The Ruskie Steamroller clinches the Christmas Rapid with consumate ease!
Finishing joint 3rd at the Cairnhill Open and clear 2nd in the Cairnhill Blitz, the "Ruskie Steamroller" FM Andrey Terekhov won the Balestier Christmas Rapid by besting two of our top juniors, FM Ashvin Sivakumar and Ethan Poh.
Rd 1
FM Andrey Terekhov - FM Lee Jun Wei 1/2-1/2
FM Ashvin Sivakumar - Ethan Poh 1-0
Only FM Lee Jun Wei held him to a draw to prevent him from a 3-0 shutout. After a flurry of exchanges, the game petered into a rook +opposite coloured bishops ending where Andrey had to play extremely actively to hold the balance.
The National U-14 champion Ethan Poh was heavily out-rated in the tourney but he wasn't going down without a fight. However, in a slightly better position, FM Ashvin Sivakumar's experience paid off as he took advantage of Ethan's time trouble to set him a tough decision to make when the latter had to reply quickly. Ethan chose the wrong path and he went down in the Queen and pawn ending.
FM Lee Jun Wei, Joint 4th in National Championships 2018
Rd 2
Ethan Poh - FM Lee Jun Wei 1/2-1/2
FM Ashvin Sivakumar - FM Andrey Terekhov 0-1
Junwei and Ethan fought to a titanic draw with the game lasting more than an hour in an extremely complicated rook, bishop and 4 pawns vs bishop, knight and 5 pawns ending. Though material up, Ethan had problems coordinating his pieces and soon dropped a pawn and this encouraged Jun Wei to press for the win. The fight went from the kingside with Jun Wei's connected pawns trudging down to the third rank before Ethan fended them off and the pattern replicated on the queenside with Junwei's connected pawns again hurling down to the third and fouth rank before being stuck.
Meanwhile...the Russian steamroller does what he do best...a couple of tentative moves by Ashvin in the QGD Ragozin and he was forcefully pulverized down the d-file
FM Ashvin Sivakumar, also joint 4th in National Championships 2018
Rd 3
FM Lee Jun Wei - FM Ashvin Sivakumar 0-1
FM Andrey Terekhov- Ethan Poh 1-0
Ethan also got out-booked and squashed by the unrelenting Russian. But the tussle between the longtime rivals and friends on the next board was far more exciting. Ashvin admitted he didn't play well and the way he conned Junwei in the latter's chronic time trouble 'wasn't my proudest moment'.
Ethan Poh, National U14 Champion 2019
We hope that Junwei and Ashvin will continue training at chess when they enter National Service next year and of course, Merry Christmas to the readers!
Here's another pic of this year's Balestier Rapid champion, one that Ashvin would definitely want to forget...
