PASSING THE BATON MOMENT?

Introduction
When Mas meet Li Tian tomorrow, are we going to witness a history (passing the baton moment) when Malaysia’s great player lost to his young opponent who eventually become even greater player?

Should it happen tomorrow, i bet it is going to be violent, cruel even. The young one is eager to prove that he is worthy successor while the number one is to show that why he is number one. No one is going to give a favour, an inch, to their rival.

All i can say is good luck to both gladiators! May better player won.

History
Let’s look some of the passing the baton moment in world chess. For passing the baton moment in local scene...here.

Sammy Reshevsky for a long time, a very long time is the number one player in the US. Suddenly in 1958 there is this boy, aged 15 who played a good chess. This boy’s name is Fischer so when they met in 1958, Reshevsky who found himself lost after 12 moves, refused to resign and continue playing in losing position...Fischer later become Fischer that we know...GM, World Champion, Legend.

In 1977 Tony Miles, Britain’s first GM lost to Nigel Short (14 years old teenager), Short later in 1994 became a challenger to World’s crown.

In 1994 Kasparov lost to Kramnik in a violent King Indian defence’s game. Kramnik eventually replaced Kasparov as World Champion.

Prediction
Actually tomorrow’s result is insignificant in what will be a long rivalry between them. After the game Mas will still be de-facto Malaysia number one (even though now he is number two) But I have a feeling that YLT will eventually, before he started shaving, become an undisputed Malaysia’s number one...and in 2018 Li Tian will become Malaysia’s first GM, as vaguely predicted by yours truly. Here

Anyway just for the heck of it, i think Li Tian will win tomorrow...Mas take a gamble in a drawn position and its backfired.