18th Kepong Juniors Open Results

This event was conducted successfully yesterday where 250 players from 264 registered names turn-up for the event. The largest category, Under-12, saw a turnout of 91 players which is also the highest pax in 18 years of Kepong Juniors Open history.

The top two players for this category are Tan Yong Zhao (Kepong 2 student) and Nithyalakshmi from Negeri Sembilan. Both players are our official representatives in Under-12 (Boy's and Girl's Category) to the World Youth Chess Championship. They had used this event as their final preparation before heading to KLIA tomorrow for their journey to World Youth. Both players play to expectation yesterday by finishing 1-2 in the event. With the expected result, I wish both of them have a pleasant journey ahead and play well in the upcoming World Youth.

Meanwhile, 3rd seed Emir overcame a bad start to his campaign with a lost on Round 2 before bouncing back to win 4 games in-a-row and get a draw against Nithyalakshmi in the last round to finish 5th in the event. Where as, 4th seed Ng Jen Sheng lost his only game to Yong Zhao in Round 5 to secure the Bronze medal. Evan Loo, 17th seed, has regained back his form and score a handsome plus rating by finishing 4th and his only lost was to Nithyalakshmi. For your information, he was a regular top 5 pre-tournament favorites in many U12 events until recently because he had lost a massive 202 rating points in the 3rd quarter 2012. So, the top five were not a surprise prize winners at all.

Next, the Under-8 Category saw a turnout of 45 players. Pre-tournament favourite, Cheah Kah Hoe, was unable to live up to his top billing because he lost the crucial encounter to Dinessh Kumar, 4th seed, in Round 6 but bounced back to win in the last round and clinched the Bronze medal on much superior tie-break. While, Dinessh had a nail-biting finish against 4th seed Muhd Haziman from Johor with the result ended in a draw. So, Dinessh claiming the Gold medal and Haziman had to settle for a Silver.

Kepong 2 hopeful Chew Zhi Qi, ranked 3rd, championship campaign came to an end when he lost his Round 5 and Round 6 encounter to the eventual Gold and Silver medalist and had to finish at 6th place. Where as, Wong Zi Yue, 2nd seed, championship campaign suffered a serious knock when he lost again to Ivan Sean Yap in Round 2. A week earlier, both players met during 13th CAS Quarter Allegro where the result in favour of the latter. In Round 5, he lost to Evelyn Tan and with this result he had finished a distant 10th placing, while Ivan took a quick in the final round against Tan Hougen to finish the event at 4th placing.

As for the Under-10 Category, the event was won by Nurul Farnana from Johor, 2nd seed, with 5 wins and 2 draws. She drew both her games against top billing Chew Zhi Xuan and 3rd seed Kabilan. In fact Chew is on course to win the U-10 after becaming the sole leader after 6 rounds. However, he suffered an unexpected lost to Tan Yong Hau, 6th seed, in the last round and ended in 5th place only. With this result, Yong Hau had clinhed the Silver medal and a fairy tale ending after losing unexpectedly in Round 1.

Meanwhile, Kabilan championship campaign came to a halt when he lost to 4th seed Jovel Ernesto in Round 6. The latter championship campaign ended a round earlier when he lost to Chew. As for the 5th seed Lim Jun Shen (Kepong 2 student) lost his campaign when he lost to his team mate Chew in Round 4. Where as, 17th seed Chin Yi Hao had managed to win the Bronze medal with 6 wins. His only lost was to Kabilan in Round 3.

Now, lets examine the Category of Death, Under-16. Both Tan Wei Hao (Defending Champion for this category) and Dilwen Ding have an identical National Rating. Dilwen was given the top billing based on alphabetical of player names. Dilwen had a good start to his championship campaign with 3 wins in-a-row. In Round 4, he drew against his best friend Dawson. With this result, no one is anticipating a nightmare has just begun for Dilwen. He was paired against 10th seed Vinton Wong (who is still recovering from lost of form since July this year) and had lost unexpected. Next, he was paired against 3rd seed Subramanian (last year top seed for this category) who was a Category 1 Bronze Medalist in last week CAS Quarter Allegro. Unfortunately, he lost again. His misery continued into the last round when he lost to 8th seed Daryl Wong. What actually has happened to him?

This must be THE EVENT specially made for Wei Hao, a former Kepong 2 student and the ONE AND ONLY Kepong 2 student that won National Age-Group Championship 3 years in-a-row @ aged 10, 11 and 12. I believe this record in NAG will never be broken by any Kepong 2 students in near future. Besides splitting point with Subramanian in Round 4, he won all his encounters including 5th seed Tan Ri Hong, 7th seed Cheong Jie Yao, 4th seed Dawson Tan and 10th seed Vinton Wong.

While, Subramanian who had suffered an embarrased result with a 16th place finishing in last year edition had done relative well this time around by obtaining 4th placing. His only lost was to Dawson in Round 5 and the latter got a Bronze for his effort. The Silver medal was won by Vinton and Ri Hong wrapped up the top 5 standing.

The full result for Under-08, click here.

The full result for Under-10, click here.

The full result for Under-12, click here.

The full result for Under-16, click here.


See you guys again next year!!!







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