KL Masters round 6

After the disastrous double round Sunday I sorely needed the rest day to recharge my batteries. And it was a nice day. First I and my room mate IM Oliver Dimakiling went to the fabulous Central Markets, which are only a short walk from our hotel.

IM Oliver Dimakiling

                      Inside there are a multitude of stores selling all kinds of local art, clothing, jewellery, food electronics, all in air conditioned comfort.

The food court is on the first floor. Every stall has a different speciality. There is even one selling the local version of western food. Avoid. No, I didn't try it. The display was enough.

If you have a sweet tooth then you are catered for as well. 

We finished with a coconut outside. Advertised it Sea Coconut but Oliver assures me they were ordinary ones so you might say we got ripped off.

The t-shirts say it all :-)

Later that night outside the hotel Petaling street celebrated it's 60th birthday. I'll post the pictures when the Internet connection improves. At the moment it's stalled again.

And now we get to the game. I had time for reflection on the rest day and decided not to be too creative but just to play solid positional chess. Well that plan worked like a dream. I got a slight edge out of the opening, carefully nursed it through the queenless middlegame and emerged with a healthy extra pawn after the time control {move 40}

Now I had to find a way to convert. Since I still had theoretical chances of a GM norm if I won the rest of my games a draw was out of the question. Besides I was a pawn up. I did find a way of avoiding the many forced draws but....  The move I missed was 48. Rd2  which turns the tables. Oh well nothing ventured...

In open tournaments when you hit a bad patch you play lower down the field. No such luck here. Oh well, am enjoying it anyway. Would be nice to add to my score before the tournament finishes. Please send positive vibes my way :-)