NOTES FROM NATIONAL CLOSED-DAY 1

Players Meeting
I arrived at DATCC at about 8.45am. Familiar faces all over the place and at about 9am Najib conducted Players Meeting. Among matters informed/raised:

• Waiting time is half an hour.

• Toilets inside the hall is only for players use. Parents need to use outside toilets.

• Draw is only allowed after 20 moves. Below that moves need to get Arbiter consent.

• Phone not allowed.

• Due to 5 hours different between rounds, Najib suggested that should any game finished after 2pm, players involved are allowed to start their game at 3pm. Greg suggested all afternoon game to begin at 3pm but Kian Hwa disagreed and suggested to stick to the schedule. Later it is decided that it will stick to original schedule.

• Appeals Committee is chosen between players and they are
• Ismail Ahmad
• Jimmy Liew
• Sumant
• Rizal Ahmad Kamal
• Marcus
  

Reserve (Haslinda, Dr Paul)

• And ofcourse to officially lodge an appeal you need to put up RM200 deposit. No money, no talk.

First Round
Most of the seeded players dutifully defeated their opponents but still, there are upsets here and there. Among the upsets
1. Jimmy Liew drew against Eu Wen
2. Cheah Cheok Fung lost to Nuriman.
3. Eddy Fong lost to Shreyes Subramaniam
4. Marcus lost to Sri Shiva
5. Rizal lost to Muhd Hafiz.

Well, based on above list of upset, i guess i am lucky not in the appeals committee...

For me, I won against Harun Bustaman when my opponent knight’s got trapped at the middle of the board.

Round 2
The exciting one.

Jimmy showed no mercy to Ezmi. Ezmi comments after the game...”just like tsunami...”.

2 exciting games from this round are Hao Looi against Edward Lee. Though Edward is an exchange up, Hao’s king is super active and Edward’s pawns are weak. Somehow Edward managed to stop his opponent counter play to secure his second points.

Another exciting gam is Tan Khai Boon vs Mark Siew. A typical King Indian where Mark’s went for a king side attack and TBK went for queenside pawns rush. Later Mark’s manage to exchange his two rooks for TBK’s queen and with advantage position (in my opinion). But somehow result’s favour TBK.

At about 5pm MasHafizulhelmi, cradling his son, visited the tournament hall together with his wife.

Upsets? Fariz lost to Low Jun Jian, Irfan Haqqim beat Aziz Shukor, Kamaluddin lost to Roshan, Rizal lost to Teh Wee Zhun and Marcus lost to Tee Han Kang.

For me, I won against Shreyes when my two bishops and rook harmoniously create a mating attack against his king.

Round 3 pairing
1. Edward Lee vs Fadzil Nayan
2. Tan Ken Wei vs Tan Khai Boon
3. Loo Swee Leong vs Ismail Ahmad
4. Ilham vs Yeoh Li Tian
5. Lim Zhuo Ren vs Syakir Shazmeer
6. Sumant vs Irfan Haqqim

Well, my record against Li Tian is something like 2 losses :(...any tips?