Reasons to rejoice

I CAN list 88 reasons why this year's Merdeka team chess championship was one of the most memorable ever organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation. Let me just name a few.

Firstly, the Society of the Blind Malaysia (SBM). In what other games can the visually-impaired compete with their able-bodied opponents on an equal footing? Not many, I'm afraid. But I can proudly proclaim that, in this tournament, our visually-impaired friends from the SBM were able to give some of the other teams a run for their money!

Secondly, the Brunei Chess Association. In recent years, one of our nearest neighbours has been making it a welcome habit of sending several teams to compete in both the Open and Youth sections of the Merdeka tournament. This year has not been any different; in fact, playing on the first board of their "A'' team in the Open section was an invited player from Indonesia, no less a person than grandmaster Ardiansyah.

Thirdly, Caissa Chess Enterprise and the St John's Institution Singapore (SJI) from our neighbour down south. Year in and year out, the Singaporeans have been giving the Merdeka tournament tremendous support. The Caissa team finished fourth in the Open section while the SJI Singapore was eighth in the Youth Section this year.

Fourthly, the Sekolah Catur Enerpac from Indonesia. This was their third appearance in the Merdeka tournament. In the past two years, this team of talented Indonesian youngsters had swept the Youth title.

Sensing that there was not much of a challenge left for them, the Enerpac boys turned their sights on the Open section of the tournament and it was to their credit that they finished third!

President of the Malaysian Chess Federation, Tan Sri Sabbaruddin Chik,
with the Penang team which won both the State and Youth titles at the
recent Merdeka tournament.

Fifthly, Dell Asia Pacific. With this year's Penang Dell Chess League behind them, the enthusiasm must have propelled Dell AP to send a team to play in the Merdeka event for the first time. The participation of this personal computer manufacturing giant is a milestone in Malaysian chess.

Sixthly, PCMM-Petronas. This team from the Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia (PCCM), playing under Petronas colours and led by Malaysia's top player, Mas Hafizulhelmi, chalked up a memorable win in the Open section. Mas, playing on the first board, was the inspiration for the team as he was undefeated in all seven games.

Seventhly, Keluarga Effa. There aren't many families who have sufficient members to make up a chess team but for this year's Merdeka tournament, the Mohd Farid siblings turned out in full force to stamp their mark in the Youth section. Effazuwan, Effawira, Effahrin, Effalini and Effaliana, turned in a remarkable performance to finish fifth in this event.

Eighthly, the State teams. This was one of those very rare occasions when all the states sent their teams to play in the State section of the tournament. They were rallying behind the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) which was facing a small crisis over the future of the Merdeka team chess championship itself. I shall comment more about this later on.

Ninthly, the Deputy Prime Minister's challenge trophy. This heavy pewter trophy is shaped like a Chinese steamboat (others say a Mongolian hotpot) but it is the symbol of chess supremacy in Malaysia. The winner of the State competition would get to keep it until the next year. Tenthly, the Merdeka double. The Penang state and youth teams, both sponsored by Dell Asia Pacific, achieved the rare Merdeka double by winning both the State and Youth titles this year.

I do not have to mention all the other participating teams in this tournament, for they are the remaining reasons why the Merdeka team chess championship has garnered such a loyal following over the years. This year's entries numbered a record-breaking 88 teams, making it the largest and most successful national-scale team event ever held by the Malaysian Chess Federation. There were 14 teams in the State section, 34 in the Youth section and 40 playing in the Open section.

The organisers and participants of this year's tournament, played at the Putra World Trade Centre, had every reason to be thankful to the Youth and Sports Ministry.

The Sports Ministry had stepped in to save the event after its fate hung in the balance following the Culture, Arts and Tourism Ministry's decision early this year to cut off its Merdeka financial aid to the MCF.

Nobody in the federation was aware of the decision until the MCF forwarded enquiries to the Ministry at the end of July. Apparently, what the MCF could not understand was why the Ministry had not thought it necessary to inform it about this.

Would almost 20 years of an uninterrupted Merdeka team chess championship come to an abrupt end? Even people in Brunei and Singapore voiced their concern to me and the MCF when the story broke.

But luckily, tradition did count with the Sports Ministry which channelled some RM30,000 to ensure that the Merdeka team chess championship went on. The increased participation this year completely supported the MCF's case that chess is not a dying game in this country.

At the Sydney Olympics

IN 1999, when the International Olympic Committee officially recognised chess as a sport, the foremost question on chessplayers' minds was whether chess would make its way to the Summer Olympics in Sydney as a demonstration event.

There were many people who believed that this would not happen because preparations in Sydney were already far advanced and no provision could be made to accommodate this sudden turn of events.

However in the months since the recognition, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) had been working quietly with the Australian Chess Federation to discuss this possibility with the Olympic organisers in Sydney.

Now, the good news is that chess will be a presentation game in Sydney, and the game will feature Viswanathan Anand and Alexei Shirov at the chessboard.

The presentation will take place in the heart of the Olympic grounds which is the Sydney Olympic Athletes' Village from 1pm (Malaysian time) this Sunday, and it can be viewed live through the Internet.

This is a very significant event for the chess world, so if you have access to the Internet, do keep this Sunday free for surfing at sydney.fide.com

Playing musical chess

READERS in the northern region who receive The Star's North section may have noticed that my interests are not solely confined to chess. Indeed, music has played such a big role in my life that at times it is hard even for me to say whether chess or music holds a greater fascination.

Accordingly, as a chess player and music lover, I have always been on the lookout for music or songs which feature a chess theme. In the last 30 years however, I have not found many and in fact, I have come across only one instance where chess has had such a high musical profile.

This was in 1984 when the song One Night in Bangkok first hit the airwaves. At that time, who could forget Murray Head's famous lines like I get my kicks above the waistline or the queens we use would not excite you.

One Night in Bangkok came from the concept stage musical show called CHESS which was written and produced by ex-ABBA members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus in collaboration with English lyricist Tim Rice of Jesus Christ Superstar fame.

The musical, which ran at London's Barbican Centre and later on Broadway, was based very loosely on the 1972 world championship match in Iceland between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.

There was a lot of excitement when the music album was released locally. Besides Murray Head, the other notable singer in the cast was Elaine Paige (who was even more successful later on in the musical Cats).

Today, 17 years later, CHESS continues to be staged by various production companies in Europe, Australia and the United States. Apart from the CHESS musical album, I have come across only two other chess-related music on audio compact discs.

Several years ago while wandering through the music shops in an Ampang shopping mall, I chanced upon a New Age audio compact disc by Manuel Gottsching with the very enigmatic title E2-E4.

The whole CD was made up of only one track in which Gottsching used his electronic wizardry to produce one long piece of instrumental music measuring 59 minutes and 20 seconds.

But it was nearly an hour of marvellous music: a racey, sparkling and subtly changing rhythm over which was added a very fluid understated guitar line. The result was hypnotic, refreshing and ideal for relaxation.

However, there was one point which rather irked me. Either Gottsching was just an average chess player or he could not be bothered with the translations of the cover notes from German to English.

For instance, Gottsching roughly divided his hour-long piece into nine segments and had subtitled one of them in German as Damen Eleganza. This was translated as "queen a pawn''" although I felt that "elegant queen'' was closer to the mark.

While CHESS was about a chess story set to music and E2-E4 was music with various chess themes, I have my doubts whether their authors or song writers--Rice, Andersson, Ulvaeus or Gottsching--had ever played competitive chess in their lives.

In terms of real chess and musical talent, none of them can really hold a candle to the next performer who is my third feature.

When I first came across this classical music CD, the first thing that struck me was the signature on the CD cover. It looked familiar; I had seen it before and here it was again, staring me in the face!

If that was not enough, there was also a photograph of a man and a woman at their pianos. The lady was not recognisable but the man, though younger than in any other photographs I had seen of him, was familiar enough. Further, the CD's title confirmed everything.

The man in the photograph was none other than Mark Taimanov, previously one of Russia's top grandmasters and more recently, a senior citizen world chess champion. There are encyclopaedic entries about Taimanov's chess career but very little about his musical side.

In chess, he had suffered greatly after losing spectacularly to Fischer in 1971. The Soviet Chess Federation blamed him and punished him by taking away his chess stipend and preventing him for a very long time from leaving the Soviet Union to play in international chess events.

Luckily, Taimanov could find solace in his music. In the Soviet Union, he was already a very talented concert pianist. He practically grew up together with his future wife, Lyubov Bruk. As teenagers, they had studied music at the Leningrad Conservatory and were brought together to play as a piano duet.

It was a very successful combination. Their duet won wide acclaim and though they could not tour outside the Soviet Union in the early days, the scope for concert activity within their country itself remained extremely broad. Much later, they were permitted to travel together to the Iron Curtain countries such as East Germany, Czechoslavakia and Hungary.

However, their personal and professional relationships ended in the early 1970s, no doubt contributed in part by Taimanov's disastrous showing against Fischer. Taimanov turned to a solo concert career in which he was not altogether successful, while Bruk teamed up with their son Igor, and later their granddaughter Kira, to continue with the duet and trio combinations.

Bruk died in 1996 while until today, Taimanov remains active with his dual concert and chess careers.

The double CD on the Taimanov-Bruk duet is a compilation of their surviving works which were recorded in Leningrad. It is part of the Great Pianists of the 20th Century series under the Philips Classics label which appeared two years ago.

Among some of the music in this set are compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Frederic Chopin and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A truly commendable collection.

UP NEXT

The Johor Baru District Chess Club and the Southern City Hyper Market will jointly organise the Southern City Open at the hypermarket's premises in Taman Suria, Johor Baru on Sept 17.

Entry fees are RM12 for the open section, RM7 for the under-16, and RM5 for the under-12. The winner of the open section will receive RM200, while the other seven prizes range from RM100 to RM15. Winners of the under-16 and under-12 sections will get RM100 and RM80 respectively. Both these sections offer seven other smaller cash prizes each.

Closing date is Sept 15 and only the first 300 entries will be accepted. For more details, contact Narayanan Krishnan ( 07-333 8215 / email: naraa@tm.net.my) or Zarida Ran ( 07-331 9787 / 012-7222 709).