IM Mas and FM Mok Leads Penang Heritage Open

Two of Malaysian Dresden Olympiad team members - IM Mas Hafizulhelmi and FM Mok Tze-Meng are leading the ongoing Penang Heritage Open. With 4 and 1/2 points, they are playing againts Ismail Ahmad and Loo Swee Leong, both the only 4 pointers, on the first and second board respectively in the sixth round.

IM Mas big win in the fifth round againts the top seed, a GM from Germany has put him as one the favourites to be the champion of the tournament. Meanwhile FM Mok defeated NM Ronnie Lim.

Below is the game between the Germany GM and IM Mas.

Penang Heritage City International Chess Open

There is another FIDE-rated chess tournament will be held in this country. It will take place in Penang. This is a good opportunity for an international standard chess tournament especially to all chess players in the northern states. For futther details, check out http://chess.euhong.net/

Chess Tournaments at The Northern Region

The following tournaments are scheduled as the following:

1) 15th USM Chess Open - Individual 10 & 11 Jan 2009, Team 17 & 18 Jan 2009

2) Kedah/ Percak Tournament - 24 Jan 2009

For more details, go to http://syedchess.blogspot.com/

Family Vacation To Penang

Me and my family have just arrived home from a vacation to Penang. We left home on Wednesday morning at around 9 am. We stopped to have our lunch at Sungai Perak R&R. At around two, we arrived at Bukit Mertajam and checked in at the Bukit Mertajam Summit Hotel. I booked and chose the hotel because it is a family type and the price is very reasonable.

After resting a while we started our first visit. We planned to go to the Fisheries Aquarium located at Batu Maung. Unfortunately, it was closed since. Then we went to the War Museum which is located not far from the Aquarium. Actually, it was not in our plan. It turned out to be memorable and fun since we could experience, learn and see lots of the past and history especially during the war of World War II i.e. the Japanese invasion.

The most memorable act that we all did was climbing up the escape tunnel to the top. Even Fahim, my youngest six-year-old son could do it. Besides that the communication tools during that era really fascinated me.