HANIF vs IIUMCHESSMASTER, FINAL POSITION

Final position

At last, White resigns. After more than a year playing the game, White decides that it is best that he does not continue the pain. The game started on December 7th, 2008 as a Morra Gambit, his pet line, against my Sicilian. He skillfully mixed up the order of the opening moves, but I maintained my composure and went along with him. However, the game became interesting when he blundered away a central pawn with 25.Rd2? and I took advantage. The resulting Queen + Rook + Pawns endgame was still dangerous play, however, and I managed to force the exchange of Queens with 29...Qc7+ to enter the Rook endgame with a passed d-pawn. He created a Queenside passed pawn, in order to get a counterplay, but the death of this pawn signaling the demise of any hope.

ARKURNI - IIUMCHESSMASTER LATEST

This is the latest position in my duel with my ex-teammate Hanif Arkurni. White to move.

ACTIVATE YOUR ROOK!

Position after 40.Rc8

This ending between Hanif vs Yours Truly is still ongoing. Black to move.

HANIF vs IIUMCHESSMASTER

The game has arrived at the crucial stage. White to move.

ENDGAME BATTLE

Hanif vs IIUMChessmaster will resume the battle with Rook endgame. Black has the upper hand with an extra passed centre pawn while White has the pawn advantage in the Queenside of the board. Black's King is closer to the centre and his Rook controls the only available line. Who will prevail?

LATEST POSITION

White just moved 29.Qd4

This is the latest position in the battle between Arkurni vs IIUMChessmaster. Black is a pawn up, but in Queen - Rook ending, anything could happen. What both sides can do now is to improve piece position. It is quite disturbing for Black that White's Queen is positioned neatly in the middle of the board. The plus for Black is that he has a passed pawn and White's pieces are not so coordinated. So, how do you think Black will reply?

After 25... Nxd4!

A CORRESPONDENCE BLUNDER??

After a long fight, White cracks. However, it is perplexed as how White made the move 25.Rd2? which I saw it as a blunder. It is supposed to be a blunderless game, a correspondence game, but we are human after all. Sometimes, the first move we already ruled out, is the one we played on the board. There are games where I was trapped like this, and I regretted it afterwards.

ARKURNI vs YOURS TRULY

This is the latest position of our correspondence chess.

White just moved 24.Qd3

IS THE POSITION EQUAL?

Position after 20.Rac1

The board (sorry I captured it from the side, just for fun) shows the current position in the duel between arkurni and iiumchessmaster which has been ongoing since 7th of December last year. The pieces and the pawns are completely equal, and there is no immediate attack for both sides. White, however, just positioned his rook to control the only open line. What is the best reply for Black?

MORRA GAMBIT AGAIN, HANIF ARKURNI?

Morra Gambit surfaces again. According to Rizal Ahmad Kamal, the ladies team of the Malaysian Para Games Contingent used it to claim the gold medals in the Para Games in Korat, Thailand in 2008. I used to think that this is an opening for those who are very lazy, but I forgot to reason that even Morra Gambit has its various lines to consider, depending on the Black's position. One of my colleague in IIUM used it effectively as his main arsenal. He continues using it now in our on-going correspondence game. We have reach the position below:

Black just moved 13... Bd7

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