Tan Weiliang utterly dominant in the 1st 2013 Grand Prix Rapid Event

Smarting from a bruising Saturday morning 3 hour blitz marathon session with his badminton doubles partner IM Lim Yee Weng yesterday where he was on the receiving end, Tan Weiliang demonstrated the tenacity that allowed him to dominate most of last year's local Swiss events. He continued his winning streak following his 1st place wins at Cairnhill 2012 and National Challengers 2012 to clinch the Kickoff 2013 event by beating IM Luis Chiong in the last round to finish with 6.5/7, half point ahead of Cameron Goh, IM Steven Kim Yap and FM Tin Jingyao.

          The crucial final round game between IM Luis Chiong and Tan Weiliang

11 year old Cameron Goh was the lucky recipient of an early angpow from IM Steven Yap in the form of a free Queen in Round 3.  But he fully deserved his 2nd placing after besting  National Age Group U10 champion Heng Zheng Kai and ELO 2000+ players like Kenneth Tan and Collin Hornell. 3rd and 4th placings went to IM Steven Yap and FM Tin Jingyao and respectively. Steven nursed the loss to Cameron by beating all his other opponents while Jingyao, like Weiliang was unbeaten throughout - though he was slowed down by draws against Cyrus Nisban and Luis.

Here is the nervy final round game on top board. (Analysis by Tan Weiliang and Jr Tay)

           Final results can be found here