The picture above shows Kamaluddin Yusof vs Zarul on top board in Round 4. (Hmmm... they are camera shy as soon as they spotted my camera phone :) ) Round 3 at top boards saw Roslina Marmono holding top seen Leong Mun Wan to a draw. As for me... Round 1 -lost to Kamaluddin Yusof. 2nd Round - Bye(half a point). I finally won my first game yesterday using White in Round 3. So going into Round 4 I had 1.5 points. My next opponent was Balendran whom I've lost at least 2 times and drew only once. We first met in 1993 - me playing White against his Pirc. I had White again so spent a whole 30 mins preparing for his Pirc. Used my own GilaChess database ver 7 which I am selling for RM10 at the tournament, to find all his games (sorry couldn't resist the free advertisement). Anyway, first time I found it useful in a real tournament situation. Found one game he lost terribly against Sarawak national Lim Kian Hwa. So I followed the same line and got an advantage after 10 moves or so. Doubled up rooks to pressure one of his backward pawns and finally won it going into the endgame. Things look good as I cannot lose. Only 2 results to look forward to - WIN or DRAW!! However, he got some activity in the endgame and I offered a draw. Since there was another round at 3pm I figured it's better to save my energy for that round. Besides I didn't want to lose in the endgame - which I am very weak at. Since he was one pawn down he agreed to a draw. Somehow I feel sorry for Balendran as he clearly wanted to beat me again. I just outplayed him in the opening with some computer database preparation. Clearly I think he is a better player than me. The latest news is that Anas won his 4th round game and is at perfect 4 points. Kamaluddin's game was not finished yet when I left the hall so he could be a possible 4 points too. Anyway my phone battery is running out. Will conserve it so can post another blog entry after the 5th round which is about to start in 40 minutes. My personal aim is to meet 2 more FIDE rated players to get a possible FIDE rating. They say 4 games is enough to have an entry in FIDE rating list. Don't know how true this is but I'm going to try hard to meet to more FIDE rated players or get at least 4 points (out of 9). Wish me luck. Don't forget to read http://www.gilachess.com for the latest updates by da5thKnight who has been doing an excellent job at reporting the latest news at the 32nd Royal Selangor Open at Wilayah Complex.