GilaChess Blog

You must be hiding under a rock if you didn’t notice the marked increase in chess tournaments all around the country compared to past years. This can only be a good thing. Not only are there an increase in rapid tourneys, there is also more classical time control events. DATCC in particular has gone full force in organising more tournaments of various time control in their latest published programs. I cannot remember a time when almost every week is filled with one or more chess event!

With increased chess interests, there will be more players seeking to improve themselves. Even this lazy patzer has made improvements in his openings and other areas of his game. Also, I’m sure local chess coaches are not complaining with the increase in student intake

Viewed 772 times by 328 viewers

Viewed 724 times by 310 viewers

The top 100 list (on FIDE web page) does not show all the Malaysians who have FIDE rating. Altogether there are 249 Malaysians who are FIDE rated (including inactives).

Click here to view

Viewed 698 times by 300 viewers

Congratulations to the above 17 for getting their brand new FIDE rating!

One mistake is Yat Guo Jie is listed as a female

Viewed 682 times by 301 viewers

There are 2 monkeys behind Encik Hamid Majid.

Read the rest of this entry →

Viewed 682 times by 291 viewers

Sharifah Itasha seen here giving a speech on the closing ceremony of the successfully run UM Team tournament (Piala Tun Zahiruddin) 2010.

Probably you remember her from her multiple post on almost every local chess blog as well as setting up a tournament blog to disseminate information about this tournament early. No surprise for the record turnout of 44 teams this year.

Viewed 678 times by 278 viewers

Viewed 762 times by 296 viewers

Viewed 769 times by 294 viewers

played under the staircase while waiting for the prize giving ceremony at the UM Team 2010.

Even though only 3 main cash prizes were up for grabs 43 teams took part in this event clearly showing the money is not the main concern

Viewed 748 times by 297 viewers

UM Team Composition with results

Viewed 624 times by 279 viewers

WisePawn has the results

Viewed 664 times by 306 viewers

We won 3-1 making our targetted 50%  score. Our total score is 13½ out of a possible 24.

These were our opponents. I won my game but not easily. Had to go into a long endgame and with rapid I’m happy that I survived and won. In the end it was 3-1 and we finished 13.5 out of 24 which is better than our targetted 50%

A good measure of our “success” is that we only played in the hot room once

Also being not a strong team, there were no pressure to perform hence the fun factor is greatly enhanced. Also I think our 11th initial seed was way overrated. That may have been because the organiser took Marcus Yeoh’s FIDE rating for the seeding but did not update the seeds after we replaced Marcus with unrated Alfred Ting.

Viewed 643 times by 295 viewers

We meet team 4th Stepin round 5.

I started my game with good fortunes after winning a pawn. However I could take advantage of the material plus. Played aimlessly and ran short of time. With only 3 minutes vs my opponents 7 minutes I started playing fast. This is where playing bullet online really helped. My opponent’s time equalled mine 2:50 each and I proceeded to win material and the game. My opponent obviously wasn’t a blitz or bullet player (lucky me!).

However my other team mates all lost. Yat’s perfect 100% score was spoilt in this round.

Next round back to the hot room

Viewed 624 times by 284 viewers

This was Bloggers United in Round 3.

This is us in Round 3.

In the hot room:

I’m already sweating as soon as I sit down.

My final position as White. I didn’t see the back rank mate.

Our team still won 4-0 because one move before the checkmate, Black had already ran out of time

This means we will go back to the comfortable air con room next round.

Viewed 590 times by 262 viewers