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?

    

"Piala MB Selangor" Under 17 Category Winners

Sunday, 12th August 2012

Fifty three chess players aged between 13 and 17 years old took part in the Under 17 (U17) section of "Piala MB Selangor" chess tournament yesterday. They battled seven rounds of rapid chess games. Who emerged as the champion? Who are the fifteen winners in this category?

With 6/7 points and better tie break, Shreyes Subramaniam, the 4th seed, became the champion in the Under 17 section. The first runner up is Muhd Irfan Haqqim Azhar who also scored 6/7 points. The top seed, Faizal Roslan, just managed the third spot with 5.5 / 7 points edging the other 5.5 pointer, Cheong Jie Yao.

How about GiLoCatur's eldest son, Fikri? Fikri scored 5/7 points after losing two games to both Faizal and Irfan. Check out below final ranking and several photos of the U17 category. 

the top 25

the rest

U17 photo 1

U17 photo 2

U17 photo 3

U17 photo 4

U17 photo 5

U17 photo 6

U17 photo 7

Congratulation to all the winners! To others who did not win, DO NOT GIVE UP! Keep learning and practising chess.

Battle Chess Selangorku - The Open Section

WOW! That's what GiLoCatur can say about the participants list of the Open category in the "Battle Chess Selangorku" tournament. 

An amazing 175 chess players including several Pinoy chess masters are taking part. It will be a tough chess tournament especially to GiLoCatur, the 91st seed. One aim for GiLoCatur to play in this tournament is to improve the national rating. GiLoCatur has the national rating of 1443. Will GiLoCatur succeed in such endeavour?  

Looking at the first round pairing here, GiLoCatur really has a tough first round opponent. 

The Open section - Round 1 Top 10 Board Pairings

As per above pairings, GiLoCatur is paired against the 4th seed and a Pinoy chess master, Efren Bagamasbad. It will be an amazing experience to play with such opponent. It will be interesting to find out later "How long GiLoCatur will be able to hold him" ... ha ha ha. 

If you notice, three out of the the top four seeds are Filipino chess players. IM Rolando Nolte who won this year edition of the Selangor Open in last May is topping the list. Will he cruise all the way to the end thrashing all his opponents? Or can Malaysian-based Filipino Ian Udani, ranked second, OR FM Dr Ronnie, the highest-rank Malaysian OR GiLocatur's first-round opponent, Efren Bagamasbad stop the sole International Master in the tournament? 

OR would it be Kamaluddin Yusof aka Abang Bro with his mamak tricks to emerge as the champion? 

Let's wait for six hours for the chess fight to begin! GOOD LUCK to all the participants who will fight in the  much awaited BATTLE CHESS SELANGORKU! SEE YOU THERE!

Battle Chess Selangorku - Under 17 Category

In Under 17 section, there are 53 participants competing to win the trophy and MYR 250 winning prize money. Leading the pack is Faizal Roslan, who led his Undefined FC team to win the (Under 17) Junior Kasugi Team chess championship last month. 

Faizal will be challenged especially by his Undefined FC team mate, Fikri Saleh, Dilwen, Irfan Haqqim, Shreyes Subramaniam, Noor Azam and the Wong brothers - Vinton and Ethan. All these players are basically the MSS state chess players. Can Faizal live up to his top seed billing to eliminate all his tough challengers?

GiLoCatur is very also interested to find out the challenge put up by several other contenders like Lee Guang Yang, Amir Qayyim, Cheong Jie Yao, Sazlee Hidayatullah and Nikk Johari Low. 

Let's see their Round 1 pairings.

Under 17 R1 pairings

Faizal is paired against Asadullah Qamar at the top table. Dilwen will play black against the 28th seed opponent, Abdullah Muaz. Irfan Haqqim, the third rank, is paired against Naveen Vikneswaran. Shreyes of Pahang will be challenged by MSS Selangor state player, Nurulhana Syuhada at the fourth table. Fikri, GiLoCatur's eldest son, is ranked fifth and will play against Heng Wei Ping.

GiLoCatur has not mentioned any girl player in the top contenders list, right. It is because the top girl players like the Azman sisters - WCM Nur Nabila and WFM Nur Najiha, are playing in the Open section. Furthermore, not many girls are taking part in this tournament. So, it is a challenge to all the girl participants in the Under 17 category to prove their strength and power to be among the winners.      

Battle Chess Selangorku - Under 12 Category

The much awaited "Battle Chess Selangorku" has already coming. The chess battle will start at 9.00am this morning (Saturday, 11th August 2012).

The first round pairings had already been published in the stonemaster.info website. Let's check out the Under 12 category first. GiLoCatur's youngest son, Fahim Al-Faqeh, will take part in this category. He has not taken part in a chess tournament for almost a month. 

With the national ratings of 1398, Fahim is ranked or seeded 9th out of 54 total participants in the U12 category. As per below Round 1 pairings, Fahim will play white against Ahmad Aiman Sahadi. Fahim should not take for granted his lower-rated opponent. Because Ahmad Aiman is of the Sahadi chess family. 

Based on the players listing, the hot favourites to win this category are the Puteri sisters - Rifqah and Munajjah. The challengers, as GiLoCatur sees it, would be the Saprin brothers - Amir Ghaazi and Amir Muqqri, fourth and seventh rank respectively, the Halim sisters - Izzah and Farhana, MSS Selangor U12 players - Zainoor Ikmal Maisarah, Faqih Aminuddin and Yee Jian Yang.

It has been more than a year when the Bongsu Trios participated together in one chess tournament. Do you know who they are? :)- Find it out here. GiLoCatur is very eager to wait their final performances and results. Will they run around and make havoc during the tournament?  GiLoCatur hopes the Bongsu Trios will focus on their games and be on the podium receiving their winning prizes.

Under 12 category - source here