1st Kelantan FIDE Rated Chess Tourney

For visitors who are unfamiliar with KELANTAN, let GiLoCatur explains what it is. Kelantan is one of the Malaysian 14 states. It is located in the north-east Peninsular Malaysia. It is famous for Dikir Barat and Budu, among other things The former is a musical form, native to the Malay Peninsula, that involves singing in groups—often in a competitive setting with instrumental accompaniment  while the latter is a salted (fermented) anchovy sauce eaten mainly as flavouring with rice, grilled fish and vegetables/salads (ulam). 

Kelantan is getting active and active in organizing chess tournaments. The current Malaysian top chess player based on the FIDE ratings is from Kelantan. The latest one and still on going is the 1st Kelantan FIDE Rated tournament. Twelve Kelantanese chess players play each other in a round robin format. GO CHECK OUT ITS BLOG TO FOLLOW THE EVENT. But unfortunately it is mostly written in the state's dialect. Don't worry! Go this blog to check the updates on the event in English.

Click here for the URL link

The 2nd National Rapid Chess Championship (NRCC) - The Reminder

"Yeop, udah lupe ke mike? 4 hari je lagi. Ade ape? Mike kate nak lawan catur dengan teman. Teman udah bayor yuran sebentor tadi. Hari ni hari terakhir hantor borang dan bayor yuran."

For those who do not understand the above Perak dialogue, actually it says that today is the closing date for the registration and fee payment for the 2nd National Rapid Chess Championship or simply NRCC that will be held in Universiti Teknologi Petronas that is located in Tronoh, Perak. 

The format of the tournament is 8 SWISS rounds of G/25 + 10 secs. What GiLoCatur means by G/25 is a 25 minute per player game. Four rounds each on Saturday, 1st October and Sunday, 2nd October. There would be the Open (17 years old and above) and five age group categories - Under 8, Under 10, Under 12, Under 14 and Under 16. The NRCC is a national-rated tournament. Click here for further details and info on the tournament.

The total prize money is RM 2,960 but it is only for the Open category. No money prizes for the age group categories. Only medal prizes for the top three for each boy and girl section. Why not include prize money for the age groups? It will attract more participants for sure. GiLoCatur hopes in the next edition, the age group categories should be given prize money. 

Will Sumant defend his championship in this year edition? The champion will receive one thousand Malaysian Ringgits. Can Fadzil Nayan who was the 1st edition first runner up add his winning cash prizes to be one thousand ringgits richer? Will both of them face each other again like last weekend in the Insofar Elite Final? How about the number of participants in this year edition? Will it be more or less? As listed out in the 1st NRCC blog here, there were 95 participants in the Open category. At DAT Chess Center in Kuala Lumpur, there is another rapid chess tournament held on Sunday, 2nd October 2011. It is Cerdik Catur Semi Pro Tournament. We will know all the answers this weekend, won't we?

Last year, all GiLoCatur's children participated in the event. Fikri, the eldest, scored 6.5/8 points in the Under 14 & 16 category. He was awarded the gold medal winner for the Open-14 age group. This year, Fikri will not take part because his PMR exam is around the corner. Anis Fariha, GiLoCatur's only daughter, won the bronze medal for the Girl-12 age group category. She scored 4 points. Meanwhile, her younger brother Fahim Al-Faqeh who played in Open-8 section received the silver medal with 5.5 points and placed fourth out of the total 15 participants in the U8 section. 

This weekend, Anis who is in the form 1 at Kuala Selangor Science Secondary school (KUSESS) will take part in the U14 section while 9-year-old Fahim will play in U10 age group category. GiLoCatur will also participate in the 2nd NRCC. Hopefully, after winning the Best Under-1500 in the 1st Insofar Open Scholarship tournament last Sunday, GiLoCatur will be motivated to give the best performance this weekend to improve the national ratings.

WILL YOU BE GILOCATUR'S OPPONENT?

Fadzil Nayan Is The 2000 Malaysian Ringgit Prize Lucky Winner

"2000 hinggit, mike ade?"

As in the above picture, Ahmad Fadzil Nayan who represented Malaysia in the recent Universaide held in Shenzen, China was very happy to show off his RM 2,000 prize after being the champion of the Insofar Elite Final. He beats 18 other players with 4 wins and 2 draws from six round rapid games in the tournament's finale last Sunday. Ahead by half point over two 4.5/6 pointers - IM Jimmy Liew and Kamaluddin Yusof, Fadzil defeated Nithyalakshmi in the first round, Zakaria brothers namely Fairin and Fadli in the second and third round respectively and SEA-bound player, Sumant, in the fourth round. 

the final ranking after Round 6

the first round

Ng6 (red shirt) was focussing on the chess board analyzing the moves by his first round opponent, Kamaluddin Yusof aka Abang Bro. Check out his blog for more photos on the Insofar Tournaments.

Syazwan (red shirt) vs Sahir of 17ChessClub

NM Kamalariffin (left) vs Mohd Ezmi

Insofar Prestige Final Tournament

Sunday, 25th September 2011.

GiLoCatur's eldest son, Fikri, emerged champion in the Insofar Prestige Final Tournament held today. He won all his four games. In the first round, Fikri played black against Andi Andika Putra. His second round opponent was Pravin Kumar who was the first runner up. In the third round, Fikri faced Kuhan Kovalan playing black. In the final round, Fikri who played white defeated Mohamed Thaqif. As the champion, Fikri received a RM500 money prize.

Prestige Finalists in action

Rd 4 : Fikri (left) vs Thaqif (right)

Insofar Prestige Final Champion

Insofar Prestige Finalists

The Details on The Insofar 6th Junior Scholarship Chess Tournament

The Details on The Insofar 1st Open Scholarship Chess Tournament

SEPTEMBER 2011, The Eidulfitri Month

The month of September for GiLoCatur is the Eidulfitri month.

The first weekend, GiLoCatur and family went to Sijangkang, Labuan Dagang and Jenjarom for Hari Raya visit. Then, by the second weekend GiLoCatur was already tired for having a daily routine of sending and fetching GiLoCatur's second child, Anis Fariha, for five days since she was one of the participants in the DYTM Raja Dr Nazrin Shah International Chess Open. Still long way to go for her in chess. Hopefully, she learns a lot from the tournament and gains more knowledge and experience.

The third weekend was just over. GiLoCatur started to get flu and cough during the long (three-day weekend. Raya Open houses were held a lot. GiLoCatur and family also attended several of them including a Raya Gathering cum Reunion of GiLoCatur's old secondary school mates in Bangi. No chess activity that GiLoCatur and the kids participate. At the DATCC, there were two events held. One is the 1st Kelantan FIDE-rated round robin tournament. The other one is the training session for the Malaysian SEA Games chess team. At the international scene, the Malaysian chess fraternity joins chess enthusiasts from all over the world to follow the FIDE World Chess Cup. 

How about next weekend?   

Insya Allah, GiLoCatur will be at the DATCC. Insofar Chess Academy will organize four chess events on Sunday, 25th September. Two of them are final tournaments - ELITE Open and PRESTIGE Junior. The format for both tourneys are six SWISS rounds of G/25 (i.e. Rapid 25 minutes). The other event is called the SUPER KIDS Junior Weekend specially organized for Under 12 years old chess players. Since the UPSR exam is over, the event is specially tailored for primary school pupils. Check out and download the details from this link.  

Below are some details on the Insofar Chess Events held on this coming weekend.

Insofar Chess Events

1) 2nd ELITE Open Final

When ? Sunday 25th September, 9.00am - 6.00pm

Format : 6 G/25 (Rapid 25 minutes) rounds

Fee : 10 Malaysian Ringgit

Participants : a) Those attended the Semi Final stage    b) Those absent during the 1st edition ELITE Open Final

The total money prizes - RM 6,000

2) PRESTIGE Junior Tournament Final

When ? Sunday 25th September, 10.00am - 6.00pm

Format : 6 G/25 (Rapid 25 minutes) rounds

Fee : 10 Malaysian Ringgit

Participants : All the 20 players qualified from the semi final stage

The total money prizes - RM 3,000

3) The 1st OPEN Scholarship Tournament 

4) The 6th Junior Scholarship Tournament

UPSR STARTS TODAY, GOOD LUCK TO ALL CHESS PLAYERS!

GiLoCatur would like to wish 

GOOD LUCK 

to Noor Azam (below picture) and other 497,690 Year 6 pupils all over Malaysia especially our chess juniors who are at the moment in the 8,235 examination centers to begin their UPSR exams. 

Noor Azam -  the silver medallist for MSSM L12 Individual

The UPSR exam will be held for three days starting today.

UPSR schedule

The KL Open - GiLoCatur Looks at R4 Results (Top 20 Boards)

The results of top 20 boards of Round 4

Based on the above top 20 boards R4 results, there are few upsets based on ratings. The big one in GiLoCatur's eyes is the defeat of the top seed, GM Sanchez. Playing white at the seventh board, FM Kyi Thein of Myanmar who played against Anis in the first round, was surely a proud and happy man after securing a win over the top seed. Two other wins over higher-rated opponents by lower-rated players were recorded by Indonesian chess WFMs - Medina Warda Aulia and Dewi aa Citra. The former defeated a WIM from Uzbekistan, Muminova Nafisa who drew with GM Sanchez in the second round. While the latter beat an FM from Brunei.

There were five draws among the top 20 boards in the fourth round played yesterday afternoon. Mr Lim Kian Hwa continues his fine run when he drew with Vietnamese WGM at table 13. Besides him, three other Malaysian players - Nabila, Li Ting and William Kah Howe, were playing on top 20 boards. All the three of them unfortunately could not yet win over their respective higher-rated opponents. 

GiLoCatur wishes BEST OF LUCK to all the Malaysian players especially to GiLoCatur's only daughter, Anis Fariha, in the next rounds. Keep playing hard and stay focus in the tournament. Gain as much as possible the experience and exposure in the world-class tournament.

The KL Open - Round 3 Results for the Malaysian Players

Round 3 had completed and the results had been published in chess-results.com at this link. Below are a portion of it that highlighted the results for the Malaysian players.

R3 results of the Malaysian players

GiLoCatur would like to congratulate Mr Lim Kian Hwa and WCM Nur Nabila for their outstanding wins over their respective higher-rated opponents in the third round played this morning. Mr Lim who hails from Sarawak and is rated at 1905, managed to outplay his 2300+-rated opponent from Philippines playing white.

Lim Kian Hwa (photo from Gilachess)

Meanwhile Nabila (below picture) who was playing black won against a Philippines chess master whose Elo ratings is 300 higher than her. Syabas and tahniah to both Mr Lim and Nabila. Keep it up! Hopefully, their wins will motivate the other Malaysian chess players to have superb performance in the tournament.

WCM Nur Nabila

GiLoCatur also would like to congratulate Anis for her first win in the tournament. ANIS BOLEH!

The KL Open - Round 2

Round 2 - top 20 boards

All the Malaysian players were defeated by their respective opponents in the first round except LZR and De Juan. The former won against unrated opponent while the latter drew with an FM from Brunei. 

wow, his writings is beautiful 

man, what I am doing

mmmm where is my opponent?

The KL Open - The Photo Journalism

1st round to start 

Justin Ong vs GM Sanchez, the top board

IM Mas vs IM Das from India

Blue is our favourite colour ...

LZR is ready for the 1st round

Is he praying?

The KL Open Had Just Begun

KL Open & Invitational  Masters

The short name is KL Open and Masters Open. Its long and official name is DYTM Raja Dr Nazrin Shah Invitational Master and International Open Chess Championships. Two FIDE-rated chess tournaments are held concurrently at the Swiss Garden Hotel beginning today. One is a nine-round-robin-format tournament played by ten chess masters including the Malaysian top player, IM Mas Hafizulhelmi. The other is a nine-round-SWISS-format tournament participated by sixty six chess players from 17 different countries. 

Among the 66 players in the KL Open are 16 Malaysians including GiLoCatur's 13-year-old daughter, Anis Fariha. The Malaysian pack is led by current national champion, NM Lim Zhuo Ren (Elo 2132) who few weeks ago had participated in the world junior chess championship. The majority of the Malaysian players are juniors who are in their teens. It is quite obvious that the junior chess players are from three states - namely Selangor, Penang and Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (WPKL) which dominate the MSSM chess.  

Malaysians in the KL Open

Roshan, Irfan Haqqim, Nur Nabila, and Anis are the Selangor MSSM squad. William (Kah Howe), De Juan and De Zen are from the Penang MSSM team. Meanwhile, Dilwen who has Elo ratings jump from 1400+ to 1800+, along with Li Ting were in Penang last June representing WPKL.

Phillipines and Indonesia have ten and nine players in the KL Open respectively. The former is led by the top seed in the tournament, GM Sanchez, that includes four IMs and Malaysian-based Ian Udani. While the latter is led by its two GMs - Susanto Megaranto and Cerdas Barus. Among the Indonesian contingent are WGM Irene Sukandar, two IMs and three WFMs. There are six Singaporean and four Vietnamese players in the tournament.

GOOD LUCK to all the participants. To all the Malaysian chess enthusiasts, come drop by at the tournament venue to watch and enjoy the chess games and battles.