Zonal Champion once again !

5 April 2009
Sunday

Seng Kang
Anchorvale Community Centre

Swiss System Rapid Tournament

7 games
4 wins - 3 draws - 0 lost !!!

Ben 'Karpov' returned to top form once again by retaining his National honor by grabbing Zonal Champion once again in Sunday's gritty encounter.

The National Master drew trice coming from a worse position to finish the tournament unbeatable. His only fourth unbeatable tournament so far. (the first is the Ngee Ann Open in 2005 - second at National School Team Championship * where he created history by becoming the first Gabrielite in history to win 6 out of 6 games in the most prestigous National Team tournament - and the third was the Singapore Poly Open where he achieved 2.5 out of a possible 3 points * he could have gotten 3 points if he had not gone for a walk half way through the third game !!!)

Said Ben after the game : "I am absolutely delighted with the win this time round, it was an outstanding performance from me and no one can deny that. But only God Himself can claim full credit for this successful outing, praise the Lord !"

Ben clocked 70% victories

The latest statistic shows that while it is still mathematically possible for Ricnesh to catch up, the title chase is beginning to take shape - while being on the side of one of the two players.

Ben, after their 50th game, now lead fellow title-contender IM V.Ricnesh to a massive gap of 35 wins to 11 lost, with only 4 draws !

Ben, now only needs 14 wins in their next 50 games to mathematically win the title from his rival ! - but of course Ben being Ben, would not seek to win by the minimum margin, we could only fear for Ricnesh's safety :(