MAKSAK 2008 annotated game

Johorean - Noorullah Omar (photo right) send me his game to be shared in this blog. I gladly accept it because in my opinion, if we want to improve our game, we should never afraid to show and discuss about it. World Champion like Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik games are publish and analyze everyday by everybody but they still remain on top!

Noorullah playing 1st board for Johor and in MAKSAK 2008 he meet Baharuddin from Kelantan in one of his game . Baharuddin is quite a strong player having beaten players like NM Kamal Ariffin and Abang Mohd Reduan in the same tournament.


Noorullah Omar (Johor) vs Baharuddin (Kelantan)
MAKSAK 2008, Penang (B08)


1. e4 g6 2. Nf3 Bg7 3. d4 d6 4. Nc3 This show that Noorulah doesn't mind
facing Pirc or Modern Defense. This is also consistent with his first move 1.e4. If he is
a d4 player he could have try to transpose the game to a King Indian Defense with
4. c4 4... Nf6 5. Be3 Bg4

Ok guys, i have a story here. During my preparation for NM Kamal Ariffin game against Abang Mohd Reduan (Sarawak), we discuss about white replay here. Kamal said that although 6.Be2 is the book move, he lost to Abang last year with that particular move. So this year we decided to
look after 6.h3 . Unfortunately Abang divert with 5...c6 and won the game. 6. Be2 Nbd7 I think 6... Nc6 followed by ...e5 later to put pressure on d4 is more consistent with 5...Bg4 idea. 7. h3 Bxf3 8. Bxf3 e5 9. Qd2 i think 9. d5 closing the centre followed by 10.Qd2 - 0-0-0 - Bh6 idea is probably better. 9... exd4 10. Bxd4 Ne5 11. Be2 Qe7

12. O-O-O Fritz the brilliant tactician shows that 12. f4 ! is the correct move. For eg. 12... Nc6 13. Nd5 ! 12... a6 13. Be3 13. f4 ! once again with the same idea 13...Nc6 14. Nd5 ! 13... O-O-O 14. Bg5 h6 ? the decisive mistake by black.

15. Nd5 Qe6 16. Bxf6 Bxf6 17. f4 ! probably Baha missed this move. Now the knight on e5 can't be save because after 17... Nd7 18. Bg4 Qxe4 19. Nxf6 winning a piece. 17...Bh4 18. Qc3 ?! 18. Qa5 ! is better because black can't use the knight on e5 to cover the mate threat on c7 so he will lose the knight after 18...Rd7 19. fxe5 . ( update: My team mate said that 18.fxe5 also win but i think white will have some problems if black reply with 18...Bg5 although Fritz "said" that white still got the upper hand) 18... Nc6 19. g3 Be7 20. Bxa6 ! and 20.
Bg4 ! Is equally good for eg. 20... f5 21. exf5 gxf5 22. Rhe1 Qf7 23. Rxe7 ! 20... Kb8
20... bxa6 21. Qxc6 21. Bb5 Qd7 22. Bxc6 bxc6 23. Nxe7 23. Qb4+ !
and black will be mate in 8 move (maximum) Kc8 24. Qa5 Kb7 25. Rd3 cxd5 26.
Rb3+ Qb5 27. Qxb5+ Kc8 28. Ra3 c5 29. Qc6+ Kb8 30. Ra8# 23... Qxe7 24. Qxc6
Qd7 25. Qa6 c6 26. Rd3 White is clearly winning. 23...Qa7 27. Rb3+ Ka8 28. Qxc6+

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