MWM 2O1O - Round 1

Currently I am DATCC Kompleks Wilayah Kuala Lumpur. And right now, the battle of the Semis is going on between Four Players :
NWM Nurul Huda W - WCM Nur Nabila Azman Hisham
NWM Alia Anin Azwa Bakri - Fong Mi Yen

Though the tournament and the games has made the coverage widely in other blogs (firey_rook, gilachess, hairulov, chess is chess etc, esp this blog http://malaysianwomenmaster.blogspot.com but let me recap you with what is going on.

The tournament is a real tiring tournament indeed, only those with stamina can last the gruelling of intense hours. For "veteran" like me I think I need to do something to catch up with the stamina of the younger ones, because playing for hours from as early at 1Oam until about 11am at night, is too much for me. We are travelling from Kuantan as early at about 4.3Oam in the morning, and lucky for us the traffic is ok so we reach KL minutes before 9am. All of us had some urgent things to do, so we cant drive to KL a day before. My first round game finished early, so I supposed to have time to relax, but my sis game is still going on therefore I dont have the heart to go anywhere until she finished. It was a surprise that my sis, Fadzilah can still have the skill in chess, even though she is the only one in the family that completely stop playing. But for the readers info, Fadzilah during her prime she was the Pahang Closed champion! and have countless representing the states and was offered to represent Malaysia in the Asian team back in the 9Os but had to say no due to working reasons. But I am definitely happy to be here at DATCC with my siblings. Like I said earlier the last time all of us were together was in 2OO7! now not just the three sisters, but all my brothers came to support us! Great huh! (just like the old times when we were all young.

Ok, back to the game, I won the first round against Latifah Kaiyisah, and my sis won against Latifah Syamimi. I didnt play that good to win the game, but because I have played against her before this, the confident was there and that is how I won. But waiting for Fadzilah game against Haslindah was surely tiring. She lost her first game, but dont know what happened somehow she managed to bounce back and clinched the victory in the second game. And victory forced Haslindah to rapid games. We all thought Haslindah could easily thrashed Fadzilah, since we all knew that Fadzilah rarely play. But like we said to Fadzilah, it is not about winning or losing, is about how you play, as long as you play your best! if she win it will be a bonus, but if she lost she lost with a fight till the end. And luckily she won both rapid. And she advance to the Quater Final. The game ended at about 9.3Oam.

At the same time, Alia was still playing against Renitha also in a rapid match. In classical match both game ended in a draw, in the first rapid match also ended in a draw, but the second game of the rapid, Alia did well against the panic of time trouble from Renitha, and while Alia win 2 seconds still remaining, Renitha lost on time! So, Alia advance to the Quarter Final.

Amira and Hoh Tjin Li game is still going on at the time we were leaving, and that was at 9.45pm. The next I saw her again, so she won. She lost her first game, and in her second game, during time trouble from both side, I heard Hoh claimed the game to be drawn, because no pawn movement. But the complaint was against her, and it cost her a penalty for false claim, and the time somehow in Amira advantage. Amira won the second game and force both of the to play rapid game.

The game between Fairuz Hamizah the little 13 year old from Kedah against Tan Li Ting, caught my eye most. Because Fairuz the talented girl seemed to be out of the scene because all of us are looking at our youngest NWM Tan Li ting who just spend 6 weeks training in China. We are all anxious to know what can she deliver in the 1st edition of MWM. Both classical game ended in a draw. And both rapid games ended in draw. It was an impressive performance of Fairuz against Tan Li Ting! so, the game now reached to armageddon! the sudden death. Fairuz make a correct guess, and now she needs to make a decision to play white or black in the sudden death game. If she choose to play white, she will be given 5 minutes game but a win is a must. But if she choose black, she will be given 4 minutes and a draw is enough to go advance to Quarter. And she choose Black. I saw the game, she had all the advantage to win the game, or at least a draw, everyone was hopeful for a upset. But she made a fatal mistake by exchanging all her pieces, and thus gave the clear advantage to Li Ting. A cheer of joy from Mr Tan, but a cry of tears on the Fairuz and family. It was heartbroken to see a scene like that, it was so close for her, and yet so far. To come all the way from Kedah and to give a fight and lasted from morning till night, is not a bad thing, so Kudos to her!