Olympiad Round 11 - Singapore eked out a 2.5-1.5 win over Uganda...finished ahead of Malaysia on tiebreak...by Junior Tay

Malaysia, galvanised by the concerted (and ultimately successful) effort to help Lim Zhuo Ren get highly rated opposition to make his IM norm, pulled level with us on match points by the end of the penultimate round. Only a win over Uganda would suffice for us and we just barely made it.

 Daniel Fernandez ended his campaign on a high note when he took advantage of White's chronically slow development to net a piece and to finish with a flourish.

Ravindran just could not find his mojo in this event. He went into a double edged continuation just before time control and paid dearly.

The ultra reliable Zhang Zhong is just world class. After his shock loss to IM Kenny Solomon (who made a GM norm) in his first game, when he had not gotten his "car-engine revved up yet", he blasted the opposition away with 7 wins and 2 draws. He put Singapore 2-1 up after his opponent played an erroneous 'combination' which left his back rank exposed.

Li Ruofan was gradually taking over the game positionally when she missed a simple tactic and lost the h pawn. Conventional theory dictates that when one is materially down, he/she should trade pawns and not pieces (or try to avoid exchanges). Instead Li went on a piece trading expedition and hacked off as many bits as she could. The policy worked as she played into a drawn Rook + 3 pawns vs Rook + 2 pawns ending (on the same side).

Thus, with the all important 1/2 point, Singapore edged out Uganda 2.5-1.5. Seeded 55th, we finished in 59th position with 6 wins and 5 losses, just barely ahead of Malaysia who had the same match points but were placed 5 spots below on tiebreak. In terms of ASEAN placings, we were 3rd behind Vietnam (7th(!)) and Philippines (21st).

I would like to thank the many readers for following this series for the past two weeks. It was my pleasure sharing the local game commentary with you.

13 game IM norm for Lim Zhuo Ren! by Junior Tay

Congrats to Zhuo Ren who aced his first (13 game) IM norm with a clinical win. What's remarkable is that he found out only 15 minutes after Round 10 that he could have gotten the norm had he played and won against Japan. So he had to endure 2 more days of waiting before trying for it again.

When I emailed him telling him that I will treat him to Balestier's best (Hokkien mee, Rojak and braised duck) if he wins and any beverage of his choice to drown his sorrows if he loses, his answer was "Thanks! I will make sure I get it!". But I bet there were butterflies in his stomach...

OK, congrats to Mighty Mok with his excellent performance and for coaching the chap from National Jr Champ to National Champ to FM and now to an IM norm holder. Anyway, I'm earning my Klang Bak Ku Teh by showing his IM norm securing win!

Malaysian teamwork and a little side-story - by Junior Tay

In order to create a favourable pairing for Lim Zhuo Ren, sorry...newly minted FM Lim Zhuo Ren to chase down his IM norm by meeting higher rated opposition (preferably the titled kind), the Malaysians did their utmost to beat Japan and their 3-1 win did justice to their determination and team spirit.

Mighty Mok ran into serious trouble in the opening and the local online viewers were speculating  whether he'll go down in flames like the day before. I was told that Mok was extremely fatigued at this stage of the tournament and plugged on nevertheless to overcome FM Kojima  Yee Weng was also in some trouble when the weak squares created by his space gaining Kingside pawn moves were exploited by CM Nanjo. Somehow, Yee Weng turned the game around and combined to win a pawn. However, in view of securing a vital half point for the team, he offered truce and got it. While Jimmy Liew squeezed Averbukh into oblivion, their boy wonder Yeoh Li Tian fought Akira Watanabe to an incredible standstill.

Black is an exchange up with a passed pawn on the 7th rank but there is no win from this position!

The Black Rook must remain on the back rank and the Black Queen cannot leave the h6-c1 diagonal. I don't suppose the draw vexed Li Tian very much as it helped Malaysia secure the 3-1 win.

However, I would like to draw your attention to his opponent Akira Watanabe instead. The chap is one of the greatest Shoji players of all time and probably in the Magnus Calsen league in terms of earnings. In 2011, he earned the equivalent of US$ 785,000 from Shoji. He has also held on to one of the seven Shoji titles (kind of like the Grand Slam in Tennis), the Ryu O (Dragon King) for the past 9 years and last year, he won yet another major title, the Oza. So Li Tian, you can always tell others you drew against the Dragon King! Oh yes, he has his own Iphone/Ipad Shogi app!

Olympiad Round 10 - Singapore pulverised 3-1 by Australia - by Junior Tay

We were simply plucked by the 'sick' Australians and I mean it literally. Apart from GM Zhang Zhong who made GM David Smerdon pay dearly for his frisky Bishop excursion (Be2-h5-g4-h3-g4-e2), all our International Masters could not stop their opponents from outplaying them in the endgame.

Difficult to imagine that a GM is handling the White pieces here. Wei Ming assured us "Dave plays the French pretty well" and this is a one-off thing.

Ravindran wheels out his Open Spanish yet again despite its poor record of late. Deja vu...

After enterprising play in the opening and early middlegame, Li Ruofan's decision to remove her Knight from the juicy d6 square gave IM Moulthun Ly the chance to set up an impregnable defence. One hasty Queenside pawn lunge with b4 gave the Aussie the chance to counterattack and eventually win the pawn. Another missed chance in Queen + Knight ending ended her resistance.

Finally, FM Max Illingworth rebuffed Daniel F's pawn sacrifice and with precise endgame play, clinched his IM title with this win.

A Tandem Simul

A final training session for Nanyang Primary School before the National Schools Team Championships was held on Thursday, 6th September 2012. What kind of preparation did they undertake? Mugging chess theory? Booking up on their rivals? Last minute tips on the vagarities of team events?

The school chess club decided to hold a tandem simultaeous match with FM Tin Jingyao and NM Olimpiu Urcan alternating moves against 37 members of the school team. This format is interesting and offers the players a good chance to win  because the differing styles of the masters might trip up the flow of their game and they have to second-guess their partner's plans swifty. Jingyao has an active style of play, with a penchant for sharp tactics while Olimpiu's chess can veer from ultra-positional to rabid-hyperaggression, depending on his mood.  Also, as this is Jingyao's first ever simultaneous challenge, it would be interesting to see if he can cope with the physical effort and the concept.

The players who were holding their own right into the endgame found it increasingly difficult to cope with the speed of the moves as more players fell wayside. After 3 hours and 20 minutes, the match ended with the score of  36.5-0.5 for the masters. Lester Teh, a Primary 4 student got the solitary draw. "It was very stressful. Although I was one piece up, after my move, the masters soon appeared on my board again and I was under pressure to make a move again so I blurted out the draw offer", Lester explained.

The 4 best performers in the event,  Lester, Tin Ruiqi, Samuel Tan and Royce Tan were awarded Chess DVDs for their fine play. The NYPS chess club teachers in charge hope that this event will stir up their fighting spirit for the National Schools Teams (Primary Section) due this Sunday on 9th September 2012.

Games Section

Bittersweet Day for Malaysians - by Junior Tay

Mok's GM norm aspirations went askew as he overreached in an attempt to win at all cost against Columbian GM Cuartas by refusing to defend a slightly inferior Rook and Pawn ending. The thing is, when nobody ( maybe not even himself) expected him to beat the 2600+ level GMs, he played freely and without restraint, scoring an astounding 2.5 out of 3 against them. He had held Nyback and Yehuda Grunfeld in worse endings but having to beat Cuartas from a position void of weaknesses proved too difficult.

In any case, now Mok can in the future look at a strong GM in the eye and feel confident about his chances, having bested 2 2600s. Lim Zhuo Ren completed the requirements for the FM title, scoring 6/8 after a smooth win over FM Rios. He will get the title regardless of whether he wins in the  last round as he needed to score 66.67% over 9 games. To get the IM norm, on the other hand, he needs to draw against a titled player rated 2307 or higher or beat one rated below that. However, Malaysia's next opponent Japan's Board 4 or 5 are not FMs, IMs or GMs. So it all hinges on who he meets in the final round....

Olympiad Round 9 - Singapore trounces Syria 3-1 by Junior Tay

Today, only Li Ruofan had a hard time playing Syria's highest rated player as the rest won comprehensively. From an equal position, she decided to hunt down White's h pawn but her attempt was rebuffed tactically and devastatingly.

GM Zhang Zhong had garnered a sizable advantage on the Queenside when his opponent decided to grab space on the Kingside with g7-g5. The Singaporean GM suddenly switched play to the Kingside and that was it.

Steady play from Ravindran, who after working out an edge, got payback for missing an intermezzo yesterday when his opponent did likewise today.

And Daniel F once again (like in Round 8) patiently continues his little pokes and knudges to weaken his opponent's position. His opponent got impatient and sacrificed a pawn to go all out on the Kingside. Daniel plucked the pawn, defended well but had to win the game all over again when he exchanged Queens too early.