Of Nf6 Event - End of Round 5

At the end of Round 5, Yeoh Li Tian is the sole leader for the event at 4 points after earlier joint leader Zaidan Zulkipli surprising lost to Kamaluddin Yusof in Round 5. One of Li Tian's point came from a walkover game against Abdul Aziz Shukor who had to withdraw from the event due to medical reasons. Li Tian drew with father Chin Seng in Round 1 and Ismail Ahmad in Round 4. In the match between Li Tian and Ismail, the latter missed a winning move after opting for a repetition of moves due to time trouble. Post mortem of the game showed that Ismail could have won the game had he played Ne8 in one of the variation of the the end game. 

Coming off from a long layoff from competitive chess, FM Johan Iskandar Foudzi lost his opener against Zaidan but managed to salvaged draws against Abdul Aziz and Mohd Saprin in Round 2 and 3. In Round 4, he returned to his winning ways by beating Sarawakian Lim Kian Hwa in a nail biting King Pawn ending.

Ismail Ahmad lost his opener against Lim Kian Hwa and drew all his subsequent games to record 2 points out of 5 games. His most interesting game came in Round 4 when he drew against youngster Li Tian after overlooking the brilliant Ne8 that could have sealed his first victory.

Currently in second place, Kamaluddin Yusof won against Abdul Aziz in his first day opener but on the second day of the event, he drew against Ismail Ahmad in the second round and fared worse in the afternoon Round 3 when he lost to Li Tian. Kamaluddin came back strongly on day 3 of the event to record 2 wins out of 2 games against Kamalarifin Wahiduddin and Zaidan Zulkipli.

Mohd Saprin Sabri lost his opening game against Kamalarifin and recorded 2 draws in Round 2 and 3 against Zaidan Zulkipli and FM Johan Iskandar respectively. He scored a win against Abdul Aziz in Round 4 and drew again against Yeoh Chin Seng in Round 5.

The current standing and table for the Nf6 Masters event is as follows:

Full results and ALL GAMES from the Nf6 Masters Chess Championship can be viewed and downloaded from the Chess Results website HERE

For the the Nf6 Juniors Chess Championship, the current leader for the event is youngster Amir Muqqri Mohd Saprin who shared the top spot with Gabriel Bick, both with 4.5 points from 5 games. 3 players, Mohd Faqih, Amir Ghaazi and Lim Ming Kang are one point adrift at 3.5 points with Lim Ming Xian in 6th position with 3 points. 

So far, the young Amir Muqqri has done well to secure valuable wins against the much more experience Mohd Faqih, and siblings Lim Ming Kang and Ming Xian. Having drawn his first round game against elder brother Mohd Ghaazi, the only player capable to stop the young Muqqri from bulldozing his way through is American youngster Gabriel Bick who had earlier beaten the elder Ghaazi in Round 5. Gabriel only drawn game came in Round 2 against Lim Ming Xian.

With Abdul Aziz withdrawing from the event due to medical reasons, the Nf6 Juniors event is now left with 8 players with Aziz daughter Siti Aishah and friend Norshafaah Zamri, had to do the same. Despite their absence, the event will continue with the same playing format and pairing but unavoidable impact on the FIDE rating calculation will definitely take effect. It was sad that such a situation had arisen but all is not lost as most players still look forward to using the event as their training ground to practice playing longer time control games in a tournament environment. 

The current standing and table for the Nf6 Junior Chess Championship is as follows: 

Scene from Round 6. At the foreground, Yeoh Chin Seng having a skittle game against Lim Ming Kang

Ismail Ahmad (in yellow) playing the white pieces against Zaidan (not seen) and on the right, Kamaluddin Yusof playing against FM Johan Iskandar Foudzi (not seen)

On the first table, Kamalarifin (on the right) playing against Yeoh Li Tian and on second table, Mohd Saprin (right) is paired against Lim Kian Hwa