KL Masters round 9

Today, for your viewing pleasure, I present a bloat of Hippopatimi. In my last post you saw a white hippo, now here you have a black hippo. White got nothing from the opening again, for the same reason as in the last game. Without your flank pawns you can't hurt a hippo. Just look at the position after move 13 and compare the bishops. That speaks volumes.

Padmini defended superbly but took too long finding great moves and just before the time control she lost a pawn. It was quite an important one and my pieces were controlling all the important squares so defending was a thankless task. She tried to solve her problems tactically but that just hastened the end as it so often does.

So tomorrow I have a bye and then on Saturday we play the last round. Should I trot out the hippo again? 

KL Masters round 8

Yay! I was beginning to think that I might match my previous record of seven consecutive losses. It was a morning round at the indecent time of 9am, I was playing a promising junior who has been well trained and was highly motivated.

My plan was to avoid main lines and get a position I was more familiar with than he was. The hippo seemed like a good choice and it worked like a charm. Your colour doesn't matter as much as the plan. A classical setup with knights on c3/6 f3/6 blocking your c and f pawns poses no problems for the hippo.




The amazing thing about the position is that even the computer evaluates the opening structure in blacks favour because of the extra central space. My opponent on the other hand understood that he is suffering from the lack of an active plan. When the pieces met in active combat my engine, stockfish, finally changed it's evaluation. 19...Ne5 was just a blunder that hangs the whole position. Qd3 was much better with a messy position. White should have played a bit more restrained actually.

Anyway, time for a little rest. Next game is just over an hour away.

KL Masters round 7

First the promised picture of Petaling streets 60th birthday party. Normally this entire street is filled with stalls from one end to the other with shops and hotels on both sides. If you come to KL this is the place to come.

Now to today's game. I extended my losing streak to four. But this is by no means a record. That stands at seven from Cuba a few years ago. I should mention that my winning streak record is nine {city if Sydney junior} with a few sevens like in the Australian championship in 1992 and several sixes. Perhaps I should not admire Alexander Morozevich so much.

This might be a funny thing to say but I don't feel that I am playing so badly, just at some stage of the game I play a horrible move. Today it was 31...Bc6 which allows the white bishop in on d6. Also not tragic but suddenly white has counterplay. Virtually any other move especially one tagging c5, which was a theme throughout the whole game and black has two protected passers. I ended up losing them both.

Still, I enjoyed the game. Must be a masochistic streak.

Tomorrow is the next dreaded double round. Can I score tomorrow? Only time will tell.

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 :-)

KL Masters round 5

Definitely the wrong side of the bed day today. Already on move 6 I made the serious mistake f5. Not only had I made it before { getting away with it last time } but in our post mortem Mas told me, he had too :-) I nevertheless got a playable position before again getting...ahem...creative.  14...d5 is so weak that I cannot reconstruct the train-wreck of thought that led to it.

Anyway, before you look at this disaster let me show you a few pictures. Peter Long, the organiser and old mate, must have thought I needed some consolation after my duck eggs today so he took me to dinner at one of our favourite haunts, Kayu!

There are many different curries to choose from. We had lamb shanks and fish curry.

It is a pleasure to watch your roti or tosai being made by a real master. The skill is very similar to that of making Pizza.

And here are the fresh roties. Hungry yet?

Ok,so if you still want to see the game here it is.

Tomorrow is a rest day. You may ask why have a double round and then a rest day....
Anyway, after the rest day I am playing Tiviakov, the top seed, and will try not to castle queenside.
                                                                                0-0-0

                                                                              Cheerio

KL Masters round 4

Did I ever mention that I hate morning rounds? And especially when there are two rounds in one day? Well I got a bit too agro today and neglected to castle early, develop my pieces and play in the centre, things I tell my students to do every day that I teach.

The opening turned out terrible, I somehow survived to a messy position but was left playing on the increment of 30 seconds from move 20 onwards. All credit to Kevin, although he was short of time as well he played the computer recommendation on most of his moves.

Lessons? Play normal chess, practise what I preach, especially in the morning. Well, it was fun anyway.

Now a few hours rest and then I play Malaysia's long time hope for the future and many time board one of the national team, Mas Hafizulhelmi. He was coached for many years by Australian GM Ian Rogers. The fact that he is still not a GM has more to do with the pressures of work and family though, I'm sure.

Now that he has quit his high pressure job at the Petronas Oil company and is a full time player and coach his natural talent should take him to the title.

I have the black pieces so will need to play a lot better than this morning to score. Now the GM norm requires 6/6, a feat only Australian GM Zong Yuan Zhao has accomplished as far as I know. Wish me luck! 

KL Masters round 3

The Doubleroo Defense reared its heads again! To make the 7.5 points needed for a grandmaster norm I need to score a lot of full points from now on so I decided to provoke my opponent today. Usually not a smart move against an experienced grandmaster but I was feeling rested, well fed and optimistic...and not especially smart :-)

The roos {knights which move to a6 and/or h6 according to Tony Miles) hopped happily into the middle and a careless move like 14.Nxf5 would have led to a good attack for black but West Asia's first GM sensibly just swapped pieces and around move 25 there was nothing left to play for for either colour so we adjourned to our eating place for dinner and beers.

Tomorrow is the first of the two dreaded double round days so I had better look at some of my morning opponents { IM Kevin Goh Wei Ming} games. He is a strong Singaporean IM who is playing for a GM norm to go with his other ones so I will have to be at my best.

Cheerio amigoes, Hasta manjana.