Boxing Day Master Match - Raffles JC Alumni vs Rest of the World

For one reason or another, a bunch of chess friends managed to find themselves available on 26th of December so I organized a double round Scheveningen blitz match for a Boxing Day celebration (ok, it's just an excuse to play more chess).

Representing the Rest of the World are Malaysian IM Lim Yee Weng, Russian FM Andrey Terekhov and Romanian-Italian CM Olimpiu Urcan.

The rating favourites Raffles Junior College Alumni have IM Dr Hsu Li Yang, FM Ong Chong Ghee and FM Jarred Neubronner (all Singaporeans).

Time control was 4m+2s, which I find more sensible than the sudden death 5m+0s which often results in insane skirmishes with seconds remaining, flying pieces and sometimes even clocks too.

Each member of the winning team will get a signed copy of Chess Developments: Sicilian Najdorf 6 Bg5 while the top scorer from each team will receive an Ivanchuk Move by Move book. OK, now we're done with the product placement notices...let's get back to the chess.

The start of the Boxing Day match saw Raffles getting clobbered 3-0 right away. Even though they held their own in the next 5 rounds, the first round KO was too big a margin and ROW eventually triumphed 10.5-7.5.

FM Terekhov vs IM Hsu, CM Urcan vs FM Ong and IM Lim vs FM Neubronner - a 3-0 clobbering meted out by the ROW team in Rd 1!

Final Results:

Rest of the World Team (10.5)

IM Lim Yee Weng 5/6, CM Olimpiu Urcan 3.5/6, FM Andrey Terekhov 2/6

Raffles JC Alumni (7.5)

IM Hsu Li Yang 3.5/6, FM Ong Chong Ghee and FM Jarred Neubronner 2/6.

I would like to present you what I considered the best game of the event.

Wishing you all Merry Christmas, a Great Boxing Day and a Happy New Year!