Round 9 : Malaysia beat Liechtenstein 3.5-1.5

Malaysia beat Liechtenstein 3.5-1.5 last night in round 9 of the 2008 Dresden Olympiad. Only Mashafizul draw his first board game where as in the remaining board Malaysia triump easily.

Malaysia the 73th seed badly need to win the remaining rounds to avoid a worst Olympiad results ever for our country. After round 9, Malaysia is now in the 94 place, 21 place below our initial seeding. In round 10 tonight, Malaysia is being paired against Ecuador.




On paper, Malaysia should not have any problem to beat Liechtenstein because we simply ourated them in every board but anything can happen in this tournament. Liechtenstein is a small country in western europe with population about 35,000.

Board 1

Mannhart Marcel (2154) vs Mashafizul (2438)
Dresden Olympiad (9), 22.11.2008

1.Nc3... This move is seldom played in top level but there's one famous player who is curently no.2 in the World who used it frequently- Alexander Morozevich. Actually this move is not bad as it looks like because usually the game will tranpose back to normal popular opening e.g the Sicilian 1... c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.e4 b5
4.d3 4.d4 would tranpose to open Sicilian but White is heading for a close Sicilian with f4 not being play or delay 4...Bb7 5.g3 e6 6.Bg2 d6 7.0–0 Nd7 8.Ng5 Ngf6 9.f4 Qc7 10.Qe2 b4 11.Nd1 h6 12.Nf3 Nb6 13.Nf2 Be7 14.c3 a5 15.Re1 0–0 16.e5 Nh7 17.Ng4 Rfd8
18.exd6 Bxd6 19.c4 Nd7 20.Bd2 Nb8 21.Rad1 Nc6 22.Be3 Be7 23.Qf2 Nd4 24.Bxd4 cxd4 25.Qe2 Bc5 26.Nfe5 Rac8 27.Bxb7 Qxb7 28.Qg2 Qc7 29.Re2 Nf8 30.Rde1 f6 31.Nf3 Qd7 32.Nf2 Qa4 33.Ra1 Ra8 34.Ne4 Be7 35.Kh1 Ra6 36.Nf2 Bc5 37.Ne4 Be7 38.Nf2 Bc5 39.Ne4 ½–½

Board 2

FM Lim Yee Weng (2396) vs Frick Renato (2145)

Dresden Olympiad (9), 22.11.2008

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 The Veresov Opening. Jimmy Liew favourite opening. 2...d5 3.Bg5 Nbd7 4.Qd2 h6 5.Bf4 c6 6.f3 Nh5 7.e4 Nxf4 8.Qxf4 Yee Weng gave black the double bishop in exchange with rapid development in the centre 8...e6 9.Qg3 Be7 10.h4 0–0 11.e5 f5 12.Nce2 Rf7 13.0–0–0 c5 14.f4 Qb6 15.Nf3 Nf8 16.Qh3
16...Bd7?? The desicive blunder. Black completely missed Yee Weng strong reply 17.Ng5!

Now black rook is trap because if 17...hxg5?? 18.hxg5 Rxf6... force if not mate on h8 by white's queen. 19.exf6 and black can resign 17...Rc8 18.Nxf7 Kxf7 19.g4 cxd4 20.gxf5 Qa6 21.Kb1 d3 22.Qxd3 Bb5 23.Qd2 1-0







Board 3

Guller Andras (2117) vs FM Mok Tze Meng(2308)
Dresden Olympiad (9), 22.11.2008

1.d4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 0–0 5.0–0 c5 5...d5 is another alternative but Mok break the symmetry by playing 5...c5 .This shows that he is playing for a win ! 6.c3 cxd4 7.cxd4 d5 8.Nc3 Nc6 9.Bf4 Bf5 10.Ne5 Rc8 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Qd2 Re8 13.Rfd1 Nd7 14.e4 dxe4 15.Nxe4 Nb6 16.Rac1 Nd5 17.Bh6 Bh8 18.Nc3 Qd7 19.Nxd5 cxd5 20.Bf4 Bh3 21.Bh1
Red8 22.b3 Qb5 23.Bf3 h5 24.Bg2 Bxg2 25.Kxg2 Qb6 26.Be3 Bg7 27.Re1 e6 28.h3 Re8 29.Red1 Bf8 30.Bf4 Qb4 31.Qe3 Qa3 32.Qd2 Qa6 33.Be5 Qa3 34.Qf4 Bg7 35.Bxg7 Kxg7 36.Qd2 a5 37.Rc2 Qb4 38.Qxb4 axb4 39.Rdc1 Rxc2 40.Rxc2 Ra8 41.Kf3 Kf6 42.Ke3 Ra7 43.Kf3 Ke7 44.Ke3 Kd6 45.Rc8 Rxa2 46.Rb8 h4 47.Rxb4 Rc2 48.Rb7 Rc3+ 49.Kf4 hxg3 50.fxg3 Rd3 51.Rxf7 Rxd4+ 52.Kg5 Rd3 53.Kg4 Rxb3 54.Rg7 d4 55.Rxg6 Kd5 56.Rg8 Ke4 57.h4 d3 58.Rd8 Rb5 59.h5 Rd5 60.Rxd5 exd5 0–1

Board 4

IM Jimmy Liew (2306) - Muendle Kurt (1928)
Dresden Olympiad GER (9), 22.11.2008

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5

4...exd5 4...Qxd5 is another importance alternative if you doesn't like the possibility to play an isolated pawn early in the game. With the text move, black free his light square bishop and is not behind in development. However the main problem is that after dxc5 by white, black will enter an ending where his isolated d pawn would be a serious drawback! Anyway god has create middle game before endgame..so it is still early to said whether black is in any serious trouble. 5.Ngf3 Nf6 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.Qe2+ Qe7 8.0–0 Qxe2 9.Bxe2 Bd6 10.dxc5 Bxc5
Now black have the isolated d pawn but his piece is more active compare to white. However without the queen, black rapid development didn't promise much where as his d pawn will be a permanant weakness. 11.Nb3 Bd6 12.Be3 0–0 13.Rad1 Nc6 14.Bc5 Bxc5 15.Nxc5 Bg4 16.h3 Bf5 17.c3 b6 18.Na6 Rad8 19.Bb5 Na5 20.Ne5 Bc8 21.Rd4 21...Nb4 keeping the active knight is probably better. Jimmy idea is to blockade the isolated d pawn and prevent black from exchanging the weak pawn with d5-d4 later. 21...Bxa6 22.Bxa6 Rfe8 23.f4 Ne4 24.Bb5 24.Rfd1! is more accurate. After 24...f6 white have 25.Nc4! Nc5 26.Bb5 Nxc4 27.Bxc4 and the d5 pawn will drop. 24...Re7 ?! Black should try to confuse the matter with 24...f6 25. Nc6 ( 25.Bxe8 fxe5) 25...Nxc6 26.Bxc6 Ng3 25.Rfd1 f6 26.Rxe4 fxe5 27.Rxe5 Rxe5 28.fxe5 Black is a pawn down and his isolated d5 pawn is weak, His knight on the rim (Na5) is dim ...even Kramnik can't save this position against Jimmy ! 28...Kf7 29.b4 a6 30.Bxa6 Nc6 31.Bb7 Nxe5 32.Rxd5 Rxd5 33.Bxd5+ Ke7 34.a4 Kd6 35.Bg8 h6 36.Kf2 Nd3+ 37.Ke3 Nb2 38.Bb3 1–0

Overall results

Malaysia - Liechtenstein

3.5-1.5