Sergei Tiviakov became the first champion to ever repeat with his second successive victory at the DYTM Raja Dr Nazrin Shah Invitational Masters. After a slow start with a draw in the first round against our No. 1 Mas Hafizulhelmi, the determined Netherlands resident played himself into form and with less mistakes than his opponents even improved on his rating with a 9/10 score.
Rolando Nolte enjoyed an early break but then simply could not convert several winning positions and so once against missed out on getting the GM title but could draw some consolation from third place ahead of the more fancied Niaz Murshed who seemed to have lost his ambition mid way through the event.
Of the others, Ramnath Bhuvanesh was always up and down while Goh Wei Ming never really recovered from his loss to Nolte from a winning position.
Mas Hafizulhelmi performed credibly, even picking up 5-6 rating points.
Young Padmini played at a high level and consistently throughout but was very unlucky not being able to convert on occasion against her vastly more experienced opponents, while for Dimakiling and Wohl, it was a mix of very good play and some horrible blunders.
Many members of the MCF Council was also in attendance.
The foreign players were rather captivated...
....our national women players a little less so?
...and there was very welcome support too from many family affairs
All the details including final standings are at http://chess-results.com/tnr103856.aspx?lan=1 and the games can be found on TWIC.
