Royal Selangor Open 2008: Round 8

Today as i promised to Andrew Ooi, i went to the Royal Selangor Open 2008 event at the Royal Selangor Pewter office in Jalan Usahawan 6, Setapak , KL. I drop by there after sending my brother in law and his wife in Pudu Central to take a bus to JB. They stayed in my house for 5 days to see my new baby.

Back to chess, i assume that the this year event have less participant from past years but the strentgh was definetly stronger. My friends Aziz Shukor said that there's no patzer to beat in lower board. Even kids is strong and not an easy meat.

After using Andrew Ooi photo for my previous article on Selangor Open, today i manage to take my own Royal Selangor photos .

Norilhamuddin (right), Masrin Erowan (left) vs Norazman Ismail ( far right)

Jamal Hendry (Indonesia)vs Justin Ong

Marcus Yeoh

Andrew Ooi aka Gilachess- The Roperter and player

Ismail Ahmad vs NM Kamal Ariffin

The banner

Filipino- Ian Udani pondering a reply against FM Lim Yee Weng

Mohd Saprin Sabri (right) was in intense battle against Ilias Mohd Safri

Mohd Saprin Sabri – Ilias Mohd Safri
Round (8), 04.05.2008, Royal Selangor Open 2008

Saprin is already in big trouble. He is three pawn down. His knight on f5 is hanging and black has two strong attack which is Nf2+ forking the queen & king and the second threat is cxb2. 1.Rxe4 the only move to survive. Now he is almost two piece down! 1.fxe5 Nf2+ 2.Kg1 Nxd1+ 3.Be3 cxb2 And black will queen! 1...Qxe4 2.Bc2 cxb2 3.Bxe4 at first I taught 3.Nd2? can be played but black simply play 3...Qxc2! 3...bxa1Q 4.Qh5 g6 5.Qh4 ½–½
Surprisingly the game ended in a draw. Black is clearly winning here but probably he are worried about white dangerous looking attack on the kingside. After the game I suggest 5...Qb2 to deliver a check on the c1 as a force win but Fritz tell that white can play 6.Nh6+ Kg7 7.f5 and white can prolong the game because the c1 square is protected from black check . Fritz instead suggest the simple and winning 5...Rfe8 ! A close escape for Saprin.