Blog GilaChess

Got my second hand PDA. It's the Dell Axim X5. Price: RM 390 (USD 104) RAM: 32Kb Extra peripheral: 256Mb SD card + WiFi card I'm pretty happy after testing it for a couple of days. The battery life is twice that of my previous PDA (HP IPaq 1940). The only thing I'm not happy is the size. It's huge compared to my...

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The first international open chess tournament for ONGC Cup will be held in Hyderabad, India from 25th February to 5th March 2006. The event carries a prize pool of over 18000 US Dollars and it will offer many opportunity for chess players to make GM and IM norms. This is the first tournament organised by the Chess Players Association of India. So it's...

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In about a month's time the most prestigious Scholastic Chess tournament for Malaysia will take off. It's the National Age Group(NAG). NAG has been steadily gaining more popular ever since the National Sports Council (MSSM) dropped chess as an annual event some years back. That was truly a controversial decision as the chess event was gaining popularity with many parents and teachers recognizing...

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Disaster!! I can't repair my faulty Ipaq 1940. The screen is dead for no reason. Anyway, it's a big blow to me as I can't carry on my "chess training". No more exercises, puzzles and sparring partner. Since getting a new PDA is too expensive I think I'll get a similiar 2nd hand model as a replacement for the time being. Already looking...

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One of the biggest problems that I face is choosing a decent opening to play as White and Black. Even Grandmaster and Novices must figure out what openings to be part of their "Opening Repertoire". In the past I've played King Indian Defence (KID) for the Black side and employing KIA (King Indian Attack) as White because they have similiar strategies. This was...

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With a total prize fund of RM 5000, the 2 day Temerloh Open in Pahang will have the highest first prize amounting RM 1000! Details can be found here. With a total prize fund of RM 5000, the 2 day Temerloh Open in Pahang will have the highest first prize amounting RM 1000! Details can be found here. ...

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A break Originally uploaded by gilachess. I am enjoying a break from work in my hometown, Teluk Intan, Perak. Just went for a morning walk with my parents at 6.30am.No chess. No computers. No internet. I'm posting this from my handphone. It's going to be a quiet month this February before the chess fever starts again in March. So I'm going to take...

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I was on my way back to Perak for the Chinese New Year Holidays when I received received an SMS from Ching Kim Lye from Kedah informing me of the death of Pn Hjh Khatijah Na. For those who don't know she is the mother of the strongest women chess player in Malaysia, WFM Siti Zulaikha(picture). Her brother, FM Johan Iskandar once played...

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Finished 26th position in the PCMM. Things just didn't go well for me this week. My PDA was on the blink. The screen just showed some rubbish characters. I don't know whether it can be fixed or not. So I didn't get any practice done on the PDA. That's no excuse though. I played some really horrible games and lost my first game...

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pcmm-3rd round Originally uploaded by gilachess. 3 pointersAnasNur ShazwaniZarul ShafiqAbdullah Che HassanFarizBalendran ...

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Round 1 Originally uploaded by gilachess. That's the Tosai I had.Got a look at the player's list: Anas, Nur Shazwani, Zarul Shafiq, Adbdullah Che Hassan, Zarul Shazwan, Balendran, Alia, Abd Rahman, Abd Shukor, Afiq, Aishah, Alijendar Ober, Izz are the top seeds.I'm seeded 19.Got into a back rank mate and lost my first round. All the top seeds won. ...

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pcmm-ready to start round 1 Originally uploaded by gilachess. Top seed is anas. Izz and abdullah che hassan in picture. Blogging this live from my 3 year old nokia 7650. Wonders of technology ! ...

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Pcmm allegro Originally uploaded by gilachess. Sitting at the restoran nasi kandar just across wilayah complex.Having teh tarik and tosai waiting for round 1 to start.Since this is the 2nd day of Chinese New Year it looks like I'm one of only 2 chinese here. The Foudzi family (Siti, Johan, Kamal) is not coming with last minute cancellation. ...

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In case you are wondering why my Google advertisement has a dog in it, it's because today is Chinese New Year and it's the Year of the Dog. Good to see that the American based company recognize this Chinese celebration too. Here is the logo from Google China http://www.google.cn. On a chess related note, Google advertisement (Google Adsense) has helped pay for my...

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My preparation for the weekend tournament last Sunday was a mess. Slept late, arrived late, and suffered terribly from lousy time management. Surprisingly I didn't do worse than the last allegro held at the same place. I finished a lucky 13th place - up one position from my last allegro. There were 3 games where I paid the price for bad time management....

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Read this article on Karpov School of Chess in Kansas. It seemed that the school spent a whole bunch of money bringing in former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to Kansas and went broke as a result. Now they are selling their building in which they are housed to stay alive. And I thougt chess people were supposed to be intellectuals. Read this article...

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Ok. It's time to evaluate the success of my One Week Chess Preparation Plan: 1. Tactics: Moderate success as I only spent 5-10 minutes a day. I did see a marked improvements in games where I won with tactics. 2. Online Conditioning: Failure. Only played games on Friday online using 2 minute time controls. My game against Kamaluddin was drawn where I was...

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The local chess scene is very popular seeing now that parents are actually encouraging their children to participate in this mind sport. I remember a time when my dad just didn't approve of the time I spent on chess during my school days. Things are so different today. As an example, the CAS tournament pre-registration for this weekend allegro is full!! All 125...

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Just an update on point no 1 of my one week plan for the coming CAS tournament. 1. Tactics: Many advice from the net and some strong players say that tactics training is a sure way to boost chess performance. Now the problem is what tools to use. Will use Renko chess tactics puzzle for this on a daily basis. Have to see...

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I was surprised to find this chess blog is now ranked no. 3 in Technorati in terms of most "authority" in the Chess category. Of course this latest ranking has to be taken with a grain of salt but it's a nice feeling to be top 3 in something :) Link to the above page I was surprised to find this chess blog...

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I'm testing out posting viewable games on this blog. The first game I've selected is from the Closet Grandmaster blog. Apparently he is not only an active chess blogger but a pretty good chess player himself. Here is his game played in the current Queensland International Chess, New Zealand. For a full game comment go here I'm testing out posting viewable games on...

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Last month it was sad to see Malaysia being humbled by our Singaporean neighbours for the 5th time in a row (probably more than that but I can't get the results before year 2000). It's also sad to see our local chess websites not doing too well these days. I still maintain my 'hobbyist' Malaysian Chess Portal but lately have less time to...

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Here's my plan in getting ready for the coming CAS tournament. I have only one week to prepare! 1. Tactics: Many advice from the net and some strong players say that tactics training is a sure way to boost chess performance. Now the problem is what tools to use. Will use Renko chess tactics puzzle for this on a daily basis. Have to...

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CAS will organise her first event of the year on 22nd Jan (Sunday) at "2nd Floor, Wilayah Complex, KL". This 1-day event will commence from 10 am (Rd 1). 2 categories i.e. Category 1 for those who have NationalRating of at least 1400 points and unrated Adult; while Category 2 is created exclusively for unrated Under-18 players and those with National rating less...

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Didn't have much time to post but I just feel great that my chess website GilaChess.com can pay for it's own webhosting for the 2nd year in a row. The money comes from ads served by Google on the website. Also thanks to the other GilaChess webmasters like Ching Kim Lye and Vickneswaran who have been tirelessly updating the news there. It was...

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