WON GAMES MUST BE WON

by Peter Long

In the ASEAN Master Circuit Intchess Mixed Event, I surprisingly finished second with 8/11, with a total of 5 wins and 6 draws, unbeaten and apparently still playing to my old 2350 FIDE rating.

Of course, with the usual inherent optimism of all chess players, I must say that I could perhaps have had two more wins but then again rather more objectively I also do know that I should have lost at least three and one of these even turned into a rather fortunate win!

Driving up and down to and fro KL to Singapore every couple of days to play 2 games a day several days in a row is bad enough but 3 games are quite impossible, especially when out of practice and not exactly as young as the razor sharp 12 year old boys and 14 year olds girls whom we had to play with.


Peter Long-Enerose Magno
Intchess Mixed - ASEAN Masters Circuit - Singapore

This is my last round game against the 21 year old Filipina who was rusty after a year of inactivity but who picked up after a horrible start.

Out of the opening I had played rather casually and offered a draw as I was already second and could not be first and I intended to have a more leisurely drive home to KL at 5 p.m. on Sunday as opposed to 8 p.m. 

But she refused and from that point on I have been completely outplayed, her Knight on c5 massively superior to my bad Bishop and her Rooks active while mine are stuck defending the b-pawn.

Enerose has been trying to win without risks and now she is forced to commit to a breakthrough.  

34. Rc3 fxg3 35. Rxg3 Rh6 36. Rg7+ Kd8

With a Rook finally active I now set a trap with my next move. I had of course already made this decision after 36. Rg7+ because the alternative would have been 36. h3 and passive defence.

37. Rf7 Rxh2

My next move came as a compete shock to her.

38. b4!

38. ... axb3 39. Rg1 Nd7 40. Rgg7!

Now it is over. I was so embarassed to be actually winning that I offered a draw but she was too proud to accept and so the many moves that were then played were clearly as a result of inertia.

40. ... Kc8 41. Rxd7 Rh4 42. Rc7+ Kd8 43. Rxb7 Rxb7 44. Rxb7 Rh3 45. a4 Rc3 46. a5 Rc2+ 47. Kf3 Ra2 48. Rxb3 Rxa5 49. Rb8+ Ke7 50. Rb7+ Kf6 51. Rxh7 Ra3+ 52. Kg4 Ra2 53. Kh5 e4 54. Rf7+ Ke5 55. Re7+ Kf6 56. Rxe4 Rxf2 57. Kg4 Rg2+ 58. Kf4 Rf2+ 59. Ke3 Rh2 1:0


Next up is my game with the young Singapore National Women's Champion Victoria Chan. Victoria plays easily and very naturally, seems to have a well worked out openinng repertoire, and has many victories over well known players to her credit.

But she sometimes lacks confidence in her ability at critical moments and so loses heart or takes too long over simple moves and gets into time trouble.

My only excuse (all chess players have them!) is that I had driven down from KL at 5 a.m. in the morning, struggled through a morning game after arriving 45 minutes late where I was lucky to draw, and after 4 hours of sitting around with nowhere to go before playing Victoria with my mind was a complete blank and exhaustion was setting in.

How else do I explain playing 1.e4?


Peter Long-Victoria Chan
Intchess Mixed - ASEAN Masters Circuit - Singapore

Here my attempt at a quick win against her Sicilian has gone wrong. With some ease Victoria had refuted my blunt attempts and now my attack is going nowhere. My pieces are horribly uncoordinated and her Bishops rake my position.

30. Nc4 Bxe3+ 31. Ndxe3 Bxe4

A pawn down but one Bishop less to fight against and my Knights are much better than a few moves ago.

Now to nicely untangle my Queen and get the Rooks into play.

32. hxg6 hxg6 33. Rd1 Qg7 34. Qh2 Rea8 35. Rh3 Ra1 36. Qd2 Rxd1+ 37. Qxd1 Ra7 38. Qd6 Rb7 39. Rh2 Qc7 40. Qd4 Qg7 41. Qd6 1/2: 1/2

With Victoria having two minutes to go and with not so much time left myself, a repetition of moves seemed a nice and friendly enough way to indicate a draw! 

And I was told that night I snored loudly throughout!


I hesitate here to share the lessons to be learnt from these two games.

Perhaps one is that a game is only lost when it is clearly lost. But for my unlucky opponents, the lesson is clear – do not try and win without risk. You have to play the position as it is and as is needed.