The 2013 Malaysian Open
The Malaysian Open hasn’t received much attention due to the excitement of the World Cup (which I was following during my time in Malaysia), but we have good reason to be excited about the Malaysian Open too!
The tournament always secures a good turnout, and even with the World Cup clash, the field was stronger than ever with 12 GMs (excluding WGMs) and a slew of titled players. Australia was also well represented with myself, WIM Emma Guo and Peter Frost playing the Open section, FM Brian Jones participating in the Seniors tournament, and Jamie-Lee Guo playing the Amateur section.
The venue was the Cititel Hotel in Kuala Lumpur – and to make the chess professionals even more pleased, the Mega Mall joined the hotel, so the chess enthusiast could stay indoors for their entire stay! The tournament was played in a spacious hall and the organisers did a good job of running everything fairly smoothly. Special mention must be made of Dato Arthur Tan Chin Nam, who sponsored the event with a large sum of money, and also sponsored the 2012 Oceania Grand Prix where I won my travel grant to this very tournament!
I’ll save my culinary report for the time being and get on with the games! The other Australian and New Zealand players had relatively modest performances (though Brian Jones won a prize in the Seniors tournament), so I’ll focus on my experience for the rest of this report.
My Round 1 game was played at 9am on the Saturday, which is the bane of any night owl. However, I decided to use jet lag to my advantage and pretend it was Sydney time! This unconventional approach also saved me having to change the time on my watch twice. A tip for the budding traveller: make sure you don’t wear an electronic watch to your games, as if the watch makes a sound you will lose the game, and the game will still be rated!
Playing under the much more tolerable 11am Sydney time, I reached the following endgame and decided to follow the well-known approach of simplifying to a winning endgame…but was it really winning?
[Event "Malaysian Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Yogesh, Gautam"]
[Black "Illingworth, Max"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2051"]
[BlackElo "2426"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/1p5r/p5R1/4kp2/3r1p1P/PP1B4/2P2K2/8 b - - 0 39"]
[PlyCount "19"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
{In this position Black is an exchange up for nothing and after a normal move
like 39...Rdd7, intending 40.Rg5 Rdf7, Black should be winning. However, for
the last couple of hours my head was in some sort of 'limbo' and despite my
opponent's severe time trouble I felt it was best to keep things as simple as
possible, or maybe even simpler.} 39... Rxh4 40. Rg5 Rxd3 {During the game I
thought this rook ending was an easy win, but is it so simple?} (40... Rh2+ {
was more accurate, so that if White plays} 41. Ke1 {I can play} Ke6 $1 {when
either capture loses material: 42.Rxf5 to 42...Rxd3 and 42.Bxf5 to 42...Kf6.})
41. cxd3 Rh2+ {Now my opponent played 42.Kf3 and resigned after 42...Rd2 as my
rook collects the harvest, but what happens after the superior} 42. Ke1 {?
White's plan is to play Rg7 and take my queenside pawns.} f3 (42... Rb2 43. b4
Rb3 44. Rg6 Rxa3 45. Rb6 Rxd3 46. Rxb7 f3 47. Rb6 {According to Houdini Black
is winning, but White can just swap off the queenside pawns and reach a drawn
rook vs. rook and two f-pawns endgame, like what could have occurred in
Vitiugov-Morozevich from the World Cup last night.}) 43. Rg6 {White wants to
play Rb6 and exchange the queenside pawns again. However} Kd4 44. Rb6 Ke3 $1 {
(threatening mate)} 45. Re6+ Kf4 46. Rb6 Ra2 $1 {wins for Black, as} 47. Rxb7
f2+ 48. Kf1 Kf3 {leaves White unable to stop ...Ra1 with checkmate.} 0-1 My second game of the day was a berserker-style game – although I lacked the accuracy to accompany my ferocious play, I was still able to finish the game in style. How did I win from this position?
[Event "Malaysian Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.??.??"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Illingworth, Max"]
[Black "Lim, Zhuo Ren"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2421"]
[BlackElo "2192"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "1r4rk/1q3p1p/p2pnP2/1pp1b1PQ/2P1P3/1P1BR3/P2B4/5R1K w - - 0 30"]
[PlyCount "0"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
{I'll reveal the solution at the end of this post.} 1-0Now for one more puzzle, from my third round game before providing the obligatory culinary report!
[Event "Malaysian Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.??.??"]
[Round "3"]
[White "D'Souza, Andria"]
[Black "Illingworth, Max"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1753"]
[BlackElo "2426"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2k1r3/pp6/q4pp1/2bQ1n2/8/2P5/P3b1PP/R1B2R1K b - - 0 25"]
[PlyCount "0"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
{Obviously Black is completely winning here, but how did I force checkmate?
It's worth noting that my opponents in this tournament almost all played
better than their rating.} 0-1The hotel provided lunch and dinner buffets for the first few nights of my stay, and a free daily breakfast. While the breakfast was not perfect for someone with gluten and lactose intolerance, it was good enough to keep me going for the morning games. True, I could have gone with a certain Hungarian GM’s diet of 14 eggs for breakfast but after eating one omelette I certainly didn’t feel like eating more egg! Lunch and dinner were very pleasant but I had to venture to the Mega Mall for most of my meals. To be honest one of my meals each day for most of the tournament was three scoops of ice cream in a cone! So much for my gluten free diet…Eventually I got bored with chicken rice and Thai meals, preferring to enjoy local meals such as Char Kway Teow from the comfort of my room.
My next game was a 9am game against Abhijeet Gupta, who is currently rated just below 2600 but used to be a lot stronger than that. My preparation for that game worked very well and I achieved a better position, but in spite of this I doubted myself throughout the game, which no doubt contributed to me being outplayed in a slightly worse but holdable endgame. However the following fragment will provide the most amusement:
[Event "Malaysian Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.??.??"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Illingworth, Max"]
[Black "Gupta, Abhijeet"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2426"]
[BlackElo "2594"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "r1r3k1/1p1bppb1/p4n1p/2n5/3N2p1/2N1P3/PP2BPPP/2RRB1K1 w - - 0 20"]
[PlyCount "16"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
20. b3 {This move seems very normal, keeping all of White's pieces (bar the
king) unprotected, but it was played with an insane plan in mind.} h5 $1 {This
move starts a clever plan of ...Bh6 followed by ...h4 and ...g3 to damage my
kingside pawn structure. Here I felt that I had no idea what to do in this
position (I didn't like weakening the e3-pawn with f3 but in hindsight I
should have done this), so I decided to try and 'improve my worst placed
piece'. This is normally quite sound advice, but in trying to do this I
succeeded in worsening the placement of several of my pieces.} 21. Nb1 {My
idea was to play Na3-c4, exploiting the weakness of the b6-square. The problem
is that after} e5 22. Nc2 Bf5 23. Nba3 b5 {both of my knights are in terrible
positions! The a3-knight can't move back to b1 because of ...Nxb3 followed by
chopping off the c2-knight. However I had planned to reach this position,
believing that after} 24. Nb4 {I would block the queenside pawns and be able
to occupy the black squares left behind by his pawn advances ...e5 and ...b5.
This was wishful thinking to say the least, and when my opponent played} Bf8 $1
{I realised my plan had failed. I at least woke up to reality in time to
realise that} 25. Nb1 $1 {, admitting that I gave my opponent about five
useful moves, was strongest, but after} a5 26. Nd5 Nxd5 27. Rxd5 {Black would
still have been much better, had he avoided 27...f6 in favour of} a4 $1 {
immediately taking the initiative on the queenside. I'll leave it to you to
work out the details as honestly this game isn't a very pleasant memory for me!
} 0-1My fifth round game was against one of Malaysia’s strongest players, but despite my eventual victory this was probably my lowest-quality game of the tournament. However, it is better to win a poorly-played game than lose a well-played game! I did learn though that playing on ice cream alone isn’t conducive to brilliant play…
[Event "Malaysian Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.??.??"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Chuah, Jonathan Jin Hai"]
[Black "Illingworth, Max"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2250"]
[BlackElo "2426"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "6k1/pp2r2p/2b2p2/5p1q/2P2B2/6PP/PP3Q1K/2R5 w - - 0 36"]
[PlyCount "0"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
{Rather than encouraging you to guess my moves, I'll give you a chance to play
against an IM! Also it's just as important to practice your defensive
technique. Black is threatening 26...Re2: what will you do about it?} 0-1Paired against the top seed in the next round, I decided to make full use of my ‘rest day’ and spent the entire day and night doing enough opening preparation to last an entire tournament! I think the following diagram will describe the game better than any words I might use...
[Event "Malaysian Open"] [Site "?"] [Date "2013.??.??"] [Round "6"] [White "Ma, Qun"] [Black "Illingworth, Max"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2600"] [BlackElo "2426"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "2rq1rk1/2p1bp1p/2Q3p1/4P3/3P4/pP3N2/P1B2PPP/2R3K1 b - - 0 24"] [PlyCount "0"] [EventDate "2013.??.??"] 1-0
Naturally, after being squashed like a cockroach I felt very deflated, but after a lovely dinner and a helpful conversation with a chess parent, I went into the last double-round day ready to fight back. The GM norm would now depend on luck (and scoring 3/3), but if there’s one certain way to not get a GM norm, it’s to play the tournament thinking about them! As Basil Fawlty would say, ‘don’t mention the norm!’
My Round 7 game was a spectacular example of the opponent playing an opening variation losing by force with best play, only for me to get frustrated when I couldn’t see the forced win on move 21, preferring to throw away most of my advantage instead. Fortunately I made up for this failure by playing good chess for the rest of the game, some of which I will show below:
[Event "Malaysian Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.??.??"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Illingworth, Max"]
[Black "Lim, Ronnie Chuin Hoong"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2426"]
[BlackElo "2299"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "7k/6pp/p5n1/8/8/1BQ5/PKP3RP/3q1r2 w - - 0 29"]
[PlyCount "17"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
{My opponent has just slid his rook down from f8 to f1, threatening checkmate
and offering a draw. While I had refused his draw offer on move 16 in 'Ding
Yixin' style (responding by instantly banging out a move on the board), this
seemed an arrogant thing to do in a position where my king safety is
questionable. After some thought I came up with a strong continuation.} 29. Qe3
$1 {This is a brave move as my king will have to run up to a3, but it is
actually quite safe there and Black's king is not entirely safe either.} Re1
30. Qd2 {Here I was happy to 'chicken out' into an endgame since with the
queens off my king will be much better placed, I'll have the better minor
piece and a strong passed c-pawn.} Qa1+ 31. Ka3 Re8 32. Re2 {This is a useful
move, as taking on e2 runs into a Qd8 back rank mate.} Rf8 (32... Ne5 {might
have been a better try but it's very hard to trust such a self-pinning move
when in time trouble.}) 33. Re6 $1 {A very accurate move, preventing Black
from bringing his queen into play with ...Qf6 and attacking the a6-pawn.} a5
34. Qe3 Qf1 35. Re8 {I exchange some more pieces, as if I can get the major
pieces off the board the ending is easily winning. Notice how badly placed the
h8-king is! I also have the threat of Qe6-g8!} Qf6 36. Qe6 {It's very
practical to exchange into a probably winning endgame.} Qxe6 37. Rxe6 {My
opponent managed to defend very resourcefully from here, but it wasn't enough
and I won before I could faint from hunger.} 1-0For the second time that day, I succeeded in damaging the chances of a player on track for an IM norm, winning against a 2300 Indian player who was having a fantastic tournament. I’ll show the following fragment as an example of a very instructive defensive manoeuvre typical for these dynamic middlegame positions:
[Event "Malaysian Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.??.??"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Illingworth, Max"]
[Black "Pradeep, Kumar R A"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2426"]
[BlackElo "2310"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "1rbq3k/6bp/2Bp1r2/1N3p2/P3p3/8/1P3PPP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 0 20"]
[PlyCount "13"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
20. b4 $1 {This isn't the first choice of Houdini but advancing the passed
pawn and clearing the long diagonal of targets is the best continuation.} Rh6
21. Ra3 $1 {This move defuses Black's attack, as ...Qh4 can be met by Rh3
stopping Black's attack. Who said rook lifts are only used as an attacking
mechanism? Also the g7-bishop is hitting thin air - a bit like in a Grunfeld
gone wrong. Actually I picked up this idea from the blog post i wrote last
week where Hector beat Karolyi with ...Ra6-h6.} Be5 22. g3 {It might seem that
the rook lift has been for nothing, but the rook can still partake in the
Merdeka festival on the kingside as we'll see.} Qb6 $2 {This is a mistake -
Black is playing on the wrong side of the board!} (22... Qg5 {is the move I
expected, but I had calculated that} 23. f4 $1 exf3 24. Raxf3 {is very strong
for White, as Black has major structural defects and} f4 $2 25. Rxf4 $1 Bxf4
26. Rxf4 {gives White a winning attack against Black's denuded king.}) 23. Qc1
f4 {Not best, but Black's position was already desperate.} 24. gxf4 Bg7 25.
Bxe4 Bd7 26. Rg3 $1 {Now the rook occupies the open g-file to start a kingside
attack on Black's king! Obviously with three pawns less, Black is completely
lost and I went on to win despite a mild case of 'dizziness due to success'.}
1-0In the last round I was paired against a Vietnamese IM (who is already GM strength) with Black, and for the sixth time in this tournament I was within one board of Chinese WGM Ding Yixin. And for the sixth time that this occurred, I won the game! As much as I’d like to show the whole game (which I’m quite proud of), a professional has to keep his trade secrets.
[Event "Malaysian Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.??.??"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Nguyen, Duc Hoa"]
[Black "Illingworth, Max"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2483"]
[BlackElo "2426"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "1rb2rk1/4qpbp/8/2pPp3/1p2NPn1/8/1P1NQPB1/R3R1K1 w - - 0 22"]
[PlyCount "18"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
{For the eighth or ninth time my opening preparation was very successful and
with some energetic play I reached the following position. My play was very
much inspired by my realisation that my opponent didn't handle positions where
he didn't have control of the game very well. Then again, not many players
thrive in chaos!} 22. Ng3 $2 {This move looks very natural, with the idea of
f5 to shut out both my bishops, but it has a tactical flaw.} f5 $1 23. f3 {
Another mistake, but White's position was already very bad. In this sort of
position White really suffers from the absence of his dark squared bishop.} e4
$1 {Did someone mention a dark-squared bishop?} 24. fxg4 Bd4+ 25. Kf1 Qh4 {
Black has a decisive attack as his king is too weak and after a normal move
Black will play ...fxg4 and ...Rxf4, when it is curtains.} 26. Nb3 Qxg3 27.
Nxd4 cxd4 28. Qf2 Qxg4 29. Qxd4 Qxf4+ 30. Kg1 Rb7 {As you can see, I've
sacrificed a horse for a kingdom! However, Shakespeare's timeless quote would
still be valid in this game, were it altered to 'my kingdom for a dark-squared
bishop!'. I nearly managed to blow this dead won position (I blame my bad
habit of self-congratulation during a game), but fortunately my opponent was
too short of time to exploit my blunder and I won.} 0-1When the dust had settled, the Chinese GMs had walked away with the tournament, with Xiu Deshun winning outright with 7.5/9, and Zhou Jianchao and Lu Shanglei finishing in a tie for second place with 7/9. If you’ve done your math you’ll already know that I joined the two Chinese GMs in this tie for second place with my score of 7/9! On tiebreak I finished in fourth – if only the organisers had used the ‘Most Wins’ tiebreak, then I’d be USD $1000 richer! In any case I shouldn’t quibble; the tournament was very successful for me!
Fully energised from my win against Nguyen, I threw my hat into the Blitz tournament, and played possibly the best OTB blitz of my life, winning the qualifier with a score of 7.5/9 (on tiebreak from GM Qun Ma).
Incidentally in my blitz game against Qun Ma, I offered him a somewhat cocky draw on move 1, but when he declined it I decided to defeat him instead! I also won against GM Lu Shanglei (I was greatly helped by a tournament rule prohibiting the touching of any pieces on the board on the opponent’s turn), and drew my other games against GMs (including Xiu Deshun).
I also played the Merdeka Rapid teams tournament…but I think I’ve given away enough chess secrets already! It’s unfortunate that this will be the last Malaysian Open as it is one of the most pleasant tournaments I’ve played in and it was in the 2007 Malaysian Open that I achieved my first draw against a >2500 player (by the name of Li Chao, who won that tournament and is now one of China’s top players). Once again I want to thank everyone involved in making the tournament happen, and also Brian Jones – were it not for his Oceania Grand Prix I probably would not have played this tournament.
Next week I’ll complete my rundown on how to learn a new opening!