13th Asean+ Age Group - Open 16 Standard Event

It is Saturday morning. It is 6.15 am in Hue City, Vietnam or 7.15 am in Shah Alam, Malaysia. The sun had risen one hour ago.

GiLoCatur is in Room 264 of Huong Giang Hotel. It is a free day today for the 13th Asean+ Age Group Chess Championship participated by all the three GiLoCatur's children. We plan to explore the Hue City today and visit Dong Ba market.

The standard event of the championship had completed yesterday. It is a 9-round 120-minute per player competition. Fikri, GiLoCatur's eldest son, was playing in the Open 16 category. Twenty three chess players from six countries took part including three from Malaysia. 

Fikri was seeded 13th and the lowest rated player. It is the first international and age group chess tournament for him. How did his performance? What is his results?

Open 16 Standard. source : here

Fikri scored 4.5/9 points meaning achieving 50%.  His first opponent was a Vietnamese FM which is also the second seed. His opponent whose name is Lu Chan Hung has International Rating of 2143, which is more than 400 points than him. Fikri managed to hold his much higher rated opponent and even had winning position (as per told by his opponent himself) at certain point. Surely, lack of experience and exposure is one of the challenges that he has to take care of.

Fikri had played three rated opponents - two from Vietnam and one from Singapore. Unfortunately, he lost to all the three of them. Five of his nine opponents are from the host country, Vietnam, while one each from Singapore and Indonesia. He won against the two Malaysian players who were playing in the same category. 

Round 1 against Vietnamese FM

against Vietnamese opponent

against Vietnamese opponent

Round 7 against Singaporean opponent

Tomorrow, Fikri will play in the Rapid event. It will be more challenging because he will compete in the Open 20 category. The reason is to complete a three-player-per-team for Malaysia. There are only two Malaysian players in such event.

Hopefully, Fikri will play better and have better performance even against much more experienced and stronger opponents.

Si Du Lây Thờ [hopefully it is the correct expression :)- ]