Saturday, December 28, 2013

Superb Performance of Azarya in 2013 WYCC


WOW! GiLoCatur is amazed at the performance of Azarya Jodi Setyaki, an Indonesia junior chess player in the WYCC 2013 held in Al Ain, UAE. Playing in Under 16 Open section and going to the final 11th round, 15-year-old Azarya has scored 7.5/10 points. He had 5 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat. In the pairings of the final round, Azarya is the lowest rated player among the top 5 boards. Having Elo ratings of  2112, he played at 2400-strength according to chess-results.com.

What GiLoCatur likes about Azarya is his coolness. 

Could Azarya win his final round game against the top seed player from Poland and be among the winners?

GiLoCatur also noticed that an Indian player named Rohan Ahuja is also playing in the WYCC and in the same category as Azarya.Like Azarya, Rohan also took part in AAG 2012. 

Rohan (left) with yellow shirt versus Azarya (right) in AAG 2012 in the U16 Rapid event 

Azarya's results

Azarya (worldyouth2103 photo gallery)

Rohan's results

Under 16 Open, WYCC 2013
Four players on the top two boards have the great chance to win WYCC 2013 U16 Open age group. All of them have 8/10 points. 

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Have You Surfed "Catur Indonesia" Blog?


While surfing the internet especially looking for chess-related news and info, GiLoCatur incidently went to an Indonesian chess blog. Among the recent blog entries are about the success of the Indonesian chess team in the recently concluded 27th SEA Games held in Myanmar. The Indonesian chess team managed to win 5 Gold, 4 Silver and 7 Bronze medals, totaling to 16 medals. With these number of medals won, lots of updates and photos can be found in the blog. GiLoCatur is very jealous the same scenario is not happening to the Malaysian chess community. GiLoCatur wonders when Malaysia is going to enjoy this kind of moment in chess.

The statement from the head of PERCASI really impresses GiLoCatur. He said that the best performance should be achieved based on will, survival (fighting) and passion for chess and Red-White, referring to the Indonesian flag.
“Kami tidak akan mengiming-imingi atlet catur junior berprestasi dengan bonus materi atau uang, tetapi akan memperhatikan kelanjutan prestasi mereka dengan membiayainya ke turnamen-turnamen catur Internasional yang levelnya lebih tinggi! Prestasi terbaik harus dicapai berdasarkan kemauan, perjuangan, dan kecintaan terhadap olahraga Catur dan Merah-Putih, bukan karena “disogok” bonus uang atau diiming-imingi hadiah!"

Another interesting update in the Indonesian chess blog is about their young chess players who take part in the World Youth Chess Championship or its acronym WYCC held in UAE. Indonesia is sending ten junior chess players - five boys and five girls to the chess tournament. Only one of them is self-sponsored where the rest is either sponsored by PERCASI, Indonesian chess association, or RIAU chess association.

GiLoCatur is quite familiar with two of the Indonesian chess junior players. Both are WFM Aay Aisyah Anisa and CM Azarya Jodi Setyaki. When GiLoCatur started to know these two Indonesian chess players? The answer is AAG 2012. For those who do not know what AAG stands for, it means Asean Age Group chess tournament. All the three GiLoCatur's children took part in the AAG 2012 which was held in Hue City, Vietnam. Both Aisyah and Azarya played in the U14 category, their respective girls and boys section. 

As GiLoCatur remembers, it is in this chess tournament that both of them got their respective title. Unrated, Aisyah was ranked 10th in the standard event. After two straight wins in the first two rounds, she was in the top board in the third round. She stayed on the top board until the final round. She won six consecutive rounds. After the final round, Aisyah emerged as the champion scoring impressive 8/9 points. 

Aisyah (left) with red shirt

Aisyah smiling when photo being taken by GiLoCatur
She could not continue her superb performance in next both rapid and blitz events. Our WFM Nur Najiha was the obstacle where Aisyah lost in both events in the second round. (Note: In the standard event, Najiha played in the G20 (Girls Under 20) event.) GiLoCatur managed to have a short chit chat with Aisyah before one of the rounds start.

While Azarya got GiLoCatur's attention when he was among the top boards in the Boys U14 event beside FM Paulo Bersamina of Philipines, Tran Minh Thang of Vietnam and Rohan Ahuja of India. After the final round, Azarya scored 6.5/9 points and was third in the final ranking. He had the same score with an unrated Vietnamese player and thus was the silver medal winners and both were awarded the CM title. In the rapid event, Azarya came strong and emerged top. He tied with 6/7 points with Paulo Bersamina. He was fifth place in the nine-round blitz event.

Azarya (right) played against his Filipino opponent, Paulo Bersamina (left) in AAG2012

How is the performance of the Indonesia junior chess players in the WYCC? Click here to find out. And here to know the results of the Malaysian junior chess players.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Sepang Rapid Chess Open - 4


As per in below Round 6 pairings, Li Tian and Ian Udani fought on the top board to decide the champion of the tournament. As GiLoCatur remembers it, the game ended in a draw. So, both scored 5/6 points. Li Tian emerged on the top due to better tie break.

Round 6 pairings
Some of the winners with the organizer
Congratulation to all the winners. Syabas & tahniah to the organizing crew.

Photo of the winners can be found in GiLoCatur's Fan Club facebook.

Sepang Rapid Chess Open - 3


Below is the pairings of the fifth round of the Sepang Rapid Chess Open being held at Sekolah Agama Desa Putra, Kg Sungai Merab Dalam, Selangor.

Round 5 pairings
On the top table, two pinoys are playing against each other. Castellano drew with Li Tian in previous round while Ian Udani beat Hairulov. Kamaluddin aka Abg Bro defeated his younger opponent, Fadzil Nayan. 

Sepang Rapid Chess Open - 2


the particpants - 1

the particpants - 2

Hampers for the winners
... more photos at GiLoCatur Fan Club facebook

Sepang Chess Rapid Open - 1


Desa Putra, Sepang
Saturday 21/12/2013

GiLoCatur and family is currently at the venue of the Sepang Rapid Open chess championship. The fourth round is currently on-going. After Round 3, three players are leading with three full points. They are Castellano Christopher of Phillipines, Li Tian and Hairul Abdul Hamid, a Malaysian chess blogger. Both Li Tian and Castellano are playing on the top board while Hairul is challenged by Ian Udani on second board.


the championship's banner

Ian Udani (white) vs Hairul (black)

Top seed, Castellano (black) vs Li Tian (white)

All GiLoCatur's children are among 40+ participants. Fikri who just completed his SPM examination last month is playing his second tournament after after taking a break for several months. He continues his good momentum after winning the Under 18 category two weeks ago collecting 2 and 1/2 points. He is playing  white on the third board. Nationally-Rated at 1624, Fikri is the 20th seed. 

the results of Round 3