NO GM FOR MAS

IM Mas Hafizulhelmi finished with 5 points from 9 games to end his quest for GM norm without success. He played 2 GMs and lost both of the games. This is yet another failed attempt which Mas must improve on in order for him to get the elusive title and be the first Malaysian GM.

The official site offers no such thing as a free viewer to the games. You must log in as a Platinum member of the Chess.com for you to watch the live games. I had to wait for the result to be keyed in the schedule page before updating it in My Chess Life. Nevertheless, here are Mas' full result:

Round 1 : win vs Adarsh Jayakumar (2177) USA
Round 2 : lost vs GM Micheal Adams (2715) England
Round 3 : draw vs Dereque Kelley (2203) USA
Round 4 : draw vs Eric Rosen (2216) USA
Round 5 : win vs Jeff Phillips (2071) USA
Round 6 : win vs Timothy Taylor (2279) USA
Round 7 : draw vs IM Andranik Matikozyan (2451) Armenia
Round 8 : draw vs Michael Lee (2395) USA
Round 9 : lost vs GM Varuzhan Akobian (2613) USA

Points : 5/9

MAS VS MICHEAL ADAMS, AGAIN

Mas Hafizulhelmi (FIDE 2416), who is currently playing in the 1st Metropolitan Chess, already won his first game against Adarsh Jayakumar (2177) from the USA. For the second round, he played against English GM Micheal Adams, again. He has already drew against Adams in the Olympiad, but this time, he lost. Don't be upset, Mas. We Kelantanese are with you all the way.

GOMO, MAS, GOMO!

1st KELANTAN FIDE RATED TOURNAMENT

At last, after a series of MCF rated events, PCNK has managed to organize a FIDE rated tournament where 12 selected players will play a round robin event. The tournament will be played from October to December this year. The selected players are:

1. Abdul Haq Mohamed (FIDE 2096)
2. Mohd Azizul Mat Daud (2065)
3. Nik Ahmad Farouqi Nik Abdul Aziz (2055)
4. Nasrul Humaimi Mahmood (1951)
5. Marzuki Yaacob (1916)
6. Ariez Azman
7. Baharuddin Hamzah
8. Mohd Ezmi Mahmood
9. Nik Mohd Nazri
10. Norazlin Juarih
11. Syed Azizi Abdul Rahman
12. Wan Mahadzir Wan Sulaiman

For more information, tune in to the 'official website' created by Dr. Nasrul Humaimi, one of the players. Hopefully he has time to update the website once the tournament gets under way.

IM MAS HAFIZUL GM QUEST CONTINUES

Kelantan's top player, IM Mas Hafizulhelmi, will be playing in the 1st Metropolitan International which will be held in Los Angeles, US, alongside illustrious GMs such as GM Micheal Adams (whom he drew in the recent Olympiad), GM Loek van Wely, GM Ilya Smirin, GM Mark Paragua and GM Dmitry Gurevich. The tournament will offer norms for GM, IM, WGM and WIM as there are 50 titled players registered which include 11 Grandmasters. I sure hope that fasting will not deter Mas' games and that he will return with the coveted norm.

The full list of the participants can be read at the official website.

FUHH....

I just creamed somebody rated higher than me. I managed to checkmate him when my clock was running out of time. At the final position, he had 0:15.6 secs to my 0:00.1 secs. Maybe I had 2 Queens in the end, but it was balanced until he made a crucial mistake on move 43. It started as a Sicilian, albeit without the normal move order, and Black skillfully transposed into the Dragon variation. After the exchange of a pair of Rooks, White started to attack the centre. Black then blocked the centre, and stole the loose a-pawn. However, White quickly regained the pawn, and gained the initiative afterwards with the Queen dominating the board consisted of 5 opposing pawns and a dark-coloured Bishop each. Finally, the final mistake was made, and the rest was a matter of technique.

NIK NAZRI WINS 2ND KUALA KRAI CLOSED

Nik Ahmad Nazri (picture right) capped the good news of his wife's pregnancy with energetic displays to dislodge the tournament favourite Nik Ahmad Farouqi in the recent 2nd Kuala Krai Closed. Both players were among the invited to play in the Elite Category together with junior players with ratings above 1300. Other winners were Mohd Amin, Baharuddin and Mohd Ariez. The full results (for the Elite Category):

1. Nik Mohd Nazri Nik Hassan (1776)
   
2. Nik Ahmad Farouqi Nik Abd Aziz (1894)
   
3. Mohd Amin Mohd Noor (1702)
   
4. Baharuddin Hamzah (1566)
   
5. Mohd Ariez Azman (1612)
   
6. Mohd Faiz Zakaria (1448)
   
7. Norazlin Juarih (1504)
   
8. Mohd Nusyafiq Yahya (1376)
   
9. Mohd Bukhari Yahya (1586)
   
10. Wan Mohd Amirul Wan Yusoff (1435)
    

Other results, please visit PCNK's blog.