Chance of a lifetime

ABDULLAH Che Hassan is one lucky kid. While most chess players only dream of playing against the strongest chess player in the world, Abdullah actually did it.

Thanks to the Internet, Abdullah played Gary Kasparov in the early hours of March 15; he was one of 30 children worldwide selected to play the former world champion in a clock simultaneous chess exhibition.

The event, set in New York City, was billed the "United Nations of Chess." It involved players from every continent except Antarctica. The simultaneous exhibition marked the worlwide launch of Kasparov's http://kasparovchess.com website.

Ten children played him live in the ABC Times Square television studios and 20 more were logged online in the website's Playing Zone. In the television studios, 20 computers, each representing one online player, were set in two rows next to where the other 10 kids were playing. Kasparov went from hand to mouse and back again as he walked round and round the room.

In a normal simultaneous exhibition, a player is required to make his move immediately when the chess master arrives at his board. But for the online simultaneous exhibition, some technological tricks were employed to ensure smooth play. When Kasparov arrived at a computer, he clicked a special "Move Now" button that sent a signal to the player to let him know that Kasparov was at his board.

Kasparov was in no way distracted by this unusual format, winning 28 games and drawing only one against his opponents. Unfortunately, the 30th game was not played as the player could not log onto the website. The lone draw was achieved by Victoria Zaks of Israel and it came from a repetition in a position where the 12-year-old girl was doing fine.

Abdullah was not so lucky in his game. He was nervous initially because, he says, "I respected Gary too much." Although he had prepared for Kasparov's opening move, 1 d4, Abdullah said that he played too fast, hoping to beat the grandmaster on time. He managed to hold on for 51 moves, finally resigning because he had to go to school. Despite the loss, the young lad said that playing Kasparov was a chance of a lifetime.

(In the exhibition, Kasparov was given two hours on his clock while each of his opponents had one hour. Considering that Kasparov had to play 29 opponents moving from one game to another, his average time spent on each game was a mere three minutes!)

Abdullah was informed of this opportunity to play Kasparov through an e-mail message from the International E-mail Chess Group, of which he is a member.

The message said that Kasparov would be launching his new http://kasparovchess.com website in New York City and the organisers of the event were looking for 25 to 30 chess players from around the world, aged 16 years and under, who would be interested to play in the exhibition through the Internet.

Abdullah responded to the e-mail and, as he was the only one from Malaysia to submit an application, he was given the opportunity to play.

Two weeks before the event, the organisers had a few anxious moments when they lost touch with Abdullah. They even contacted me to help them find the boy. Fortunately, Abdullah replied to the organisers in the nick of time.

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BPM Allegro Events

The next three legs of this year's Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit will be played in Kuantan on March 25, Kota Kinabalu on March 26 and Kota Baru on April 8.

The entry fees are RM10 for members of the organising chess associations, Bank Pertanian employees, players above 50 years old and girls below 12 years old (there are no under-12 boy players), and RM15 for all other participants.

Prizes for the open section will be RM300 for the winner, RM200 for the second-placed, RM150 for third, RM100 for fourth and fifth, and RM60 for sixth to 10th. The best Bank Pertanian player will also win RM60, while the best players in the other categories will get RM50.

To register for the event, contact Wah Abdullah ( 09-583 3205) for the Kuantan leg, Sylvester Asai ( 088-764 305) for the Kota Kinabalu leg, and Nizam Hamzah ( 09-790 9870) for the Kota Baru leg.

The other legs of the series are in:

Malacca: April 15 (contact Eugene Kong 06-232 1018)

Kuala Lumpur: April 23 (Ibrahim Yaacob 03-636 3082)

Sarawak: May 1 (Lim Kian Hwa 082-427 772)

Perak: May 21 (Dr Yee Meng Keong 05-546 4530)

Johor: June 11 (Stephen Cheong 07-333 9636)

Negri Sembilan: June 24 (Charles Chan 06-631 7971)

Kedah: July 23

Perlis: July 24 (Khirluddin Darus 04-976 5485).

Shah Alam Open

The Selangor Library will organise the Shah Alam Open over four days from March 26 to 29 at the Radisson Hotel, Shah Alam. The event, sponsored by Tenaga Nasional Bhd, offers cash prizes totalling RM5,000.

The tournament will be divided into five categories with each category played on a different day and with different entry fees:

Under-12: March 26, RM10

Open: March 26, RM25

Student: March 27, RM15

Under-12 team: March 28

Under-18 team March 29

For more details, contact Hashim 03-5519 7667.

National Age-Group Chess Championship

The second Bank Rakyat-PWTC national age-group chess championship will be held at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur on April 1 and 2. This tournament will be played over seven rounds with a time control of one hour per player for each game.

There are six age-groups in this event: under-eight, under-10, under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18, with separate competitions for boys and girls.

The prize fund of RM6,000 is sponsored by Bank Rakyat Malaysia and this amount will be awarded between the top five players in each category. In addition, champions will receive challenge trophies.

The Malaysian Chess Federation will also consider the champions for qualification to the World Age-Group Chess Championship in Spain this October.

Entry fees for the Bank Rakyat-PWTC tournament are RM15 for the under-18, under-16 and under-14 age groups, and RM10 for the under-12, under-10 and under-eight age groups. Registration will be in PWTC's lobby foyer between 3pm and 6pm on March 31; last-minute entries will not be entertained.

Participants are required to produce either their identity cards or birth certificates for verification upon registering. If you have Internet access, you can download the entry form from my web page at http://www5.mol.com.my/qss/Library

The completed entry form can be posted, without the entry fees, to Hamid Majid, 5-1-10 Medan Intan Apartments, Jalan 1/21-C, Gombak, 53000 Kuala Lumpur. Alternatively, e-mail him at aham@pc.jaring.my

Tebrau Open

The Johor Baru District Chess Club will hold its 11th Tebrau open chess tournament at SM Sri Tebrau in Taman Sri Tebrau, Johor Baru, on April 2. The event is divided into the open, under-16 and under-12 sections with each section offering 10 prizes.

The entry fee for the open category is RM10; for the under-16, RM7; under-12, RM5. Games start at 8am. Participants are required to register with the organisers by March 30. Only the first 300 particiapnts will be accepted.

For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan 07-333 8215 or e-mail naraa@tm.net.my

Free School Open

Penang Free School will hold its annual open tournament on April 9. It will be an eight-round event with an entry fee of RM8 per person and prizes totalling RM600.

The first prize is RM200, second RM120, third RM80, fourth RM50, fifth RM40, sixth RM30 and seventh to 10th RM20 each. There will also be prizes in kind for the three best players in the under-15, under-12 and ladies groups, and the best performers among the under-10, Penang Free School and Old Frees players.

Closing date for entries is April 8. The first 200 people to register before this date will get souvenirs. To register, contact Saw Chee Wooi ( 04-829 7695) or Tan Jee Jian ( 04-828 4487) or e-mail pfschessclub@yahoo.com

 

Tournament ends on high note

WHEN I set out to organise the Wah Seong Penang international master chess tournament two months ago, one of the main objectives was to provide an opportunity for local players to achieve international master title norms.

There was no lack of title aspirants in this tournament. Apart from Mas Hafizulhilmi who was already an international master, there were five other local players who were hopeful of playing well enough to get their norms.

Unfortunately, in an event of this kind where none of the players can be considered a pushover, not everyone would be able to realise this target. Exemplary play would have to be the order of the day, and the players would have to sort it out themselves over the chess board to see who was best qualified to gain the title norm.

I had written two weeks ago that if there was anyone who could earn an international master title norm, Mok Tze Meng would be a prime candidate. As the tournament progressed, Mok proceeded to show that I was correct in my prediction.

He had a very encouraging game in the first round against Wynn Zaw Htun, stretching the Myanmar player into a long drawn endgame before they finally agreed to a draw. In the second round, Mok made short work of national champion Jonathan Chuah and continued with another win in the third round against Ng Tze Han.

Two draws then followed against Myo Naing, an international master (IM) from Myanmar, and IM Mas Hafizulhilmi before he suffered a defeat at Chinese IM Liu Wenzhe's hands. It was a loss which could have been avoided if Mok had not been overly ambitious. A safe draw against the Chinese would have seen him on an easier track towards the title norm.

Instead, Mok found Lim Chuin Hoong very determined to stop him in the seventh round. However, he managed to avoid complications when he successfully negotiated an early simplification of the position. Lim tried hard but could not win and in the end, he had to concede defeat to Mok.

In the eighth round, despite spirited play by Wong Zijing, Mok managed to pocket the full point. Finally, Indonesian grandmaster Ardiansyah's offer of a draw in the ninth round was sufficient for Mok to reach the target of six points which was the requirement for the international master title norm in this tournament.

Amidst all the excitement over a Malaysian player getting this norm was the fact that another player had also played well enough to get a similar norm. Seventeen-year-old Wynn Zaw Htun, who came into this tournament with an impressively high rating of 2,524, played solidly enough to score six points.

He had a slow start in this event: a draw with Mok in the first round was followed by a loss to Ardiansyah. But then Wynn beat Chuah in the third round, drew with Ng, Myo and Mas in the fourth to sixth rounds, and then unleashed a victory against Liu in the seventh round. Wynn put in a final spurt in the last two rounds of the tournament by defeating Lim and Wong to achieve his norm.

The nine-day tournament, sponsored by Wah Seong (M) Trading Co Sdn Bhd and played at the CitiTel Penang, was won by Mas Hafizulhilmi. This was my first opportunity to see Mas Hafizul play in an international event and I was suitably impressed with his confidence and preparation. He made all his games seem rather effortless.

He was particularly deadly against the foreign competitors and he scored victories against Ardiansyah, Liu and Myo. Wynn was the only player to give Mas Hafizul some initial difficulties but the draw was never in doubt.

He was generous with the local players at the start of the event but towards the end when it became clear that some could no longer get their norms, Mas Hafizul moved into higher gear and mopped up everyone else.

Gone are the days when the foreigners can beat our players at will--as proven by the results of this tournament. Our players are on par with the foreign players. Otherwise, how would you explain the performances of the foreign players?

Ardiansyah, Liu and Myo obviously did not play at their very best levels or else they would not have suffered embarrassing losses to our own players.

In the fourth round, Ardiansyah went down to a shock defeat at the hands of Chuah; and one round later, Wong defeated Liu. Ng's high point in the tournament was when he beat Myo in the seventh round.

Anyway, it would be too presumptous to dismiss the foreigners for not trying hard enough. I know they did try very hard. In the second round, for instance, Ardiansyah pulled himself together to defeat Wynn in a delicate endgame position. In the final round, Liu piled a lot of pressure on Ng's position but failed to make a breakthrough and had to agree to a draw.

The tournament homepage is located at http://www.geocities.com/pg-chess/WahSeong2000/index.html

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BPM Allegro events

Readers wishing to take part in the Penang leg of the Bank Pertanian Malaysia national allegro chess circuit this Sunday are reminded that today is the closing date for entries.

The entry fees are RM10 for members of the Penang Chess Association, Bank Pertanian employees, players above 50 years old and girls below 12 years old, and RM15 for other participants.

To register for the event, contact Ooi Kiem Boo ( 04-657 4596), Eoh Hook Kim ( 04-826 0196; e-mail: hkeoh@tm.net.my) or Chuah Soon Pheng ( 04-657 4316; e-mail: jinhai@tm.net.my). Participants are required to turn up at Kolej Damansara Utama in Anson Road, Penang, at 8am on Sunday.

The other legs of the BPM allegro series in the next couple of months are: Pahang leg on March 25 (contact Wan Abdullah 09-583 3205), Sabah leg on March 26 (Sylvester Asai 088-764 305), Kelantan leg on April 8 (Nizam Hamzah 09-790 9870), Malacca leg on April 15 (Eugene Kong 06-232 1018) and Kuala Lumpur leg on April 23 (Ibrahim Yaacob 03-636 3082).

Perak Grand Prix

Next weekend will be a busy time for the Perak International Chess Association which will be holding their annual general meeting at 9am on March 19 at Sek Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Ipoh. In conjunction with this meeting, a two-day chess competition has been planned.

The first event is a continuation of the Perak chess grand prix for their Category A players who are locally rated above 1,700. The top prize for this event is RM150, so anyone wishing to take part should be present at Sek Tuanku Abdul Rahman by 2pm on March 18. A separate one-day Category B event for players below 1,700 will be held at the same place beginning 10.30am on March 19.

Both are six-round tournaments. The time control for the Category A event is one hour, while that for the Category B tournament is 25 minutes. For more details, call W.K. Wong ( 05-366 1692).

Shah Alam open

The Selangor Library will organise the Shah Alam open tournament over four days from March 26 to 29 at the Radisson Hotel in Shah Alam. The event, sponsored by Tenaga Nasional Berhad, will feature total prize money of RM5,000.

The tournament will be divided into five categories, with each category being played on different days. The under-12 category will be contested on March 26; the entry fee is RM10 per player. On March 26 and 27, the open and student categories will be held. Entry fees are RM25 and RM15 respectively. For these events, the games will start at 2pm on the first playing date.

The under-12 team tournament will be played on March 28 while on March 29, the under-18 team tournament will be held. Entry fees are RM40 and RM60 respectively. For more details, call Hashim (03-559 7667).

National Age-Group championship

The Malaysian Chess Federation will organise the second Bank Rakyat national age-group chess championship at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur on April 1 and 2.

Entry fees are RM15 for the under-18, under-16 and under-14 events, and RM10 for the under-12, under-10 and under-8 events. Entries will be accepted until March 31. For details contact Hamid Majid ( 03-402 19576; e-mail: aham@pc.jaring.my)

Winners of the various age-group events will be considered for qualification to the world age-group chess championship in Spain this October or November.