Last month, the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) held its annual Milo/MSSM national sportsboy-sportsgirl awards at the Crystal Crown Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.
There were many front runners for the sportsboy award but it finally went to a swimmer from Sabah who beat 13 other contenders for this title. The runner-up was an athlete from Johor but one of the surprises was chessplayer Ooi Chern Ee's third placing in the roll of honour.
It might have been a surprise for most people at the ceremony but for those who knew of Ooi's accomplishments in the past year, the result was not without anticipation.
But question is: Why only third? Why not second or even first?
Apart from Ooi's fine chess achievement at national and international levels, consider too his academic performance. In his PMR examinations, he obtained straight "A"s; as a fourth-former in Penang Free School last year, he was best student in the form. There could not have been a better candidate for the top award, in my opinion.
It was interesting that Ooi was not the only chessplayer nominated for this year's national sportsboy awards. He was, of course, the nominee of the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Pulau Pinang, after having garnered the Penang sportsboy award recently.
There was also present national champion Mas Hafizul Hilmi Agus who was the nominee of the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Kelantan. Presumably, Mas Hafizul would have won the Kelantan sportsboy award too in order to be at the national awards function.
So in Kuala Lumpur, chess was actually represented by two youngsters from different parts of the country. In previous years, there would hardly be any representative. Chess is certainly becoming more acceptable to students as an alternate to other more popular games or sports.
But there is a problem with the choice of winners of the sports awards, especially at state and national levels. The paradigm of chess is that it is usually recognised as a low category game.
Why should this be? Chess today is not the domain of the fuddy-duddies who indulge in the game when they are past their retirement age. Chess playing is not all sitting at a table; the rigours of a chess tournament demand that a player be both physically fit and mentally alert.
Chess is a youthful game dominated by people in their teens, 20s and 30s. People like Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov were already among the best players in the world when they were only in their teens and in their early 20s, they won the world championship.
In the list of the top 53 players in the world today, four of them are in their teens, 21 are in their 20s, and 18 are in their 30s. There are just nine players who are in their 40s and only one player in his 60s who is still an active professional.
Back to recognition for the game, is it because chess is not an official game at the Summer Olympics and thus is not viewed as a bona fide game by the Olympic Council of Malaysia? I know it is not from lack of trying that the Malaysian Chess Federation is not a full member in the OCM.
But chess has already been given full recognition by the International Olympic Committee. Last December in Moscow, IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch even agreed with World Chess Federation president Florencio Campomanes that there may be a possibility to include the game as a demonstration sport at the Atlanta Olympics.
If this is a possibility coming up, I see no reason why chess should continue to play second fiddle in the country. I say now is the time for the Malaysian Chess Federation to represent its case for full recognition from OCM.
GENERAL MEETING
The Penang Chess Association will hold its annual general meeting at 6.30pm tomorrow at the Bayan Baru Residents Association clubhouse. Before the meeting, the association will stage a competition at 4pm over 25 boards between its senior and junior members.
GAMES OF THE WEEK
The Professional Chess Association kicked off its activities this year by organising two top-class events. The first was the Tal memorial tournament in Riga - mentioned in this column last week - which was won by Gary Kasparov.
The second event was the Moscow leg of the PCA world chess Grand Prix which is sponsored by microchip giant Intel. The qualifying rounds were run according to the Swiss system and the six qualifiers then joined 10 seeded players in a knock-out Rapid Chess event.
There were 78 players in the qualifier - 67 grandmasters and 11 international masters - and the lucky ones were Alexander Khalifman, Ilya Smirin, Alexander Morozevich, Vladimir Epishin, Jonathan Speelman and Boris Gulko.
In the first round of the knock-out event, Vassily Ivanchuk beat Predrag Nikolic 2-0, Viktor Korchnoi tied with Zurab Azmaiparashvili 1.5-1.5 (but Korchnoi qualified on tie-break), Artur Yusupov beat Alexey Vyzmanavin 2-0, Vladimir Kramnik beat Smirin 1.5-0.5, Morozevich beat Gulko 1.5-0.5, Viswanathan Anand beat Khalifman 1.5-0.5, Speelman beat Veselin Topalov 2-0 and Kasparov beat Epishin 1.5-0.5.
For the second round, Ivanchuk beat Korchnoi 2-1, Kramnik beat Yusupov 2-1, Anand beat Morozevich 2-1 and Kasparov beat Speelman 1.5-0.5. So those that advanced to the semi-finals were Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Anand and Kasparov.
At this stage, Ivanchuk and Anand qualified for the finals by beating Kramnik and Kasparov respectively. Ivanchuk won 2-1 while Anand went through with a 1.5-0.5 result. Ivanchuk won the final with a 1.5-0.5 score against Anand.
[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "1995.04.28"] [Round "1.3"] [White "Speelman, Jonathan"] [Black "Topalov, Veselin"] [Result "1-0"]
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. Bg5 Bg7 4. Nbd2 O-O 5. c3 h6 6. Bxf6 Bxf6 7. e4 d6 8. Bc4 Bg7 9. Qe2 c5 10. dxc5 dxc5 11. O-O Nc6 12. h3 Qc7 13. Rfe1 Rd8 14. e5 Rb8 15. e6 f5 16. h4 Na5 17. Bd3 Rd6 18. Nc4 Rxe6 19. Qxe6+ Bxe6 20. Rxe6 Kf7 21. Rae1 Nc6 22. h5 g5 23. Bxf5 Bf6 24. Ne3 Rd8 25. Ng4 Kg7 26. Nxf6 exf6 27. b4 cxb4 28. Nd4 Rd6 29. Re8 Ne5 30. Ne6+ Rxe6 31. Bxe6 bxc3 32. Bb3 Qd7 33. Ra8 b6 34. Rd1 Qe7 35. Rdd8 f5 36. Rg8+ Kh7 37. Rh8+ Kg7 38. Rag8+ Kf6 39. Rxh6+ Ng6 40. Rgxg6+ Ke5 1-0
[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "1995.04.29"]
[Round "2.1"]
[White "Morozevich, Alexander"]
[Black "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. Bb3 d5 6. exd5 cxd5 7. d4 Bb4 8. Nf3 O-O 9. O-O Bxc3 10. bxc3 Qc7 11. Qe1 Nc6 12. Qh4 Ne7 13. Bxf4 Qxc3 14. Bd2 Qc7 15. Ne5 Nf5 16. Qf4 Be6 17. Bb4 Rfc8 18. g4 Nd6 19. Rae1 Nfe4 20. c4 dxc4 21. Bc2 Nf6 22. g5 Nh5 23. Qf3 g6 24. Nxg6 hxg6 25. Bxg6 fxg6 26. Rxe6 Qf7 27. Qd5 Nf5 28. Rxf5 1-0
[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "1995.04.30"] [Round "semi-final"] [White "Anand, Viswanathan"] [Black "Kasparov, Gary"] [Result "1-0"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 Bd7 5. c4 Nc6 6. Qd2 g6 7. Be2 Bg7 8. O-O Nf6 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Rb1 a6 11. b3 Qa5 12. Bb2 Rfc8 13. Rfd1 Bg4 14. Qe3 Nd7 15. Nd5 Bxb2 16. Rxb2 Bxf3 17. Bxf3 e6 18. Nc3 Rd8 19. Rbd2 Nde5 20. Be2 Nb4 21. h4 b5 22. cxb5 axb5 23. Nxb5 Nbc6 24. a3 d5 25. exd5 Rxd5 26. Rxd5 exd5 27. b4 Qa4 28. Rxd5 1-0
[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "1995.05.01"]
[Round "final"]
[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Result "0-1"]
1. e4 c6, 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6. Be3 Nd7 7. c4 dxc4 8. Nc3 Ne7 9. Bxc4 Nc6 10. d5 Nb6 11. Bb3 exd5 12. Nxd5 Be7 13. O-O O-O 14. Rc1 Nxd5 15. Bxd5 Nb4 16. Bc4 a6 17. e6 fxe6 18. Qb3 Qc8 19. a3 b5 20. axb4 bxc4 21. Rxc4 Rb8 22. Rfc1 Qb7 23. Qa2 Bd3 24. Rf4 c4 25. Ne5 Qd5 26. Nxd3 cxd3 27. Qxd5 exd5 28. Rd4 Rxb4 29. Rxd3 Rxb2 30. Rxd5 Ra8 31. g4 a5 32. Rd7 Bf8 33. Rcc7 a4 34. Ra7 Rbb8 35. Bd4 Rxa7 36. Rxa7 Rb4 37. Be5 Re4 38. Bc3 Rxg4+ 39. Kf1 a3 40. Ke2 Rc4 41. Kd3 Rf4 42. Bd4 h5 43. Ra8 Kh7 44. Ke3 Rf7 45. f4 Bd6 46. Be5 Bc5+ 47. Kd3 Kg6 48. Ra5 Bb4 49. Ra4 Rb7 50. Ke4 Kf7 51. Ra6 Be7 52. f5 Rb4+ 53. Kd5 Rg4 54. Ra7 Rg2 55. Ke4 a2 56. Kf3 Rc2 57. Ke4 Re2+ 58. Kf4 Rxe5 59. Kxe5 a1=Q+ 60. Rxa1 Bf6+ 61. Kf4 Bxa1 62. Kg5 Bb2 63. h4 Bc1+ 64. Kxh5 Kf6 0-1
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