Picture taken from hairulov's blog

MOK IS THE JAGUH OF TERENGGANU

After a gruelling 5 days, Mok Tze Meng proved why he is still champion material after winning the inaugural Grand Final of Pencarian Jaguh Catur Terengganu held recently. The tournament which saw several interesting events such as IM Mas Hafizul's lost by forfeit in Round 2 and NM Kamal Abdullah's lost by forfeit by his handphone in the last round, cannot take away the spotlight on Mok as he brushed aside a host of players which include NM Kamal Abdullah, Ian Udani and also IM Mas Hafizulhilmi. However, it is interesting to see whether these forfeitures (which can be easily avoided had Mas turned up earlier in his game against Norazman, or Kamal turned off his handphone before playing) can reshape the turnout of the entire tournament.

For full results, see syedchess' blog.

picture taken from Internet Chess Club

TOPALOV WINS IN CHINA AND READY TO FACE ANAND

When I read this article, I thought that Topalov can play Chinese Chess. However, it really means Topalov won a tournament in China. He is ready to beat Kamsky to earn the right to play Viswanathan Anand in the World Title Match 2009. I can't wait to see who is better between these two, but Topalov is ahead in the rating list, with nearly 20 points margin. You can see their rating live here.

GM ANTON WINS INAUGURAL KL OPEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

GM Anton Filippov (picture), the number one seed with 2543 FIDE rating, drew his final game to clinch the KL Open Chess Championship. He received the trophy from DYTM Raja Nazrin Shah at the closing ceremony held at the Legend Hotel. He beat the challenge from a host of GMs and IMs in the 67 strong field of players.

Meanwhile, in the challengers category, Nur Nabila Azman Hisham won against more fancied opponents to become champion and received her prize from DYTM Raja Puan Besar Tuanku Zara Salim.

You can read more about the tournament at the official or unofficial website.

PENCARIAN JAGUH CATUR TERENGGANU STARTS TODAY

The much anticipated inaugural rated tournament in Terengganu starts today. Below is the full list of players pitting their chess skills to become the jaguh (champion) of Terengganu. The surprise inclusion is IM Mas Hafizulhilmi, still trying to obtain his status as the first Grandmaster in this country.

You can find the list in Catur Terengganu website. I have sorted it according to their ratings. Good luck to all of you!

Rated players:

1. IM Mas Hafizulhelmi (2439)
   
2. FM Mok Tze Meng (2308)
   
3. Kamaluddin Yusuf (2184)
   
4. Ian Udani (2181)
5. Mohd Kamal Abdullah (2146)
   
6. Abdullah Che Hassan (2125)
   
7. Md Fadli Zakaria (2121)
8. Mustafa Kamal Zamhuri (2121)
   
9. Ismail Ahmad (2106)
10. Zarul Syazwan Zullkafli (2085)
11. Osric Mooi (2050)
    
12. Zarul Shafiq Zullkafli (2047)
    
13. Faizal Andin (1997)
    
14. Lim Kian Hwa (1964)
    
15. Ahmad Afiq Afyfy (1929)
16. John Harry Pereira (1926)
    
17. Mohan Raj (1916)
18. Zullkafli Mat Daud (1883)
19. Francois Wolfaardt (1858)
20. Norazman Ismail (1821)
    
21. Abang Zain Draup (1778)
22. David Gates (1738)
    
23. Hj Abang Azman Draup (1714)
    
24. Zamanhari Abang Draup (1656)
    
25. Syazrin Abdul Rahman (1507)
26. Syed Iskandar Shah (provisional)

Terengganu players:

1. Hashim Jusoh
2. Abdul Rahim Ramli
3. Heng Aik Kiat
4. Hisamullah Harun
5. Md Hafez Hilmi Harun
6. Mohd Pouzi Hamzah
7. Muhd Asyraf Zakaria
8. Muhd Syazwan Zulkifli
9. Mohd Aiman Azani
10. Mohd Amirul Zahanuddin
11. Mohd Huzaimi Abd Jalal
12. Mohd Khairul Nazrin A Nashir
13. Munir Azmi Muhd
14. Mat Jusoh Omar
15. Mohd Sallehuddin Mohd Salleh
16. Najwah Aziz
17. Nor Azma Adilla Alias
18. Ahmad Syukri Ismail
19. Ahmad Faez Azmi
20. Alias Mohd Amin
21. Abd Latif Abd Halim
22. Abdul Kadir Jailani Ramli
23. Ahmad Akif Abd Rahim
24. Ahmad Ariff Abd Rahim
25. Ahmad Rizal Othman
26. Ahmad Ariff Ramli
27. Siti Noraihan Md Shaifuddin
28. Siti Aisyah Sabirin
29. Salleh Omar
30. Suhaidi Mustaffa
31. Siddiq Husainy Hasbullah
32. Peteer Jabir
33. Rozamzam Ibrahim
34. Ruzenan Abu Bakar
35. Ramli Setapa
36. Wan Aizuddin Wan Razali
37. Zaimah Abdullah
38. Zulkefeli Jusoh
39. Zaharuddin Sulaiman
40. Che Mohd Rizal Ibrahim
41. Fairul Yusuf
42. Gani Kadir
43. Amira Syamina Zullkafli

DILEMMA (THE VERDICT)

I posted earlier about my dilemma of weighing between playing a rated game in KL or Terengganu. And as it stands, I will not be playing in both, all because of family matters. The reason? I want to spend my time with my family, especially my wife and my son. I am currently teaching in Gua Musang, whereas my wife is furthering her study in UKM, Bangi and my son growing up at my wife's family in Tanah Merah. We only get to be together during holidays, thus spending quality time is very important. I don't want to waste it for some tournament which I know I will not be getting any advantage of, apart from wasting my time and money when I should be saving for our future. However, this does not mean I will not be participating in any rated or unrated tournament ever, but I shall stay low for the time being, and improve my chess skills to better my chances in winning tournaments. Judging from my last two tournaments in Penang and IIUM, I have many flaws to cover. Therefore, playing competitive chess at this time around will not be good to me.

SMS CHESS

A friend of mine ask me to put in my blog the game we played through short message service (SMS) for the duration of nearly one year. Yes, for chess enthusiasts like both of us, we can play chess using anything, including our handphone. I remembered when we were in our secondary school (SMU Ma'ahad Muhammadi, Pengkalan Chepa), we used to play blindfold chess. The reason was because chess was prohibited by the discipline teacher, and he confiscated all the chess sets brought by the students to the school. The safer option was to play the beloved game blinfolded, thus avoiding from getting our chess sets being taken.

Back to the game, it was a game of correspondence nature, using all the means available eg. books or even computer programme, to analyse the game before making a move. Thus, silly mistakes were avoided, and strong moves were made which ended the game with a draw. How true a quote by Fischer, "I think it's almost definite that the game is a draw theoretically."

Yours Truly - IIUM Top Player [B00]
SMS game, 31.12.2005 - 25.11.2006
Owen Defence

1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Nd2 e6 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.Bd3 Be7 6.Qe2 d5 7.0-0 c5 8.c3 Qc7 9.Re1 0-0 10.e5 Nfd7 11.Nf1 Nc6 12.Bf4 cxd4 13.cxd4 Rfc8 14.Rac1 Qd8 15.a3 a6 16.Qe3 Na5 17.Bg5 Nc4 18.Bxe7 Qxe7 19.Qe2 b5 20.Ne3 a5 21.Rc2 Ba6 22.Rec1 Ndb6 23.Nd1 b4 24.axb4 axb4 25.b3 Na3 26.Rc5 Bxd3 27.Qxd3 Qd8 28.h4 h6 29.Qd2 Nd7 30.Rxc8 Rxc8 31.Rxc8 Qxc8 32.Qxb4 Qc1 33.Kh2 Nc2 34.Qe7 Qf4+ 35.Kh1 Nf8 36.Ne3 Nxe3 37.fxe3 Qxe3 38.b4 h5 39.Qc7 g5 40.hxg5 h4 41.Qc2 h3 42.Qd2 Qb3 43.Kh2 hxg2 44.Nh4 ½-½

'I-DUL ADHA MUBARAK!

Greetings to all Muslims with the hope of prosperity and happiness. Although, I was not that happy today as my son was down with fever. We spent the morning sponging him to bring down the temparature. Alhamdulillah, after repeated sponging + giving him medicine every 4 hours, he cooled down. Nevertheless, we managed to visit my wife's aunt before returning home an hour later. No socializing today because my mind was preoccupied with this event as it is the first time he ever had a fever. It was so sad seeing him crying, which is alien to his characteristics. I hope that this can be a very helpful experience for future reference.

Some references which I read on how to face fever for your kids.

http://www.mymomsbest.com/dealing-with-high-fever-fits-cough-cold-watery-stools.htm
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/tools/symptom/504.html
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/body/fever.html

PENCARIAN JAGUH CATUR TERENGGANU UPDATE

Enter the highest rated player for this tournament. Looks like FM Mok Tze Meng will try his luck in Terengganu, not Kuala Lumpur.

You can find the list in Catur Terengganu website. I have sorted it according to their ratings.

1. FM Mok Tze Meng (2308)
   
2. Kamaluddin Yusuf (2184)
   
3. Ian Udani (2181)
4. Kamalariffin Wahiduddin (2147)
   
5. Mohd Kamal Abdullah (2146)
   
6. Abdullah Che Hassan (2125)
   
7. Md Fadli Zakaria (2121)
8. Mustafa Kamal Zamhuri (2121)
   
9. Ismail Ahmad (2106)
10. Zarul Syazwan Zullkafli (2085)
    
11. Zarul Shafiq Zullkafli (2047)
    
12. Faizal Andin (1997)
    
13. Lim Kian Hwa (1964)
    
14. Ahmad Afiq Afyfy (1929)
15. John Harry Pereira (1926)
    
16. Mohan Raj (1916)
17. Zullkafli Mat Daud (1883)
18. Francois Wolfaardt (1858)
    
19. Abang Zain Draup (1778)
    
20. Hj Abang Azman Draup (1714)
    
21. Zamanhari Abang Draup (1656)
    
22. Syazrin Abdul Rahman (1507)
23. David Gate (I can't find the rating for this guy)

GACC RESULTS

Both Iranian GMs from Islamic Azad University finished tops in the GACC 2008. GM Amir Bagheri (picture right), rated 2490, amassed 8 points from 9 games to become the champion, followed by colleagues GM Shojate Ghane (2408), Amin Nasri (2339) and unrated Chavez Antonio from the Far Eastern University of Philippines, all with 7 points each. Best Malaysian player is Pok Wern Jian, although studying in National University of Singapore, who finished 9th. While in the woman category, lovely WFM Shirin Navabi (picture left), also from Islamic Azad University, leapfrog Krishna Ramya to become the champion with 8 points. Nur Shazwani Zullkafli from University of Malaya, saved Malaysia the blushes by sitting 4th behind S. Harini from SRM University, India.

The full results of the Open category can be read here and the Woman category here.

PENCARIAN JAGUH CATUR TERENGGANU UPDATE

Now the Zulkafli's family have confirmed their participation. When I searched for their ratings, I found that Zarul Shafiq also has two FIDE IDs.

You can find the list in Catur Terengganu website. I have sorted it according to their ratings.

1. Kamaluddin Yusuf (2184)
   
2. Ian Udani (2181)
3. Kamalariffin Wahiduddin (2147)
   
4. Mohd Kamal Abdullah (2146)
   
5. Abdullah Che Hassan (2125)
   
6. Md Fadli Zakaria (2121)
   
7. Ismail Ahmad (2106)
8. Zarul Syazwan Zullkafli (2085)
   
9. Zarul Shafiq Zullkafli (2047)
   
10. Faizal Andin (1997)
    
11. Lim Kian Hwa (1964)
    
12. Ahmad Afiq Afyfy (1929)
13. John Harry Pereira (1926)
    
14. Mohan Raj (1916)
    
15. Zullkafli Mat Daud (1883)
16. Francois Wolfaardt (1858)
    
17. Abang Zain Draup (1778)
    
18. Hj Abang Azman Draup (1714)
    
19. Zamanhari Abang Draup (1656)
    
20. Syazrin Abdul Rahman (1507)
21. David Gate (I can't find the rating for this guy)
    

AMIN NASRI LEADS IN GACC

After 5 rounds, Amin Nasri's quest is still flawless. With 5 points the Iranian is the sole leader of the pack, followed by compatriot GM Amir Bagheri and Indian R. Premnath with 4.5 points. Chan Tze Wei from UTM is the best Malaysian so far with 4 points after losing his 2 round game with Sheider Nebato from the Philippines.

While in the women's category, WFM Ramya Krishna, the highest rated player in the category, leads with a perfect score, followed half a point behind by WFM Navabi Shirin from Iran and Nur Shazwani Zullkafli representing the host university, UM.

Here are some pictures taken from the official website.

Draw against a WFM from South Africa in GACC 2004

GACC STARTS!

The Grand Asian Chess Challenge or GACC starts today at 2nd Residential College, University of Malaya. It is an annual chess competition for university students from all over the world. It started with the Asean region in 1996 but gradually upgrade its status to cover students from Asian universities before widening it to the world. However, the acronym GACC is still maintained, even though it do not represent its present status. It is a FIDE rated event, and now already reaching its 12th installments. It is becoming more interesting than before its inception, as nowadays we can see participants (students) who are GMs and IMs. I myself had the opportunities to play in 6 GACCs in 1997-2000, 2002 and the last one in 2004, playing against strong players ranging from the Phillipines to the Mongolia!

Here is a game I won against a rated player from Sri Lanka:

Yours Truly - I.L.K. Tennakoon (Sri Lanka) (2072)
GACC VII (Round 9), 17.10.2002

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 d6 5.Nxd4 Ne5 6.Be2 Nf6 7.Nc3 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.f4 Ng6 10.Kh1 a6 11.a4 Bd7 12.Nf5 Nxe4 13.Nh6+ gxh6 14.Nxe4 Bc6 15.Bd3 f5 16.Ng3 Nh4 17.Rf2 Qe8 18.Bd2 Qg6 19.Bc3 Bf6 20.Bxf6 Rxf6 21.Bc4+ Kh8 22.Qd4 h5 23.Rg1 Nxg2 24.Bd5 Bxd5 25.Qxd5 Ne3 26.Qd4 Ng4 27.Re2 h4 28.Nh5 Qxh5 29.Rxg4 fxg4 30.Qxf6+ Kg8 31.Qe6+ Qf7 32.Qxg4+ Kh8 33.Qf3 Rf8 34.Rf2 c6 35.Qc3+ Qg7 36.Qxg7+ Kxg7 37.Kg2 Kf6 38.Kf3 Kf5 39.Rg2 h6 40.Rg7 b5 41.a5 Rf6 42.Ra7 Re6 43.Rxa6 Re4 44.Rxc6 Rxf4+ 45.Ke3 Ra4 46.a6 Ke5 47.Rb6 b4 48.b3 Ra2 49.Kd3 h3 50.Rxb4 Rxa6 51.Rh4 d5 52.Rh5+ Kf4 53.Rh4+ Ke5 54.Rxh3 Rf6 55.c3 Kf4 56.Kd4 Kg4 57.Rg3+ Kh4 58.Kxd5 Rf2 59.Rg6 h5 60.b4 Rxh2 61.b5 Rb2 62.b6 Kh3 63.c4 h4 64.c5 Kh2 65.Rg7 h3 66.b7 Kh1 67.c6 h2 68.Rh7 Kg1 69.Kd6 1-0