MSSWP Chess 2010 - Penultimo Round

The situation at both locations of MSSWP Chess 2010 are getting warmer and exciting. Players are scrambling and try to outwit one another for a better placing before the last round to be played tomorrow.

The penultimo round started about an hour ago. This round is regarded as "do or die" round for those who are slated against one another from table 6 to table 10. A win in this round will see them into top 10 if they can win the last round tomorrow. While, those who are in top 5 tables basically are battling for supremacy to finish top 3 in their respective category.

After 3 hours of hard fought battles, here is some synopsis.

Some top board results for U-18 Girls: Tournament leader, Kai Wen, drew her game quickly with team-mate Lee Yin to lead the field by half point into the final round. National U-16 champion Latifah Kaiyisah had suffered an unexpected lost to Yun Hui which means the former no longer can win this category. Who is giant-killer Yun Hui? A quick check around, she drew with Kai Wen during the zone level event. This category has 4 players trailing Kai Wen by half point. If Kai Wen cannot win against her opponent tomorrow, then we will see 2 or 3 players tie with 6 pts.

Some top board results for U-18 Boys: Tournament leader, Izz Saifuddin, continue to lead his category with others trailing behind him. Among them are two MBS boys won their encounter respectively and one of them has been paired against Izz tomorrow.

Some top board results for U-15 Boys: One of the tournament leaders,Eng Chiam of MBS, has moved to the driver seat with a win over Jing Chung who created an upset by defeating MSSM rep. Chin Shen in earlier round. His wins coupled with a drew result among the other joint leaders has left him leading the field with half-point advantage. He is pitted against Jianwen in the last round. The other results were Derek defeated his teammate Alexander Hoon who had earlier slayed off Ri Hong (the boy who drew with Jianwen in Rd 3) in the morning and Wei Hao won against his teammate Andrew Soong. Also, Albert drew his game against Shawn to setup a mouth watering clash with fellow teammate Wei Hao. Both players are 1 point behind the leader. While, Chin Shen bounced back with a win against Wan Lin who drew with Wei Hao in Rd 3 to be placed 1.5 points behind the leader. MBS may see 4 players qualify from this Final to represent KL.

Some top board results for U-12 Boys: Faizal Roslan came out winner in top of the board clash against giant killer Harleiff to lead the field over 2 other contenders by half point. Yong Zhao defeated Aravind to setup a mouth watering clash (not confirm at press time) against Faizal. Another giant-killer Viknesh has consolidated his position to be placed joint 2nd after another run of his killing act by demolishing former National player Hong Ben. In the morning round, he sawed off Rui Yuan convincingly in the 2nd longest game recorded in U-12 category. For the record, the longest game was between Harleiff and MSSM hopeful Darrel Yap where the former slayed him off and the latter could not recover back since that game.

Another MSSM hopeful, Hong Ben, must be cursing himself on his lack of endgame knowledge and common principles that had costed him to drop 1.5 points from today 2 games. To some people, Hong Ben is the third natural choice among six KL representatives for this year MSSM after Faizal and Yong Zhao. But then, an unexpected action triller awaits him in penultimo match against little known Viknesh. Who is Viknesh? I may review more on him after the final result tomorrow. All I can say another star in making who undergone total transformation in the last 30 days, a similar fenomena experience by GM hopeful Yeoh Li Tian.