38th SELANGOR OPEN...AS I SEE IT

38th Selangor Open Chess Championship...at a glance...

Champion... Nicholas Chan
1st seeded... Nicholas Chan
Last year champ... Nicholas Chan
Last 2 years champ... Nicholas Chan

Yawn!

Cannot blame if we to compare his achievement in Selangor Open is almost like Nadal at Monaco Open or Lee Chong Wei at Malaysian Open...total dominance. But is it all a walk in the park for Nicholas Chan?

Afraid not, unlike last year in which he left his opponent eating dust a full one lap behind, this year trophy is won in photo finish manner. Going into the last round, Jimmy Liew is leading the tournament and needed only a draw to become Selangor Open champion again for...god knows how many times (hard to keep track since Jimmy has been collecting Sel Open title since last century) but poor Jimmy stumble at the finishing line and zoom!..Nicholas and Udani are all smile when they together passed Jimmy to cross the finishing line together gether.

So who is first? Who is the champ? Too close to call...
Point ? Equal!
Personal Encounter ? Equal!
Tie Break 1 ? Nico!
Tie Break 2? Nico!
Tie break 3? Nico!

So ladies and gentlemen, winner of 38th Selangor Open with unanimous decision...NICHOLAS “THE SUPERSONIC” CHANNNNNNNNNNN.......

Trivias
1. Statistic.81 players from 4 countries took part. White won 145 times, black won 144 times and 62 games draw.
2. Best upset. Mat Zaki Yeop won against Kamaluddin (379 elo points difference)
3. Best escape.LZR in game, IM Srinath vs LZR. In a position in which i thought Rybka is about to announce white checkmate black in x moves. LZR put up a very resourceful defence to finally win the game.
4. Miscalculation. In round 9, Jax Tham...a pawn up, offered Irman a draw in which Irman immediately accept. Jax (6 points) finished at unlucky number 13, Irman (6 points) finished at number 6.
5. Poster boy for chess spirit. Syazrin playing chess..with fully inai fingers!
6. Resurgence of ‘relatively 'young’ Terengganu players. Rahim Ramli, Ruzenan and Fairul Yusof . Very realistic chances for all of them to finish top 10 but at the end, only Fairul Yusof manage to finish top ten.
7. Heart broken. Rahim needed only half a point from his last two games to finish top ten. He lost both his last 2 games...
8. Wander?. All this noise, all this excitement, all this fun...Where in the world is Abdullah Che Hassan?
9. Comeback (and disappeared again) kid. Mohan Raj
10. Reasons to play chess. One player told me, when playing his last round game, suddenly he remembered his old analysis of the opening...another player told me, he took part in this tournament to forget about all his problems...Well, remind me of lyric in The Eagle’s Hotel California

“Some dance to remember, some dance to forget...”