KL Open 2010 is over – Players depart for airport

The bus arrives at KL Sentral station where you can catch the express train to KLIA (about 30 minutes journey).
GM Saidali gets off the bus that took him from the Olympic Hotel (KL Open playing venue) and takes down one luggage .

Meanwhile, GM Marat also gets off the bus.

Both Saidali and Marat are close friends. They travel to most tournaments together.
However today, they are not leaving for the airport together. Only Marat is heading to KLIA.

Saidali, on the other hand, is staying back.

   

That’s because GM Saidali has yet another chess event to participate in. It’s the UKM Masters which is a round robin event consisting of 10 participants.

One of Malaysia’s strongest players, Dr FM Nicholas Chan will be taking part with the aim of securing his first IM norm. Nicholas failed to get an IM norm in the KL Open but came within a hair's breath of achieving it. He played a few 1900+ players in the open which killed his performance rating. He needed a performance rating minimum of 2450 but he only achieved 2411. He met the other requirements of playing 5 titled players.

First game to conclude, championship decided

9am sharp. Clocks are started but since zero start is not enforced, some participants are a few minutes late.

Megaranto fills in his scoresheet as he starts the clock.

Photographers take the chance to get individual photos of players waiting for their opponents. Including Chessbase correspondence Yana Melnikova (in the background). She is also taking part in the event.

IM Liu Dede at board 4.

IM Swapnil S, Dhopade

 

Singaporean GM Wong Meng Kong vs IM Desmukh Anup on board 20.

CM Farid Firman Shah waiting for his compatriot IM Situru Nathanael on board 21.

Marcus Yeoh vs fellow Malaysian

Back at board 1, Hou Yifan finally arrives but only 5 minutes late.

Chief Arbiter, Luxman, sensed there may be a high chance of quick draws reminded the players the 30 rule move requirement before a draw can be mutually agreed to.

Hou Yifan opened with 1.e4 and the game went into a Ruy Lopez.

20 minutes later, board 1 drew !!

It was even drawn before 30 moves. It seemed that there are other ways of drawing :)

The players drew via 3 fold repetition!

With 7½/9 Hou Yifan is KL Open 2010 champion !!

2 wins today for Hou Yifan

Hou Yifan had two wins a row today. She beat Dimakiling this morning using the White pieces.

Marat extends his hands in resignation giving Hou Yifan giving her an unassailable 7/8 going into the final round. This win practically gives her the championship for the KL Open 2010. Tomorrow’s fight will be at the lower boards for 2nd prize onwards.

Malaysian performance after Round 5

Here is the Malaysian list of players sorted according to their positions in the KL Open 2010 after round 5. 3 players have 3/5 points at the moment and they are Nicholas Chan, Jimmy Liew and Yeoh Li Tian.

   Rk.    Name                          Rtg  Pts. FED  
01 26 FM  Chan Nicholas                 2398 3    MAS
02 29 IM  Liew Chee-Meng-Jimmy          2315 3    MAS
03 35     Yeoh Li Tian                  1971 3    MAS
04 53     Nik Nik Ahmad Farouqi         2108 2.5  MAS
05 55     Lim Chuing Hoong Ronnie       2294 2.5  MAS
06 64 WCM Nur Nabila Azman Hisham       1829 2    MAS
07 70     Ismail Ahmad                  2033 2    MAS
08 73     Lee Kah Meng Elgin            1852 2    MAS
09 76     Capel Evan Timothy            2023 2    MAS
10 78     Azman Hisham Mohd Nabil       1981 2    MAS
11 79     Yeoh Phee Leong Marcus        1999 2    MAS
12 87     Mohamed Abdul Haq             2057 2    MAS
13 88     Amier Hamzah B. Mohd Zuhri    1723 1.5  MAS
14 91     Hamzah Razali                 1669 1.5  MAS
15 92 WFM Nur Najiha Hisham             0    1.5  MAS
16 98     Khore Bean Hwa                1946 1.5  MAS
17 99     Rosli Ahmad Afiq Afyfy        1938 1.5  MAS
18 102    Abdul Wahab Najib             0    1    MAS
19 105    Ting Shih Chieh               0    1    MAS
20 110    Lee Kah Howe William          0    0.5  MAS

Malaysian Performance after round 4

No  Pos     Name                       Points
===========================================
1   12  FM  Chan Nicholas               3
2   33      Lim Chuing Hoong Ronnie     2½
3   42      Yeoh Li Tian                2½
4   44      Capel Evan Timothy          2
5   47  IM  Liew Chee-Meng-Jimmy        2
6   48      Yeoh Phee Leong Marcus      2
7   54      Ismail Ahmad                2
8   70      Mohamed Abdul Haq           2
9   77      Nik Nik Ahmad Farouqi       1½
10  84      Azman Hisham Mohd Nabil     1
11  85      Lee Kah Meng Elgin          1
12  88      Khore Bean Hwa              1
13  93  WCM Nur Nabila Azman Hisham     1
14  95      Hamzah Razali               1
15  98      Rosli Ahmad Afiq Afyfy      1
16  103     Ting Shih Chieh             1
17  104 WFM Nur Najiha Hisham           ½
18  105     Lee Kah Howe William        ½
19  107     Amier Hamzah B. Mohd Zuhri  ½
20  111     Abdul Wahab Najib           0

Fancy a game vs Nigel Short ?

Top 10 games online

The top 10 games of the KL Open are now online on the official website for Round 1 and Round 2.

Link here:- http://klchess.com/klopen/?page_id=18

Yeoh Li Tian holds GM Niaz Murshed to a draw

Another surprise is talented Malaysian junior Yeoh Li Tian held Bangladesh first GM Niaz Murshed to a draw. GM Niaz Murshed playing Black, essayed the solid French Defence. However, Yeoh Li Tian showed exemplary play without making any mistakes and the Grandmaster could not make any headway and agreed to the draw.

[Event "KL Open 2010"]
[Site "Olympic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur"]
[Date "2010.04.07"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Yeoh Li Tian"]
[Black "Niaz Murshed"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C04"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "2010.04.07"]
[SourceDate "2010.04.07"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nc6 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. e5 Nd7 6. c3 f6 7. exf6 Qxf6 8. Be2 e5 9. dxe5 Ndxe5 10. O-O Bd6 11. Nxe5 Nxe5 12. Nf3 Be6 13. Nxe5 Qxe5 14. f4 Qf6 15. f5 Bf7 16. Bh5 O-O-O 17. Bxf7 Qxf7 18. Be3 Kb8 19. Qg4 Qd7 20. Qg5 Rhf8 21. Rae1 Rf7 22. Qh5 h6 23. g4 Re7 24. Bd4 Rde8 25. Rxe7 Rxe7 26. Kg2 b6 27. f6 Re2+ 28. Rf2 Rxf2+ 29. Kxf2 gxf6 30. h3 Qb5 31. b3 a5 32. Qxh6 Qd3 33. Qe3 Qc2+ 34. Qe2 Qh7 35. Qf3

draw agreed

1/2-1/2

Malaysian draws GM !

This is not an April fool’s joke like in Hairulov’s recent headline last week.

Malaysian Nik Ahmad Farouqi draw vs Vietnamese GM Bui Vinh

  vs

[Event "KL Open 2010"]
[Site "Olympic Hotel, KL"]
[Date "2010.04.07"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Nik Ahmad Farouqi"]
[Black "Bui Vinh"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B46"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "2010.04.07"]
[SourceDate "2010.04.07"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Qd2 Bb4 8. f3
d5 9. a3 Qa5 10. Nb3 Bxc3 11. bxc3 Qc7 12. Bg5 dxe4 13. Bxf6 gxf6 14. fxe4 Ne5
15. Be2 Bd7 16. O-O Bc6 17. Qe3 Nd7 18. Rab1 Rg8 19. g3 Qe5 20. Nd2 Ke7 21. Bf3
Rxg3+ 22. hxg3 Qxg3+ 23. Kh1 Qh3+ 24. Kg1 Qg3+ 25. Kh1 Qh4+ 26. Kg1 Qg3+ 27.
Kh1 Qh3+ 28. Kg1 1/2-1/2

Players meeting

The time control announced at the players meeting is 2 hours for first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game.

Also there will not be the traditional Appeals Committee composed of delegates from different countries. Instead, any dispute will be settled by the Chief Arbiter, Tournament Director and a chosen ‘specialist’.

Zero start will not be implemented. Players have a grace period of one hour before losing on time.

Happy Birthday Irene !!

If you see WGM Irene Sukhandar today, don’t forget to wish her Happy Birthday!! It’s her 18th birthday today.

Statistics on KL Open players

 

Here are some interesting stats from the current player’s list.

Titled players breakdown:-

title	total
none	53
CM	1
FM	11
GM	12
IM	17
WCM	4
WFM	6
WGM	4
WIM	3

It looks like India has the highest number of participants with a total of 23 players. Malaysia comes in a close second with 20 players. Indonesia is third with 17 players.

federation	total
AUS	1
FIJ	1
GEO	1
GER	1
KAZ	1
HUN	1
LUX	1
IRI	1
BAN	2
RUS	2
NZL	2
ENG	2
CHN	3
BRU	3
HKG	3
PHI	5
UZB	6
VIE	6
SIN	9
INA	17
MAS	20
IND	23

Strength of countries:-

Georgia is the strongest country with an average FIDE rating of 2634, Germany is second with 2559, Hungary is third with 2557.

 

federation	AVG(rating)
HKG	629.0000
SIN	1400.4444
BRU	1430.6667
MAS	1606.8000
FIJ	1792.0000
IRI	1839.0000
INA	1965.1765
NZL	2037.5000
IND	2109.4348
ENG	2112.0000
LUX	2126.0000
PHI	2284.6000
RUS	2287.5000
KAZ	2333.0000
CHN	2338.6667
UZB	2362.6667
VIE	2384.3333
AUS	2441.0000
BAN	2485.5000
HUN	2557.0000
GER	2559.0000
GEO	2634.0000

Latest player’s list

Two players are off the original list is Richard Bitoon and Mok Tze Meng. Total is now 116 players.

Original list here.