Hero wears a cap to control his dandruff

YEOH LI TIAN vs HERO

At UM Open today, Hero beats Yeoh Li Tian who had just beaten Grandmasters in Brunei using only the French Defense. An opening to beat?

BLOGGERS AT WAR!

Today I was at SMK Chengal to watch Kota Bharu players battle it out to be the district reps. I bumped into Bad Bishops (BB), who went to cheer for his students. Unfortunately, my camera was not available and I did not take any pictures. The selection was held for two days (3-4 April 2010) and the winners will be announced tomorrow.

In the mean time, BB and I played a game while waiting for the third round to commence. It started as a French (I played Black), and after a series of exchanges, BB was true to his name when he had two Bishops against my two Knights (I was captain of IIUM Knights several years back, before they change the name to IIUM Mustangs nowadays). Consequently, further exchanges leads to an interesting pawn endgame where Black had double f-pawns.

Here is the position; Black to move and end the game:

Answer: 1...f5! 0-1

Yours Truly vs Computer (FIDE 2400)

SLAYING THE FRENCH

Beating a computer chess programme is very hard. It has the ability to refer to its books, make long calculations, and obviously no fear factor. All these make an unfair game against a human player like me. Nevertheless I managed to get the above position against a computer chess programme. I attacked Black's castle position with 16.h6 in order to force his hand. Black replied 26... g6 and suddenly his castle became fragile.

27.R1b5

I noticed that the Queen and the Bishop had multiple defending tasks and they could not leave their respective position.

27... Qf8
The Queen dare not leave the diagonal in order to defend the checkmate.

28.Nd4 a3, 29.R5b6 a2, 30.Nxe6 Bxe6, 31.Rxe6 a1=Q+, 32.Ke2 Ra6
Black must defend against the threat of 33.Rxg6+ which will lead to mate.

33.Ree7

Pigs (or hogs) on the seventh rank! A dream of every chess player.

34... Ra2, 35.Rg7+ Qxg7, 36.Rxg7 Kh8, 37.Rc7!


A bolt from the blue! Fortunately, I found this move even though I was in severe time trouble. The Rook was immune because of the threat of mate. Now Black must surrender most of his troops to defend his King (a human opponent will resign here).

37... Rxc2+, 38.Bxc2 Qa6+, 39.Bd3 Kg8, 40.Bxa6 Rxc7, 41.Qd8+ Kf7, 42.Qxc7+ Kf8, 43.Qxb8+ Kf7, 44.Qc7+ Kf8, 45.Qg7+ Ke8, 46.Bb5+ Kd8, 47.Qd7# 1-0