Malaysian Masters Final - Nicholas Chan vs Mas Hafizulhelmi vs (Game 2)

[ECO "A22"]
[WhiteElo "2403"]
[BlackElo "2414"]
[Annotator "YeeWeng,Lim"]
[PlyCount "28"]
[EventDate "2009.12.19"]
[SourceDate "2009.12.19"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. Qb3 Nc6 5. Bg2 Nd4 6. Qd1 O-O 7. e3 Bxc3

Interestingly, this position has only arisen 3 times and all 3 games were
won by Black! Is this a sign that Black is going to win again or will White
get lucky this 4th time around?}

(7... Re8 8. exd4 exd4+ 9. Nce2 Qe7 10. Qb3 d5 11. cxd5 Bf5 12. Qf3 Be4 13. Qf4 Bxg2 14. f3 d3 15. Kf2 dxe2 16. Qe3 Qxe3+ 17. dxe3 e1=Q+ 18. Kxg2 {0-1 Prochazkova,D (2120)-Chevallier,D (2290)/ Massy 1993/EXT 1997})

8. bxc3 Ne6

(8... Nc6 9. Bxc6 bxc6 10. Ne2 d6 11. O-O Bh3 12. Re1 Qd7 13. d3 Qg4 14. Nf4 Qxd1 15. Rxd1 exf4 16. exf4 Rfe8 17. f3 Re2 18. g4 Bg2 19. Rd2 {0-1 Pali,A-Somogyi,B/Ajka 2005/EXT 2008})

9. e4 {This move
prevents Black from seizing the centre with c6/d5 but i do I wonder if this
move, blinding the g2 Bishop is necessary}

(9. Ba3 d6 10. d4 c5 11. Ne2 exd4 12. exd4 Qa5 13. Bb2 cxd4 14. Nxd4 Nxd4 15. Qxd4 Re8+ 16. Kf1 Be6 17. h3 Rac8 18. Kg1 Rxc4 19. Qd3 Rec8 20. Kh2 Bd5 21. Rhd1 Bxg2 22. Kxg2 Ne4 23. Qe2 Nxc3 24. Bxc3 Rxc3 25. Rxd6 Rc2 26. Qf3 Qc5 27. Rd7 Rxf2+ 28. Qxf2 Qc6+ 29. Kh2 Qxd7
{0-1 Kozlov,O (2152)-Orekhov,E (2457)/Ekaterinburg 2007/EXT 2009})

9... Qe7 10.Ne2 Nc5

(10... b6 11. O-O Ba6 12. d3 d6 $11)

11. d3 Qd6 $2 {After playing both Vietnam Open and the Commonwealth Open back to back with me, Mas had to rush off from Singapore all the way up to Penang to attend his brother's wedding. I know for a fact that Mas must certainly be tired which must probably be the reason why he missed White's next move}

(11... d6 {Black is comfortable})

12.d4 $1

{Diagram #} Ncxe4 (12... Ne6 13. f4 $1) (12... Na6 13. f4 $1)

13. Qc2

({ Fritz prefers} 13. f3 Nxc3 (13... Nc5 14. dxc5 Qxc5 15. Qa4) 14. Nxc3 exd4 15.
Nb5 Qb4+ 16. Kf2 Qxc4 17. Qb3 $16)

13... Nxf2 14. Kxf2 Ng4+ 15. Ke1 Re8 *

Nxf2 14. Kxf2 Ng4+ 15. Ke1 Re8 16. Qf5
exd4 17. Bd5 $2

(17. Qxg4 d3 18. Bf3 Qf6 19. Bd2 dxe2 20. Qf4 {White is winning })

17... Nf6 {now Black has very strong play for the sacrificed piece} 18. cxd4
(18. Rf1 dxc3) 18... c6 19. Bf3 Qxd4 20. Rb1 Qxc4 21. Bb2 d5 22. Qf4 Ne4 *

A suprising twist, Black is now winning!

23. Rc1 Qxa2 Mas loves grabbing the pawns. Will it be 2-0? 24. Bh5 (Nicholas wants to provoke g6 so that the a1-h8 diagonal will be weakened so that he will have some swindling chances)

24..Be6 25. Rf1 Qxb2 Nicholas resigns.

With a 2-0 lead to Mas, it will be difficult to make a come back. But we have seen some exciting games and lets hope for more tomorrow.

Malaysian Masters Final - Mas Hafizulhelmi vs Nicholas Chan (Game 1)

Obviously, the highlight for Malaysian chess is the Malaysian Masters final match between Mas & Nicholas. While waiting for the moves to be played (yes, chess can be a very slow game), i decided that i might as well use the time to learn how to blog too (I wonder if Mok had similar thoughts) which led to my first blog post in my entire life (yeaps i have never blogged before). I am trying to get the hang of this hopefully i would get better soon.

The first game of the final match between Mas & Nicholas was won by Mas. The critical moment was when Nicholas lost the exchange on move 24. I wondered if Nicholas deliberate sacrificed the exchange (which of course turns out to be dubious) or simply missed the simple discover check. Nicholas somehow manage to claw his way back to the game and just when it seems that Nicholas has good chances to swindle a draw, Mas played a good practical move 35.b4 which gave Nicholas problems on the board which he failed to solved.

[Event "Malaysian Masters [Game 1]"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2009.12.19"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Mas Hafizulhelmi"]
[Black "Nicholas Chan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B21"]
[WhiteElo "2414"]
[BlackElo "2403"]
[PlyCount "97"]
[EventDate "2009.12.19"]
[SourceDate "2009.12.19"]