GiLoCatur's Story In the Battle Chess Selangorku Tournament

Ilham had his story in the Battle Chess Selangorku in his blog as per here.

GiLoCatur asked Ilham what his target in the tournament. He simply answered that the results should be better than his starting rank of 24th. Indeed his final ranking was much better when he won ninth position from six wins, one draw and one defeat to GiLoCatur's first round opponent, Efren Bagamasbad.

Ilham of  http://2010chessodyssey.blogspot.com/

Congratulation to Ilham!

Now, let's GiLoCatur tells his story playing in the Piala MB Selangor chess tournament.

Had GiLoCatur achieved his target to improve his national rating? NO is the answer. 

Why?

Because GiLoCatur was unfortunate to play against only two rated opponents of the total eight - the first and the last ones. 

In the first round, GiLoCatur was playing at the fourth table. The opponent to beat is a Filipino player in the name of Efren Bagamasbad whose rating is 2069. It is an achievement for GiLoCatur for not losing badly or made stupid blunder. It was not an easy win for the Filipino player. 

In the second round, GiLoCatur played black against an opponent who came all the way from Pahang. His name is Hamzah Abd Rahman who GiLoCatur had lost in two consecutive Temerloh Open editions - 2008 and 2009. It is quite frustrating since GiLoCatur could not win the match. And it is not a good start to improve the rating. 

It is very hard to win if your opponent has five pawns when you have only one. GiLoCatur made inaccurate move during the opening stage. Below is the final position of the game.

Table #64 - Hamzah 1, GiLoCatur 0

Four years ago, when GiLoCatur had national rating below 1000, Hamzah easily defeated GiLoCatur after having bad moves during the opening.

Hamzah (white) vs GiLocatur (black)

6. .. Be6 is the bad move. Bh5 or Qe7 should be better.

Below is the full game ... 

Hamzah Abd Rahman - Saleh Abd Latif [C41]
Temerloh Open (6.23), 17.08.2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Bg4 4.c3 Nf6 5.Qb3 Be6 6.Bxe6 fxe6 7.Qxe6+ Be7 8.Ng5 Qd7 9.Qf7+ Kd8 10.d4 Qe8 11.Qb3 b6 12.Nf7+ Kc8 13.Nxh8 Qxh8 14.dxe5 dxe5 15.Bg5 Qe8 16.Na3 Nxe4 17.Qe6+ Kd8 18.Bxe7+ Qxe7 19.Qd5+ Nd6 20.Qxa8 Kc8 21.0-0 e4 22.Rad1 g5 23.Qxa7 h5 24.Rd4 Kd7 25.Nb5 Kc6 26.Nxd6 Kc5 27.b4+ Kc6 28.Qb7+ Kd7 29.Nf5+ Ke6 30.Nxe7 Kxe7 31.Qxe4+ Kf6 32.Qf3+ Kg6 33.Rd8 Na6 34.Rg8+ 1-0

About one year later, once again GiLoCatur met Hamzah in the same tournament. This time GiLoCatur played white. GiLoCatur fought hard but not enough to win the game. Hamzah was going for revenge since Fikri had defeated him in the earlier round. 

Below is the full game between GiLoCatur and Hamzah ...

GiLoCatur (1143) - Hamzah Abd Rahman [D30]
Temerloh Open 2009 (7.19), 02.08.2009

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.c5 Nc6 4.Bf4 Nf6 5.e3 Ne4 6.Nc3 Nxc3 7.bxc3 b6 8.Bb5 Bb7 9.Nf3 bxc5 10.Bxc6+ Bxc6 11.Ne5 Bb5 12.Rb1 a6 13.a4 Bd7 14.Nxd7 Qxd7 15.0-0 Bd6 16.Rb7 Bxf4 17.exf4 cxd4 18.cxd4 0-0 19.Qb3 Rfc8 20.Rb1 g6 21.a5 Qd6 22.g3 c5 23.Rb6 Qe7 24.Rb7 Qf6 25.dxc5 Rxc5 26.Qa4 Rcc8 27.Qd7 Rd8 28.Qc7 d4 29.Rd1 d3 30.Qc4 Qf5 31.Rc7 Qxa5 32.Rc5 Qa3 33.Re5 Rd6 34.Re3 Rad8 35.h4 h5 36.Qe4 Qb3 37.Rd2 Qc3 38.Ra2 a5 39.Qf3 Qc1+ 40.Kg2 d2 41.Rxd2 Rxd2 42.Qe4 0-1

Back to the Battle Chess Selangorku tournament, after losing to Hamzah, GiLoCatur lost again in the third round. It means GiLoCatur had three game losing streak.

In the next round, GiLoCatur had a walk-over win. 

After the break when the fourth round completed, GiLoCatur had a three consecutive wins. The 7th round win was the best game for GiLoCatur. GiLoCatur saw an opportunity to make a rook sacrifice and cruised to sweet victory. Actually, GiLoCatur did not really had ample time to make a thorough calculation. GiLoCatur just took the risk. Luckily, it went alright.

Below is the sacrifice move ...

white to move 

1.Rxb6 Qa8 2.f3 Rg5 3.Nd4 Rxg4! 4.fxg4 Bg5 5.Rd1 Be3+ 6.Kh1 Rf2 7.Nc6 Rxc2 8.Rd8+ Qxd8 9.Nxd8 Rc1# 0-1

  

In the final round, GiLoCatur was stopped from having five winning streaks. In the end, GiLoCatur scored 4/8 points and was placed 97th. It was also GiLoCatur's starting rank. LOL ... 

photo from StoneMaster collection

For sure GiLoCatur really had fun playing in the tournament. GiLoCatur is confident that many others like Ilham also felt the same, except one of GiLoCatur's chess buddies, Fauzi Ahim he he he ... Why? Because he had 1/2 point less than GiLoCatur and had much lower final ranking.   

So, what's your story in the tournament?