The annual chess festival in Biel last month was again the highlight of the Swiss chess calendar. It is now in its 28th edition and as usual, the financial obligations for this year's festival were largely met by sponsorship from Credit Suisse, one of Switzerland's largest banks.
Several hundreds of players would normally take part in the festival's many attractions which range from the main billing, a Category 15 grandmaster tournament, to the side shows like blitz tournaments for officials and journalists.
Russia's Alexey Dreev won the premier grandmaster tournament by scoring nine points from 13 games. In the second place was Latvian Alexei Shirov who now plays under the Spanish flag. Shirov obtained eight points. Indonesia's Utut Adianto and Byelorus' Boris Gelfand each scored 7.5 points.
Some readers may remember Vladislav Tkachiev who played as the second reserve for the Kazakhstan team in the 1993 Asian team chess championship in Kuala Lumpur. He is now a strong grandmaster with a 2605 rating, and in Biel both he and Russia's Vadim Zvjaginsev each scored seven points.
Near the bottom of the table was Jan Timman. It was a most uncharacteristic position for a player who was once involved in a world championship title match. In Biel, he made gross oversights and lost quickly in several games.
In the Credit Suisse Masters open tournament, Germany's Igor Glek was the winner with 8.5 points from 11 Swiss rounds. He ended up in front of players like Sergey Smagin, Yuri Razuvaev, Vladimir Tukmakov and Boris Avrukh who each obtained eight points.
An interesting twist to this festival was a special tournament between two teams of 12 players - one representing Team Europe and the other Team Swiss/French. This event used the Scheveningen system which paired players from one team exclusively to players from the other team. Thus, players from the same team do not meet one another across the board.
Team Europe comprised a grandmaster, two women grandmasters and nine international masters while Team Switzerland/France had three Fide masters and nine untitled or unrated players.
Thus the Team Switzerland/France players, playing against the titled and rated players in Team Europe, would have real chances of picking up rating or title norms. Unfortunately, none qualified for any norm. The final scores were 91.5 points for Team Europe and 52.5 points for Team Switzerland/ France.
CHESS LEAGUE ENDS
In the final round of the Penang Bayview Chess League last Sunday, Chung Ling High School A completed their domination of the tournament when they beat the MSSPP Juniors by an emphatic 3.5 - 0.5 score. They ended the 11-week event undefeated and were deserving winners of the City Bayview challenge trophy.
There was a tense fight between Penang Free School A and the Old Frees Association. The schoolboys drew the match 2-2 to finish second in Division One.
In other first division matches, the Pessca team was also held to a 2-2 draw by Penang Free School B, while Universiti Sains Malaysia beat Penang Development Corporation by 3.5 - 0.5. Chung Ling high School B beat Hitachi Semiconductors 3-1.
In Division Two, Chung Ling High School swept the first two positions. Their C team beat Union High School 4-0 while their D team finished strongly with a 3-1 score against Penang Free School C.
Dynacraft beat the Penang Chinese Girls High School 3-1, while Bank Bumiputra and the MSSPP Girls were given walkovers on all four boards by their opponents, Mara Taiping and National Semiconductors respectively, which had withdrawn from the tournament.
Because of the withdrawals, all of Mara's and NS' scores against the other teams in the second division were excluded from the final tally of points.
According to the regulations, PDC and Hitachi will be relegated next year while their place will be taken by Hewlett-Packard and Bank Bumiputra which were third and fourth in their division.
This is because the rules of the competition disallow organisations from having more than two teams in each division. Thus, although the Chung Ling High School C and D teams came tops in the second division, they were unable to be promoted because the school already had their A and B teams in the first division.
The final standings:
Division One - CLHS A 32.5 points, PFS A 27.5 points, OFA 26.5 points, Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling 22.5 points, USM 22 points, Pessca 21.5 points, CLHS B 20.5 points, MSSPP Jrs 15 points, PFS B 13.5 points, PDC 11.5 points and Hitachi 7 points.
Division Two - CLHS C 28.5 points, CLHS D 20.5 points, HP 18 points, BBMB and MSSPP Girls 17 points each, PFS C 13 points, Dynacraft 12.5 points, Union 11.5 points and PCGHS 6 points.
BAYAN BARU OPEN
Readers who have submitted their entries for the Bayan Baru open tournament this Sunday are reminded that they have to be at the Residents' Association of Bayan Baru's clubhouse by 8.30am to confirm their participation.
A maximum of 64 players will be accepted for the tournament and I believe there may a few vacant places remaining. Anyone who have yet to register with the organisers may still have a chance to play if they turn up early at the tournament hall on Sunday.
This one-day tournament, now in its 10th year, is organised by the Residents' Association with technical assistance from the Penang Chess Association.
This is a seven-round event played along Rapid-30 chess rules and the winners will not receive cash but rather prizes in kind donated by various sponsors.
The entry fees are RM5 for members of either the Residents' Association or the Penang Chess Association. This rate also applies to players who are under the age of 18. All other participants will have to pay RM8.
GAMES OF THE WEEK
This week's games are taken from the Biel chess festival in Switzerland.
Alexei Shirov - Vladislav Tkachiev
----------------------------------
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Nf3 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Ne1 Nd7 10. Be3 f5 11. f3 f4 12. Bf2 g5 13. a4 a6 14. a5 Rf6 15. g4 fxg3 16. hxg3 h5 17. Ng2 Rh6 18. Ne3 Nf6 19. Kg2 Bd7 20. b4 Qe8 21. c5 Qg6 22. cxd6 cxd6 23. Nc4 g4 24. Nb6 gxf3+ 25. Bxf3 Rf8 26. Nxd7 Nxd7 27. Rh1 Nf6 28. Qe2 h4 29. Rh3 Rc8 30. Qd2 hxg3 0.5-0.5
Utut Adianto - Boris Gelfand
----------------------------
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. Nf3 d6 6. O-O Nc6 7. Nc3 a6 8. h3 Bd7 9. e4 e5 10. d5 Nd4 11. Nxd4 exd4 12. Qxd4 Qc8 13. h4 b5 14. cxb5 axb5 15. Qb4 Ng4 16. Bf4 Re8 17. Rac1 Qb8 18. Bh3 Qb6 19. Bxg4 Bxg4 20. Qxb5 Reb8 21. Qxb6 Rxb6 22. b3 c5 23. dxc6 Rxc6 24. Nd5 Rxc1 25. Rxc1 Rxa2 26. Kg2 Bd4 27. Be3 Bxe3 28. Nxe3 Be6 29. Rb1 Bd7 30. g4 Bb5 31. Kg3 Bd3 32. Rd1 Bxe4 33. Rxd6 Rb2 34. Rb6 Kg7 35. g5 h6 36. b4 hxg5 37. hxg5 Kf8 38. f3 Bd3 39. Kf4 Ke8 40. Ke5 Re2 41. Kd4 Bb1 42. b5 Rf2 43. Rb8+ Kd7 44. Rb7+ Ke6 45. Rb6+ Kd7 46. Rf6 Rd2+ 47. Kc5 Ba2 48. Nc4 Rg2 49. Rxf7+ Ke6 50. Rf4 Rxg5+ 51. Kc6 Bb3 52. Re4+ Kf6 53. Ne3 Be6 54. b6 Bc8 55. Nd5+ Kg7 56. Nb4 Rg1 57. Rc4 Re1 58. Kc7 Re8 59. Re4 Rf8 60. Nc6 Ba6 61. Re3 Kh6 62. Ra3 Rf7+ 63. Kd6 Rf6+ 64. Ke7 Rxc6 65. Rxa6 Kh7 66. Kd8 Kh6 67. Ke7 Kh7 68. Kd7 Rf6 69. b7 Rxa6 70. b8=Q Ra5 71. Ke6 Rf5 72. Qg3 Kg7 73. Qg4 Rf6+ 74. Ke5 Rf7 75. Ke4 Kh7 76. Qc8 Kg7 77. Ke3 Rf8 78. Qc3+ Kh7 79. Kf2 Rf5 80. Kg3 Rg5+ 81. Kf4 Rf5+ 82. Kg4 Rf7 83. Qe5 1-0
No comments:
Post a Comment