Hou Yifan Leads In Shenzhen

17 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur - in Shenzhen, Hou Yifan (pix above) leads with six points after 8 rounds. The official website of the tournament reported that in the 8th round of Women’s FIDE Grand Prix four games were scored. After 3,5 hours 5 outmatches were finished, although the last game between Elina Danielian and Munguntuul Bathhuyag took all audience. After five and half hours of playing Armenian Elina Danielian managed to win. Hou Yifan defeated Viktorija Cmilyte while another leader Ruan Lufey lost the game against her compatriot Zhao Xue. Ju Wenjun was stronger in the game against Betul Yildiz. Two other games Zhu Chen – Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, Anna Muzychuk – Tam Zhongyi were drawn. After 8 rounds World Champion Hou Yifan became a sole leader half a point ahead of another Chinese player Zhao Xue, placed second. Anna Muzychuk and Ruan Lufei share the third place. Tomorrow there will be the second rest day and all players will go to visit different schools in Shenzhen. The 9th round will start at 3 p.m. local time on 17th of September.






Hou Yifan -Viktorija Cmilyte 1-0
Sicilian Defense, Dragon Variation happened in the game. Black decided to sacrifice a pawn in the opening but didn’t manage to get enough compensation. After Rfc8 Black lost a material and could not defend their position.
Viktorija Cmilyte: Well I made a mistake in the opening and Hou Yifan didn’t really give me a chance to survive. After b5 g5 I’m just a pawn down but Rc8 loses three pawns. Instead of b5 there were many other normal moves, it’s a theoretical position.
Hou Yifan: b5 is a really interesting idea and maybe Black can have some compensation. After we changed Queens I’m not sure if Black got enough compensation or not. Probably White have slightly better position. Of course Rfc8 is a huge mistake.

[Event "FIDE Women Grand Prix Shenzhen2011"]
[Site "Shen Zhen,China"]
[Date "2011.09.15"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Hou Yifan"]
[Black "Cmilyte Viktorija"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e2-e4 c7-c5 2. Ng1-f3 d7-d6 3. d2-d4 c5xd4 4. Nf3xd4 Ng8-f6 5. Nb1-c3 g7-g6
6. Bc1-e3 Bf8-g7 7. f2-f3 O-O 8. Qd1-d2 Nb8-c6 9. g2-g4 Bc8-e6 10. O-O-O Nc6xd4
11. Be3xd4 Qd8-a5 12. a2-a3 b7-b5 13. g4-g5 Nf6-d7 14. Nc3xb5 Qa5xd2 15. Rd1xd2
Rf8-c8 16. Nb5xa7 Bg7xd4 17. Na7xc8 Bd4-e3 18. Nc8xe7 Kg8-f8 19. Ne7-d5 Be6xd5
20. e4xd5 Nd7-e5 21. Bf1-e2 Ra8-a4 22. c2-c3 Be3xg5 23. Kc1-c2 Bg5xd2 24.
Kc2xd2 Kf8-e7 25. Rh1-a1 Ra4-h4 26. a3-a4 Ke7-d7 27. a4-a5 Kd7-c7 28. a5-a6
Kc7-b8 29. a6-a7 Kb8-a8 30. b2-b4 Rh4xh2 31. Kd2-e3 f7-f5 32. Be2-b5 f5-f4 33.
Ke3xf4 g6-g5 34. Kf4-g3 Rh2-b2 35. Ra1-a3 h7-h5 36. Bb5-c6 Ne5xc6 37. d5xc6
h5-h4 38. Kg3-h3 Rb2-f2 39. b4-b5 Rf2xf3 40. Kh3-g4 1-0



Pictures from official website shenzhen2011.FIDE.com.

4th DATCC Kuala Lumpur Open Chess Team Championship 2011

17 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur – Here is a new team chess team event organised by Dato’ Arthur Tan Chess Centre for October 2011. Closing date is 17th October 2011. It will run on a weekly basis and details is shown below:-

 

Registration Form:

Arbiter’s Seminar

16 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur – Today begins the MCF’s Arbiters Seminar led ably by Najib Wahab. There are about 7 participants for this seminar over three days, 16-19 September 2011.

 

Pix 1. Najib Wahab.

Pix 2. Seminar participants in a discussion.

Svidler meets Grischuk In World Cup Final!

14 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur – Both Russian semi-finalists in the World Cup triumphed in their semi-final rounds by overcoming their Ukrainian opponents. Grischuk won 3.5 - 2.5, while Svidler won 1.5 – 0.5.

Semifinal results:-
 

Chess.com website reported that Peter Svidler qualified for the 2011 World Cup final by beating Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces in the second game of their semi-final match.

Svidler played his beloved Grünfeld Defence and it served him well. He sacrificed the exchange for excellent compensation, his beautiful pair of bishops dominating the game and shepherding his passed pawns home.

Here is the winning game from Peter Svidler of Russia.

 

Official website: http://chess.ugrasport.com. Pictures courtesy of chess.ugrasport.com.

2nd National Rapid Chess Championship 2011 in Perak

14 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur – Here is a message from the Project Director of the 2nd National Rapid Chess Championship 2011 at University Technology Petronas, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Tronoh, Perak.

The event is divided into Open, U-18, U-16, U-14, U-12, U-10 and U-8 categories.

“UTP chess team is currently organizing the following competition. Attached is the 2nd National Rapid Chess Championship (NRCC) 2011 poster and registration form.

Details of event:
Date: 1-2 October 2011 (Saturday/Sunday)
Venue: UTP Main Hall
Time: 8.00am-7.00pm
Registration ends 1 week before the competition.

Kindly refer to our blog http://nrcc2011.blogspot.com
and our facebook page  http://www.facebook.com/pages/2nd-National-Rapid-Chess-Championship/136481739777566  “

Kindly note that there has been a change in the entry fees of this National-Rated event as shown in the poster picture above. To download a copy of the registration form, please visit this link here.

(source: Umar Islam, Project Director, 2nd NRCC 2011)

Mas Hafizul Goes Professional!

 

14 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur – Some weeks back, I had heard rumors of someone going full time as a chess player and leaving a lucrative job with the hope of one day earning Malaysia a grandmaster title in chess. I wasn’t sure if this was true and until someone else could help confirm it. The Kuala Lumpur Open (now renamed DYTM Raja Dr Nazrin Shah Masters and International Open 2011) was on-going then.

Well, the fidetrainer blogger just confirmed the news yesterday of this event and you may visit his site here.

Go Mas, we are all rooting for you! Mas for GM!

Four in World Cup

12 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur - The final four of Svidler, Ivanchuk, Grischuk and Ponomariov (pix below) will meet in the semi-final stage to decide the final two.




Internet Chess Club in their weekly newsletter reported that The $1.6m, 128-player Fide World in oil-rich Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, is reaching its decisive stages as the field has now been whittled down to the final four contestants - and along the way, one brave woman made a remarkable comeback to top flight chess.

Hungary's Judit Polgar, the strongest woman player of all-time, showed that motherhood certainly hasn't dimmed her tactical skills, nor her steely nerves with a run that stole the media spotlight away from the other players. The 35-year-old mother-of-two continually knocked out higher-rated players such as Sergey Movsisian of Armenia, top seed Sergey Karjakin of Russia, and Lenier Dominguez of Cuba, before the in-form six-time Russian champion and Chess.FM commentator, Peter Svidler, ended her run in the quarterfinals by beating her 1.5-0.5.

There were many upsets - not to mention superb games! - throughout, but as the competition progressed, the usual suspects won through. And joining Svidler in the final four for the World Cup is the familiar faces of Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, Alexander Grischuk of Russia, and Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine. The pairings for the semifinals sees Svidler vs Ponomariov and Ivanchuk vs Grischuk - and apart from the little matter of the prize money, at stake now is three slots directly into the next Candidates Tournament (the winner of which will challenge for the world title in 2013).

Insofar Prestige Junior Final

11 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur - Here is another Insofar announcement for the juniors set for 25th September 2011.

INSOFAR​ - 2nd ELITE OPEN FINAL

11 September 2011, Kuala Lumpur - Here is an announcement from Insofar Chess Academy for the final on 25 th September 2011.

INSOFAR​
2ND ELITE OPEN
FINAL

Date :​ Sunday 25th September 2011

Time :​9.00a.m – 6.00p.m
​​Swiss 25 minutes, 6 Rounds

Fees : ​RM10 only

Participant : ​
1. Those attended the Semi Final Stage
2. Those absent during 1st Elite Open Final

Prize Total :​​ RM6,000
Champion :​​ RM2,000

Prize :

Champion ​​RM2,000
Runner Up​​​ RM700
3rd ​​​​RM500
4th ​​​​RM250
5th ​​​​RM200
6-10th ​​​​RM170 each
11-20th​​​ RM150 each
TOTAL ​​​RM6,000

Sponsors :

1. Ibsul Holding Sdn Bhd
2. Harris Group of Companies
3. AMPAC ( Az-Zahrah Multi Intelligent Academy)

Polgar crashes out against Svidler