PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR THE GRAND FINAL

I just made my proposed schedule for the Grand Final this November. I supposed that all the postponed games involving Baharuddin and Nik Farouqi will have been finished by then.

ROUND 3 AND 4 (KELANTAN BASED)

Yours Truly won 2 more games to amass 4 points overall and head the standing in Kelantan. This time, he won against Syed Azizi and Nik Nazri. He is followed by Marzuki with 2.5 points, Syed Azizi with 2 points, Baharuddin with 1 point, Azlin with 0.5 point while Nik Nazri is still searching for points. Unfortunately, all games against Baharuddin were postponed. Results can be achieve at the results page.

Some pictures from the event:





Current standing (taken from PCNK website):

AFTER TWO GAMES..

.. Yours Truly leads the standing in Kelantan. He won both the morning and afternoon games against Baharuddin and Bad Bishop, respectively. Trailing closely are Marzuki Yaacob and Syed Azizi, both with 1.5 points, Baharudin with a point and finally Nik Mohd Nazri and Bad Bishop who lost both of their games. Results can be read at the results page.

ARE YOU READY?

Tomorrow the Kelantan-based players will lock their horns on the chess boards at Waja Timur Technology, Instaforex, near D'Klasik, Kubang Kerian.

GOOD LUCK!

1ST KELANTAN FIDE RATED (KELANTAN BASED)

The 6 Kelantan-based players will start their games next week. The proposed venue is Instaforex, Kubang Kerian.

The schedule:

KELANTAN BASED PLAYERS

RND 1	24/09/2011 (9 am)
	Name	Res.	Name
	Mohd Azizul Mat Daud	-	Baharuddin Hamzah
	Norazlin Juarih	-	Marzuki Yaacob
	Syed Azizi Abd Rahman	-	Nik Mohd Nazri
RND 2	24/09/2011 (3 pm)
	Name	Res.	Name
	Baharuddin Hamzah	-	Nik Mohd Nazri
	Syed Azizi Abd Rahman	-	Marzuki Yaacob
	Mohd Azizul Mat Daud	-	Norazlin Juarih
RND 3	1/10/2011 (9 am)
	Name	Res.	Name
	Baharuddin Hamzah	-	Norazlin Juarih
	Mohd Azizul Mat Daud	-	Syed Azizi Abd Rahman
	Nik Mohd Nazri	-	Marzuki Yaacob
RND 4	1/10/2011 (3 pm)
	Name	Res.	Name
	Baharuddin Hamzah	-	Marzuki Yaacob
	Mohd Azizul Mat Daud	-	Nik Mohd Nazri
	Syed Azizi Abd Rahman	-	Norazlin Juarih
RND 5	8/10/2011 (9 am)
	Name	Res.	Name
	Baharuddin Hamzah	-	Syed Azizi Abd Rahman
	Nik Mohd Nazri	-	Norazlin Juarih
	Marzuki Yaacob	-	Mohd Azizul Mat Daud

REPORT ON THE FIRST DAY

4 games were played today. There were 4 players available, while Wan Mahathir will be joining the fray tomorrow. The players who managed to complete their games today were Abdul Haq, Ariez Azman, Mohd Ezmi and Nasrul Humaimi.

Round 1

Mohd Ezmi Mahmood lost to Abdul Haq Mohamed
Ariez Azman drew with Nasrul Humaimi Mahmood

Round 2

Mohd Ezmi lost to Ariez Azman
Abdul Haq won against Nasrul Humaimi

Special thanks to arbiters Mr. Greg and Mr. Najib, and also to DATCC for preparing the venue. Hopefully tomorrow more intense battles will ensue.

Some pictures (taken from the official website):

Update:

The results after 2 days of play (Kuala Lumpur players) have been updated in the pages. All the games involving Nik Ahmad Farouqi are postponed. This is due to his mother's death sometime today (17 September 2011). May Allah bless her soul.

1ST KELANTAN FIDE RATED OFFICIALLY STARTS TOMORROW

At last, the long awaited tournament will hit the board starting tomorrow. The 12 players have been divided into two camps based on the players' whereabouts. The KL-based players will start hitting the clock tomorrow, while the Kelantan-based players will hit the ground running next week.

The KL-based Players

1. Abdul Haq Mohamed (FIDE 2096)
2. Nik Ahmad Farouqi Nik Abdul Aziz (2055)
3. Nasrul Humaimi Mahmood (1951)
4. Ariez Azman
5. Mohd Ezmi Mahmood
6. Wan Mahadzir Wan Sulaiman

The Kelantan-based Players

1. Mohd Azizul Mat Daud (2065)
2. Marzuki Yaacob (1916)
3. Baharuddin Hamzah
4. Nik Mohd Nazri
5. Norazlin Juarih
6. Syed Azizi Abdul Rahman

GOOD LUCK!

Tomorrow's schedule:

RND 1	16/9/2011 9 pagi
SNo.	Name	Res.	Name	SNo.
1	Ariez Azman	-	Nasrul Humaimi Mahmood	6
2	Abdul Haq Mohamed	-	Wan Mahadzir Wan Sulaiman	5
3	Nik Ahmad Farouqi Nik Abdul Aziz	-	Mohd Ezmi Mahmood	4
RND 2	16/9/2011 3 ptg
SNo.	Name	Res.	Name	SNo.
6	Nasrul Humaimi Mahmood	-	Mohd Ezmi Mahmood	4
5	Wan Mahadzir Wan Sulaiman	-	Nik Ahmad Farouqi Nik Abdul Aziz	3
1	Abdul Haq Mohamed	-	Ariez Azman	2

Full schedule can be read in the official website.

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.