Asian Youth Chess Championship
Under-18 Standard Time Control
Chiangmai, Thailand
April 2-9, 2018
Final Top Standings
1. FM John Marvin Miciano PHI 2260, 7.5/9
2. Daniel Quizon PHI 2228, 6.5/9
3-5. FM Xu Zhihang CHN 2344, IM Tran Minh Thang VIE 2400, FM Wong Yinn Long MAS 2222, 6.0/9 6-9 Omidi Arya IRI 2400, FM Mitrabha Guha IND 2366, Timur Nurzhanov KAZ 2296, CM Le Minh Hoang VIE 2226, 5.5/9
10-13. CM Thilakarathne GMH SRI 2214, FM Mohammad Fahad Ragman BAN 2337, Ashid Tsetseg Ulzii MGL 1941, FM Jeet Jain IND 2232, 5.0/9
Total Participants: 30 players
Time Control: 90 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your time after every move starting move 1
The two representatives from the Philippines finished 1-2 in the Under-18 standard time control chess championship for Asia.
FEU’s John Marvin Miciano won the gold medal and was automatically awarded the title of International Master. Through the kindness of his coach GM Jayson Gonzales, he has agreed to annotate all of his 9 games in this event for us. I have picked out some of them to show to our readers. The first round game had a lot to do with pumping up John’s adrenaline for the rest of the tournament.
Miciano, John Marvin (2260) — Crowley, Regan (1826) [C11]
Asian Youth U18 Standard Chiangmai (1), 02.04.2018 [Miciano,JM]
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5
My opponent was moving confidently as I had lost to him in the rapid tournament.
3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 Qb6!?
This line is very complicated, but only if black sacrifices a piece. You will see later.
8.Na4 Qa5+ 9.c3 cxd4 10.b4
This is the only move to save the a4–knight, for example after 10.Nxd4 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 b5.
10…Qc7!?
I wasn’t expecting this. The usual line is 10…Nxb4 11.cxb4 Bxb4+ 12.Bd2 Bxd2+ 13.Nxd2 0–0 14.Bd3 b5 15.Nb2 Nb6 followed by Nc4 and Black has the initiative.
11.Nxd4 Nxd4 12.Bxd4
I usually play 12.Qxd4 but this line is enough for a draw.
12…Be7 13.Bd3
This is the optimum square of the bishop, the knight need not to be maneuvered immediately because I’m not sure where the battle could take place. More chance is on the kingside because I have more space there, but I was not sure.
13…0–0 14.0–0 Re8 15.Qh5
This provokes black to push his pawns in front of his castled king but maybe I should have started immediately with 15.Rc1 and after 15…b6 I might immediately play 16.c4 (or make a preparatory move with 16.a3 this type of position also arise in Caro-Kann openings) 16…dxc4 17.Rxc4 Qd8 18.Nc3 Bb7 19.Nb5 white has the initiative as Rc8 isn’t possible yet.
15…Nf8 16.Nb2?!
Too slow. I also considered 16.Rf3 as one of the candidate moves, but I was not sure if because after 16…g6 17.Qh6 I still need to play Nb2 anyway. As they say, the threat is stronger than the execution, but I was making sure my knight is also taking part of the battle.
16…Bd7 17.Nd1
[17.Rf3 is still the best move, and after 17…g6 18.Qh6 White will follow through with Nb2–d1–e3]
17…a5 18.a3
Of course, close the queenside.
18…g6
This is a necessary move that has been done soon.
19.Qe2!?
I wasn’t sure about 19.Qh6 as it looks like Black can parry it with 19…Ba4 20.Ne3 Nd7 followed by Bf8 but looking at the game afterwards, it looks like I can still win with 21.f5! Bf8 (21…gxf5 22.Nxf5 exf5 23.Bxf5 it will be mate soon; 21…exf5 22.e6! f6 23.Bxf5 is an overwhelming attack) 22.Qh3 — and now there is a horrible threat of 23.fxe6 fxe6 24.Rf7! Kxf7 25.Qxh7+ Bg7 26.Bxg6+ Ke7 (26…Kf8 27.Rf1+) 27.Qxg7+ Kd8 28.Bxe8 Kxe8 29.Rf1 Black has no defense.
19…b6
Here it shows that Black has no plan at all — he is just waiting to see what I do.
20.Ne3 Bc6 21.Ng4 Reb8 22.Qe3 Nd7 <D>
Position after 22…Nd7
The final attack starts now.
23.f5!
Opening the diagonals for my bishops.
23…exf5 24.e6! Bf8
[24…fxg4 25.exf7+ Kf8 26.Qh6#]
25.exf7+ Kxf7 26.Bxf5 1–0
Black resigns as his king is defenseless. For example: 26.Bxf5 gxf5 27.Rxf5+ Kg8 28.Qe6#.
The top seed Vietnamese IM Tran Minh Thang was taken out early by Miciano’s compatriot the 14-year-old son of a motorcycle mechanic Daniel Quizon (we will have more to say about him later). After this Tran lost again in round 4 and was not a factor in the medal race.
After John defeated Regan Crowley he was in good spirits and won his next four games as well, taking out the no. 2 (Iran’s Omidi Arya), 3 (India’s LFM Mitrabha Guha) and 4 (Chinese FM Xu Zhihang) seeds in rapid succession.
Let’s take a look at those games.
Miciano, John Marvin (2260) — Omidi, Arya (2400) [B23]
Asian Youth U18 Standard Chiangmai (3), 03.04.2018 [Miciano, JM]
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.f4
He didn’t expect this because I have no games on this opening in the chess databases.
3…Nc6 4.Bb5 Bd7 5.a4
Preferring to hide the bishop than exchange it, I honestly don’t want to exchange my light squared bishop this early.
5…g6 6.Nf3 Bg7 7.0–0 Nf6 8.d3 0–0 9.Bc4
It looks like my a4 pawn move is useless, but actually it hides my bishop and at the same time prevents a6–b5 ideas.
9…Nd4 10.Nxd4 cxd4 11.Nd5
[11.Ne2 Rc8 I got this position against IM Ronald Bancod once, but black has saved time without a6, and he can go with ideas like e6–d5.]
11…Nxd5
[11…e6 12.Nxf6+ Bxf6 13.Qf3 white gets an attack on the kingside whatever black moves]
12.Bxd5 Qc7 13.f5 e6
[13…Bc6 14.Bb3 followed by Qd1–g4–h4 and Rf1–f3–h3.]
14.f6 exd5 15.fxg7 Kxg7
Black’s squares on the kingside are rather weak, but after f6 white will have a hard time breaking through, I thought for a plan in this moment, because recapturing the pawn on d5 actually might waste a move for an attack.
16.exd5 Rac8 17.Qf3
There was a better plan with 17.Qe1 but after 17…f6 no one would of course play 18.b4! but the purpose is to develop the dark squared bishop along the a1–h8 diagonal 18…Qxc2?! 19.Qe7+ Rf7 20.Bh6+ Kg8 21.Qxd6 white immediately gets an attack.
17…f6
Black of course had to prevent Qf6+ followed by Bh6.
18.Rf2 Rce8 19.Bf4 Qc5 20.Raf1 Bxa4 21.Qh3 g5?
Allows me to deliver a deadly zwischenzug. Better is 21…h5 which attempts to close the kingside. I had planned to continue 22.b3 Bb5 23.Qg3 Qxd5 24.Bxd6 Rf7 25.Ba3 followed by Ba3–c1, Qg3–f4 and h2–h4.
22.b3! Bb5?
Still not sensing the danger. 22…gxf4 is forced after which 23.bxa4 Qxd5 24.Rxf4 Black has a pawn advantage but his king is wide open.
23.Qg3 Qc8
A bit of a disappointment. After 23…Qxd5 there is a beautiful line 24.Bxd6 Rf7 25.Rf5 Qc6 26.Rxg5+!! Kh8 (26…fxg5 27.Qxg5+ Kh8 28.Rxf7 the end) 27.Be5!! Qe6 28.Bxd4 Rd8 29.Bb2 Bc6 30.Qh4 followed by Rg6.
24.Bxg5
Now everything is easy.
24…fxg5 25.Qxg5+ Kh8 26.Rf7! Rxf7 27.Rxf7 Re1+ 28.Kf2 Re2+ 29.Kxe2 Qxc2+ 30.Ke1 Qc3+ 31.Kf2 Qc2+ 32.Kg1 1–0
We will continue on Thursday.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant, he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
bobby@cpamd.net
