship 2010

21 May 2010 – At St. Louis, USA, Nakamura and 3 others are leading with 5.0 points after 7 rounds of play so far. Today is a rest day for the players. It is a 9 round Swiss Tournament. However the top 4 after 9 rounds will be separated to slug it out over a round-robin.

Looks like Gata Kamsky, Yuri Shulman and Alexander Onischuk are the likely three other candidates to join Hikaru Nakamura in the round-robin finals to decide the new U.S. Chess Champion 2010. They all have 5.0 points out of 7 rounds.

Here is a game in round 7 of the US Chess Championships 2010 between IM Irina Krush and IM/GM Alex Lenderman of “The Kings Of New York”-fame. The Exchange Gruenfeld transpired during the game and Alex more or less got into a losing position by move 71. IM Irina Krush has 4.0 points and is currently in the top 11 of the 24 participating players in the tournament. The game was extracted from the ICC website.

Rankings After Round 7

Draws, Draws And More Draws

21 May 2010 – In today’s Chess Column in The Star, Living, SS Quah discusses the Sofia Rule being employed during the recently concluded World Chess Championship between GM Anand, the reigning world champion and GM Topalov, the challenger at Sofia, Bulgaria.

The Sofia Rule dictates that players could not draw their games by agreement. They could have technical draws through stalemate or three-fold repetition of position or the 50-move rule or through insufficient material, but that was all.

There were no less than 7 draws made during the recent World Chess Championship from the series of 12 games played.

Please read more from The Star, Living or click here.

Gula Perlis Open Chess Challenge 2010, 12 June 2010

21 May 2010 – Here is a new chess tournament in Kangar, Perlis, to be held on the 12th June 2010. The flyer for the tournament from En. Syaifulzamani b Ismail, the tournament director, is as follows:-

(source: Syaifulzamani b Ismail)

Round 8 Full Results, 3rd DATCC KL Team Chess League 2010

20 May 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Think Big continues the steamroll by beating Nusa Mahkota Chess Club 4-0 and leads the chess league with 14 match points and 22 board points.

In a close second is Team AU who also won their match against Sea Horse with 2.5-1.5 score and have accumulated 13 match points and 23 board points.

In third place is Excel Chess Team who beat Tan&Tan Chess Team 3.5-0.5 and have 6 wins and 2 losses so far. Excel have 12 match points and 23 board points

Ranking of Teams After Round 8.

(results are courtesy of Najib Wahab, joint arbiter of the event)

Round 8 DATCC Chess Team League 2010- Picture Gallery

20 May 2010 – Here are a few pictures of the scenes of the teams playing during the 8th round of the 3rd DATCC KL Chess Team League 2010 on the evening of 19th May 2010.

   

Pix 1. Black Pearl.                     Pix 2. Sea Horse.

    

Pix 3. Team AU.                       Pix 4. Excel Chess Team.

     

Pix 5. Hamid (Ad-Hoc) vs WisePawn(PWC). Pix 6. UKM in full force.

   

Pix 7. CS Solutions Ladies Team.   Pix 8. First Saturday Chess Team.