Right at this moment, there are eight Malaysian chess players who have just finished taking part in two tournaments in Europe. Six of them were playing in the World Age-group chess championship in Cannes, France, while the other two were in Budapest, Hungary for the First Saturday tournament.
In Cannes, the age-group event was played in six categories and we had Lim Chuin Hoong taking part in the boys' under-14 section, Lim Jean Nie in the girls' under-14 section, Hazril Husain and Gerald Soh in the boys' under-12 section, Wong Zi Chuang in the boys' under-10 section and Hazuin Husain in the girls' under-10 section.
After the sixth round of this event earlier this week, Chuin Hoong has scored 3.5 points, Jean Nie two points, Hazril two points, Gerald 1.5 points, Zi Chuang three points and Hazuin two points in their respective sections.
The boys' under-14 section is the most interesting, for there are no less than 43 internationally-rated players in the 104-player field. So far, Chuin Hoong, who is still unrated, has managed to play rated opponents in all his games.
He won against Almas Ermekov (rated 2170) of Kazakhstan in the first round, lost to Dimitrios Mastrovasilis (2215) of Greece in the second round, beat Peter de Bortoli (2085) of Italy in the third round, drew with Vlad Jianu (2155) of Romania in the fourth round, lost to Baadur Jobava (2190) of Georgia) in the fifth round and won against Nikola Sedlak (2150) of Yugoslavia in the sixth round.
The boys' under-12 section is also closely watched and there are 18 rated players among the 93 participants. Hazril's fortune until the sixth round consisted of losses in the first two rounds and followed by four consecutive draws. His losses were to Pieter van der Merwe of South Africa and Alejandro Moreno Trujillo of Spain, while his draws were with Rui Seca of Portugal, Jonathan Blackburn of Wales, Vinicius Valois of Brazil and Harlen Otero of Venezuela.
Gerald, who is also playing in the same section as Hazril, lost to Ivan Tomba of Italy, Aleksander Nadj of Slovenia, Elshan Moradi Abadi of Iran and Tian Kuan-Kuan of Australia. Gerald won a game against Jean-Paul Lamatus of Puerto Rico and drew with Filippes Kouvatsos of Greece.
Zi Chuang has a relatively good run in the boys' under-10 section, with wins against Valentin Jotov of Bulgaria and Christopher Page of Australia, draws with Mukhtar Kakenov of Kazakhstan and Armen Antinian of Armenia, and losses to Alexandru Garban of Romania and Marvin Lepan of France.
In the girls' under-14 section, Jean Nie's losses were to Iriga Charkhalashvili (2080) of Georgia, Stefanie Chu (2095) of Canada and Elena Chorvatova of Slovakia. Jean Nie drew with Maria Berg of Sweden and Marany Meyer of South Africa, and won against Danai Nikolopoulou of Greece.
Hazuin, playing in the girls' under-10 section, has managed two wins and four losses. Her wins were against Andrea Sagi of Croatia and Onorjargal of Mongolia, while she lost to Fidan Shiraliyeva of Azerbaijan, Katharina Svoboda of Austria, Cecilie van der Merwe of South Africa and Melanie Verot of France.
In the First Saturday tournaments in Budapest, Mas Hafizulhelmi has returned to his old happy hunting ground where he was again burning the tracks in his search for a second international master norm.
There were a number of separate events going on at the same time in this tournament, but what we are really interested in are the IM-A and IM-B tournaments where Mohd Nor Azahari and Mas Haizul were playing.
In the IM-B tournament, a Category Two event, Mas Hafizul was leading the field of 12 players with 5.5 points from seven games. At this point of writing, he would need another 2.5 points from his remaining four games to secure his second IM norm.
I would be bold enough to say that this should be a realistic target for him, but I shall have to wait until next Friday to announce whether he has achieved his norm or not.
In his games until the seventh round, Mas Hafizul had beaten FM William Paschall (United States), IM Sandor Farago (Hungary), IM Evarth Kahn (Hungary), Le Thi Phuong Lien (Vietnam) and Adam Szeberenyi (Hungary). However, he had also drawn with IM Laszlo Eperjesi (Hungary) and lost to Endre Francsics (Hungary).
Mas Hafizul's companion in Budapest was Mohd Nor Azahari. Mohd Nor was playing in the Category Three IM-A event where there were also 12 players. After seven rounds, he had scored 2.5 points and this included wins against WIM Nguyen Thi Tuong Van (Vietnam) and FM Wolfgang Vandrey (Germany), and a draw with FM Alexander Colovic. His losses have been to IM Peter Varga (Hungary), David Karatorossian (Armenia), Imre Hera (Hungary) and Karmi Zalkind (Israel).
Our two players will not be returning home yet, for I understand that Mohd Nor will accompany Mas Hafizul to the Netherlands where the latter will be playing in a minor tournament in Groningen as part of the World Chess Championship festival.
By the way, there will be some news from the world chess championship in Groningen next week and also some coverage of the national closed championship which concluded in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. I hear Lim Yee Weng very easily retained his title while the runner-up was Ng Tze Han.
Towards nation building
KUB Tekstils Sdn Bhd's sponsorship of RM20,000 for the PCA Canggih international open chess championship was just a small way for the company to contribute towards nation building, said KUB Tekstils' executive director, Mohd Ramdan Yusof, at a cheque presentation ceremony last week.
He said that KUB Tekstils, as an advocate of the new information technology, Multimedia Super Corridor era, would continue to play its part in developing the nation's youths who would be the leaders of the future.
He added that his company intended to achieve this goal by introducing the Canggih brand of locally-made garment wear that included tracksuits and a complete range of school uniforms and accessories.
Mohd Ramdan was presenting the cheque to Dr Toh Kin Woon, Penang state executive councillor and president of the Penang Chess Association (PCA), at the latter's office in Komtar last week. .
Meanwhile, if you have not entered for the tournament yet, the entry form can still be found in today's edition of The Star. Members of the PCA need only pay RM50 but non-members will be charged RM70. Internationally titled players are given free entry.
The tournament will be played at the MarVista Resort in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, from Dec 25 to 28.
Prizes range from RM3,000 for the winner and RM2,000 for the runner-up down to an eighth prize of RM200. Five prizes are also being offered for the best Penang players in the tournament. In addition, there are prizes for the best two under-18, under-15 and women players.
Apart from KUB Tekstils Sdn Bhd, the other sponsors are DMV Sdn Bhd, WWT Communications Sdn Bhd and Star Publications (M) Bhd.
Johor closed
The Johor Chess Association will hold their Johor closed chess championship at the Pelangi Leisure Mall in Taman Pelangi, Johor Baru, from Jan 2-4 next year.
This is a seven-round event using a one-hour time control per person for each game. Only residents of Johor are eligible to take part, and the number of players will be limited to 64. Two rounds will be played on Jan 2, three rounds on Jan 3 and the final three rounds on Jan 4. The winners will be selected to represent the state at next year's Merdeka team championship and the national closed championship.
Entry fee is RM15 per player except for women and students who need to pay only RM8. The closing date for entries is Dec 28.
For more information, contact Sumati (07-332-4366), Wong (07-333-0931) or Cheong (016-720-2272).
