NICHOLAS Chan made winning the Selangor open chess tournament appear all too easy, scoring eight points from nine games.
The last time that anyone had won eight points in this tournament, an internationally rated event, was in 2005. The winner, Anas Nazreen Bakri, was only 14 years old at the time. Usually, 7½ points would suffice for a win.
Chan had to overcome several obstacles to score his win.
This year’s Selangor chess open champion Nicholas Chan accepting his prize from Malaysian Chess Federation honorary life president Datuk Tan Chin Nam.
Granted he was expected to win his first game against Mohd Izwan – which he did – none of his opponents in the remaining eight rounds were exactly pushovers.
Lim Kian Hwa is one of the top players from Sarawak who has played in many internationally rated tournaments locally. Chan won this game.
Both Nor Ilhamuddin and Kamal Ariffin Wahiddudin are difficult players too but Chan also won against them.
In the fifth round, he faced Lim Yee Weng, the Selangor open’s defending champion, and the game was drawn. Then in the sixth round, Chan came face to face with Mas Hafizulhelmi. The tense struggle was decided in Chan’s favour.
By this time, Chan was already co-leading the tournament.
The seventh round saw him draw with co-leader, Filipino Ian Udani, and they remained tied at the top.
The breakthrough came in the penultimate round of the tournament when Udani dropped a valuable half-a-point in his draw with Kamal Ariffin while Chan won against former world police champion Ismail Ahmad.
Going into the last round, he was leading with seven points. A draw in this round would have been enough to seal victory but his opponent, Yeoh Chin Seng, was not one to agree to a quick draw. They sat down to play and in the struggle, Yeoh had to admit defeat.
So Chan managed to finish the tournament with eight points out of nine games.
Here is the sixth round game between Chan and Mas Hafizul.
At first, the game looked quite level. Although White controlled the greater space on the board, Black had play along the c-file with his rooks. However, White’s next few moves showed that the mere occupation of this file was not enough. There wasn’t any real target for Black to latch on to.
In the meantime, White continued to press on the kingside. Switching his bishop to the c3 square was an inspiration to put pressure along the a1-h8 diagonal and once Black was forced to defend the black squares, his e7 bishop suddenly became useless, hemmed in by his own pawns.
Immediately, White forced off the white-squared bishops from the board and brought his knights into play. By the 35th move, Black was probably lost. The knight on g4 was powerful and the white queen was threatening entry into Black’s kingside.
There was little that Black could do to prevent White’s bishop sacrifice on e5. Now, with the knight dominating on the e5 square and Black’s pieces all out of play, it wasn’t too long before he had to concede defeat.
White: Nicholas Chan
Black: Mas Hafizulhelmi
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. Bg2 0-0 5. Qb3 Be7 6. e3 c6 7. Nge2 d6 8. 0-0 Re8 9. d4 Bf8 10. e4 Na6 11.Qc2 Be6 12. d5 cxd5 13.cxd5 Bd7 14. a3 Rc8 15. h3 Rc7 16.Be3 Qb8 17.Qd1 b5 18. b4 Rc4 19.Qd3 Rec8 20. f4 Ne8 21.Bf2 R8c7 22.Nd1 Rc8 23.Ne3 R4c7 24.Kh2 Be7 25.Rad1 Qa8 26.Be1 Nb8 27.Bc3 f6 28.Bf3 g6 29. h4 a5 30.Bg4 axb4 31.axb4 Bxg4 32.Nxg4 Qa2 33.Rd2 Qb3 34.Rb1 Qc4 35.Qf3 Ra7 36.fxe5 dxe5 37.Bxe5 fxe5 38.Nxe5 (see diagram)
38….Qc7 39.Qf7+ Kh8 40.Rc1 Qb7 41.Nf4 Ng7 42.Nfxg6+ hxg6 43.Nxg6+ Kh7 44.Nxe7 1-0 (Black cannot prevent 45.Qg6+ and 46.Qh6 mate)