The numbers game

TWICE a year, chess players around the world await the release of the World Chess Federation's international rating list with some impatience. For them, this list indicates whether the form of a chess player has improved or deteriorated over the past six months.

However this is an exclusive list because only those who play in Fide-recognised tournaments can hope to get listed. Even then, they must have played against a minimum number of Fide-rated players and performed reasonably well against them.

Since the start of last month, I had been impatiently waiting for Fide to announce its January 1999 rating list. After an exciting 1998, I wanted to see how the Malaysian players had fared. I was particularly curious to know how Mas Hafizulhelmi, Ng Tze Han and Wong Zi Jing stood in this list.

But for several weeks, Fide kept everyone in suspense. In early January, only an initial list of the top 100 players was released. But shortly after it was published on the Internet, something seemed to be amiss. For instance, Vesselin Topalov (Bulgaria) had played 22 games during the rating period but he was credited with having played 33 games; he believed that the Tilburg Fontys tournament might have been rated twice.

Within a week, Fide released two more versions of the January 1999 rating list. And a fourth revision came out a fortnight ago. This embarrassing state of affairs, of course, spoke volumes for Fide's accuracy and efficiency.

But in all these lists and revisions, Gary Kasparov (Russia) remained entrenched at the top with 2,812 points. Despite having played only six games in the previous six months, the former world champion was virtually invincible.

(Regular readers of this column are already aware of my stance with regards to Kasparov and the world chess title. By refusing to defend his world champion's title under the World Chess Federation's auspices in 1993, Kasparov had effectively relinquished any legitimate claim to this title.)

Viswanathan Anand (India) had been more active with 20 games but he did not gain from Kasparov's relative inactivity. In fact, Viswanathan's rating dropped a few points to 2,784.

Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) saw an even more drastic drop of 30 points to 2,751. Meanwhile, Alexei Shirov (Spain) rose several points to 2,726, which kept him clear of a vastly improving Alexander Morozevich (Russia) who added a hefty 98 points to 2,723.

Also in the world's top 10 list are Michael Adams (England, 2,716), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2,714) and Peter Svidler (Russia, 2,713).

Anatoly Karpov (Russia) is now an embarrassment. His standing in the list and his rating of 2,710 does not speak well for his continuing position as the world champion. He lost 15 points on one poor performance in a tournament in Poland and is in danger of dropping out of the top 10 in the future.

Topalov's rating remains unchanged at 2,700 with a bad Tilburg being compensated by a good Olympiad result.

Nigel Short (England), Peter Leko (Hungary) and Boris Gelfand (Byelorus) all gained points and are on the verge of cracking into the top 10. Judit Polgar (Hungary) is still the world's top woman player with a rating of 2,677, far ahead of her sister Zsuzsa Polgar (with a rating of 2,565) who is the women's world champion.

Among players from the Asia-Pacific region, Ian Rogers (Australia) is rated at 2,618 while Alexander Nenashev (Uzbekistan) is at 2,625 and Utut Adianto (Indonesia) at 2,607. Vladislav Tkachiev, originally a Kazakhstan player but now staying in France, is rated at 2,634.

It was not until about three weeks ago that Fide finally released its full January rating list on the Internet. However, it was no longer available at the Chess Planet homepage (http://www.chessweb.com.) but instead was posted at the Hellas Chess Club homepage (http://www.chess.gr/ratings/default.asp).

I do not know why Fide had terminated its arrangement with Chess Planet. Neither did Fide explain why it chose this Greek site instead of its own homepage (http://www.fide.com). I can only surmise that after a hacking incident during last year's Chess Olympiad, Fide no longer has faith in the security of its own site.

There were a few surprises when I extracted information on the Malaysian players. For one, Fide relisted almost all the inactive players who had not lifted a single chess piece internationally for umpteen years. These players are: Chia Soon Keat (2,235), Francis Chin (2,275), Choong Yit Chuan (2,205), Paul Foo (2,210), V. Gregory (2,235), Christi Hon (2,235), Thomas Lam (2,105), Peter Long (2,350), Collin Madhavan (2,220), Ahmad Muzzafar (2,185), Ng Ek Teong (2,200), Phuah Eng Chye (2,205), Sabar Md Hashim (2,195), Seto Wai Ling (2,020), Ignatius Si (2,205), K. Vimalavathy (2,005), Audrey Wong (2,070) and Yeoh Chin Seng (2,195).

Some names are missing from this list. When Eric Cheah was taken off the active list several years ago, his rating was 2,255. Now, his name does not even appear in this list!

This is true also of Wahid Karim who was last listed with a rating of 2,210. And I noted, too, that among the inactive members, Fide had again overlooked acknowledging Audrey Wong as Malaysia's international woman master. She was given this title when she became a joint winner of the 1985 Asian women's junior championship.

So what about those players that Fide still consider as active? As of January this year, 38 names are listed, with 13 having played in tournaments during the rated period. But here, too, there are inaccuracies, and the fault is not Fide's alone.

You see, when players get onto the Fide list, they are automatically given identification numbers. By right, chess players should disclose their ID numbers to organisers whenever they play so that when the tournament results are sent to Fide, there is no ambiguity about the players' identities.

Unfortunately, most of the time, players do not know their identification numbers. And the result is that a player can sometimes find himself having more than one identification number. I found two such cases among the list of Malaysian players.

The first was Wong Zi Jing whose two identification tags gave different readings. As Wong, Zi-Jing, he was credited with a rating of 2,220 but as Zi-Jing, Wong, his rating was 2,304. The second anomaly was with Ng Tze Han. As Ng, Tze-Han, he was given a 2,140 rating but as Han, Ng Tze, he was rated 2,284.

Obviously, this is a matter which must be taken up by the Malaysian Chess Federation. Anyway, using Fide's own formula for calculating ratings, I would safely adjust Wong's and Ng's ratings to 2,283 and 2,208 respectively.

Let's take a look at the players who were active in the last six months or so. Mas Hafizulhelmi, as expected, tops the list with a 2,401 rating but this is an increase of only one point from the July 1998 list! Although he gained points from an international tournament in Singapore, he lost them in the Asian junior championship in Rasht, Iran, and the zonal tournament in Yangon.

Jimmy Liew was rated 2,325, losing five points in the PWTC-Dynasty rating tournament in Kuala Lumpur. Wong Zi Jing improved the most over the past six months. His rating shot up a hefty 163 points to 2,283. He had good results in four international tournaments--the Asian open in Shenyang (China), the PWTC-Dynasty rating tournament, the zonal tournament and the Chess Olympiad in Elista (Russia).

Azahari Md Nor was rated 2,121, down 19 points from the previous list. Ismail Ahmad's rating increased 32 points to 2,072, and Lim Yee Weng increased his rating from 2,140 to 2,149.

Finally, there are five new players in the rating list: Ng Tze Han (2,208), Jonathan Chuah (2,337), Aaron Yee (2,337), Lim Jean Nie (2,227) and Deon Moh (2,205).

National Allegro circuit

THE second leg of the chess circuit will be played in Terengganu on March 6 at the Dewan Jabatan Laut Wilayah Timur in Kuala Terengganu. To register, call Jefri at 010-984 3648.

For details of the third leg which is to be held in Kuching on March 7, call the Malaysian Chess Federation secretary Abdul Latif Mohamed at 03-282 6341 or 013-301 0204.

Twelve other legs will be held in various cities and towns around the country before the Grand Final in October. Each leg consists of six rounds and has a total cash prize of RM1,500. The bulk of this prize fund will go to the main winners while RM500 is set aside for the minor winners. The winner of each leg will qualify for the Grand Final.

Entry fees are RM10 for members of the state chess associations organising their respective legs, Bank Pertanian employees, girls under-12, and veteran players, and RM15 for all other participants.

 

From the chess board to the courts

ONE of the most significant developments in the country during the past two weeks must be the appointment of an independent four-member commission to look into the injuries of former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim while in police custody.

Heading the commission is the former Chief Judge of Malaya, Tan Sri Anuar Zainal Abidin.

Now, I know many readers will be wondering what this has got to do with chess. A fortnight ago I was writing about horses and now I am telling you a story about a retired judge.

But Anuar is no ordinary judge. He holds a special pride of place among many chess players who were active in the game during the 70s. The retired judge even had a television show and that is something which I believe no other local chess enthusiast can boast about.

The epic match of 1972 between American Bobby Fischer and the then Soviet Union's Boris Spassky had created an unprecedented interest in the game in almost all four corners of the world, including here in Malaysia, too. Riding on this interest, Radio Television Malaysia introduced a short series of weekly chess programmes to teach the game to beginners. Anuar was at the helm in every programme.

Soon afterwards, I learnt that he had become the president of the Chess Association of Perak. During his tenure in Ipoh, Anuar led a team of Perak chess players to play the Chess Association of Selangor in a friendly inter-state chess match in 1976.

Upon his transfer to Kuala Lumpur one year later, Anuar was made the president of the Chess Association of Selangor, a position which he held until 1980. During this time, he was also elected to the Malaysian Chess Federation as one of the vice-presidents. I hear that much later Anuar was also with the Johor Chess Association for a short while.

Of course, the pressures of being one of the High Court judges meant that in the 80s and onwards he had less time for the game. But during those 10 years or so Malaysian chess really benefited from a man who had one of the keenest legal minds in the country. Dare I say that he had honed his mind on the logical thinking process which chess accorded him?

National allegro circuit

A LONG time ago it was quite normal for chess organisers to decree that cash prizes must be shared among players with the same points. Nobody thought that this policy was wrong; in fact, this policy was wholeheartedly adopted by all and sundry as an equitable way of distributing the rewards to the winners of chess competitions.

Thus, at the very top of the winners' list, you may find two or three players with the same points and each receiving the same amount of cash prize. But as you go down the list of winners, this policy gives rise to very peculiar situations which are aggravated by the Swiss tournament rules.

You see, the Swiss tournament rules allow for many players to participate in a competition with a limited number of rounds. Usually, you can determine an outright winner but occasionally too, you can have more than one player tying at the top. If you already have a situation where there can be two or more players at the top, imagine how it is like lower down in the list when, say, 10 people have the same points ... and they are all sharing one of the minor prizes!

I have played in tournaments where eight people eventually shared the final advertised prize of RM20, and each of them were given RM2.50 as their prize money. Pretty meaningless, I should think, and in the long run, the organisers thought so too!

Very much later, the organisers began to get cleverer and they decided that prize monies should no longer be shared. The winners' positions would be decided by a series of tie-breaking systems and the prizes would be awarded accordingly. Therefore, the last person on the prize winners' list is now assured of a more respectable prize.

This brings me to another related topic. Should a player be given more than one prize? This situation can arise when a player qualifies for one of the main prizes and also one or more minor prizes. I think common sense dictates that a player should win only one prize and he should be given the prize with the highest intrinsic or monetary value. Moreover, as an encouragement to the field, organisers owe it to the competitors that the prizes be given to as many people as possible.

Thus, if a player is eligible for an under-16 prize, an under-14 prize and so on, he should be given the prize with the highest value and in this case, the under-16 prize. It does not mean that the other prizes are his too.

The reason why I am bringing this up is because I am not particularly agreeable with the way the organisers had dispensed with the prizes at the close of the first leg of the Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro Grand Prix chess circuit in Kuala Lumpur 12 days ago.

I have no qualms with Ng Ee Vern being given the top prize. As the player with the most points--six points--at the end of the competition, he deserved the top prize of RM300.

The second prize of RM200 went to Ghazali Che Cob but because he was also the BPM employee with the best score in the 130-player field, he was given the allotted RM50 prize. Furthermore, Ghazali qualified as a veteran and he was given the RM40 prize accordingly. All in, Ghazali won almost as much as the tournament winner. With a little bit more patience, perhaps one day we shall see a second-prize winner walking away with more prizes than the winner!

The third prize of RM150 went to Fikrul Saifuddin who, together with Ghazali, scored 5 1/2 points each. Among the four players with five points, Agus Salim was fourth, Khairul Aziz Abdullah was fifth, Mohd Saprin Sabri was sixth and Ismail Ahmad, seventh.

Fourteen players obtained 4 1/2 points each, but the eighth, ninth and 10th prizes went to Loo Fah Kuan, Mohd Zambri Shariff and Gregory Lau respectively.

Eleven-year-old Siti Zulaikha Faudzi also had 4 1/2 points but as she was the best performing women's player, under-12 player, under-14 player and under-16 player in this tournament, the organisers decided to give her the four prizes totalling RM120. Oh, by the way, her earnings were more than what Agus Salim received as the fourth-placed winner.

Meanwhile, the second leg of the chess circuit will be played in Kuala Terengganu on March 6, and this will be followed by the third leg in Kuching on March 7. There will be 12 other legs in various cities and towns around the country before the Grand Final in October.

Each leg consists of six rounds and have a total cash prize of RM1,500. The bulk of this prize fund will go to the main winners while RM500 is set aside for minor winners. The winner of each leg will qualify for the Grand Final.

Entry fees are RM10 for members of the state chess associations organising their respective legs, Bank Pertanian employees, women, under-12 and veteran players, and RM15 for all other participants.

Grand Prix results

TENG Wei Ping put up a spirited display to win RM200 at the fourth leg of the Penang Grand Prix circuit held two weeks ago at the Berjaya Georgetown Hotel in Pulau Tikus, Penang. Lim Chuin Hoong was second, winning RM120. The third prize of RM80 went to Ng Tze Han.

Fourth was Lim Cheng Teik; fifth, Chuah Heng Meng; sixth, Teng Wei Khoon; seventh, Khor Shihong and eighth, Lim Jean Nie. The best junior in the competition that was sponsored by the hotel was Jonathan Chuah while Oh Hui Ling took the best lady's prize.

The hotel also presented special prizes of meal vouchers which were won by Ooi Chuen Chieh, Evelyn Chang and Oh Seong Hor.