"I play honest and I play to win. If I lose, I take my medicine."
Bobby Fischer
"Do you have all your norms now? You do? Well then, everyone, we have a new International Master: Moulthun Ly! (Applause)"
The host at the Dutch Open Closing Ceremony
Junta-Andrew: I surprised him a little in the opening, but didn't play so accurately and was outplayed. It can be a depressing experience, losing to a travelling mate in an overseas tournament, but whoever plays better on the day wins. The chess world is waiting for Andrew to hurry up and get his rating up to where it should be so you don't lose as many points when you lose to him...
A few boards above us, Moulthun was playing a tense game against GM Deepan Chakkravarthy.
The game began with an intense opening battle in the King's Indian Defence, with both players striving for the initiative - in the end, White pushed a bit too hard for the win and Black capitalised.
This took Moulthun's live rating above 2400 for the first time, and with his three IM norms already achieved, he will officially be IM Ly from September when the title is ratified. If he scores a double norm in his next tournament, he will have 6 norms at the time of ratification - overkill?
Although we ate healthy and well in Amsterdam , cooking dinner most nights (once we got started), during a tournament a chess player's diet can be rather unbalanced, and the main staples in our cabin rooms here were Yakult drinks, boysenberries, mini Magnum icecreams and instant noodles (a brilliant invention).
Eating out at dinner, we exclusively went to a popular food house and an Italian restaurant, both right next to the venue - sadly, our search for eating places at the start of our stay in Dieren, at a radius of 50 metres from the playing venue, resulted in utter disappointment, and we concluded that these two places were serving everyone in town.
On our first visit to the Italian place, Moulthun and Andrew ordered lemonade (perfectly audibly) but was served fig juice instead, giving us a good laugh. The last couple of times we ate there, we all had the feeling that the cheerful and talkative waitress was a bit tired of seeing our faces, but I digress.
Round 9
The final day of the Dutch Open. I repeated the same result as at the World Open a few weeks earlier, finishing with a swindle to score 5/9 with 5 wins and 4 losses (Rounds 4-9: all 0-1). Interestingly, in this tournament I was the only player in the 60-strong field to have no draws.
I thought I have an unusually low drawing % in my games, until Andrew shattered the record by telling us that he had a 70-game no-draw streak from September last year to May this year!
Moulthun was amidst the tournament leaders on Board 2, playing White against GM Maxim Turov who was performing at 2700. From an equal position, Turov was too strong, outplaying from the middlegame, and he became champion on 7/9 with the best tiebreaks, after the sole leader Fier faltered against Georgiev on the top board.
Leading final scores:
1-3. Turov, Y.Vovk, Georgiev 7/9
4-5. E.L'Ami, Fier 6.5
6-11. Nijboer, A.Vovk, Lenderman, Arnaudov, Brandenburg, Petrov 6
12-17. Radulski, Milov, Ly, Neverov, Kuipers, Odendahl 5.5
The three pictures below were taken by Andrew on his morning walk(s), and also selected by him for this post.
We leave Dieren tomorrow morning, and go back to Amsterdam Central. Andrew stays in Amsterdam for one night, before taking part in the Hogeschool Zeeland tournament in Vlissingen, a seaside town in Holland, from the day after (!). It is a big open with 6 players over 2600, and Andrew is seeded 51st in the nearly 250-strong field. Hopefully he will have some time to post on the tournament while he is there.
Meanwhile, Moulthun and I will catch a train from Amsterdam to Brussels, and then fly to Chennai, India, arriving late on the 30th. From August 1st-15th, the 13-round World Junior (U/20) Championships will be held there, with other Australian players also joining us. It is my first time and last chance playing in the World Juniors, and am looking forward to it very much (Moulthun is perhaps a bit too excited), after my last overseas junior tournament (U/16 Olympiad, Singapore 2007) was probably the funnest tournament in my life.
Stay tuned for frequent posts from Andrew in Vlissingen and the three of us (with Fedja joining) in Chennai.
Bobby Fischer
"Do you have all your norms now? You do? Well then, everyone, we have a new International Master: Moulthun Ly! (Applause)"
The host at the Dutch Open Closing Ceremony
by Junta
Round 8Junta-Andrew: I surprised him a little in the opening, but didn't play so accurately and was outplayed. It can be a depressing experience, losing to a travelling mate in an overseas tournament, but whoever plays better on the day wins. The chess world is waiting for Andrew to hurry up and get his rating up to where it should be so you don't lose as many points when you lose to him...
A few boards above us, Moulthun was playing a tense game against GM Deepan Chakkravarthy.
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| Before the game which Moulthun achieved his IM title through |
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| The position where White played 27.e5? losing a pawn to ...c6 |
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| 40...h5-h4+ 0-1, from Black's point of view |
Although we ate healthy and well in Amsterdam , cooking dinner most nights (once we got started), during a tournament a chess player's diet can be rather unbalanced, and the main staples in our cabin rooms here were Yakult drinks, boysenberries, mini Magnum icecreams and instant noodles (a brilliant invention).
Eating out at dinner, we exclusively went to a popular food house and an Italian restaurant, both right next to the venue - sadly, our search for eating places at the start of our stay in Dieren, at a radius of 50 metres from the playing venue, resulted in utter disappointment, and we concluded that these two places were serving everyone in town.
On our first visit to the Italian place, Moulthun and Andrew ordered lemonade (perfectly audibly) but was served fig juice instead, giving us a good laugh. The last couple of times we ate there, we all had the feeling that the cheerful and talkative waitress was a bit tired of seeing our faces, but I digress.
Round 9
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| Physical preparation |
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| Mental preparation |
I thought I have an unusually low drawing % in my games, until Andrew shattered the record by telling us that he had a 70-game no-draw streak from September last year to May this year!
Andrew was up against GM Friso Nijboer as White on Board 7 - unfortunately he blundered a bishop in the queenless middlegame, and he also finished on 5/9, gaining several points also.
Moulthun was amidst the tournament leaders on Board 2, playing White against GM Maxim Turov who was performing at 2700. From an equal position, Turov was too strong, outplaying from the middlegame, and he became champion on 7/9 with the best tiebreaks, after the sole leader Fier faltered against Georgiev on the top board.
Leading final scores:
1-3. Turov, Y.Vovk, Georgiev 7/9
4-5. E.L'Ami, Fier 6.5
6-11. Nijboer, A.Vovk, Lenderman, Arnaudov, Brandenburg, Petrov 6
12-17. Radulski, Milov, Ly, Neverov, Kuipers, Odendahl 5.5
The three pictures below were taken by Andrew on his morning walk(s), and also selected by him for this post.
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| "Wat zit jete kijken?" or "What are you looking at?" |
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| Not a pretty picture (an orange slug), but Andrew was fascinated |
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| Beware. |
Meanwhile, Moulthun and I will catch a train from Amsterdam to Brussels, and then fly to Chennai, India, arriving late on the 30th. From August 1st-15th, the 13-round World Junior (U/20) Championships will be held there, with other Australian players also joining us. It is my first time and last chance playing in the World Juniors, and am looking forward to it very much (Moulthun is perhaps a bit too excited), after my last overseas junior tournament (U/16 Olympiad, Singapore 2007) was probably the funnest tournament in my life.
Stay tuned for frequent posts from Andrew in Vlissingen and the three of us (with Fedja joining) in Chennai.
Congrats to Moulthun on the IM title. Fantastic news.
ReplyDeleteNice slug there. Looks like it is Arion rufus, a widespread western/central Europe and north American species. Can also be red, chocolate brown, black, yellow (etc)
Yes its great he finally has it, FIDE has ratified it now. Thanks for the slug info too
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