Ready set go home!

And it was a beautiful saturday morning. Minus the fact that I had to wake up like 7 in the morning for a chess competition. Still, who could resist the temptation of checkmates? This time round it's the Rakan Muda open tournament 2010. I received a call a while ago from Mr Nara, the president of the JB Chess Club, an invitation to take part in the event. Sure enough I agreed to it, but one guy seemed a bit too lonely perhaps? Ah yes, how could I have forgotten my dear buddy Soon Ming!

So uh my mum dropped both of us at the Rakan Muda club house thingy. Walked around and saw that the event will be taking place in a air-conditioned room! yay, how pleasant. Too bad there wasn't a jacket with me, which there normally would be. So after waiting a while we registered and sat down. Oh yea by the way, Soon Ming looks like a pauper.

Nara talked a lot crap. Lalala I supppose. Only started first round at 10.10am. My first opponent was a little kid. Was at table 6. He lasted for about 20 moves and was no more. LOL. Soon Ming won his first match as well. Claps.

Round 2, fight! Um...a young malay girl as well. I think this is really unfair. They let all the young kids compete in the same category. There was no category at all. So there's like a 16 year-old bullying a 8-year-old. I feel guilty. Still, the kid could be the next Kasparov. Or not. She was gone in about 15 moves. SM did well too. Killed it..

Then another 8 year old girl. Oh my.. to my surprise, she is fantastic for her age! At first I was like, hmmm another one I see.. but I when I saw her playing the queens gambit. I started to sweat! No way, this lil girl isn't a pushover, she knows her opening well. Though she made a fatal blunder. Checkmated her. Yikes. And so Soonming won as well. 3 points for both of us.

Oh my god, round 4. RENITHA. If you look back at my post on the Tebrau Open 2009, you will know that she beat me once in that event. It was harsh. A literal checkmate that I didn't saw coming. So this time of course I was nervous, by that time she was at table 1 every round, switching seats for black and white. So when I got up to the table, the first thing I said to her is... HI =). Haha yea, acting calm I guess. She definitely did a lot of studies on chess books, so I planned to take her out of her realm, I chose an unorthodox opening, Verosov. It was a success, I got to a position which I like a lot, and things didn't look bright for her. Although there wasn't an material inequality, I felt that I had a slight edge of the game. I played well and kept on pushing pushing, got her really shaken. All was well until the last few moves. I was a pawn ahead and I hadn't calculate the endgame well. One wrong move, I was gone. She penetrated my position and wiped out all that was left. Ugh... 2nd lost to her. The same person. Wasn't a great feeling. Soon Ming drew his game to a primary school kid. hahaha. So its 3 for me and 3.5 for him. I had to make a comeback.

After we lunched, it was round 5. I was up against a malay guy. I was kinda frustrated so I played quickly and agressively. I did won the game but I thought that he could've exploited my weaknesses at a few points of the game. He wasn't easy but was clearly outcalculated by me. Victory. SM drew his game again. 4 for both of us.

Soon it was the last round, if I was gonna get a spot in the top 8 I had to win this round. My opponent was um.. Hafiz I think. He beat the older brother of the 8 year old girl which I played in the earlier rounds. His brother was clearly strong, and Hafiz beat him. So I know I was up against a biggy. Um I chose the Verosov once again and it served me well. I had a few tactical blows on him and soon he went down. Wasn't that tough I guess. Mr Ng aka Latuk won his last round as well. Oh yea I was at table 5 and he was at 4 at the time. So in the end it's 5 points for both of us. 5 wins and 1 loss for me, 4 wins and 2 draws for SM.

In the end, I got 4th place and SM got 5th. We both received RM30. Wasn't much but yea it was not bad. Considering my first tournament in getting the 4th place. The actual fact is that all the good players weren't here. Kulai-er, skudai-er all absent. So wasn't really proud as well. And of course, Renitha got first place. I got so close to beating her that some were surprised that I made a mistake in the end cause they had left the table when they saw a winning position for me. Still, things happen. No hard feelings. Guess I'll have to hope for a chance to trounce her next time. =)

MSSD this weekend! Yay, no school for me. Rentas desa? So long !

*I wanna upload photos but my pc can't sense my phone!!!*