Summaries from December 2012 - April 2013

MAKITA Women Chess Match: Indonesia vs France

In December 2012, as I have mentioned before, the girls and I were playing a friendship match against France that was represented by IM Sophie Milliet, WIM Nino Maisuradze, WIM Natacha Benmesbah, and WIM Mathilde Congiu in Jakarta. The match was divided into 3 formats: blitz, rapid and classical. In blitz we lost 1-3, with Chelsie Monica Sihite as the only scorer in our team. We fought back in rapid and won 10-6! Our confidence boosted up and it showed in our classical games result by winning again with 9,5 - 6,5. This time our girl, Medina Warda Aulia, played exceptionally well. She scored 7,5 points out of 9 games (accumulation of 1 blitz game and 4 games of rapid and classical) and brought home most of the prize money than the rest of each of us of USD 12.000 as the total prize fund.

 

Australian Open 2013

A few days after the aforementioned match ended, I flew off to Australia to play the 2013 Australian Open in Sydney. It brought me a lot of nerves as my last visit to the country didn't end up well for my chess (see my previous report here). Struggled in the first round of the tournament against a 1800 player it added more negative feeling to my side. But fortunately with all the moral support from my closest friends there I could pick up and carried on. It turned out pretty well for me by beating the first seed of the tournament in the last round, GM Igor Khenkin from Germany. The victory brought me up to the 5th placed with 8 points out of 11 rounds. My Victorian friend, Jamie Kenmure, made a great coverage of the tournament on Chessbase: Fabulous fighting chess at the Australian Open. That also featured my game against the Super GM :) Full results can be seen here.

Before playing the last round

With my Australian friends (from left to right): GM Zong-Yuan Zhao, IM Moulthun Ly, FM Junta Ikeda (who got his 2nd IM norm in the tournament), and IM Andrew Brown.

In Sunshine Coast for a short holiday after the tournament.

 

HD Bank Cup Open 2013

On March 18th-25th I was in Ho Chi Minh city to play the very same event for 3 years in a row. My last year's result was not so good so I had an expectation that I'd got to play better this time. And yes, I played really solid throughout the tournament. With 5,5 points/9 rounds and performance rating of over 2450, I secured the first place of best women prize. And to add to the fun, I was given my 6th IM norm certificate as well :P If only it could be replaced by some rating points that I needed to break the 2400 mark :/

Below is my game against one of best Vietnamese players where I failed to keep my winning advantage to the end and eventually a draw was agreed.

From left to right: Me (1st best women), GM Zhao Jianchao (3rd placed), GM Le Quang Liem (1st placed) and GM Lu Shanglei (2nd placed)

 

 

Thailand Open 2013 

 

The event was held in Pattaya city this year from April 14th-21st and was really a great tournament. But because I was enjoying the relaxing environment too much, it didn't do well to my chess. Scoring only 5,5/9 and performing like a 2220 player, my rating was dropping down to 18 points. But nevertheless, I didn't regret on going there for I have gained more experiences and friends. It's one of the events that I'm considering to be back again next year ;)

Before starting of the 1st round

With GM Nigel Short in our photo shoot session.

Enjoying a fine sunny day at Pattaya beach with my roommate, WGM Irina Bulmaga from Moldova.

The winners of the tournament. GM Zong-Yuan Zhao from Australia took clear first.

My next post will be about my Europe trip from May - June. Stay tuned! :D