Kasparov holds on tight

 

Pitting skills against a machine

Computer chess is so much in the news these days. Regular readers of this column would have read about the world computer chess championship played in Hongkong recently.

You will remember that the Fritz3 chess programme running on an Intel Pentium 90mhz chip won the championship, humbling Deep Blue in the final round.

Recently too, the Penang Chess Association organised the Penang Vision 2020 tournament and it was an opportunity to test whether Fritz2, the predecessor to Fritz3, could stand up against the local challenge.

A decision was made to enter Fritz2 as a participant in this tournament but, failing to find a Pentium90, the PCA had to settle for a "humble" Intel 486SX machine instead.

The results were nothing less than spectacular. In the first round, Fritz2 beat K Nanis after getting the better of the position in the opening and in the second round, the chess programme beat Teoh Giap Seng.

Before the midday break, Fritz2 had chalked up a third win against up-and- coming junior player Ronnie Lim.

The results after the break were not any different despite Fritz2 being pitted against stronger opposition. In round four, Teng Wei Ping was worn down in a delicate ending and in the fifth round, Ooi Chern Ee fell to the machine.

Wong Kam Loong handled Fritz2 poorly in round six, and the tournament wrapped up with Fritz2 completing a rout of the field by beating Teng Wei Hong.

Oh, before I get too carried away with the success of the Fritz2 programme, here are the results of the Penang Vision 2020 tournament which was sponsored jointly by BHL Bank and the Mar Vista Resort.

The five prizes in the "2100 and above" rating group were won by Ooi Chern Ee 6 points, Teng Wei Ping and Ronnie Lim 5 points each, Wong Kam Loong 4.5 points and Colin Chong 4 points. It had been decided earlier that Fritz2 would not be eligible for any prize.

For the "2000 to 2099" rating group, the winners were Tan Kwang Yi 5.5 points, and Teng Wei Hong and Choo Tze Siang who each obtained five points. In the "1950 to 1999" rating group, the prizes went to Lim Kwang Seng 4 points, and Jonathan Chuah and Teoh Kok Liang who scored 3.5 points each.

The remaining two prizes went to the group of unrated players and those rated below 1950, and these were won by Dr Lim Boon Liang and Tan Fee Meng who obtained four points each.

BAYVIEW NEWS

In the second round of the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League last Sunday, Chung Ling High School A forged ahead in Division One with a 3.5-0.5 win over Hitachi Semiconductor.

Penang Free School A scored a 3-1 win over Universiti Sains Malaysia, while Old Frees Association beat Chung Ling High School B and Pessca beat Chung Ling Old Boys Association by similar 2.5-1.5 margins. The MSSPP Juniors- Penang Free School B match was drawn 2-2.

In Division Two, Chung Ling High School D blanketed Mara Taiping 4-0 and the MSSPP Girls beat Penang Chinese Girls High School by a similar score. Chung Ling High School C beat Hewlett Packard, Union High School beat National Semiconductor, and Bank Bumiputra beat DCI by 3-1 scores.

The standings are as follows: Division One - CLHS A 7.5 points, PFS A 6 points, OFA 5 points, USM and CLOBA 4 points, Pessca and MSSPP Jrs 3.5 points, PFS B 3 points, CLHS B and Penang Development Corporation 1.5 points, and Hitachi 0.5 point; Division Two - MSSPP Girls 7 points, CLHS C, CLHS D and Union 5.5 points, HP and BBMB 5 points, NS 3 points, DCI 2 points,Mara 1.5 points, Penang Free School C and PCGHS zero point.

The Penang Bayview Chess League, sponsored annually by The City Bayview Hotel, is played on a weekly basis and the third round at the hotel's Revolving Restaurant is scheduled for this Sunday at 10am.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

A total of 44 players are taking part in the East Asian/Oceanic zonal tournament organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation at Genting Highlands.

In the men's section, grandmasters Utut Adianto (Indonesia) and Rogelio Antonio (Philippines) and untitled players Barlo Nadera and Chito Garma (both from the Philippines) were leading with four points each after five rounds of play.

Among the four Malaysian players, Mohd Kamal Abdullah, Mas Hafizul Helmi and Darren Yong have 2.5 points each while Mohd Saprin Sabri has two points.

Leading the women's section after five rounds were WIM Hoang Thanh Trang (Vietnam) and WIM Irena Berezina-Feldman (Australia) with four points each.

Among the Malaysians, Ong Hwa Lu and Samantha Lee scored two points each, and Eliza Hanum Ibrahim has obtained one point.

The tournament ends on Monday. Until then, readers visiting Genting Highlands can catch the tournament at the Resort Hotel.

Here are two games from the event.

[Event "East Asian/Oceanic Zonal Tournament"]

[Site "Genting Highland, Malaysia"]

[Date ""]

[Round ""]

[White "Mohd Saprin Sabri"]

[Black "Irwanto"]

[Result "1-0"]

1. Nf3 Nf6, 2. c4 e6, 3. g3 d5, 4. Bg2 Be7, 5. 0-0 0-0, 6. d4 Nbd7, 7. Nbd2 b6, 8. b3 Bb7, 9. Bb2 c5, 10. e3 Qc7, 11. Rc1 Rad8, 12. Rc2 Qb8, 13. Qa1 Rfe8, 14.cxd5 Bxd5, 15. Nc4 Qa8, 16. Qd1 cxd4, 17. Bxd4 Be4, 18. Rc1 e5, 19. Ba1 Nc5, 20.Ncd2 Rxd2, 21. Qxd2 Bxf3, 22. Bxf3 Qxf3, 23. Bxe5 Nce4, 24. Qd1 Ng4 1-0

[Event "East Asian/Oceanic Zonal Tournament"]

[Site "Genting Highland, Malaysia"]

[Date ""]

[Round ""]

[White "Antonio, Rogelio"]

[Black "Nguyen Anh Dung"]

[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5, 2. Nf3 d6, 3. Bb5+ Nd7, 4. 0-0 Ngf6, 5. Re1 e6, 6. d4 cxd4, 7. Qxd4 Be7, 8. Bg5 0-0, 9. Nc3 Qc7, 10. Rad1 Rd8, 11. Bxd7 Bxd7, 12. Bxf6 gxf6, 13. Qe3 Kh8, 14. Nd4 Qc5, 15. Rd3 Rac8, 16. Qd2 b5, 17. a3 Rg8, 18. g3 b4, 19. axb4 Qxb4, 20. Nb3 Rc7, 21. Ra1 Rgc8, 22. Ra5 Rg8, 23. Rd4 Qb6, 24. Qd3 Rg5, 25. Ra6 Qb7, 26. h4 Rg8, 27. Raxd6 Bxd6, 28. Rxd6 Be8, 29. Qf3 Kg7, 30. Qf4 Qb4, 31. Nd4 Kf8, 32. e5 Qc4, 33. Qh6+ 1-0

 

Bayview meet begins

The fifth Penang Bayview Chess League squared off last Sunday at The City Bayview Hotel.

Twenty-two teams are taking part in this year's league and they will be locked in an 11-round contest which shall be played on Sundays until Aug 2. The City Bayview Hotel is the sponsor for the event.

A continuing feature of this year's event is the splitting of the league into two divisions. Play in each division is on a round-robin basis and cash prizes total RM2,200 for Division One and RM1,100 for Division Two. Depending on their performances, teams will be promoted or relegated at the end of the tournament.

In the first round last Sunday, Chung Ling High School A is leading in Division One after drubbing their B team 4-0. Penang Free School A and Universiti Sains Malaysia have three points each after beating Penang Free School B and Pessca respectively. Old Frees Association beat the MSSPP Juniors and Chung Ling Old Boys Association beat Penang Development Corporation by similar 2.5-1.5 scores.

In Division Two, Hewlett Packard is in the lead with a 4-0 score against Penang Free School C. The MSSPP Girls beat DCI 3-1, while Chung Ling High School C beat Chung Ling High School "D" 2.5-1.5. Union High School beat Mara Taiping by a similar scoreline, while Bank Bumiputra and National Semiconductor fought to a 2-2 draw.

The second round will be played this Sunday morning beginning 10am at the hotel's Revolving Restaurant.

ASIAN ZONAL MEET BEGINS

The East Asian/Oceanic zonal championship, organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation, began last Tuesday at Genting Highlands. The 11-round competition will be played daily until June 26, except for three free days.

The response from the various countries making up the East Asian/Oceanic zone has been good, gauging from the number of participants at this event.

China, which traditionally had been part of this zone, now constitutes a zone by itself and so they are not represented here. Without the Chinese, a little shine may have been removed from the championship but the result is that competition will become much keener.

There are two qualifying places at stake in the men's section and the qualifiers are likely to come from either Utut Adianto (Indonesia), Edhi Handoko (Indonesia) or Antonio Rogelio (Philippines). All three are very experienced grandmasters.

But they will surely not find the tournament a bed of roses. Already, a host of capable international masters are patiently stalking the trio and ready to pounce on their slightest mistakes.

The group of international masters include Alex Wohl (Australia), Mariano Nelson (Philippines), Hsu Li-Yang (Singapore), Nguyen Anh Dong and Tu Hoang Thong (both Vietnam) and Malaysia's own Jimmy Liew.

In the women's section, the favourites for the qualifying spot are Australia's Irena Berezina-Feldman, Maria Lucia Ratne, Tamin Upi Darmay Ana and Lisa Lumongdong (all Indonesians) and Hoang Thanh Tranh (Vietnam).

Playing in this tournament are participants from Australia, Brunei, Fiji, Hongkong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

GAME OF THE WEEK

In Novgorod, Russia, another top class tournament in the Professional Chess Association calendar has just ended. The second PCA Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament was won by Gary Kasparov with a score of 6.5 points from 10 games.

He started impressively with a score of 4.5 points from five games and then wound down with a row of four drawn games.

In the last round, Vassily Ivanchuk had the best opportunity to catch up with Kasparov but he blew his chance by wrecking a nice position.

The last of the PCA classic tournaments of the year will be played at the Credit Swiss Masters tournament in Zurich this October.

Final standings in Novgorod: Kasparov 6* points; Jaan Ehlvest, Ivanchuk, Nigel Short, Veselin Topalov 5* points each; Vladimir Kramnik 5 points; Jan Timman 4 points; Boris Gulko 3 points; Artur Yusupov 2* points; and Rafael Vaganian 2 points.

Here is a selection of games from this event.

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Topalov,Veselin"]

[Black "Yusupov,Artur"]

[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. c3 Bd7 6. d4 Nge7 7. Be3 Ng6 8. h4 h5 9. g3 Be7 10. d5 Nb8 11. Bxd7+ Nxd7 12. Nfd2 Nf6 13. f3 O-O 14. c4 c5 15. Nc3 Qd7 16. a4 a5 17. Qe2 Kh7 18. O-O-O Rh8 19. Nf1 Kg8 20. Bd2 Ne8 21. Ne3 Nf8 22. b3 g6 23. f4 Bf6 24. Rdf1 Qe7 25. f5 Ng7 26. Nb5 b6 27. fxg6 fxg6 28. g4 Bxh4 29. Nxd6 Qxd6 30. Rxh4 Nd7 31. gxh5 Rxh5 32. Rxh5 Nxh5 33. Nf5 1-0

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Kramnik,Vladimir"]

[Black "Timman,Nigel"]

[Result "1-0"]

1. Nf3 g6 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 c5 8. Rb1 O-O 9. Be2 cxd4 10. cxd4 Qa5+ 11. Bd2 Qxa2 12. O-O Bg4 13. Bg5 h6 14. Be3 Nc6 15. d5 Na5 16. Bc5 Bf6 17. e5 Bxe5 18. Rb4 Bxf3 19. Bxf3 Bf6 20. Ra4 Qb3 21. Rxa5 Qxd1 22. Rxd1 b6 23. d6 Rac8 24. d7 Rcd8 25. Bxe7 Bxe7 26. Rxa7 Rb8 27. Re1 Bd8 28. Re8 b5 29. Ra8 Rxa8 30. Bxa8 b4 31. Bd5 Kg7 32. Kf1 1-0

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Gulko,Boris"]

[Black "Kramnik,Vladimir"]

[Result "0-1"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 g6 5. d4 exd4 6. Nxd4 Bg7 7. Nxc6 dxc6 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. e4 Bg4 10. Be2 Bxe2 11. Kxe2 Re8 12. f3 Nd7 13. Bg5+ Kc8 14. Rac1 a5 15. Rhd1 a4 16. Rd2 Nf8 17. Be3 Ra5 18. a3 Ne6 19. Kf2 g5 20. Rcd1 f5 21. exf5 Bxc3 22. bxc3 Rxf5 23. Rd7 h5 24. Rh7 g4 25. f4 Ng5 26. Rg7 Ne4+ 27. Kf1 Nd6 28. Bb6 Rf7 29. Rxf7 Nxf7 30. Bd4 Nd6 31. c5 Nc4 32. Kf2 b5 33. cxb6 cxb6 34. Bf6 b5 35. Rd4 Nxa3 36. Rd6 Kc7 37. Be5 Nc4 38. Re6+ Kd7 0-1

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Yusupov,Artur"]

[Black "Kasparov,Gary"]

[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bg5 Bg7 4. c3 c5 5. e3 Qb6 6. Qb3 O-O 7. Nbd2 d6 8. Qxb6 axb6 9. Nc4 Nbd7 10. Be2 d5 11. Nce5 h6 12. Bf4 c4 13. h4 b5 14. g4 Nb6 15. g5 hxg5 16. hxg5 Ne4 17. Nd2 Bf5 18. Bg4 Na4 19. Nxe4 dxe4 20. Bxf5 gxf5 21. Rb1 b4 22. cxb4 Nb6 23. a3 Rfc8 24. g6 Bxe5 25. gxf7+ Kxf7 26. Bxe5 Nd5 27. Kd2 c3+ 28. Kc2 cxb2+ 29. Kxb2 Rc3 30. Ra1 b5 31. Rhc1 Rd3 32. Rc5 Nb6 33. Rxb5 Nc4+ 34. Kc1 Rg8 35. Bg3 f4 36. Rf5+ Kg6 37. Rxf4 Rc8 38. Rg4+ Kh5 39. Rh4+ Kg6 40. Rg4+ Kh5 41. Rh4+ Kg5 42. f4+ Kg6 43. f5+ Kg5 0-1

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Topalov,Veselin"]

[Black "Kasparov,Gary"]

[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. f3 Be7 8. Qd2 O-O 9. g4 a6 10. O-O-O Nxd4 11. Bxd4 b5 12. Kb1 Bb7 13. h4 Rc8 14. g5 Nd7 15. a3 Ne5 16. Qe3 Nc4 17. Bxc4 Rxc4 18. Rhg1 b4 19. axb4 Rxb4 20. Rg2 Ba8 21. b3 a5 22. h5 Qc7 23. Bf6 Rfb8 24. Bxe7 Qxe7 25. Rd4 e5 26. Rxb4 axb4 27. Na2 Qc7 28. Qd3 Kf8 29. g6 fxg6 30. hxg6 h6 31. f4 exf4 32. Rf2 Kg8 33. Rxf4 Qc5 34. Rf1 Qb5 35. Rc1 Qe5 36. Qc4+ Kh8 37. Rh1 Bxe4 38. Qc7 Rf8 39. Rxh6+ Kg8 40. Nc1 Bxc2+ 0-1

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round "Kasparov,Gary"]

[White "Vaganian,Rafael"]

[Black ""]

[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 e6 2. c4 d5 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 c5 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. Qc2 Nc6 9. a3 Qa5 10. O-O-O Be7 11. h4 dxc4 12. Bxc4 b6 13. Ng5 Ba6 14. Nce4 g6 15. Nxf6+ Bxf6 16. Ne4 Be7 17. Bxa6 Qxa6 18. Kb1 Qb7 19. h5 Rac8 20. hxg6 Nb4 21. gxh7+ Kh8 22. Be5+ f6 23. Nxf6 Bxf6 24. Bxf6+ 1-0

 

Tournament results

Late last month, the national age-group chess championships were held at the Wisma MPSA in Shah Alam.

This event, organised jointly by the Malaysian Chess Federation and the Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia with cooperation from the Majlis Perbandaran Shah Alam and the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Malaysia, was again sponsored by the Asia Insurance Co Ltd and the Asia Life Assurance Society Ltd.

The boys' under-18 event which attracted 33 players was won by Ooi Chern Ee who scored six points from seven games. Joint second were Teng Wei Ping and Liong Ing Kiat who obtained 5.5 points each.

Joint fourth were Tan Wei Sin, Ahmad Nazri Muhamad and Chow Shye Ma with five points each, while Eric Ooi Boon Kheng, Lau Kar Wooi and Shahrizal Sharil had 4.5 points each.

The boys' under-16 event had 64 participants. Teng Wei Hong won this section with maximum points while last year's winner Peter Lim Kam Cheen was second with six points.

Joint third were Mak Weng Yee and Lim Cheng Teik who each collected 5.5 points and among those with five points were Mas Harithulfadh, Ian Lee Wen Chun, Saiful Naim Kamsah, Tor Wee Liam and Mohd Salahuddin Mohd Salleh.

Among the 46 participants in the boys' under-14 event, Mas Hafizul Hilmi, Ng Ee Vern, Wong Zi Jing, Abdul Haq Mohamad and Darryl Koh were the top scorers with 5.5 points each. Tied for the sixth to 10th places with five points each were Lim Yee Weng, Eoh Thean Keat, Mohd Azan Savanoh, Ahmad Fakruden Mamat and Ng Kian Seng.

Out of the 44 participants in the boys' under-12 event, Lim Chuin Hoong was the winner with six points while Lim Yew San, Teh Tze Wey, Liong Wei Li and Khor Shihong were joint second with 5.5 points each. On five points were Seto Tien Hoi, Kamarul Ariffin and Raymond Ng.

In the newly created boys' under-10 event, the top three winners were Ali Ajemi, Hisyam Ismail and Jonathan Chuah.

In the girls' section, there were only eight players in the under-18 event. Eliza Hanum Ibrahim and Norfatitah Saranon were the winners, scoring 6.5 points each. Third was Eliza Hanim Ibrahim with 4.5 points and fourth Zuraihan Zakaria with four points. Soo Ai Leen was fifth with three points.

There were 11 players in the girls' under-16 event and 16 in the under-14 event. The under-16 event was won by Nainee Azimi with six points, joint second were Roslina Marmono and Chai Hwei Meen with five points each and joint fourth were Zeti Ajemi and Surehna Devi.

In the under-14 event, Lee Heng Jun was the winner with 6.5 points while Mardiana Marmono was second with 5.5 points. Joint third were Izlawati Kamsah and Zeni Ajemi with 4.5 points each.

Lim Jeannie won the girls' under-12 event with seven points, while Nor Idani was second with 5.5 points and Lee Su Ann third with five points. For the new under-10 event, Norsyafawati Ishak was the winner with 6.5 points and second was Nur Ashikin Mansoor with six points.

PUBLIC VS PRIVATE SECTOR MATCH

In conjunction with the seventh anniversary celebrations of the City of Ipoh, a public versus private sector chess match will be staged in the Perak capital for the second time.

This event will be held at the Town Hall, Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang Wahab, Ipoh on June 24 afternoon. Participation is free but by invitation only.

An additional blitz tournament will also be held in the morning but participants will have to pay RM5.

FIFTH PENANG BAYVIEW LEAGUE

Twenty-two teams will be taking part in the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League starting this Sunday morning at The City Bayview Hotel.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Here is the sensational win scored by Fritz3 over the IBM Deep Blue programme in the eighth world computer chess championship which was reported in this column last week.

[Event "8th World Computer Chess Championship"]

[Site "Hongkong HKG"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round "5"]

[White "Deep Blue"]

[Black "Fritz3"]

[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 f5 11. Bd3 Be6 12. Qh5 f4 13. O-O Rg8 14. Kh1 Rg6 15.Qd1 Rc8 16. c4 Qh4 17. g3 Qh3 18. Qd2 f3 19. Rg1 Rh6 20. Qxh6 Qxh6 21. cxb5 Bxd5 22. exd5 Nb4 23. Bf5 Rc5 24. bxa6 Nxa6 25. Nc2 Qd2 26. Ne1 Rxd5 27. Nxf3 Qxf2 28. Be4 Ra5 29. Rg2 Qe3 30. Re1 Qh6 31. Bc6+ Kd8 32. a3 f5 33. Rc2 Rc5 34. Rxc5 Nxc5 35. Rf1 Be7 36. a4 f4 37. gxf4 Qxf4 38. Rg1 Nxa4 39. b4 Qxb4 {Theory gives 13. O-O as bad for White since Black's attack becomes very dangerous after that. It was not a good choice to have Deep Blue play an opening as complicated a line as the Sveshnikov without book-knowledge. Possibly, Deep Blue was already out of theory when it played 13 O-O.} 0-1

 

When computers play chess

There was sensation at the International Computer Chess Association's computer chess world championships over the last weekend at the Chinese University of Hongkong.

Fritz 3, the Dutch chess-playing program running on an Intel Pentium 90MHz personal computer, trounced defending champion Deep Blue in the final round of the tournament to propel itself as the new computer chess champion.

Every three years, the ICCA organises the computer chess world championships and the 24 participants in Hongkong this year included some of the world's strongest chess playing computers.

Chess Genius, a British program which created worldwide interest by defeating Kasparov in a two-game contest last year, was also participating. Incidentally, Kasparov had his revenge two weeks ago when he beat the program 1.5-0.5 in a two-game rematch.

All eyes, however, were on IBM's Deep Blue. This program, universally regarded as THE chess program to beat, was also the winner of the ACM international championship in 1994.

Deep Blue was, however, not physically present in Hongkong. Throughout the championship, it was running on an IBM RS/6000 workstation with 14 slave processors back in the United States and its moves were relayed to the Chinese University of Hongkong via the Internet.

Four other programs were also connected to Hongkong in similar style from their home locations in Europe or North America.

Also from the United States, Star Socrates was running on a 1824 node Intel Paragon supercomputer while Hitech was on a Sun 4 workstation with dedicated chess hardware. Frenchess was running on a Cray T3D supercomputer back in France and Zugzwang was using a system with 1023 T800 transputers from Germany.

But the rest of the programs were there in Hongkong using real chessboards and clocks. Three of them - Ulysses (Germany), SOS (Germany) and Cheiron (Germany) - were running on Sun Microsystems Sparc 20 workstations; the Sun Phoenix (Canada) program was on a Sparc 2000 20cpu system; and Dark Thought (Germany) was on a DEC Alphaserver 2100.

The remaining programs - Fritz 3, WChess (USA), Junior (Israel), Rebel (USA), Zeus 3 (Spain), Virtua Chess (France), Schach 3 (Germany), Chess Genius, Pandix (Hungary), Nightmare (Germany), Ferret (USA), LChess (Netherlands), Gandalf (Denmark) and Woodpusher (UK) - were using 90MHz Pentium systems.

The ICCA world championships was primarily sponsored by IBM but the other major sponsors included Sun Microsystems, Compunetics, the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery), Saitek, Varitronix, the Hongkong Chess Federation and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

PENANG CHESS LEAGUE BEGINS NEXT SUNDAY

Teams intending to play in the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League are reminded that tomorrow is the closing date for the submission of entries. This tournament, the premier event of the Penang Chess Association, starts on June 11 at The City Bayview Hotel.

The hotel is the sponsor for the annual team event. Two years ago, it donated an 45-cm pewter challenge trophy worth RM6,000 towards the championship and at a cheque presentation ceremony earlier this week, the hotel's general manager, Nasihin Ali, reaffirmed the hotel's continued sponsorship. It will also remain the venue for the Chess League.

Only teams legitimately representing the public and business sectors, factories, universities, schools, colleges and registered associations, societies and clubs are allowed to play in the Chess League which will be played over several weekends. Each team is allowed one guest player.

Provision is made for about 24 teams to take part, and each team is allowed to register up to eight players. However, only four players from each team will be playing in every round.

Entry fee is RM150 and attractive cash prizes are guaranteed for the top five teams in each division. Division One will consist of the top teams in the state, including two teams promoted from last year's Division Two.

Teams entering for the first time will be placed in Division Two and their prospects for promotion to the premier division will depend on their performance in the league this year.

For more information, contact Alan Phang or Goh Yoon Wah in the evenings. With the closing date being tomorrow, a meeting of all team managers will be held at the hotel on June 7 at 8pm.