A picture of me with the Champ.
Wang Hao is champ!! Well that comes to no surprise to everybody who has seen his results throughout. He trashed 5 GMs with ease and didn't even slow down in the final round beating GM Ian Rogers.
Here's mate in five. Can you see it? Black to move...
I know you are tired of hearing it but his results is nothing but SENSATIONAL !!
He won with 10 points out of 11!! Malaysia has never seen such strong chess performance from any individual. We are honored that he is here in Malaysia taking part in our tournament.
Incidentally, he achieved his final GM norm here too.
Not to be overshadowed by this Chinese genius, our local talents too had performed admirably well. FM Lim Yee Weng achieved his IM norm with 6 points. FM Nicholas Chan missed the norm even though he was the best Malaysian performer with 6.5 points.
IM Mas Hafizulhelmi, the strongest rated Malaysian so far, did not take part this year. All in all it was a great tournament to be held at our soil. Will look forward to next year's edition of the Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open.
Meanwhile the excitement is only begun for most Malaysians. The Merdeka Team tournament is up next! As usual I will be there at the tournament hall.
Wang Hao leaving after a session of analysis with IM Situru Nathanael. He seems pleased as if saying... see, I win all variations
Scanning the photos I took. I came across one that contained the picture on the right. It's NM Peter Long - one of Malaysia's strongest chess player (on the right) talking to Najib. Peter Long was (and still is) one of my local chess heroes from my teenage years.
Peter turned up the Mid Valley third floor MVEC playing hall where the 2nd Malaysian Open was being held. He has long left the chess scene and his appearance here was a big surprise to me.
Peter, if you are reading this, I hope you don't mind me posting your picture here.
1 Mohan Raj MAS 2205 5700604 2 Zakaria, Fairin MAS 2190 5700469 3 Kamaluddin Yusof MAS 2180 5701171 4 Thaw Chee Yin MAS 2143 5701090 5 Jax Tham MAS 2136 5701279 6 Tun Seri Lanang Othman MAS 2129 5701449 7 Masrin Erowan MAS 2032 5701775 8 S.Balendran MAS 1979 5701805 9 Marcus Yeoh MAS 1957 5701481 10 Abg Azman Abg Draup MAS 0000 11 Abg Zain Azreen Abg Draup MAS 0000 12 Albert Ang Keliang MAS 0000 13 Alijeanda Ober MAS 0000 14 Anizan Mahruf MAS 0000 15 Anthony Tan MAS 0000 16 Catherine Black RSA 0000 17 Chan Tze Chen MAS 0000 18 David Lu HKG 0000 19 Justin Ong Way MAS 0000 20 Mohd Ekhwan Mohd Effandie MAS 0000 21 Muhammad Rizal Jusoh MAS 0000 22 Muhammad Tariq Amru MAS 0000 23 Sahir Sarifdin MAS 0000 24 Sarika Subramaniam MAS 0000 25 Shreyas Subramaniam MAS 0000 26 Srinivas Mantha IND 0000 27 Sumant Subramaniam MAS 0000 28 Syazrin Abd Rahman MAS 0000 29 Tan Ken Wei MAS 0000 30 Vijay Raj MAS 0000My personal favourite to win the Chervrolet event is 3rd seed Fairin Zakaria. I know, Kamaluddin is also very strong and has been winning many allegros lately but my money is on Fairin as he is very strong at longer time controls. We'll see..
Starting rank list
No. Name Rtg FED
1 GM Dao Thien Hai 2601 VIE
2 IM Paragua Mark 2596 PHI
3 GM Adianto Utut 2588 INA
4 IM Wynn Zaw Htun 2578 MYA
5 GM Rogers Ian 2569 AUS
6 GM Kunte Abhijit 2561 IND
7 GM Nguyen Anh Dung 2555 VIE
8 GM Torre Eugenio 2535 PHI
9 GM Koneru Humpy 2531 IND
10 FM Irwanto Sadikin 2517 INA
11 IM Myo Naing 2516 MYA
12 GM Antonio Rogelio Jr 2513 PHI
13 GM Wang Hao 2512 CHN
14 Wu Shaobin 2510 SIN
15 IM Juswanto Denny 2509 INA
16 IM Gonzales Jayson 2477 PHI
17 IM Hossain Enamul 2473 BAN
18 GM Mariano Nelson 2466 PHI
19 IM Abdullah Al-Rakib 2462 BAN
20 IM Dableo Ronald 2440 PHI
21 IM Sriram Jha 2437 IND
22 IM Bitoon Richard 2430 PHI
23 WGM S. Vijayalakshmi 2414 IND
24 GM Handoko Edhi 2407 INA
25 FM Wu Xibin 2390 CHN
26 IM Situru Nathanael 2382 INA
27 FM Salimbagat Rico 2379 USA
28 IM Bancod Ronald 2374 PHI
29 Nolte Rolando 2372 PHI
30 Tirto 2370 INA
31 WIM Zhang Jilin 2356 CHN
32 FM Mok Tze Meng 2351 MAS
33 FM Lim Yee Weng 2348 MAS
34 IM Lahiri Atanu 2344 IND
35 FM Sales Jesse Noel 2340 PHI
36 Sorbe Stephane 2340 FRA
37 Prayitno Sugeng 2333 INA
38 FM Dimakiling Oliver 2329 PHI
39 IM Liew Chee Meng Jimmy 2320 MAS
40 FM Chan Nicholas 2313 MAS
41 IM Tan Lian Ann 2302 SIN
42 FM Simanjuntak Sebastan 2284 INA
43 WGM S. Meenakshi 2273 IND
44 Maliki Ahmad 2244 MAS
45 Lim Chuig Hoong 2239 MAS
46 Koneru Chandra Hawsa 2235 IND
47 Haessler Carl 2234 USA
48 Shen Si Yuan 2232 CHN
49 Panggabean Hasian 2222 INA
50 WIM Tamin Upi Darmayana 2219 INA
51 FM Jones Lee 2189 AUS
52 Sonjaya Deni 2187 INA
53 Srivachirawat Kannapon 2186 THA
54 FM Jones Brian 2173 AUS
55 WFM Yang Ning 2164 CHN
56 WIM Lumongdong Lisa Karlina 2163 INA
57 FM Bakri Anas Nazreen 2150 MAS
58 Ahmad Ismail 2138 MAS
59 Chong Chor Yuen 2127 HKG
60 WFM Lombibao Sherrie Joy 2126 PHI
61 Lim Kan Hwa 2106 MAS
62 WFM Son Asia 2105 KAZ
63 Lindiawati Evi 2091 INA
64 Ahmad Kamal Rizal 2079 MAS
65 AL Zakiah 2058 INA
66 WFM Kharisma Sukander Irine 2010 INA
67 Edwin Lam 1983 MAS
68 Wang Xinyue 1978 CHN
69 Aplin Christer Jon 1947 SIN
70 Aw Wai Onn 1920 MAS
71 Wan Khye Theng 1911 MAS
72 K Naguchi 1832 JPN
73 Anasrullah 0 INA
74 Chan Tze Wei 2039 MAS
75 Dotsenko Viacheslav 0 RUS
76 Kobes James 0 CAN
77 Norasa Verdiana 0 INA
78 Stefani Dian Chery 0 INA
79 Tri Handayani 0 INA
80 Yu Marco 0 HKG
81 Yu Melvin 0 HKG
His penetrating stare at the board searching for best moves really gives me some serious pshychological impact.Wow! I didn't know that. So now instead of working on my opening, middlegame or endgame, I think I'll seriously work on my "stare".
How? Scary or not??
Did not get to go Kepong Baru tourney with my friend Vicky this time. Instead he was at Berjaya Times Square to cover the Atanu simul at Borders bookstore in KL.
I bravely went alone this time.
As usual got lost again in Kepong even though I had been there last year. With embarassment I was forced to call one of the organisers again - Lee Pei Anne (hmm... last year it was Lim Pei Jean) and ask for directions. With the help of her friends I managed to reach the SMK Kepong school .... late but the good organisers had already placed my name in the list so I got to play after all.
The announcement for this tournament was at the very last minute because the organisers didn't even plan to organise this years' tournament because of the form 3 trial exams held just a day after the 14th August 2005. Anyway, I'm very grateful they got together their comittee and manage to organise it.
Since it was last minute, many would not have known about this tourney.I thought I had a good chance to top 10 again. There were 45 players in the open section.
Just like last year, I finished 4 out of 6. Again, I never got to meet any strong player.
But unlike last year where I finished in 10th position (my first top 10 win in many years), this time I was not even near top 10 this time. Perhaps it was the entry of very strong players such as Kamaluddin Yusof, Siti, Johan, Foo Chee Kin, Thaw Chee Yin, etc making the event more challenging this year.
Someone said they could not enter my GilaChess.com website. Please leave a comment at the bottom if you too had any problems accessing my site. (Then I'll know if it is only an isolated case or something more serious)Usually I post all the resuts at GilaChess but I'll post it here too just in case:
As for Atanu's Simul, I think the last minute announcement, Kepong clash as well heavy rains affected it. Sadly only 9 people turned up for the event.
One good news is the haze is gone. And the tournament was played in a nice cooling atmosphere as it was raining for most of rounds 3, 4 and 5.
The picture shows Mid Valley Megamall where the Dato Tan Malaysia Open will take place.
The hazy weather is certainly not conducive to a person's health and also certainly not conducive to producing super chess games in the Malaysian Open. Let's hope the situation will improve in the days to come..
Guardian Unlimited Sport | Special reports | Barden on chess: "Barden on chess Leonard Barden Saturday August 6, 2005 The Guardian The mystique around the best young talents can create unrealistically high expectations among the public. Teenage and student players typically experience many highs and lows - even Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov had to face setbacks. Luke McShane, 21, is the UK's best hope to join Michael Adams and Nigel Short as a serious contender in the top 30 elite. But McShane is also an Oxford undergraduate and, like John Nunn, Jon Mestel and Jon Speelman a generation earlier, has found that academic pressures and GM competitions are a bad mix. The stress of a long, hard tournament game is similar in intensity to sitting final exams.Taken from : http://sport.guardian.co.uk/chess/story/0,15873,1543834,00.html
CAS also had it's AGM the same day as the CAS Merdeka celebrations tourney at around lunch time (1.30pm).
Good to see the old faces of Mrs Jackie Wong and her husband at the meeting. They were the ones who brought CAS to the level it is today. The 'new blood' have proven themselves as CAS is again the most active Chess society in the country and has done a lot of good to the Chess community.
Now if only CAS could just restore their website back to function again and keep members informed about their activities .....
Anyway, congratulations to the champ Cheah Eu Gene who practically is a well known name as he hold the record for being champion the most no. of times in Sunway College (or Monash University as it is now known). He modestly said he was lucky as he did not have to meet Norazman - his nemesis. Norazman incidentally lost to Izz who incidentally was Norazman's nemesis having defeated him twice before. (-2=1)
2nd of course is FM Anas who I met in the first round and gave him a scare by being up a pawn in the end game(2 rooks vs 2 rooks). But being the patzer I walk into a self mate :). Incidentally, this is the first time ever I've played Anas.
I'm not too disappointed. At least I raised my national rating to about 1600+ from 1500+. Now I can call my self a Strong Patzer .
To be fair the top 10 players were pretty strong but I am sure it won't be as strong if this event didn't clash with the Ipoh tourney.
Category One
No. PNo. Name Score
--------------------------------------------
1. 2 Cheah Eu Gene 5.5
2. 1 Anas Nazreen Bakri 5.0
3. 4 Ernest Chia 4.5
5 Norazman Ismail 4.5
5. 6 Muhd Izz Saifuddin 4.0
14 Leong Zhi Wen 4.0
10 Lim Zhuo Ren 4.0
3 Zach Han 4.0
31 Lee Yeow Siong* 4.0
23 Bee Chia Foo 4.0
16 Muhd Tayah Wahab 4.0
12. 18 Andrew Ooi 3.5
12 Shree Ganesan Sundaraj 3.5
14. 19 Muhd Tariq Amru 3.0
13 Alia Anin Azwa Bakri 3.0
15 Sansubari Che Mud 3.0
27 Zafran Khalis MokhtarAzizi 3.0
17 Chia Yoon Jien 3.0
21 Wong Tian Yu 3.0
11 Chan Tze Chen 3.0
24 Mokhtar Azizi Mohd Din 3.0
22. 7 Tan Ken Wei 2.5
9 Sahir Sarifdin 2.5
20 Azhar Mohd Said 2.5
29 Azmi Mat Noor* 2.5
26. 8 Yang Boon Aik 2.0
32 Muhammad Kashif Ayub* 2.0
22 Hasidin Abdul Rashid 2.0
26 Azizul Azlan 2.0
30. 28 Mohd Asri Khamsan 1.5
33 Muslim Salleh* 1.5
25 Mohd Toha Hj Nasir 1.5
33. 30 Baharum Baharuddin* 1.0
Category Two
No. PNo. Name Score
--------------------------------------------
1. 4 Chek Kin Keuw 5.0
6 Ng Ee 5.0
8 How Meng Teik 5.0
4. 2 Edward Lee 4.5
10 Izzauddin Syah Mahrome 4.5
16 Kee Ming Yu 4.5
7. 20 Chai Chin Wen 4.0
1 Jared Ng 4.0
11 Nicholas Lee 4.0
22 Lim Chin Shen 4.0
11. 12 Julian Koh 3.5
15 Muhammad Syakir Shazmeer 3.5
7 Voon Yung Shen 3.5
18 Tan Aik Mund 3.5
14 Eunice Yee 3.5
16. 9 Chan Chian Sing 3.0
13 How Meng Wei 3.0
23 Justin Ong Way 3.0
5 Ng Soon Seong 3.0
36 Wong Sue Yuin* 3.0
27 Muhammad Irfan Haqqim 3.0
22. 3 Chiang Ye John 2.5
24 Lim Daw Shin 2.5
34 Ng Kean Beng* 2.5
19 Lim Daw Zhe 2.5
21 Ng Shyue Jer 2.5
27. 26 Young Zheng Foug 2.0
28 Chuah Aik Sheng* 2.0
30 Kee Ming Zhen* 2.0
25 Yap Seng Fei 2.0
29 Hu Jiun Ruey* 2.0
32. 17 Ambrose Yee 1.5
35 Nicolas Ian Richards* 1.5
34. 33 Melvin Soo Chen Hou* 1.0
32 Lim Zhan Yi* 1.0
36. 31 Lim Chun Kiat* 0.5
As usual I woke up late at 8:30am and I know I have to register at Sunway College before 9.30am. Made it in time.
There wil be another tournament in Kepong - as yet unannounced in GilaChess.com. Just found out about it.
Details:
Kepong Baru Open Date: 14th Aug 2005 Contact: 016-2665907(Chan Litt Binn) or 017-6256983(Lim Pei Anne) for more details.
Will post a more complete announcement in GilaChess.com later.
Like a caveman I arrived at Cititel last month for the #MYchessFestival meeting confused about where the hotel parking space has gone. As ...
