I am pleasantly surprised at the sudden flurry of activity on the local chess front. For the past few weeks, I have been doing little more than inform you readers of various tournaments coming up soon.
Not that I am complaining, of course. The more tournaments there are, the more it confirms that chess has a definite place in our society and the various chess associations are doing their bit to keep the game and interest alive.
Shall I summarise the forthcoming chess events in the country? Firstly, I mentioned the first Arab-Malaysian Labour Day team championship in Kuala Lumpur and the Pesta Catur NS/MPS in Seremban. Both events start tomorrow.
Then the Terengganu Chess Association told me they are holding their 17th state closed championship. This event started yesterday and will end tomorrow. And in Johor Bahru, the Johor Chess Club will hold a one-day Labour Day chess tournament this Sunday.
Next month, the Chess Association of Selangor will organise their 22nd annual Royal Selangor open chess tournament. This tournament, sponsored by Royal Selangor, will be played from May 10 to 14 at the Plaza Putra in Kuala Lumpur.
This is a seven-round event which is divided into two sections: an "open" section with an attractive prize fund totalling RM4,300 and a "major" section which caters for less experienced players. Correspondingly, the prize fund in the "major" section is lower at RM1,100.
In the open section, there are altogether 15 cash prizes and the winner will receive RM1,000 and a trophy. The second prize is RM800 and the third prize RM600. For the major section, the top prize is RM250 and a trophy.
Entry fees for the open section are RM30 for CAS members, RM35 for members of associations and clubs affiliated to the CAS, RM25 for women and under-16 players, RM20 for CAS women and under-16 members, and RM40 for players who do not fit into any of these categories. International masters and visually handicapped players are given free entrance to the tournament.
For the major section, the entry fees are RM25 for CAS members, RM28 for CAS-affiliated members, RM20 for women and under-16 players, RM15 for CAS women and under-16 members, and RM30 for others.
The CAS will also hold their 10th Sakura Selangor women's open chess tournament at the same time and venue. This is a five-round event and it offers a first prize of RM200 and a trophy. There are four other cash prizes.
This tournament is sponsored by Sakura Cafe & Cuisine and the entry fees are RM10 for CAS members and RM15 for non-members.
For more information on both events, contact CAS secretary Mrs Jackie Wong.
On May 7, Total Chess will again organise a tournament in Petaling Jaya and this time, the emphasis is solely on under-10 players. Children who were born in or after 1985 are eligible to play in this six-round event. The top 10 winners will each receive medals and/or book prizes.
Entry fees are RM10 for Total Chess members and RM15 for non-members. Enquiries, call Joseph Toh.
Total Chess had earlier this month held its first tournament at its club premises in Petaling Jaya's New Town Centre. This tournament attracted 46 participants.
The winner was a Dutch FIDE Master, Michael Wind, who obtained 5.5 points from six games. There were four players who tied with five points each, but on tiebreak the second prize was given to another Dutch player, Johan Booij.
Third was Mok Tze Meng who drew with both Wind and Booij, fourth was Che Lah Buchin and fifth Yip Wai Leong. Lim Yee Weng scored 4.5 points. The best under-10 player was Wong Zi Chuang and the best under-12 player was Hisyam Ismail.
Mohd Nuruddin and Lee Wei Kwang were the best under-14 and under-16 players respectively. Azmi Ahmad was the best Total Chess member in the competition.
GAME OF THE WEEK
The Professional Chess Association have just concluded a super-grandmaster tournament in Riga, Latvia. This tournament was organised in memory of Latvia's most famous chessplayer, Mikhail Tal, who was world champion briefly in 1960/1 when he was 24 years old.
Originally, this was supposed to have been a 12-man tournament but Alexey Shirov, a Latvian, pulled out after some disagreements with his national federation.
The 11 players in this event were Gary Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik (both Russia), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Viswanathan Anand (India), Nigel Short (England), Boris Gulko (USA), Jaan Ehlvest (Estonia), Artur Yusupov (Germany), Edvins Kengis (Latvia), Jan Timman (Netherlands) and Rafael Vaganian (Armenia).
The talk of this event was the fourth-round demolition of Anand by Kasparov. As a dress rehearsal for the finals of the PCA world championship match in September, much interest was focussed on this game.
It was a thrilling game, all right. Kasparov pulled off a surprise by uncorking the Evans Gambit, a very old opening which is seldom seen nowadays.
To his credit, Anand accepted the proffered pawn but Kasparov gave up a second pawn to keep his opponent's pieces undeveloped. In the end, after a mere 25 moves, Anand resigned the game when huge material losses could no longer be avoided.
[[Event "Tal Memorial Tournament"]
[Site "Riga LAT"]
[Date "1995.04.16"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Kasparov, Gary"]
[Black "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Be7 6. d4 Na5 7. Be2 exd4 8. Qxd4 Nf6 9. e5 Nc6 10. Qh4 Nd5 11. Qg3 g6 12. O-O Nb6 13. c4 d6 14. Rd1 Nd7 15. Bh6 Ncxe5 16. Nxe5 Nxe5 17. Nc3 f6 18. c5 Nf7 19. cxd6 cxd6 20. Qe3 Nxh6 21. Qxh6 Bf8 22. Qe3+ Kf7 23. Nd5 Be6 24. Nf4 Qe7 25. Re1 {1.26/1.35} 1-0 {There are many ways of finishing the game but Anand was not interested in being shown. The point is that the e6-bishop has no squares along the a2-g8 diagonal, and if 25...Bf5 (or 25...Bd7 or 25...Bc8), White wins with 26. Bc4+. After 25...Re8, White has 26 Nxe6 Qxe6 27 Bc4! Qxc4 28 Qxe8+ and he should win because of the bad position of all of Black's pieces. The classical rule is that you do not move your queen out early in a game because your opponent can harass the queen while developing, but in this game, every time that Kasparov moved his queen it threatened something that forced a concession from Black; but every time that Anand attacked Kasparov's queen it was with a piece that had already moved so that instead of gaining time, he lost many tempi.}
