It had been quite some time for me not to update my blog. I wish Ramadhan almubarak and Salam Eidul Fitri Selamat Hari Raya  Maaf Zahir Batin to all muslims and chess friends, readers.   THE STORY BEHIND THE SCENE - KL'S VICTORY IN CATUR MAKSAK 2011 After defeating Selangor 4-0 in the 1st round of the winners' pool group, we had a bye as we were scheduled to meet the PDRM which we had met in the preliminary group stage. I had the feeling that, if Shamsudin is fielded against Nor Azmi, he is unlikely able to cope the tricky Nor Azmi's, while NM Kamalarifin 's tendency to draw with Hashim may bring us into an uncomfortable situation. In this cae I must face the positional player Abd Rahim Ramli which I had a very good record ( From 3 meetings: 2 won and we drew in our last encounted at Kuching 2003). Therefore, in this situation Rizal Jusah or Hairul had to face Indera Syahrin who seemed to be the key factor to determine whether KL or Terengganu would win in this encounter. That's not a good strategy or at least a convincing one. Therefore I proposed to the manager Hassan and coach Mr Abd Latif Sifu, to field Kamal who may able to hold Nor Azmi without much trouble and myself to face Hashim. I myself do not claim that I have the better chance against my opponent, but I think the element of surprise may play its role. The chances maybe 50-50 but unlike the 50-50 as in the clash between Kamal and Hashim ever took place. Rizal Jusah, I predict, he should be able to withstand Abd Rahim Ramli's Sicilian closed as I had the chance to help him doing his last minute preparation. Furthermore, Rizal Jusah must have a good confident in himself at least for the start as during his encounter with the same player in the last year's MAKSAK, he almost 'caught' Abd Rahim but slipped his chance. Lastly, Hairulov's experience maybe useful to stop the new star Indera Syahrin. It turned out that only my board brought up a point (for KL) while the other boards ended up with fighting draws. Therefore our strategy had worked. Result: KL 2.5 TERENGGANU 1.5 [Event "MAKSAK, Ipoh"] [Date "2011.07.23"] [Round "3 WINNERS POOL"] [White "Rizal A Kamal (WKL)"] [Black "Hashim Jusoh (TRG)"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B09" Pirc: Austrian attack] [PlyCount "65"] 1. e4 d6 {  Hashim had come late almost 10 minutes. He even almost sit on my chair when arriving at the tournament hall when I had to show him that he was actually on the other side}   "When I sit down, I realized that I am not playing Kamalarifin as I have to play against Kramnik!! (Rizal). I had no idea on what to play" [Hashim Jusoh]    2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 c6 6. Be3 O-O 7. Bd3 Ng4 8. Bg1 d5 9. e5 Nh6 10. h3 Bf5 11. Bf2 f6 12. g4 Bc8 13. Qe2 b5 14. a3 a5 15. Bg3 fxe5 16. Nxe5 Bxe5 17. dxe5 e6 18. O-O Ra7 19. Rf2 Rg7 20. Raf1 Nd7 21. Qe3 Qb6  {Diagram #   At this point Black was already in time trouble while white had 20 more minutes on his clock. Therefore Hashim's decison to trade the Queens is understandable}    22. Qxb6 Nxb6 23. b3 b4 24. axb4 axb4 25. Ne2 c5 26. Bh4 Bb7 27. Ng3 c4 28. Be2 c3 29. Bf6 Rgf7 30. Bg5 Kg7 31.Bb5 d4 32. Ne2 Nd5 33. Nxd4 {time} 1-0 "KL has many players and they can change their players (line up)" - sighed Abd Rahim Ramli (Terengganu)   "KL is admitedly strong. We can only beat them when they are not performed" Muhammad b Arshad (Terengganu's manager / coach) "Hashim was already lost when he sits down and found out Rizal (A. Kamal) sitting in front of him instead of Kamalarifin. His prepaaration was out"- Sifu Abd Latiff Mohamad (KL) (C) Copyright to Rizal Ahmad Kamal 2011