GO HAMID GO!

A few years back, a fellow Malaysian chess player by the name of MasHafizulhelmi is all out to get that elusive ‘G’ title, Grand Master. We all supported this quest.

Now we have another Malaysian chess player, arbiter, organizer and so on by the name of Hamid Majid is all out to get that even more elusive and exclusive ‘G’ title, General Secretary of Fide that is! We will again supported this quest.

A week ago, shortly after we were being badly whitewashed by GM ZR, we had the opportunity to talk to Hamid Majid about his candidacy, he mentioned:
• Karpov has contacted him and offered him the Sec Gen seat. Hamid did not immediately say yes but instead seek the opinions/blessings of MCF, Dato Tan etc before accepting Karpov’s offer.
• Hamid expressed confident of winning. (You will Hamid especially now the octopus predict a Malaysian win again Singapore-source DATCC Blog)
• Hamid explained that Team Karpov have the backing of several big Multi National Corporations (MNCs) to develop chess programmes/activities. (Hope some of the activities will be at Malaysia)
• He count on support from every Malaysian to ensure the winning (We will support you Hamid, in every little way we can)

I could not say I know Hamid well even though I started to know him way back to early 90’s. All I could say (throughout 20 years observation) he is man of many characters (depend on the environments and audience)

He could be very funny, cracking jokes after jokes.

He could also be very strict, he once gave a future Woman World Champion and her opponent zero for agreeing a draw without making a single move. Early this year I saw Hamid tearing a scoresheet of two players who agreed a short draw.

He could also be a good listener. In my earlier posting I ‘criticized’ Hamid’s decision in one of local blitz event. Shortly after that he called me and said he read my posting …( and that time I was like, ok, I was about to get thrashing from International Arbiter, help!) and asked me to explain what’s going on during the game, I duly explained bla, bla, bla he just nodded his head and occasionally asked me to clarified further. And that’s it! No I-am-right-you-are wrong attitude, no pulling his weight, no nothing! Just a simple nodded and desire to know about my ‘version’of the event.

Most of the time, he is easy going and open minded type of guy.

No, I will not gain anything personally should Hamid win (and he will win, no doubt about that) but Malaysian chess in general will surely benefits out of his win.

This posting is not about 'bodek' Hamid (bodek!? ok maybe a bit) but more on supporting another fellow Malaysian chess citizen in his time of needs.

Go Hamid Go!

SIMULTANEOUS GAME AGAINST GM ZIAUR RAHMAN

Preparation
After I discovered that GM Ziaur played nearly all openings against e4. (he even once played 1...b6 and get away with it) I stop studying chess and continued reading Wayne Rooney:My story so far.

Before
Arrive at DATCC at about 7.40 pm. There are usual face all around, Siraj, Hamid, Samsudin Sabri, Aziz, Saprin, Farouqi and ofcourse GM Rahman together with his wife and son. Haq and Roslina are also here, busy playing chess with GM's son. Razali Ng6 came about five minute late due to office meeting that he attended earlier on.


Table order

1. Ilham
2. Samsudin
3. Saprin
4. Aziz
5. Farouqi

I refused to be at table one since in my humble opinion Saprin is the one who should manning table 1 but Siraj insist that i sit on table one. Well, we all know how persuasive Siraj is ! :)

The Game

W: Nor Ilhamuddin

B:GM Ziaur Rahman

1. e4 g6

Modern Defence. I expect Sicilian 2...e6, Nc6 or perhaps French. 2 things that immediately cross my mind is Mok Tze Meng (white) once beat GM Rahman in this defence and Andrew (black) once thrashed me in this setup.

2. d4 Bg7

3.Nc3 c6

4.f4 Qb6

5.Nf3 d5

A sharp line in which black sacrifice a pawn for active play.

6.ed5

6. e5 is better (GM Rahman said after the game)

6. ... Bg4

7.Be2 Nf6

8.0-0 cd5

9.Ne5 Be2

10.Qe2

Sacrificing a pawn that black could be taken with a check. Anyway, the d4 pawn is taboo 10. ...Qd4 11. Be3 Qb4 12. Nb5 with lots of initiative for white.

10. ... 0-0

11.Qd3 Nc6

12.Nc6 Qc6

13.f5 Rac8

14.fg6 hg6

15.Bg5 Rfe8

16.Rae1 Qd7

17.Re2 Nh7

18.Bf4 a6

19.Be5 Nf6

20.Ref2

Here Aqie whispered that the team rely on me to deliver the point.

20. ... b5

21.a3 Rc4

22.Nd1 Rf8

23.Re2 Nh5

24.Bg7 Ng7

25.Ne3 Rc6

Around here it is one to one match for us and GM duly take a seat in front of me.

26.Rf4 Nh5

27.Rh4 Nf6

28.c3 Re6

29.Nf5?

Mamak trick. Hoping for 29. ... gf5? 30.Qf5! with force mate in 14. The 'reverse gear' 29.Nf1 is necessary here. I am now got about 30 seconds left.

29. ... Re2

30.Nh6 Kg7

31.Qe2 Rh8

32.Qe3 Qf6

33.Qd2 Ne4

34.Qe3 Qf6 ??

35.g3 ??

Returning the favour. 35.Rf4! is winning for white which i saw only when i have already touch my g pawn.

35. ... Ng5

36.Kg2 Rh6

37.Rh6 Kh6

38. h4

I no longer recording the move. The game entered a queen ending with a plus pawn for black. I tried to open up the game (and hoping for perpetual check) but to no avail. later i lost on time in a losing position though black still needs to play very carefully to avoid the perpetual check.

After
We lost 0-5

Last but not least, thanks to Siraj for the invitation, GM Rahman for kind analysis after the game, to my team mate plus Mr Razali ofcourse.

NIGEL DAVIES ANALYSE JIMMY LIEW'S WIN!

Nigel Davies, surprisingly said in Chesscafe.com article ( http://www.chesscafe.com/text/davies24.pdf )that

• he write his books for money
• "none of my books are a labour of love"
• he can't stop writing because of his mortgage obligation. (sounds familiar here ;-))
• constraint he faced due to page limitation agreement with publishers, etc

He conclude that article by analysing Jimmy Liew's win against Torre in 1986 by stating "...a nice win by the Veresov by some one who didn't read my book (it hadn't been published). Jimmy Liew uses a homemade treatment of the opening, going his own way on move five. Later, he shuffles and unleashes a fierce attack"

Davies must be very down then when he wrote the article. Who didn't when one of the comments for his Guenfeld book is "Nigel Davies: Please! Stop writing opening books!..." Anyway he is brave enough to reveal all this.

Anyway, here is that game and kindly go to the original article to enjoy Davies' annotation.

I especially likes Jimmy's 23rd move f5!! sacrificing the whole knight. My engine initially condemn that move but after the continuation 24.f6! (which engine could not find), the machine agreed that white is better. A victory of intuition against calculation!

But still after all that "confessions" at the end of his article, he recommend reader to read his Veresov book (The Veresov by Nigel Davies, Everyman 2004)