DATMO 2009

The 6th Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open is currently underway in Kuala Lumpur. As far as I can tell, three Australian juniors are competing, Sam Grigg (Qld), Emma Gua (ACT) and Justin Tan (Vic).

Both Emma and Justin are on 2.5/7 while Sam is on 2/7. Round 8 is currently being played with one more round to go.

Here are the links to the website, the results. You can also follow the latest on Twitter. Games from earlier rounds are also available for replay by clicking link from main webpage.

(38) Guo,Emma (1914) - Ma,Qun (2319) [A00]
Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open CitiTel Midvalley Megamall, Ku (1.38), 1922
Result: 0.5-0.5


(44) Bennett,Hilton (2050) - Grigg,Sam (1933) [A00]
Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open CitiTel Midvalley Megamall, Ku (3.44), 1922
Result: 0-1


Here is Sam using the basic Queen fork trick to good advantage:
(40) Grigg,Sam (1933) - Sano,Tomu (2140) [A00]
Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open 2009 (DAT CitiTel Midvalley Megamall, Ku (4.40), 1922
Result: 1-0

A brilliant attacking game by English "junior" and current British Chess Champion

He is still a junior in accordance with Fide's definition and is entitled to participate in this year's World Junior in Argentina. At last year's World Junior he came very close to winning the title (but he does not need the "perquisite" that comes with winning the title, namely an automatic GM title). He is already a GM and England's youngest GM (and the youngest English junior to become a GM at the age of 16 years and one month (check here)). He is none other than David Howell. (There is also another reason to write about him, namely that his mother is formerly from Singapore.) At this year's British Chess Chmapionship, he swept the field (having led or co-led the tournament from start to finish!)and became the second youngest person to become British Champion. Read about it here.

Straight after the British Championships, he travelled to London for the 2009 Staunton Memorial "which pits top British grandmasters against their Dutch counterparts" (round-by-round reports are here). In Rd 7, David Howell faced experienced veteran GM Ivan Sokolov and produced a brilliant attacking game (Scotch Opening) which has been awarded the one of the two Best Games prizes. Enjoy and learn.

Howell,D (2614) - Sokolov,Ivan (2655) [C45]
7th Staunton Memorial London ENG (7), 14.08.2009 [Annotations: Steve Giddins]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bb4+ 5.c3 Bc5 6.Be3 Bb6 7.Qg4. The first round game Jones-L'Ami saw White achieve a pleasant advantage after 7.Nf5 but Ivan, of course, must have prepared something against that move. David instead selects Kasparov's line, which is the sharpest option in this position. 7...g6!? The text looks a little strange, but has been played at high level recently. Theory considers 7...Qf6 8.Qg3 Qg6 as best, and good enough for equality, but it is probably significant that leading players are now avoiding this line - one suspects that they know something! 8.Nd2 Nge7!? 8...Qe7 was seen in the game Radjabov-Aronian, Sochi 2008. 9.Qh4 Nxd4 10.cxd4 d5 11.Bg5!? An interesting pawn sacrifice. David admitted after the game that he was not certain whether he had enough compensation, but thought it looked very interesting. The computer prefers 11.Qf6 Rf8 12.0–0–0 Qd6 13.Bb5+ Bd7 14.Bxd7+ Kxd7 15.Qf3, which also looks strong.

11...Bxd4 12.0–0–0 h6 13.exd5 hxg5. 13...Bxf2 14.Qxf2 hxg5 15.Ne4 Bf5 16.Bb5+ Kf8 17.Nxg5 Nxd5 18.Qc5+ Kg7 19.Nxf7 Kxf7 20.Rxd5 Qg5+ 21.Rd2 Rhd8 is the computer preference, which it assesses as roughly equal. I am not surprised that Ivan avoided this, however, as it is very hard to judge which of the exposed kings is the more vulnerable. Nonetheless, the text soon leaves Black in serious trouble on the dark squares, so I guess the computer's line had to be tried.

14.Qxd4 Rh4 15.Ne4 Bf5 16.f3 Bxe4 17.fxe4 Kf8. A terrible concession to have to make, but with the white queen ensconced on d4, Black has no chance of ever being able to castle queenside. 18.g3 Rh7 19.Bc4

White simply piles up his pieces on the f7 square. Black already has no adequate defence. 19...Qd6 20.Rhf1 b5 21.Bxb5 Rxh2?! Objectively, 21...Qb6 looks like the best practical chance, but after 22.Qxb6 axb6 23.Rd2 Rxa2 24.Kc2 the ending is pretty grim for Black as well. Ivan prefers to seek his chances in the middlegame.

22.Rf6 Qxg3 23.Rdf1 Rh7 24.Bc4. With the crushing threat of d6. 24...Ke8 25.Bb5+ Kf8 26.Bd7 Nc8. Allowing a beautiful finish, but there is no hope anyway. At the very pleasant drinks party hosted by sponsor Jan Mol in the evening, Ivan explained to me that he had intended Rd8 at some point round here, with a variation in which his king managed to run, still with unclear play. However, at the last moment, he realised that there was a hole in his calculations. Unfortunately, a combination of senility, drunkenness and general stupidity means that I am quite unable to reconstruct the variation in question, so I am unable to share it with you. I can only apologize, both to my readers and to Ivan himself. 27.R6f3 Qh2 28.Qh8+! Ke7. Of course, taking the queen leads to mate after 28...Rxh8 29.Rxf7+ Kg8 30.Rf8+ Kg7 31.R1f7+ Kh6 32.Rxh8#.

29.Rxf7+ 1-0. All roads lead to mate: 29...Rxf7 (29...Kd6 is mate in four after 30.Qf6+ Kc5 31.Qc3+ Kb6 32.Qc6+ Ka5 33.Qb5#) 30.Qe8+ Kd6 31.Qe6+ Kc5 32.Qc6+ Kd4 33.Qc3+ Kxe4 34.Re1+ Kxd5 35.Qc6+ Kd4 36.Re4+ Kd3 37.Qc4#! Wonderful stuff from David, who thus adds another queen sacrifice to the collection we have seen at the Staunton Memorial over the past few year (I can think of four, at least!).

[Replay with the annotations here.]

2009 Asian Youth Chess Championships

There is a report on the Asian Youth Chess Championships on Chessbase: click here. Check here for the official news and here for the full results of girls and here for the Open.

In summary, India dominated the medals winning 23 out of the total of 36 medlas on offer. But the only GM participant, Salem A.R. Saleh of UAE, won the U18 title by virtue of better tiebreak. Guliskhan Nakhbayeva of Kazhakstan won the U18 girls title. K. Priyadarshan of India annexed the under 16 title with 6.5/9 and Hoang Thi Nhu Y of Vietnam won the U16 girls title. Note that thw inners of the U18 and U16 Open (boys?) automatically achieve an IM norm and become an FM while winners of the girls U18 and U16 only achieve WIM norms and becomes WFM.