The mistakes are there, waiting to be made...by Junior Tay

This oft-used chess phrase, attributed to Tartakower, summed up Wei Ming's National Blitz Championships. I found out from Olimpiu that Jason Goh had won the National Blitz Championships and Wei Ming took 2nd place on tiebreaks. So I whatsapped Wei Ming, congratulating him. "Terrible...', he said. "I played so badly. Not my day". I remarked "Played badly and finished 2nd? What about your opponents?" "Oh, they played badly too". And that evening, he proceeded to show me some really incredibly blunderful chess from the National Blitz.

 FM Tin Jingyao (who won the National Rapids the next day) was outplaying Wei Ming from the Black side of a Giuoco Piano (the very quiet kind) and exerting a lot of pressure on the centre. Just when it seemed that the coast was clear, disaster struck... Next up, CM Olimpiu Urcan, with a reasonable position, all of a sudden decided to sacrifice the exchange...for next to nothing. Wei Ming happily accepted the gift and that was it. Wei Ming was dealt two losses, one by IM Steven Yap and the 2nd, by CM Tan Weiliang in the following game. Wei Ming uncharacteristically accepted a strong bishop sacrifice by the national serviceman and there was no recourse as a delighted Weiliang put him away. Finally, FM Daniel Chan fluffed his chance of retaining his National Blitz title with this absolute howler in the penultimate round. Yep...the mistakes are there waiting to be made...just make sure you make the 2nd to last one...

Blasting the Barry Attack - by Junior Tay

Hi! Long time no see. For the past month, Wei Ming and I have been pulling all stops to work on our respective first chess books, hopefully to be out for sale before the year is up.

Anyway, here's a smashing win by IM Daniel Fernandez over British GM Mark Hebden last week in the Coventry Open.

Daniel is currently leading the event with 4.5/5 and playing White today against FM Peter Sowray who has 4/5 together with Hebden and James Jackson (both playing on Bd 2). Coventry Open pairings and results here.

Update: Daniel drew Peter Sowray and Board 2 was a draw too. So Daniel goes into the final round with 5/6, 1/2 point in the lead and will be playing James Jackson.

Final Update: Daniel defeated James Jackson to win the event with 6/7, half point ahead of Hebden.