A Chinese chess lesson

It is not often that one gets to watch both international and Chinese chess together. Thus when the Penang Gerakan Youth held a chess competition recently, it was a real treat to see the two types of chess under one roof.

I shall not say much about the 70-player international chess section except to mention the top winners. Three players - Chuah Heng Meng, Lim Chuin Hoong and Teng Wei Hong - each tied with six points from seven games.

The tie was broken using the Cumulative method and Chuah was declared the winner of the first prize. Lim was second and Teng third.

The same tie-breaking method was used to determine that Tan Kwang Yi was fourth, ahead of fifth-placed Teng Wei Ping and sixth-placed Lim Cheong Wan. These three players had secured 5 1/2 points each.

Now about the Chinese chess section of this tournament. Despite the fact that Chinese chess features very little in my life, having been brought up on a steady diet of international chess, it is not totally unknown to me. I know for a fact that quite some time ago, Chinese chess competitions were normally run according to the double knockout system. The players that were knocked out along the way were given a second chance to play in the losers' pool and the eventual winners of the winners' and losers' pools would then play to decide the overall champion.

This system was not too sophisticated in trying to overcome the demerits of knockout tournaments, but it was one which seemed best in the circumstances at that time.

But not any more. The structure of Chinese chess competitions has changed. They are now run according to the Swiss pairing rules and some Chinese chess organisers even use a computerised pairing programme when running their events. I have even seen a booklet written in Chinese on the technical aspects of a chess rating system.

In these areas, Chinese chess owes much to the world of international chess. The World Chess Federation (Fide) should, I suppose, feel flattered that their pairing and rating rules are now adapted for Chinese chess competitions and administration.

But while there is a lot that Chinese chess has benefited from international chess, I would like to think that in return, international chess can perhaps learn one or two things from Chinese chess.

Earlier, I mentioned the use of the Cumulative tie-breaking method for the international chess section of the Penang Gerakan Youth tournament. Presently, this is the tie-break adopted by Fide.

But it was not so long ago that the Solkoff was the first choice among the tie-breaking methods and before that, it was the cumbersome Sonnenborn-Berger tie-break. The latter is hardly ever used nowadays but the Solkoff still is popular among many clubs worldwide.

In some Chinese chess competitions, I was told that the tie-breaking method is not specified at the start of a tournament, unlike in international chess. Instead, the tie-breaker is only chosen at the end of the event by the drawing of lots.

It is felt that the uncertainty over the tie-break will force the participants to play uncompromisingly throughout the competition and this will lead to less incidents of players planning their results. I think this idea is worth looking into further.

But a second idea from the Chinese chess section of this tournament failed to impress me although it led to an amusing situation during one of the games.

What happened was that in any apparently drawn position, one player can always decline the prospect of a draw and instead, try for a win. If he signals this intention to the arbiter, the player is given five minutes on his chess clock to demonstrate that he can indeed win.

It is well and good if the player does win, but if he cannot do so after five minutes, his opponent can then claim the full point himself. This is a controversial and fascinating idea but in Penang, it led to a big argument between the players with the arbiter caught inbetween. Sparks really flew.

This type of regulation, I should think, will certainly not go down well with the Fide Rules Commission. I would not even think it should be introduced in our local international chess tournaments.

JOHOR OPEN

The Johor Chess Club will stage the Johor Open chess championship this Sunday at the Pelangi Leisure Mall in Jalan Serampang, Taman Pelangi, Johor Bahru.

The championship features three sections - open, under-16 and under-12. Separate prizes will be given to the men and women in each section.

The men's open section offers a top prize of RM1,000 and for the runners-up, RM700. There are 13 other prizes totalling RM1,650. For the other sections in this tournament, the collective prize fund is RM1,495.

Entry fees for the open section are RM30 for the men and RM15 for the women. For the under-16 and under-12, the fee is RM8 per player.

Games start at 9am on Sunday but participants must report to the tournament hall by 8am. Those interested should contact Sumathy or Stephen Cheong for entry forms.