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.

KUALA KRAI CLOSED

After the success of the first series, Kuala Krai Chess Club will be organizing its second this Saturday. The details of the tournament are as follows:

Date: 30 July 2011 (Saturday)
Time: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Venue: Sekolah Menengah Sultan Yahya Petra 2, Kuala Krai
Format: 6 rounds SWISS
Fees:

1. Elite Category (with national rating 1300 and above) - RM15.00
2. Secondary School (under 18 & under 15) - RM10.00
3. Primary School (under 12 & under 9) - RM10.00

The tournament offers National ratings for each categories. For this purpose, several national rated players have been invited. Among those in the Elite Category are:

1. Nik Ahmad Farouqi
2. Nik Muhd Nazri
3. Mohd Amin Noor
4. Mohd Bukhari Yahya
5. Mohd Ariez
6. Baharuddin Hamzah
7. Wan Muhd Amirul
8. Wan Muhd Adli
9. Siti Nur Afiqah Haslam
10. Aliff Omar Saufi
11. Projek Jejak Juara PPD Kuala Krai 2012 squad
    
12. Under 18, 15 dan 12 from the first series Champions
    

Any enquiries, please contact:
Cikgu Nik Azrihan at 010-9245096

QUIZ TIME

What is Black's best move from this diagram?

KELANTAN HAS TWO FIDE RATED ARBITERS!

The bleak moments of chess activities in Kelantan had been replaced somewhat with the news that two of our own had passed an arbitration seminar held by FIDE and were awarded a norm of a FIDE Arbiter title. Nik Ahmad Farouqi and Nik Mohd Azrihan, both were among the 23 Malaysians who succeeded in the examination test, held after the end of the lectures.

It is hoped that these two, widely considered as the new chess powerhouses in terms of chess managing activities (mainly held in Kuala Krai), will bring their new experience to upgrade the status of Kelantan chess arena.

Let us all Kelantanese pray that they will get their full norms soon, insha Allah.

Source hairulov and FIDE official website.

A BLEAK TIME FOR KELANTAN CHESS

The chess activities in Kelantan is slowing down. Even the bloggers do not update their blogs with news and information. The culmination of which, the non-participation in the upcoming MAKSAK chess tournament which will be held in Perak next month. I received a text from my fellow Johor MAKSAK player, that he was shocked when he saw that Kelantan did not take part in the draw for the group matches. I asked our captain, and he confirmed that Kelantan would not send a chess team this year, the state opted to alternately send the carrom team this year when the honour had been given to chess and dart teams last year, which I unluckily dropped out because of my father's death. Now I have to train for next year, hopefully it will be the chess team's turn.

Let me mourn this decision alone.....

MSSM ALL RESULTS

I downloaded all the results from Terengganu Chess Association's site. Looks like Kelantan players were still far away from other states' level. The two reps from Tumpat also did not perform well. Congratulations to both Wan Mohd Adli (10th in Boys Under 18) and Nik Mohd Haziq (9th in Boys Under 12).

DEATHNOTE 2 (THE LAST NAME)

I just watched Deathnote 2 again, because I was not satisfied with the chess position where L was playing alone while waiting for his death. And sure enough, I found that the position was not in the liking of any good chess player.



From the position, L moved the Black Knight to f6, then the White pawn to d4. It was also hard to determined whether the Black King had already moved or just plain misplaced.

I am really against the film makers who do not consult any chess players when setting up the board and expect us to believe that the character is truly a genius!

SECRET PREPARATION?

Actually, I wanted to put 'Does My Chess Life blog destroy Kelantan's chances in MSSM?' as the topic for this post, but after due consideration, I acted against it.

Admittedly, I, pretty much like all Kelantan chess enthusiasts, am feeling a little anxious right now as to how our MSSM team is doing in Penang. However, we are lucky because Gilacatur is there to update the results of the ongoing championship in the MSSM 2011 blog.

Nevertheless, the purpose of this particular post is not to update the result, rather to write whether My Chess Life (MCL) really is destroying the team's chances in MSSM.

As we all know, MCL posts about Kelantan's chess developments and news, and sometimes posts games played by Kelantan players completed with notes and analysis.

I was called to write on this topic because recently, there was a person who badly wanted the Kelantan Closed 2011 bulletin, which I think would be used as a preparation for his team if paired against the Kelantan team.

In my humble opinion, we, as a chess player, must always improve ourselves. We don't need to worry about somebody studying our games because we must always have something in our sleeves so that we will not become too predictable. There really is no question of 'revealing too many secrets' when we are really prepared for the games.

The front cover

KELANTAN CLOSED 2011 BULLETIN

Kelantan Closed 2011 Bulletin is here! It contains more than 100 games in its 52 pages, complete with diagrams, starting list and final crosstable. Among the players are Nik Ahmad Farouqi (1914 National rating), Nik Mohd Nazri (1789), Syed Azizi (1788), Mohd Amin (1654), Muhammad Ariez (1605) and Baharuddin Hamzah (1533).

For more information on how to get this bulletin, please log on to PCNK website or for some of the games, please log on to Kelantan Chess Network.

CENTRALIZED TRAINING FOR MSSM

SJK (T) Pasir Gajah, Kuala Krai

Kelantan's MSSM chess contingent is now having its centralized training at SJK (T) Pasir Gajah, Kuala Krai. The training will be held until this Saturday. The players will be coached by formidable coaches coming from all over Kelantan. It is hoped that they will bring the best out of these players so that the contingent will become a real challenge for the other states.

We Kelantanese wish you

ALL THE BEST!

PPD TUMPAT MAINTAINED 2 STATE REPS

At last, the state selection ended. PPD Tumpat, like last year, managed to send two of its players to represent the state in the MSSM. The players are:

1. Wan Muhammad Zikri Wan Mohammad (Boys Under 18 Category)
2. Wan Nur Fatin Athirah (Girls Under 12 Category)

The selection, held at MRSM Kuala Krai from 5 - 7 May 2011, saw 64 participants in every categories totaling to 384 junior chess players competing to be the state representatives. The Kota Bharu contingent returned home with the most golds - 5 from 6 categories! Even though the contingent was divided into two - Northern KB and Southern KB - with 12 winners overall, it did not deter the fact that the other contingents still have a lot of catching up to do. Kuala Krai was next with 9 winners in all categories, while Pasir Puteh came third with 5.

1. Kuala Krai (9)
2. Northern Kota Bharu (8)
3. Pasir Puteh (5)
4. Southern Kota Bharu (4)
5. Pasir Mas (4)
6. Tumpat (2)
7. Machang (2)
8. Tanah Merah (1)
9. Jeli (1)

Uniquely, the Boys Under 18 Category saw 6 participants from 6 different contingents, whereas the Boys Under 12 Category was dominated by Kuala Krai. Gua Musang and Bachok did not have a single representative. The names of the winners:

Boys Under 18

1. Wan Mohd Adli (KBU)
2. Mohd Fadhil (PPH)
3. Wan Mohd Zikri (TPT)
4. Nik Muhd Sharifudin (MCH)
5. Fadhil Aiman (KKR)
6. Muhammad Syahmi (JEL)

Boys Under 15

1. Wan Mohd Amirul (KBU)
2. Muhd Ikmal Hakimie (PMS)
3. Alif Omar (PPH)
4. Wan Muhd Imran (KBU)
5. Muhammad Adam Hafiz (KBU)
6. Muhamad Izani (KKR)

Boys Under 12

1. Nik Muhd Haziq (KKR)
2. Muhammad Syakir (KKR)
3. Mohd Firdaus (KKR)
4. Abdul Manaf (KKR)
5. Muhamad Akram (MCH)
6. Muhamad Irfan (KBU)

Girls Under 18

1. Wan Aemellia Elisha (KBS)
2. Ayu Anabihah (TMH)
3. Nabilah (KBS)
4. Wan Zarif Sofea (PPH)
5. Norazlisa (KKR)
6. Aisyah Nabilah (PMS)

Girls Under 15

1. Siti Nur Afiqah (KBU)
2. Najihah (PPH)
3. Laila Husna (KBS)
4. Nur Ain Syahirah (PPH)
5. Nik Nur Ain Sabrina (KBU)
6. Nur Hanis Natasha (KBS)

Girls Under 12

1. Nur Fatini (KBU)
2. Nurfatin Aisyah (PMS)
3. Nik Nur Nadzirah (KKR)
4. Wan Nur Fatin Athirah (TPT)
5. Nik Anisy Syakirah (KKR)
6. Nur Anis Fazliyana (PMS)

Pictures from the event:

The Tumpat Team



Sending a full force in each category, the Tumpat team managed to make the other contingent run for their money. The targets were Wan Nurhazirah (Girls Under 18), Wan Muhammad Zikri (Boys Under 18), Abdul Haiyi (Boys Under 18) and Wan Nur Fatin Athirah (Girls Under 12).

Heartbreak for darling, she only managed to get 7th in her category. She won her games before losing to Aemellia, the eventual champion, in Round 4. Then, she drew all her games before winning her last. Finishing 5.5 points with the strongest tie break did not ensure her a place in the state team.

While Abdul Haiyi only managed to finish 11th when he lost to a player from Machang in Round 7. Although he won his last game, 5.5 points were never enough to secure a top 6 finish.