Saturday, July 24, 2010

5th MBSS Open [U-20]: Yat finishes as Champion on tie-break and Olivia cruises to an easy victory

In Under-20 Boys category, Yat Guo Jie triumphed over Tan Wei Hao in top of the board clash in the final round gave him a memorable victory. Both players experienced shocking defeat at the hands of their school mates Boey and Gabriel on Round 3.

At one stage, it looked like Gabriel Soong which was not in my Championship prediction list was going to champ the event after able to win against Boey Jin Huey in Round 4. However, Yat stoled the limelight by stopping Gabriel in Round 5 to throw the Championship wide open and reinstate Tan as the favorite since the latter has the highest tie-break before the final round. Well, Yat just delivered the unexpected result and the rest is history.

While, Gabriel completed the event on 2nd place after his wins against Cheah Dong Wah who himself won against Boey in Round 5. Boey must be cursing himself after having a fine run in the first 3 rounds but throwed away the title hope with 2 consecutive losses before securing a last round victory to finish on 4th place. Liew Ken Yew is the luckiest person in this category which see him propels to 3rd place without fighting any strong player except Tan where he lost in Round 4.

In Under-20 Girls category, Olivia Madhavan of SMK Seri Bintang Selatan emerged as Champion after crushing all her 6-round oppnents easily. While, Lee Pui Yin who was pitted against Olivia in Round 1 must be the happiest person in this category to finish 2nd behind Olivia. She overcame the Rd 1 nightmare of playing top seed by picking up a bye in Rd 2, won her 3rd round against the only other rated player, then got a walkover aganist Ong Yee Wen in Rd 4, followed by 2 consecutive wins. It is just unbelievable how a contestant fortune can be changed so rapidly. Third place went to Loke Mee Sie who secured 2.5 points from 3 games before conceeding a walkover to Olivia without playing in Rd 4. Then, she lost her Rd 5 to Lee before getting a walkover from Ong in the last round.