MALAYSIAN CHESS FESTIVAL: SWAN SONG(S)

• This could only happened in the magical Malaysian Chess Festival...in round 8th of Ambank Open, Anand met Alekhine in which Alekhine won after a tough fight.(Thanks Mok for the info)

• Eid Fitr mood blanketed the hall...There is 'Kuih Raya' at Arbiter's table...Ezmi Mahmood can be seen wearing a black songkok (quite a sight for Kelantanese since most of them prefer to wear white kopiah) and ofcourse Nabil, Azman Hisham, Shakir and few others can be seen in full Baju Melayu gear!

• In third round i played against WGM Ding Yixin, who is also a current China Champion (Woman Section). Below is the position after white's 4th move Ng5

I played the rare and the confusing 4. ..Nxe4 ?! which cause my opponent to think about half an hour. Not everyday you could make China Champion to think for half an hour on move 4 by playing a sacrifice move!

For record her replied is not the best replied (or perhaps not the one that i scared most) and by move 14 i (think) i already had the advantage and i offered her a draw. She remained stony silence.

Unfortunately in chess peace proposal, silent mean NO! (unlike married proposal in which silent mean YES!!!YES!!!),  ...she later outplayed me in the endgame. :(

• In Blitz Event Nicholas 'Supersonic'Chan  left with 2 seconds against his GM opponent 13 seconds (some swear GM opponent got something like 17 seconds, depend on who you talk to). Nicholas is a pawn up and offered a draw but his opponent refuse. Both players then continued blitzing for about a dozen moves before his GM opponent lost on time! ...Nicholas clock still left with that 2 second...scary...in fact scarier than The Conjuring. ...Until today no one at Planet Earth know for sure how Nicholas did that...many theories surfaced from broken clock to Nicholas somehow manage to freeze time with his light year speed in making move (Einsten's relativity...time stop when you reach light year speed...and Nicholas's time did stop!) All i can say to you, Nicholas, you do this witch act 200 years ago you risk being burnt to death by a scared public.

•  Talk about The Conjuring, few National players (ladies) went to see the film (which belongs to above 18 years old category), all passed as 18 years old and managed to enter the GSC cinema with the exception of Tan Li Ting who failed to slip in. :) ...in a words of Cindy Lauper "but girls just want to have fun!"

•  In Team Event, Khairun Nisha can be seen giving her team mate (Team aptly named 'All Ladies'...and may I add, All pretty) a cup cake. Such a friendship gesture ...in a word of Dione Warwick and Stevie Wonders "That's what friends are for, keep shining, keep smiling, knowing you can always count on me..."

•  Talk about song, all players song a Happy Birthday song to a birthday boy, Mok Tze Meng, before the starts of penultimate round in Team Event. Mok then generously thanking everyone but not generous with the chess point when he beat my team mate (Arshad) in his usual Mok's grinding technique. " Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you"

• Talk about event before the starts of penultimate round, Kabir and Khairunisha introduce me to Nafisa from Uzbekistan. Kabir even snapped a picture or two of me and Nafisa... i spend few sweating moments talking to angelic Nafisa and asked few unintelligent questions...damn! i just got weak in presence of beauty! There are thousand questions i want to really asked her but i am afraid i might ruining everything. Beauty and Brain (and soft velvet voice too that could melt steel, let alone my heart)...a very lethal combination that somehow inspired me to do well in my last game against a strong Ooi Chern Ee...and win i did against Ooi, could you believe that? To Nafisa... a song from Three Degrees is for you "Precious moment...when will i see you again?" 

• Last but not least...to all the memory, to all the friendship, to all the games...its so hard to say goodbye to chess festival...in a words of Boyz to Men " How do I say goodbye to what we had?... The good times that made us laugh ... Outweigh the bad."