24.Black to move

In the position above as you can see white has an advantage by one pawn.The question is

a)Is it possible for black to do something and prevent from losing?
b)Can white easily win in this position?

Thanks again cikgu for solving problem 23

Pictures of DATCC Chess League 1st Round

Pic left : what a surprise to see Greg playing again for team SMS Gold!
Pic right : Jax Tham & NM Yeoh Chin Seng from SPAWN


Pic left : SPAWN vs Tan & Tan with IM Tan & IM Giam playing
Pic right : What a surprised! this is the first time I saw Dato' Tan playing in a tourney


Pic left : PriceWaterhouseCoopers vs 786 Chess Club
Pic right : Nusa Mahkota vs GOLDIS Bhd with first board a clash between Nur Ilhamuddin and IM Mas


Pic left : Nusa Mahkota with Ilham, Aziz, Shamsul and Rusdi.. as you can see IM Mas is in deep thought before the start of the game, his usual trademark - focussing hard
Pic right : PCWM Terang Bersih team with 1st Board - Nabila, 2nd Board - Tan Li Ting, 3rd Board - Khairunnisa' W and 4th - Camilia Johari (the combination of the young and seniors in the team)


MBS vs SMS Gold team, looking on the board FM Mok and Sarjan Ismail Ahmad

1st Round of 1st DATCC Chess League 2009 - UPDATED!

The players are common to local tourneys and are also well known players, and teams most of being sponsored to play. So it is going to be a tough task for all of us. Here are list of teams :

1. NUSA MAHKOTA CHESS CLUB (rating 1609)
1. Nor Ilhamuddin Shaikh Ali - 2025
2. Abdul Aziz Abdul Shukor - 2009
3. Hairul Abdul Hamid
4. Shamsol Bahrin Patahol Rahman
Rusdi Sidi
Irwan Zulkenain Rosli

2. PCWM TERANG BERSIH (rating 1946)
1. NWM Nur Shazwani Zulkafli - 2022
2. NJWM Nur Nabila Azman Hisham - 1837
3. NWM Roslina Marmono - 1977
4. Tan Li Ting
NWM Khairunnisa' Wahidduddin - 1948
Nur Najihah Azman Hisham
Haslindah Ruslan
Camilia Johari

3. MBS KUALA LUMPUR
1. Lim Jing Hong
2. Hew Zhen Jing
3. Nazamuddin Samsuri
4. Yat Guo Jie
Yap Wing Heng
Mohamad Azeri B Mohd Anuar

4. SPAWN 2009 (rating 1852)
1. Jax Tham Tick Hong - 2074
2. NM Yeoh Chin Seng - 2184
3. Alvin Rodney
4. Yeoh Li Tian - 1948
Yuen Sow Mun
Seow Liang Wei
Chan Wai Meng
William Chew Sean Mee

5. 786 CHESS CLUB (rating 2173)
1. Mohd Fairin Zakaria - 2188
2. Mohd Saprin Sabri - 2170
3. Ahmad Nazri Mohammad -
4. Kamaluddin Yusof - 2168
Kamal Arifin Wahidduddin - 2147
Mohd Khair Wahidduddin
Mohd Irman Ibrahim - 2164

6. PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS (rating 1419)
1. Ooi Chong Hean
2. Cheah Cheuk Fung
3. Hazril Husain
4. Frankie Lee Chi Ming
Chew Yaw Chong - 2076
Joseph Lau Kong Kin
Lim Kok Seng

7. TAN & TAN (rating - 1717)
1. IM Tan Lian Ann - 2273
2. IM Giam Choo Kwee - 2196
3. (to be inserted)
4. (to be inserted)
Richard Ong
Dato' Tan Chin Nam
Lim Chong
Tan Mei San

8. SMS GOLD (rating - 2217)
1. FM Ooi Chern Ee - 2325
2. FM Mok Tze Meng - 2303
3. Ismail Ahmad - 2082
4. Gregory Lau - 2156
Chan Mun Fye
Mohd Shafeeqdeen
Ibrahim Abu Bakar

9. DAT CHESS CENTRE (rating - 1394)
1. Andrew Ooi
2. Azman Hisham
3. Mohamad Sirajudeen
4. Abd Hamid Majid
Tan Jun Feng
Mohd Nabil Azman Hisham
Jan Duyser

10. GOLD IS BERHAD (rating - 2329)
1. IM Mas Hafizulhilmi - 2425
2. IM Lim Yee Weng - 2379
3. IM Jimmy Liew - 2299
4. Abdullah Che Hassan - 2158
Nik Ahmad Farouqi - 2077
Ian Udani - 2211

As been posted earlier, team can come up with 10 names of players but only 4 will play each round according the board order.

Here are full results of round 1 (for more pictures and further info check at link Gilachess)

Table 1 : Nusa Mahkota Chess Club vs GOLDIS Bhd (0.5 - 3.5)
Table 2 : PCWM Terang Bersih vs DATCC (2.5 - 1.5)
Table 3 : MBS KL vs SMS Gold (0 - 4)
Table 4 : SPAWN 2009 vs Tan & Tan (3-1)
Table 5 : 786 Chess Club vs PriceWaterhouseCoopers (2.5 - 1.5)

Ilham lost to IM Mas in a very exciting game, so does the game of others in the team like Shamson Bahrin against Nik Ahmad, and Aziz Shukor against Abdullah.

Our team player, Tan Li Ting lost to Azman, Nabila won against Andrew, Khairunnisa won against M.Sirajuddin and Camilia drew against en Hamid.

SMS gold put their strong line up to beat school kids MBS KL

On table 5, Kamaludin lost to Hazril Husin, Saprin won against Cheah (a very interesting game, to play the game click link Hairulov), Fairin won too, while NM Kamal drew against Chew Yaw Chong.

1st ROund of 1st DATCC Chess League 2009

When most players saw me at the DAT Chess Centre many were surprise to see me, asking when I arrived when will I be headed home. I juz said, well I am taking half day leave yesterday and will headed home that night coz I am working today. And currently I am in the office doing my works and catching up with my deadlines. Surprise! surprise! huh?!

I kept repeating that what I am doing is merely a small contribution for the Women in Chess movement that I was talking about. Our Persatuan Catur Wanita Malaysia will be formed soon, so, our future presiden decided to support the soon to be persatuan by sponsoring the Ladies Team for the Chess League. Kudos should be given to Roslina Marmomo our Kapitan, Haslindah Ruslan our Liaison Officer between the Team and the future presiden, the parents that supporting our future Women National Players, Parents of Camilia Johari, Parents of Nur Nabila and Nur Najihah, Parents of Tan Li Ting, and Parents of Nur Shazwani. Also to the Protem committees that has been doing the hard work in ensuring our first attempt playing in the league under the Women's flag!

There are 10 teams taking part in the league and yesterday players' meeting decided that we will be playing for double round robin tourney. The first of such ever that I will be taking part in. So overall for 18 weeks most us will be sweating, battling the wits every wednesday at DATCC and in the end we will find out who will be the winner of the 1st DATCC Chess League.

1st DATCC Chess League

The first DATCC Chess League starts today at 6pm!

I have heard that many best Malaysian players will be taking part in the event too. IM Mas, FM Lim Yee Weng, IM Jimmy Liew is among the players. Not to mentioned Kamaludin's team, Bloggers like Hairulov's Team. Also heard that, Dato' Tan will be playing too.

I will be taking part too, under the Persatuan Catur Wanita flag - PCWM Terang Bersih. However hope the team will not be expecting much from me, coz I havent played in a while, and the reason that I took part is merely helping out and give support to the Ladies, but no need to worry, as I will give it all out!. All the best to the girls!

For more info you can click to link Hairulov or Gilachess for the updates tonight!

Soonest as I gets back home, I will post the pictures and results...

Bandaraya Chessmasters Results

I dont have the full result... but as it was posted in the chess-malaysia yahoo group by Mr Narayanan, here are the team result :

Champion : The Philippines Team
Second : Sarawak A
Third : Balls On Fire
Fourth : Sarawak B
Fifth : Z W Team

The Phillipines team is consists of filipinos that resides in Singapore. Notable player is IM Julio Sadorra, a regular player in Johor chess scene as well as the Malaysian Open tourney.

IM Sadorra in the pic taken during the Bandaraya Chessmasters in the year 2007.

I was informed that few Pahang players took part too in the event, however I do not know their scores but whatever it is, it is always good to know that the MSSPahang is sending the players to play outside of Pahang, which is good!

While the individual results is very interesting, most of the games played in the final rounds were do or die! most games ended in a historic blitzing all the way until the end! top tables game like IM Sadorra, IM Paciencia, Ian Udani, Palma, T.Mandar, Mark Weng Yee and others makes the spectators chilled in wondering who will take the top ten placing.

Here are the results :
Open Category

Champion : IM Julio Sadorra - 6.5 points
Second : Ian Udani - 6.0
Third : Michael Palma - 5.5
Fourth : T. Mandar - 5.5
Fifth : IM Enrique Paciencia- 5.0
Sixth : Mak Weng Yee - 5.0
Seven : Abg Mohd Reduan - 5.0
Eighth : Morsin Ahmad - 5.0
Nineth : Lee Wen Xi - 5.0
Tenth : Ling Kay Soon - 5.0


Under 16

Champion : Mohd Khairulhelmi - 6.0
Second : Chai Juan Zhe - 6.0
Third : Afdal Wiranata - 6.0
Fourth : Renitha - 6.0
Fifth : Ng Sau Wei - 5.5
Sixth : Wong Chun Wat - 5.5
Seventh : Ng Hong Yuan - 5.5
Eighth : Chong Yong Kai - 5.0
Nineth : Sarika - 5.o
Tenth : Foo Wai Sing - 5.0

Under 1 2

Champion : Mohd Hakimi Mazlan - 7.0
Second : Shreyes - 6.5
Third : Chen Zhi Shien - 6.0
Fourth : Ling Zhan Yang - 5.5
Fifth : Ong wei Bin - 5.5
Sixth : Chong Ee Seng - 5.5
Seventh : Sashen Kumar - 5.5
Eighth : Nurduyana Aquilah -5.5
Nineth : Mohd Hafiz Hisham - 5.0
Tenth : Ng Guo Hau - 5.0
Second : Chai Juan Zhe

I think in the U-16 event that was won by Muhammad Khairilhelmi from Kuantan Pahang.. Coz, i was informed that he played in Johor for that category. Kudos to him!