GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son vs IM Mashafizul

Below is my annotated game of Mashafizul against Vietnam chess prodigy - GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (FIDE 2594) in round 2 of the Zone 3.3 FIDE World Championship, Vietnam . Mas performed well by drawing against Nguyen (photo above) who achieved the GM title at the age of 14 ! Nguyen is now 19 years old.

GM Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son (2592) vs. IM Mashafizulhelmi ( 2391)

Zone 3.3, World Chess Championship, Round 2, 23.7.2009

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. d4 Be7 5. cxd5 exd5 6. g3 O-O 7. Bg2 Nbd7 8. O-O Re8 9. Rb1 Nf8 10. Bg5 Bf5 11. Rc1 c6 12. Bxf6 Maybe white can keep his double bishop and play moves like 12. Nh4 !? Bd7 13.Qd3 and white queen support e4 and b4-b5 push. 12... Bxf6 13. b4 White start a minority attack on the Queen side which is a common strategy for white especially when his bishop is on the h1-a8 diagonal and black has b7-c6-d5 pawn formation.13... b5

This move made the backward pawn on c6 looks weak. However white somehow couldn't manage to exploit it. 14. a4 a6 15. e3 Qd6 16. Qb3 Nd7 17. a5 h5 Mas choose an aggressive move. 17... Be7!? is an alternative because after 18. Na2 White's knight is little bit off-side

18. Ne2 Be7 19. Ne5 Exerts pressure on the backward pawn - c6 19...Nxe5 20. dxe5 Qxb4

21. Qxb4 Bxb4 Black has a new protected passed pawn: b5 22. Nd4 Bd7 22... Rxe5 ?

doesn't lead to anything significant after 23. Nxc6 Bd6 24. Nxe5 Bxe5 25. Rfd1

23. Nxc6 Bxc6 24. Rxc6 Rxe5 Opposite coloured bishops appeared. Mas could try 24... Bxa5 25. Ra1 Bb4 26. f4 a5 27. Bxd5 Although it's not clear who will have the upper hand. Black of course had two connected passed pawn on the queen side but white has excellent target on f7. White could proceed with attack like e6 and doubling rook on black's 7th rank. 25. Rd1

Re6 Strong alternative is 25... Bxa5 26. Bxd5 Ra7 26. Rxe6 fxe6 27. Rd4 Both player agreed to split the point. 1/2-1/2

Mas once again can play for more with moves like 27... Bxa5 28. Rxd5 Rc8 29. Rxh5 Rc1+ 30. Bf1 However Mas probably decide that a draw against a nearly 2600+ GM is a good start and he didn't want to take any risk. Furthermore, he also might still remember his bad experience in similar situation against World Champion second - Ganguly Shekar in Subic International Open last May.