Of Kelantan Open - 28th and 29th December 2012

Fancy going to Kelantan to play in Kelantan Open?

The Persatuan Catur Negeri Kelantan will be organizing the FIRST KELANTAN OPEN to be held on 28th and 29th December (Friday and Saturday) at Politeknik Kota Bharu, Kok Lanas. The event will have a time control of 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment over 7 rounds using Swiss Pairing.

For more details, please contact Mr Nik Ahmad Farouqi Nik Aziz via his email at farouqi.chess@gmail.com or you can also call him at +6019.999.6006

The official release for the event (with slight amendments) are as follows:

Berita baik untuk peminat-peminat catur di Kelantan dan juga tanahair, Persatuan Catur Negeri Kelantan buat pertama kali akan menganjurkan Terbuka Kelantan pada 28 dan 29 Disember 2012. Bertempat di Politeknik Kota Bharu, Kok Lanas.

KEJOHANAN CATUR TERBUKA KELANTAN 2012 ( KEJOHANAN RATING KEBANGSAAN)

ANJURAN BERSAMA PERSATUAN CATUR NEGERI KELANTAN DAN POLITEKNIK KOTA BHARU

DENGAN KERJASAMA PERSEKUTUAN CATUR MALAYSIA DAN JAWATANKUASA TEKNIK DAN PEMBANGUNAN SUKAN CATUR MSS KELANTAN.

KATEGORI : TERBUKA& PERINGKAT UMUR BAWAH 12/15/18 TAHUN

TARIKH : 28 - 29 DISEMBER 2012

TEMPAT : DEWAN JUBLI PERAK, POLITEKNIK KOTA BHARU, KOK LANAS

KAWALAN MASA : 25 M + 10 S TAMBAHAN BAGI SETIAP PERGERAKAN

BILANGAN PUSINGAN : 7 PUSINGAN SISTEM SWISS

PEMUTUS SERI : 1) BUCHHOLZ 2) S.B 3) CUMULATIVE

YURAN PENYERTAAN:-

TERBUKA :

RM20 (AHLI PCNK), RM30 (BUKAN AHLI), RM40 (LUAR KELANTAN)

PERINGKAT UMUR :

RM10 (AHLI PCNK), RM20 (BUKAN AHLI), RM25 (LUAR KELANTAN)

BAYARAN BOLEH DIBUAT MELALUI AKAUN PERSATUAN CATUR NEGERI KELANTAN (CIMB : 12050001918105). SILA SIMPAN SLIP PEMBAYARAN UNTUK PENGESAHAN PADA HARI KEJOHANAN.

SILA HANTAR PENYERTAAN SELEWAT-LEWAT HARI RABU 26 DISEMBER 2012. PENDAFTARAN HANYA SAH APABILA BAYARAN TELAH DIBUAT.

PENYERTAAN BOLEH DIHANTAR KEPADA farouqi.chess@gmail.com ATAU PENDAFTARAN TERUS PADA 26 DISEMBER 2012 ( PUKUL 9.00 PAGI - 12.00 TENGAHARI, 3.00 - 6.00 PETANG DI RUANG LEGAR DEWAN JUBLI PERAK, POLITEKNIK KOTA BHARU). PENDAFTARAN LEWAT SELEPAS TARIKH TUTUP AKAN DIKENAKAN PENALTI SEBANYAK RM 10.

KETERANGAN LANJUT, SILA HUBUNGI :- NIK AHMAD FAROUQI (019-9996006)

Of Insofar November Edition

Another edition of the Insofar Monthly event and the number of players participating increased despite having to compete with another event held in Shah Alam on the very same day. 14 players took part in the Open section led by Philippines Ian Udani, FM Ronnie Lim and National Junior Tan Li Ting with some of the top University players in the country in Ahmad Fadzil Nayan of IIU, Mohd Syazwan of UM and Chek Kin Keuw of UPM, and not forgetting, local blogger Nor Ilhamuddin

For the U1600 section, the top seed was veteran Mustafa Said and the second seeded player was non other than Mat Zaki Yeop, Insofar head honcho. Perhaps, the excitement was too much for him to bear! There were a few young and upcoming youngsters taking part such as Tan Wei Ting, Melanie and brother Benjamin Koo, Kung Kah Heng and Vinton Wong. Adding to the list of youngsters playing were 7 year old Asia Moo and 5 year old Puteri Rabiatul Adawiyah (who happens to be Mat Zaki's daughter).

The U1600 section was almost clear cut with the top leaders maintaining their lead throughout the event. The only upset came in Round 3 when Kung Kah Heng defeated the much more experienced Mustafa to disrupt his clean slate. Kung Kah Heng fine run suffered a setback when he lost to Mat Zaki in the following round. And on the last round, he faced Melanie Koo and a win would have secured his 3rd placing but, the KL lass was able to overcome her opponent to secure the lone 3rd spot.

After the surprising defeat at the hand of Kah Heng, Mustafa was able to rebound and collect 2 more additional points to maintain his 1 point deficit behind leader Mat Zaki. When both players were paired to fight it out in the last round, Mustafa managed to gain the upper hand and with the win, was able to take over Mat Zaki's position as the leader and winner of the U1600 section.

For the Open section, it was much tougher for the leaders with the first seeded player FM Ronnie Lim drawing his first round match against Chek Kin Keuw. There were two casualties for the higher seeded player when Liew Ken Yew lost to John Law and the more surprising upset on Table 6 when Nor Ilhamuddin lost to Rosamund Koo. Nor Ilhamuddin woes continued when he was paired with top seed FM Ronnie in the second round and again lost his second match for the day. 

In Round 3, the encounter between leaders Ian Udani and Ahmad Fadzil Nayan ended in a peaceful draw, paving way for 4 players to share the top spot - FM Ronnie Lim, Ian Udani, Ahmad Fadzil Nayan and Chek Kin Keuw, all with 2.5 points a piece. 

In Round 5, Tan Li Ting pulled off an upset by drawing with then leader Ian Udani and according to observers, Li Ting could have pressed for a win but decided to play it safe by accepting the draw. With the draw, Ahmad Fadzil Nayan has the sole lead of the event with one round to spare. Trailing behind him with half point different was Ian Udani, and a further half point behind was Tan Li Ting and FM Ronnie Lim. 

FM Ronnie Lim performed well in the last round to deny Ahmad Fadzil Nayan of the top spot, and with Fadzil out for the count, Ian Udani crept back into the top spot after a convincing win against Mohd Syazwan. Although he lost the last round and allowed FM Ronnie Lim to catch up on level points, Ahmad Fadzil Nayan remained in the second spot having a better tie break compared to that of Ronnie. Fine performance by Tan Li Ting put her in the 4th spot followed by brother Tan Jun Feng in the 5th spot.

Full results of both categories are as follows:

Open Section

U1600 section

Final round match up between Fadzil Nayan (left) against FM Ronnie Lim (right)

Organizer but a player for this edition - Mat Zaki (right) facing Mustafa Said (left) in the final Round 6

Philippines Ian Udani accepting his winnings from Chief Arbiter, FA Najib Wahab

A fine outing by Tan Li Ting - securing the 4th spot

Players at the Insofar November Edition

Intense last round encounter between Melanie Koo (left) and Kung Kah Heng (right)

  

Of DATCC Masters - Slight Change in Schedule

"THE EVENT THAT STARTS in 2012 and ENDS in 2013"

The Rapid and Blitz event has been moved to another date as such, the DATCC Round Robin event will be reschedule as follows to minimize playing on a working day. It will also allow for students who take part in the event to avoid playing on 1st January as school reopens on 2nd January 2013.

Other terms and conditions remain the same.
For more information, please contact Najib Wahab at +6016.338.2542 or write to him at najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com

NOTE: Drawing of lots (to determine players position in the table for pairing purposes) will be conducted on 18th December and the complete pairing will be posted before 22nd December

Of Another FIDE Rated Round Robin - DATCC Masters

"ALL PLAY ALL, WINNER TAKE ALL"

At the request of some players - especially those who had to sit for year end exams (SPM, STPM) and, considering that Singapore will not be holding any event during the X'mas week (like they usually would), a Round Robin event has been planned at DATCC Wilayah Complex from 25th December (Tuesday - Christmas Day) until 1st January (Tuesday - New Year Day).

The 20 players Round Robin event (10 players to each Masters and Challenger group) will be a FIDE Rated event using a classical time control of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move per player.

Entry fees is free to players above a FIDE Rating of 2200 (limited to 2 players only), RM50 for players with a FIDE Rating between 2000 and 2200, RM100 for players with a FIDE Rating below 2000 and RM150 for players without any FIDE Rating.

The top 4 FIDE Rated players will be pooled in the DATCC Masters group while the balance will be divided between the 2 groups to balance the playing strength. Those without any FIDE Rating will be pooled in the Challenger Group.

Only the champions from each category will take home the prize money of RM250 for the Masters and RM150 for the Challenger section. For players with a FIDE Rating of more than 2200, the player will earn RM200 if they are able to accumulate at least 6 points, or higher. 

Tentative playing schedule is as follows:

Playing Schedule

For more information or to sign up, please contact Najib Wahab at +6016.338.2542 or email najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com

Of Nf6 Events - The Final Result

The Nf6 2012 edition would probably be remembered as the one with high attrition rate with 4 players having to pull out from the 20 field players. The latest casualty was Zaidan Zulkipli who was advised by the doctor to take a rest due to extreme fatigue. 

When top seed Yeoh Li Tian won his Round 8 game against FM Johan Iskandar, it was clear that he would run away with the event with only one round to go and two points ahead of his closest rival. The battle in Round 9 is left between Kamaluddin Yusoff, Ismail Ahmad and Kamalarifin Wahiduddin to take up the second and third spot and interesting match up beckons with Kamalariffin facing FM Johan Iskandar, Ismail facing the solid playing style of Mohd Saprin and Kamaluddin against Lim Kian Hwa. 

With both Kamaluddin and Chin Seng at 5 points a piece, a win in their last round encounter would help them to maintain their respective 2nd and 3rd spot and in their way are Kian Hwa and Ismail Ahmad. Whilst Kian Hwa may not be able to break into the top 3 spots, his objective in the last round is just to maintain a winning game hoping to keep his rating points or steal from his higher rated opponents in Kamaluddin Yusof. Unfortunately, Kamaluddin proved to be too strong for Kian Hwa and the latter resigned after his 37th move. With the win Kamaluddin secured the second spot behind Yoeh Li Tian with 6 points out of 9 rounds.

For Yeoh Chin Seng, a win against Ismail Ahmad will maintain his position in third place but Ismail had other ideas in store. A brilliant performance in the morning round to secure a point from Mohd Saprin, Ismail was clearly on a hot streak. Although Chin Seng maintained the upper hand throughout the game, he was not able to maintain the initiative and Ismail equalized his position on move 17. Chin Seng still had the chance to continue pressing but missed a brilliant rook sacrifice on move 21, pulled back his Queen to d1 and the same happened to his game. With his win, Ismail has to wait for the result of the game between Kamalarifin and FM Johan Iskandar to see if he can leapfrog into the 3rd position.

With Chin Seng losing his game, the situation is open for Kamalarifin to seize the position but his last round draw with FM Johan allowed Ismail to claim the third spot.

In the Junior Section, it was a nail biting finish with Gabriel only half point behind leading brothers Muqqri and Ghaazi both with 7 points. A win in his last round would allow Gabriel to steal the top spot from Muqqri who had the better tie break against his brother Ghazi. Muqqri did well to secure his lead throughout the event but a surprising draw to Amira Farhana in Round 8 had put a stumbling block on an otherwise exemplary run. The draw with Amira cost him the pole finish and with Gabriel winning his last round match against Lim Ming Kang, Muqqri had to settle for the second spot while elder brother Ghaazi clinched the 3rd spot. Muhammad Faqih who did well to stop Gabriel in Round 7 and continued his fine run to overcome Lim Ming Kang in Round 8, could not continue his winning streak and lost to Ming Kang elder brother Ming Xian in the last round to settle for 4th place.

The final crosstable for both Masters and Juniors section are as follows:

Yeoh Li Tian, top seed and winner with 8 points out of 9 rounds - no losses

Gabriel Bick in first place followed by brothers Muqqri and Ghaazi

Kamaluddin last round win against Kian Hwa secured him the second spot

After his first round loss to Lim Kian Hwa, Ismail Ahmad (left) fought his way back to the top and winning his last round game against Mohd Saprin (in photo - right) helped him to secure the 3rd spot with some assistance from Kamalariffin who drew with FM Johan Iskandar in their last round encounter

The 3 Juniors top finishers - Champion Gabriel Bick in the center flanked by second placed Amir Muqqri on the right and elder brother Amir Ghaazi on the right at 3rd place.

2012 Nf6 Masters Chess Champion - Yeoh Li Tian, top seed and top finisher with 8 points out of 9 games - 2 draws and 7 wins