GiLoCatur Wishes "RAMADHAN AL-MUBARAK" To All Muslims

Today is the first day of RAMADHAN.

All the muslims around the world start fasting.

GiLoCatur would like to wish ...

to all the muslim brothers and sisters wherever they are ...

Photo Journalism - Cerdik Catur Chess Challenge (Part 1)

Below are several new faces (at least to GiLoCatur) of the Malaysian chess participants in the recent Cerdik Catur Chess Challenge.

Fikri was happy during the tournament since three of his school seniors made their debut participation in a local chess tournament. They are Faiz Zairullail Mohd Yusof, Abdul Kahar Abdul Manaf and Wan Muhammad Shafiq Mohd Shukri.

Right picture, a Klang Tahfiz student

Abdul Kahar of SMK Seksyen 18 (left) versus a "Mat Salleh" player.

Faiz Zarullail, another SMK Seksyen 18 pupil, (left) played black against a 7-year-old Nik Nur Nadzirah, which came all the way from Kelantan with his father, Cikgu Nik Azrihan.

A "lebai muda" can also play chess. The opportunity to participate in chess tournaments shall be given to new players like him. How did he know about the tournament? Via newspaper. So, efforts to advertise local chess tournaments in the newspaper shall be done by the organizer.

Blogger Fireyrook Was Paparazzied by GiLoCatur

Do you know what a paparazzi is? I think many of you know what it is. But by the way let's GiLoCatur explains what the word means.

Taken from Wikipedia, a paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people. Paparazzi tend to be independent contractors, unaffiliated with a mainstream media organization.

GiLoCatur became a paparazzi during the recent Cerdik Catur Chess Challenge when candidly took the picture of a Malaysian chess blogger, fireyrook, while he was busy updating his blog. Sportingly, fireyrook was aware and allowed himself to be photographed so the element of paparazzi was not really there. LOL

Do you notice the ICT tools or gadgets used by fireyrook for him to carry out his mobile blogging? What really caught GiLoCatur's attention and eyes is the P1 wireless modem. It looks sophisticated eh, compared to GiLoCatur's celcom broadband modem.

But anyway, GiLoCatur hopes Mr fireyrook keeps on blogging and updating his chess blogs to provide latest news, info and updates particularly to the Malaysian chess community. WELL DONE and KUDOS to fireyrook.

Cerdik Catur Chess Challenge - The Report

On last Sunday dated 8th August 2010, a chess tournament named the Cerdik Catur Chess Challenge was held in Section 7, Shah Alam the capital state of Selangor. It was held at Raja Muda Musa hall (below picture) of the Selangor Youth & Sports Complex. About 100 participants both Shah Alam and non-Shah Alam residents were participating in the event.

The chess tournament used G/25 seven SWISS rounds format. The first round kicked off at around 10.00am and ended at around 6.00pm. GiLoCatur did not participate but both sons did.

Syakir - The Champion

Syakir Shazmeer, the Form 4 student of Sekolah Menengah Sains Kuala Selangor, emerged as the champion after scoring 6.5/7 points. He led by halfpoint. He drew with Ahmad Fadzil Nayan in the sixth round and won all the other rounds.

Fadzil Nayan - The First Runner Up

Ahmad Fadzil Nayan, the top seed, whose home state is Perak won the first runner up. Beside drew with the champion, he also drew with Syazwan Zulkifli, a UM student, in the fifth round. He scored 6/7 rounds after 5 wins and 2 draws.

Fikri Saleh - The Second Runner Up

The 14-year-old Fikri Saleh of Shah Alam was the 2nd runner up. He accumulated 6/7 points after 6 wins and 1 loss. But he had lower tie break than Fadzil Nayan. Ranked 9th, he defeated Mohd Firdaus in the final round. He was beaten by his MSS Selangor U15 team mate, Irfan Haqqim, in the fifth round playing black.

Raimi Rahim - The Fourth place

The fourth place went to a teenager named Mohamad Raimi Rahim. He defeated two veteran players - Shamsuddin Sabri aka fireyrook and Ibrahim Nash in the fourth and fifth round respectively. In the sixth round, he defeated Iskandar Rashid.

Syazwan Zulkifli - The Fifth Place

Muhd Syazwan Zulkifli, the third seed, was placed fifth in the tournament. He scored 5.5/7 points. He drew once against his buddy, Fadzil, and was defeated by the champion in the final round.

Go to http://malaysianchesspairings.blogspot.com/ to see the pairings of the tournament. GiLoCatur missed to snap the first round pairings. Actually, some of the participants are debutants or rookies in chess tournaments. GiLoCatur will show some of their pictures in later entry.

Fireyrook, who also participated in the tournament, also had a report on his chess blog as per here.

MAKSAK Update

MAKSAK Chess Tournament just ended yesterday, Sunday 8th August. MAKSAK is the acronym for Majlis Kebajikan & Sukan Anggota-anggota Kerajaan or the council of government servants' welfare and sports. The tournament was held from Thursday, 6th August, until Sunday, 8th August. Fifteen teams were participating in this year edition that was divided into three groups - Group A, Group B and Group C.

In the group stage, each team plays all the other four teams in respective group. The best eight teams from the top two/three of each group would then play in the winners pool to decide the champion while the others would play in the losers pool. Roslan Sulaiman, a fellow chess friend of GiLoCatur, played for the Selangor team. He told GiLoCatur that his team managed to be among the eight teams in the winners pool but placed last or eighth place. As a consolation with 5 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat (if not mistaken), Roslan was awarded the Best Board for the fifth board.

Kuala Lumpur team emerged as the champion for this year edition in front of Terengganu (2nd place) and Sarawak (3rd place), the defending champion. The fourth place was won by Pahang. Check out Muhammad Arshad's chess blog for further results.

Roslan Sulaiman (right) while playing against Anthony Liong during the recent Perak Chess GP - Teluk Intan leg.

Berita Catur di TV3

www.tv3.com.my

Hari ini merupakan satu hari yang bersejarah bagi catur di negara ini. Ia telah mendapat liputan dalam program TV3 - bukannya setakat satu program, tetapi dua.

Pagi tadi, Fadli stonemaster telah muncul dalam program MHI di waktu pagi. Tetapi sayangnya GiLoCatur telah "miss" untuk menonton rancangan tersebut. Kemudian dalam segmen sukan Buletin Utama baru sebentar tadi, peminat cilik GiLoCatur, adik Jagathees a/l Guna Balan, pula muncul. GiLoCatur salute dan tabik kepada Guna Balan, ayah Jagathees, yang sangat berdedikasi dan berusaha bersungguh-sungguh mencari penaja agar anaknya dapat bertanding di kejohanan catur peringkat dunia.

Jagathees (kanan) bersama GiLoCatur

Semoga Jagathees dan Guna Balan akan tabah dan cekal menempuh pelbagai cabaran dan dugaan untuk berjaya di peringkat paling tertinggi dalam sukan catur dan mengharumkan nama negara.

Rutin Bulanan - Shopping Barangan Dapur di Mydin

Sorry to non-Malay readers, this entry will be in Malay.

Semalam, GiLoCatur dan isteri pergi ke Mydin USJ untuk shopping barangan dapur atau grocery. Mydin USJ memang merupakan tempat shopping utama atau pilihan GiLoCatur untuk barangan dapur. Sebelum ini, GiLoCatur suka berbelanja di Carrefour Subang. Dan pernah juga di Giant Seksyen 13 Shah Alam.

Teringat GiLoCatur sewaktu menuntut di Texas, Amerika Syarikat di awal tahun 90an dahulu. GiLoCatur dan rakan-rakan serumah akan membeli barangan dapur di safeway yang terletak di North Mesa Street. Memang convenient dan seronok shopping di safeway. Semua barang ada. Cuma ayam yang kami tidak beli sebab sembelihannya tidak halal. Nak tahu apa panggilan kami untuk ayam-ayam yang tidak halal ini? "Ayam katok". Untuk membeli barangan pinggan mangkuk, kami akan pergi ke K-Mart. Masih segar di ingatan,

GiLoCatur bershopping sakan di K-Mart beberapa hari sebelum pulang ke Malaysia. GiLoCatur beli dua set dinnerware Corelle, satu untuk emak dan satu untuk diri sendiri. GiLoCatur beli tiga barangan Pyrex buatan Corning sebagai cenderahati untuk tiga orang kakak ipar. Kalau di Malaysia pada ketika itu, harga 1 set Corelle beratus-ratus ringgit, tetapi hanya berpuluh-puluh US Dollar di K-Mart. Jika convert (exchange rate pada ketika itu ialah 1 USD = RM 2.60) sekali pun masih jauh lebih murah. Barangan pyrex pula hanya berharga berbelas-belas ringgit sahaja, sedangkan di Malaysia berpuluh-puluh malah ada yang beratus-ratus ringgit harganya.

"Terkezut" juga GiLoCatur apabila hendak memasuki pintu masuk Mydin kerana seekor unta (gambar di atas) sedang menunggu. Sungguh kreatif Mydin dengan gimmick unta tersebut. Al maklum, bulan Ramadhan hampir tiba. GiLoCatur amat berharap gimmick sebegini akan diguna pakai oleh para penganjur kejohanan catur untuk menarik minat orang ramai. Insya Allah, para bloggers akan bantu promosi dalam laman blog catur mereka.

Wah banyak juga barangan grocery yang dibeli GiLoCatur dan isteri. Memang lebih kurang beginilah barangan belian GiLoCatur untuk sebulan. Agak-agak berapa jumlah kesemua barangan dalam trolley di atas? Tak banyak, RM 405.10 sahaja. hu hu hu ...

susu 5 atau 6 tin sebulan, sardin 5 tin, maggie mee adalah antara item grocery wajib setiap bulan

Barangan-barangan ini berharga RM 110.00

GiLoCatur dan isteri kemudian pergi ke tingkat dua (bahagian wholesale) untuk membeli minuman Milo kotak dan 100 plus seperti gambar di atas. Tidak ketinggalan, GiLoCatur beli sebalang biskut kelapa. Memang ia merupakan di antara makanan favourite GiLoCatur.

GiLoCatur ingin berkongsi dua produk menarik berikut.

First time rasanya GiLoCatur jumpa Cip Nangka atau Jackfruit chips (gambar di atas). GiLoCatur memang suka buah nangka, tetapi kena berpantang makan.

Air mineral evian (1.5 Liter)

GiLoCatur mula mengenali air mineral evian ini sewaktu berada di Paris beberapa tahun yang lalu. Air mineral tersebut memang amat popular dan berkualiti tinggi. Ia dijual dengan harga yang agak mahal di Malaysia. Kalau tak silap GiLoCatur, dahulu air mineral evian sebotol (500 mililiter) berharga RM6. Semalam di Mydin, ia berharga lebih kurang RM4. GiLoCatur beli sebotol 1.5 Liter yang harganya kurang RM8.

GiLoCatur dan isteri menghabiskan masa selama dua jam di Mydin untuk aktiviti membeli belah grocery tersebut. Itu pun Fahim tidak dibawa sama. Jika Fahim ada, sudah pasti dua jam tidak mencukupi. he he he

The Official 21st Tebrau Chess Open Winners

Below are the winners of the 21st Tebrau Chess Open (click here for the details) held last Sunday emailed by Mr Narayanan of Johor Chess Academy.

Pelangi Plaza, the venue of the 21st Tebrau Chess Open

(photo from man3k.wordpress.com)

Pinoy Michael Palma was the champion for the Open category in the tournament winning the tie break against our local young man, Abdullah Che Hassan who was also had the same 6.5 points. The pinoy won RM400 while Abdullah was RM200 richer.

Aziz Farhan (below picture) won the Under 16 section after scoring also 6.5 points. His elder brother and also the 2010 National Age Group (U14 Boys) champion, Daniel Iskandar was second place after losing in the tie break. As the champion of U16 catgeory, Aziz won RM200. Meanwhile his brother brought home RM100.

Under 16 Champ - Aziz Farhan

Ong Wei Bin (below picture) had emerged as the champion for the Under 12 category leaving Chin Wei Xiao amd Lee Hao Jie as the first and second runner ups respectively. As the champion, Wei Bin received RM 100.

Under 12 Champ - Ong Wei Bin

Syabas and tahniah to all the winners!

A Birthday Weekend for GiLoCatur's Family To Cherish

It was another hectic weekend few days ago for GiLoCatur and family. A birthday weekend actually. Whose birthday was it? Read on to find out ...

On Saturday, GiLoCatur's wife was busy at her school for a "Kem Ibadah" program from morning until late at night. The program was for all the Year 6 pupils of the primary school of SK Bukit Jelutong (SKBJ) including Anis Fariha, our only daughter.

At the same school, GiLoCatur was busy at the school's closed chess competition watching over Fahim, the youngest son, participating. In the chess competition, about 80 SKBJ pupils from pre-school until Year 5, were participating in two different categories - "Tahap 1" for pre-schoolers to Year 3 and "Tahap 2" for Year 4 and Year 5. One of the objectives of the competition is to identify and select the players to represent the school in the district chess tournament next year. Alhamdulillah, Fahim managed to score 6/7 points to earn the first runner up place in Tahap 1 category. Click here for further report of the tournament. The seven-round-G/25 chess tournament ended at about 3.00 something in the afternoon.

Before going back home, GiLoCatur stopped a while to check on the program that Anis was attending and GiLoCatur's wife and her colleagues were organizing.

A funny incident happened on the Saturday night. GiLoCatur and family were locked out from our home. Who would you call for help when the midnight was near and you could not get into the house? The house key was left inside. After asking around for the tool to hack the padlock, finally GiLoCatur called 999, the Malaysian emergency number. GiLoCatur made the call while hushly driving home from Antara Gapi, Serendah where GiLoCatur's 80-year-old mom, Hajjah Rahmah Kasid, is staying with GiLoCatur's younger sister, Nurul Huda. After about 10 minutes later, a group of firemen came and cut the padlock using a big cutter. Fortunately for GiLoCatur since their service is free of charge. :)

Sunday, 1st August. This day is special for GiLoCatur's family. It is the birthday of GiLoCatur's wife, Nor Azizah. All the family, except Fikri who is at hostel, went to the wet market in Section 6. After buying the supply of chicken, fish and some vegetables, we had breakfast at the market.

On the way going back home, we stopped by at the Giant hypermarket. We had to buy some items for Fikri. Reaching home at around 11.00 am, GiloCatur's wife was busy at the kitchen cooking and preparing the lunch dishes for us with Fikri later. All the four of us hit the road again heading towards Section 18, Shah Alam to visit Fikri. We were with Fikri for a couple of hours.

Did we go straight home after that? Nope. Where was our next destination? PNM or the national library in Jalan Tun Razak. The purpose? To return the borrowed books which the deadline was on that day. It was about 5.00pm already when we arrived at the library. SOGO on Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman was our next and final destination.

What a jam in its car park. So, many cars and so many people going to SOGO. It was because there is a SALE! After praying Asar, we started our shopping spree at the famous and prestigious shopping complex. GiLoCatur shopped a birthday present for wife, Azizah, and she also shopped a belated birthday present for GiLoCatur. Furthermore, we also shopped for Hari Raya. Yes, you read it right. Even though, the fasting month of Ramadhan is yet to come, we have early Raya shopping to avoid shopping in the Ramadhan month while fasting.

We finished shopping at around 8.00 pm. Our tummy was hungry already. GiLoCatur decided to have dinner at the Manhattan Fish Market to celebrate GiLoCatur's wife birthday on 1st August. Actually, it coincides with the anniversary of ERA radio. While waiting for the food, we went for the Maghrib prayer take turn.

Fahim and Anis in front of the restaurant

Food #1

Food #2

Not bad. The food tastes good and delicious. It was not a bad decision to eat at the Manhattan Fish Market, for the first time actually for GiLoCatur and family.

Food #3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GILOCATUR'S WIFE!

(sape yang terlebih happy ni? Sape yang celebrate birthday ni? hehehe ...)

Then we went straight home after having the birthday dinner. We reached home at around 10 o'clock at night. What a day and a weekend!

DATCC's Razzmataz Weekend Tournament Official Report

The above is the winners list of the Razzmataz Weekender Tournament held in DAT Chess Center on last weekend. Both Best U12 Boys and Girls, received chess sets donated by stonemaster Fadli.

Below is the official report by the arbiter, Najib Abdul Wahab ...

The DATCC organizes its Razzmatazz Weekend Rapid on 1st of August and the event was well attended by a lot of chess players and enthusiasts. GM Ziaur Rahman headed the list of 52 players who took part in the event which also included CM Fadli Zakaria, Kamaluddin Yusof, Muhd Nabil Azman Hisham and sisters, Nur Najiha and Nur Nabila, and MCF VP Haslindah Ruslan. Despite missing some of the more regular rapid players like Ian Udani and Abdullah Che Hassan, the tournament did not lack the nail biting and intriguing match ups and duels between some of the top ranked players. It was also one of GM Ziaur more challenging outing having to face tough oppositions from the young Puteri Munajjah in the first round of the game, Nur Nabila in the 4th round and Kamaluddin Yusof at the last round. According to Ziaur, this was one of his tougher events in recent outings and he was impressed with the strong showing by some of the junior players notably Tan Jun Feng, Puteri Munajjah, Low Jun Jian, and siblings Nur Nabila and Muhd Nabil Azman Hisham.

After the smoke cleared, GM Ziaur prevailed and came out on top with Low Jin Jian tight at his tail at a close second, followed by Muhd Nabil, Kamaluddin Yusof and Tan Jun Feng rounding up the top 5. CM Fadli Zakaria donated 2 chess sets which were presented to Puteri Munajjah as the best U-12 girls and Amier Hamzah Muhd Zuhri as her counterpart for the boys section.

UPNM (University Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia) showed up in strong support for the event with 12 aspiring players, half of the team whom has never played in a rated event before. At their request, in response to their support, a special prize was allocated for the best UPNM player which went to Mohd Izwan Idris.

Other notable winners were Nur Nabila Azman Hisham as the Best Lady player, Haslindah Ruslan for the best player with a rating below 1600, and Vinton Wong Hsien Loong for the best player below a rating of 1400. Mohd Raimi Rahim bagged the best unrated player.

The event was well managed as it started and ended as per the tournament schedule with the first round at 10:00am and prize giving ceremony started exactly at 6:00pm. DATC will be organizing another Rapid Weekend sometime after Hari Raya i.e. late September, and another one sometime in December with a Rookie Tornado event scheduled in between the two rapid events.

Those who would like to learn more about events and happening at DATCC, including the upcoming Malaysia Chess Festival 2010 scheduled to start on 28 August until 8 September, do contact Najib Wahab at +6016 338 2542, or write to najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com.

GiLoCatur : A good showing and effort by several MSS Selangor chess players. Keep on participating and improving.