Brunei's Yee Soon Wei in action
against Maldives' Hassan
Mohamed in their second round
match yesterday. Picture:
Courtesy of Tahir Vakhidov
Yee Soon Wei split his results at the 4th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) yesterday after winning his first match and losing the second in a men's classical event that is proving to be a stern test of his ability.
Going up against a highly competitive field of world-class players, Yee beat the Maldives' Candidate Master (CM) Hassan Mohamed in his second round match in the morning before falling to Indonesian International Master (IM) Farid Firman Syah in afternoon third round play.
The World Chess Federation/FIDE Master (FM) who entered the 50-player tournament ranked 34th will now face Macau CM Joel Celis Chang in today morning's fourth round play, with the fifth round against a yet to be determined opponent set for the afternoon.
The country's strongest chess player, Yee started his campaign at Yonsei University's International campus with a loss to Uzbekistani Dzhumaev Marat a Grand Master (GM) with 30 years of experience on Sunday.
Farid also came into the tournament highly rated, and according to national coach Tahir Vakhidov, was a former world champion at the school-level and is Indonesia's second best player.
Despite the one-two win-loss record, Vakhidov feels the results aren't important as the lessons Yee is learning in Incheon.
"He's playing like normal and doesn't feel any pressure," noted Vakhidov, who went on to provide an analysis of the two games.
"In the first match, he had a good opening play and had the advantage... His opponent (Hassan) ran into difficulties in the middle of the game.
"To make counterplay, the opponent sacrificed the rook for the bishop, but it still didn't save the game and Yee won easily.
"In the opening against Farid, Yee sacrificed a pawn for the initiative and got good position.
"Later in the middle of the game Yee sacrificed another pawn, but after a few moves he realised it was not the correct move.
"The opponent played well and won," he added.
The competition concludes tomorrow with the sixth and seventh round scheduled for the morning and afternoon respectively.
