IM MAS (2422) vs GM OSCAR DE LA RIVA AGUADO (2521)

Mas gets another GM! Thanks to the Malaysian players who played courageously to win during Mas' hibernation. Hopefully Mas emerged from it unscathed tomorrow. As for GM Oscar, he is the highest rated player in Andorra. His performance in this Olympiad has been quite remarkable, losing only once in his first game against the Russian, and drawing twice to Megaranto of Indonesia and Hansen Sune Berg of Denmark. It will be a tough call, but I know Mas can pull off an upset, like he did against GM Rozentalis.

Oscar WILL PUSH 1.e4 to meet Mas' Sicilian Defense. So far in this Olympiad, he won against GM Yehuda's Sicilian by selecting 3.c3 for his third move. We can expect fire on the board tomorrow, because slow maneuvering is Mas' forte. He used 3.c3 again when he won against Ryan Harper of the Trinidad and Tobago. Thus, safely to say, 3.c3 is his pet line against the Sicilian, and Mas should take note of that and prepare properly.

All the best for tomorrow, Mas! (I'm going to sleep now, it's already 2.00 am when this post is published)


I'm following Mas' game LIVE. My prediction did not materialized; GM Oscar did not push 3.c3. However, he did not play the main line either, but retreated his Knight to f3. In the above position, he just moved his knight to e1. He has to reposition his Knight, quite common in this line. Mas let his pawns to be doubled at e6, but the GM refuses. The position is quite balanced, and Mas surely does not stand worst.


After just five moves from previous diagram, we arrive at the endgame phase. Mas has a Bishop compared to his opponent's Knight. Both pieces are now defending the fort for the time being, while the two Rooks are repositioning to premium squares. Personally, I like Mas' position because he has more active Rooks.


Now, Mas just has to activate his King. Neither has a passed pawn yet, but White's b and c pawn are under scrutiny. However, Mas a pawn could be a problem. My prediction, Mas can escape with a draw if he plays correctly.


So, the Knight goes to battle first while the Bishop still defending. I think Mas made a mistake when he did not push the Knight before White put his Rook at d1. Moreover, Mas could be in a big problem if the b pawn starts rolling.


At last, the Bishop comes to life! By this time, all the other boards already finished. Mok drew, Peter won and Tan lost. It is now up to Mas to take Malaysia to glory, and personally to take his GM ambition a step further.

IM MAS (2422) vs GM YEHUDA GRUENFELD (2464)

After a rest and an eventful run, Mas starts afresh by beating an unrated player. However, will he stroll pass a deaf and mute GM Yehuda Gruenfeld from the Israel? Sadly, Mas will not have the opportunity to play the Gruenfeld Defense against Gruenfeld because he will again play the white pieces. GM Yehuda already won using the Kan variation of the Sicilian against Maxence Murara in this Olympiad, and will surely cherishes the chance to spring it again againts Mas if he pushes 1.e4.

Go, Mas!

This is the current position of IM Mas vs GM Gruenfeld. I am uncomfortable with Mas' position. I hope it is not his first defeat in this Olympiad.

Mas manages to activate his Bishop and creates a passed pawn. But it remains to be seen whether this pawn will ever advance.


Did Mas just made a mistake? GM Yehuda manages to penetrate into Mas second rank, and it appears that his Knight will join the attack too. We are hoping for the best for Mas.


As I said earlier, I did not like Mas' position, and that he made a mistake on move 38. Mas resigns as the team trails 3-0 with only Tan Khai Boon to save its blushes.

ROUND 4 : MALAYSIA (86) vs SWITZERLAND (47)

Round 4 started at appoximately 5 p.m. this evening (Malaysian time). Click on the image below to go to the live games.

IM MAS (2422) vs GM YANNICK PELLETIER (2592) PREVIEW

Mas looked sharp in this tournament so far. His next opponent will be a Grandmaster from Switzerland, GM Yannick Pelletier with FIDE rating of 2592. Mas, who drew against GM Micheal Adams (2728) and won against GM Eduardas Rozentalis (2611), will surely love another scalp in the higher rated GM Pelletier. However, being a GM since 2001, Pelletier is no pushover, having already won his national championship three times.

Mas will play White, which means he will face either a Sicilian or a French if he starts with 1.e4, or a Queen's Indian if he starts with 1.d4. A sample of Pelletier Sicilian game from his recent encounter is here, while a win against GM Granda-Zuniga using the Queen's Indian is here.

Your move, Mas!

ROUND 3: MALAYSIA (86) vs LITHUANIA (39)

I'm following the game live at the official site. So far, IM Mas can still hold with different coloured Bishops, Mok has a Knight to his opponent's Bishop, Tan has to withstand three pawn avalanche amidst his extra Bishop, while Peter is playing with all the minor pieces, i.e. 2 Knights and 2 Bishops.

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GOOD LUCK MALAYSIAN OLYMPIAD CHESS TEAM

The Malaysian chess teams are flying the Jalur Gemilang at the 2010 Chess Olympiad. It is held at a little known place of Khanty-Mansiysk from 20th September - 4th October 2010.

Men's Team - seeded 86/148

Board 1 : IM Mas Hafizulhelmi (FIDE 2422)
Board 2 : IM Mok Tze Meng (2416)
Board 3 : NM Tan Khai Boon (2160)
Board 4 : FM Peter Long (2302)
Board 5 : Gregory Lau (2159) - Team captain

Women's Team - seeded 74/114

Board 1 : NWM Alia Anin Azwa Bakri (1904)
Board 2 : WCM Nur Nabila Azman Hisham (1829)
Board 3 : NWM Nurulhuda Wahiduddin (2020)
Board 4 : NWM Roslina Marmono (1933)
Board 5 : NWM Fong Mi Yen (1905)


My hopes for the Malaysian teams are that they will successfully change these numbers for the better - their team seedings and their personal ratings. I am also hoping that IM Mas Hafizulhelmi finally lands his GM title in this tournament. So far, at the time of this writing, he already secured a draw against GM Micheal Adams (2728) from England! Hopefully this draw will be the stepping stone for our country's ambition of a first GM.

Those who would like follow their news, kindly visit the official website, or our blogger hairulovchessmaniacs. You can also see the results at chessresults.com.

1st NATIONAL RAPID CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

MPP University of Petronas, in colaboration with MCF and Perak International Chess Association (PICA), will hold the 1st National Rapid Chess Championship at its campus in Tronoh, Perak. This event, held in conjunction with UTP Convofair, will be a national rated event. Those who are interested can see the poster above and download the registration form here.

SALAM IDUL FITRI

We wish you a prosperous and happy Hari Raya

QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED: EXCHANGE VARIATION

My former teammate, Armanov, explained this variation beautifully in MSSM blog exampling a game between NWM Tan Li Ting vs WFM Nur Najiha Azman Hisham played in this year's MSSM. The variation, played at move 5, has lead to a promising position for White. However, several self-destructive moves were played carelessly by the newly crowned NWM, and Black capitalised these mistakes masterfully. For further reading, please visit the post here.

Here is a game where White won convincingly using the exchange.

Sorry for not updating the blog regularly this Ramadhan. This is because I am busy marking the papers for SPM trial. Hopefully I will update more frequently after raya, insha Allah. May you have a prosperous Ramadhan, ameen.

RIZAL vs MD ANIS, MAKSAK 2010

Kelantan were crushed 1-3 in the final game against the eventual champions Kuala Lumpur, but the game between my former coach, Rizal Ahmad Kamal and my teammate, Md Anis Rahimi deserved some attention. Both played to the time trouble, and in the scramble, Rizal managed to somehow checkmate his opponent using a pawn. However, the result should be quite different had my Kelantan teammate found the correct reply on move 40. Here is the original position:

White's Queen sits passively at the edge of the board guarding the unfortunate g4 pawn, and Black replies meekly with 40...e4 attacking the Bishop.

The game will take a different course should Black found a more active 40...Qd4!, attacking the pawn once again, and after the exchange of Queens, Black should come out on top.

Any objection?

MAKSAK FINAL RESULT

Kuala Lumpur took the advantage of playing as a host to become the latest champions of MAKSAK. They pipped Terengganu to second placing, Sarawak (3rd) and Pahang (4th). Possessing quality all across the boards, Kuala Lumpur cruise to the pole position by beating their arch rival Kelantan 3-1 in the final game. Half of their players claimed best board prizes, showing why KL is the team to beat in MAKSAK next installment.

As for Kelantan team, they only managed sixth placing after the calamitous defeat against KL. Yours truly did not make it to the tournament because of the demise of his father who lost the battle with stroke. However, it is wrong to say that Kelantan did not win solely because of his absence, for Kelantan have quality players compared to most of the other teams.

The final results (taken from TerengganuChess):

Team performance

1. Kuala Lumpur

2. Terengganu

3. Sarawak

4. Pahang

Individual performance

Board 1 - Ismail Ahmad (Police)

Board 2 - Kamal Ariffin Wahiduddin (KL)

Board 3 - Rizal Ahmad Kamal (KL)

Board 4 - Baharuddin Hamzah (Kelantan)

Board 5 - Roslan Sulaiman (Selangor)

Board 6 - Muhammad Rizal Jusah (KL)

Team compositions

Group A

Group B

Group C

Results crosstable

Winners' Pool

Loosers' Pool

Some pics of the event taken from Naserov and Sifu blogs.

MAKSAK TRAINING AT SUK

Today we started our training for MAKSAK. It is being held at Kota Darulnaim. Most of the players came, with the exception of two of our most important players from afar. The training was successful; we corrected each others' mistakes and tried to find each others' strengths. It is compulsory that we gather as a team to discuss the strategies. Our manager was helpful enough; all the players need not worry about getting their stomach full! There will be another training tomorrow before we depart for KL.

NATIONAL RATING REVIEW FOR KELANTAN PLAYERS

National rating July 2010 is out. There are three additions for Kelantan players emerging from Kelantan Closed held last May. Syed Azizi starts strongly at 1799, while two others - Rosmizal and Mohd Hafidz start at 1588 and 1506 respectively. There are also players who increase their ratings, most notably Abdul Haq who increases his rating 113 points from 1829 to 1942 and Nik Mohd Haziq Najmuddin who increases 121 points to stand at 1306 from 1185 previously. However, there is a Kelantan player who gets the most points increment - 182 points! - provided that her name is spelled correctly. This is because previously she was named only Norazlisa with 1141 rating, and now she becomes Norazlisa Ramli with 1323 points (and Norazlisa is not in the July list). In contrast, the most rating decrease suffered by Wan Tarmizi, who went down from 1588 to 1474, a hefty 114 points decrease. Even yours truly drops 9 points to stand at 1672.

It is important to note here that there are two possible double entries:

1. Mohd Fadhil Mohd Saufi (1068) with Muhd Fadhil Saufi (1305)
2. Nor Aifaa (1349) with Nur Aifaa (1263)

One more thing, I thought that MSSM tournament is nationally rated, but there is no results when I typed my students' names who went to this year's tournament.


Nevertheless, you can check your July 2010 rating here (many thanks to gilachess).

COACHING STUDENTS

I like to share some tips for coaching primary (under-12 category) or secondary (under-15 and under-18) school students. There are several fun ways to coach them. Many of these training devices I revise from what I took from this interesting website.

1. Use time odds.
I give them 10 minutes to my 1 minute. There are many times where I lose on time, but mostly, I manage to survive. Nevertheless, some of them really use the given time wisely and think hard in order to beat me (I used their thinking time also for my replies). The merits of this device - using time wisely and handling the clock correctly.

2. Play pawn games.
I set up all the white and black pawns on their original squares, minus all the other pieces. Using a simple rule of those who manage to get a passed pawn first wins, I let them play against each other. The merits - learn to get passed pawns with correct handling of pawn formations.

3. Checkmate me.
I set up basic checkmate materials such as Queen and King vs lonely King, Rook and King vs lonely King etc. and ask them to checkmate me in only one minute. Of course most of them manage to checkmate me using the Queen, but many stumble when using a Rook. The merits - learn checkmate patterns, and most importantly, learn to think fast.

4. Puzzles.
I give them positions containing certain lessons learned earlier, e.g. pin, double check, double attack, en passant, and ask them to solve it. This device should be done in groups, so that they will try to beat the other groups for the solution. The merits - learn the fundamental tactics in chess.

5. Simuls.
All the students play against me simultaneously. Students must keep score of their game, and must not consult anybody throughout. Touch move only applies to the students, not me. During 2008 centralised training with the Gua Musang team, I played against all 36 students from all the age categories, winning all but 1 when I lost to a form 5 student from Sungai Asap. The merits - use all that have been learned in a competitive game.

MAKSAK TEAM DRAW

Kelantan will battle it out against Pahang, ATM, Selangor and Penang in Group C in this year's MAKSAK Team Chess Championship. It will surely be a tough assignment as Pahang was the third placed team last year, while Selangor and Penang are known chess powerhouses. Nevertheless, with the spirit of the newly formed PCNK, Kelantan will bring its best players to the championship, and will surely try to better last year's achievement of 4th place.

Group A
Sarawak
Perlis
Terengganu
Sabah
Penjara

Group B
Kuala Lumpur
Melaka
Perak
Johor
PDRM

Group C
Pahang
Kelantan
ATM
Selangor
Penang