Much room for improvement

MOST readers know that we have an annual match with our Singapore friends every year. It is either the Malaysians going south to Singapore, or the Singaporeans coming north to Kuala Lumpur.

Either way, our players always cherish playing this match because in the last few years, we normally come out big winners. Even though our senior players lose on the top boards, our juniors always carry the day. We feel good about the success of our junior players because they are the future of Malaysian chess.

As our juniors mature into senior players, perhaps the day is near when Malaysia will finally beat Singapore at senior level.

Well, I have news for you. The writing is there that we are wrong, very wrong and getting complacent about it. In one very recent regional event, the cream of our junior players, except for a few exceptions, were shown to be as ordinary as our average adult club players.

When the Malaysian Chess Federation decided to send a group of 22 boys and girls to the first Asean age-group chess championship in Vungtau, Vietnam, hopes were rather high that our players could give a good account of themselves.

In a field that consisted of an even bigger group of 44 players from Singapore and 76 juniors playing in front of their home audience, the feeling was that most of our players could end up in the top half or even the top third of the standings. Perhaps with some hard work and good luck, a Malaysian player could even top an age-group event or two.

However, the results proved otherwise. In almost all the age-groups, our players were placed badly. The main beneficiaries were the Vietnamese themselves but generally, the Malaysian juniors had rather uninspiring results.

Just consider these points:

The best Malaysian in the boys' under-12 event finished 13th, behind 10 Vietnamese players and two Singaporeans. The event was won by a Vietnamese player but the best Singaporean went home with the third prize. Near the bottom of the table languished two other Malaysians.

A Singaporean won the boys' under-18 event. Then, there was a long list of names of players from Myanmar, Vietnam and Singapore before our the name of our sole representative was reached.

In the boys' under-10 event, Vietnam took the top eight spots and our player only managed to slip into the ninth place. After him was another Malaysian boy, but it was basically the Singapore players that dominated the middle standings.

This trend was repeated in many of the girls' events. In the girls' under-10 event, the Vietnam girls shut everyone else from the top half of the standings. Our local girl was 10th in a field of 14.

Similarly, in the girls' under-12 and under-16 events, Vietnam ruled the top half of the tournament. For the under-12 event, Malaysia's current national women's champion, Siti Zulaika Foudzi, could only place eighth while another girl was even further back. In the under-16 event, the Malaysian was ninth among 12 players.

It was only in the boys' under-14 and under-16 events that there were some redeeming factors.

Singapore's Luke Leong played with such confidence to grasp the first prize of the under-14 event that even our former national champion, Jonathan Chuah, could only give chase, while failing to catch up with him. The most pleasant surprise was the good show of young Nicholas Chan who finished joint second with Chuah. But apart from these two players, the other four Malaysians finished poorly in the second half of the 23-player field.

Also in the under-16 event, Deoh Moh and Marcus Chan played reasonably well to finish third and fourth respectively among 14 players. We had two other players in this event but they could only end up in sixth and 10 positions.

As a final summary of the Asean age-group tournament, Vietnam's girls made a complete sweep of the five girls' events while of the five boys' events, Vietnam won the under-10 and under-12, Singapore won the under-14 and under-18, and the Philippines took the under-16 prize.

My opinion of the Malaysian juniors' performances may seem rather harsh but the stark reality is that our junior players, save for a handful, are really going nowhere. Even when they play among their peers, it seems that other countries are progressing faster than us.

So what can be the solution to this problem? Various suggestions have been made, including the traditional solution of training on one's own, learning from chess books and using the modern approach of using computer chess and chess database programmes, and then taking part in competitions within one's own geographical sphere.

This, however, has its limitations because the player is not exposed to the wider practical challenges of playing with enough human opponents of varied playing styles and skills.

There has been talk of organising centralised training sessions in Kuala Lumpur for selected junior players. But while this is a plausible solution, it cannot be sustained over a long period of time due to various reasons.

Outstation junior players, for example, cannot be expected to invest too much time away from their homes and normal studies. Then there is the aspect of getting suitably qualified local coaches. While there are a few local players who are attempting to make a living from coaching and organising some chess activities, they do not have the necessary experience to take their students far. They are competent, yes, but up to a certain standard only, after which the students are on their own again.

Perhaps we can do what the Singaporeans are doing: employ foreign grandmasters and other titled players as coaches. For the past years, Chinese grandmaster Wu Shaobin and Vietnamese grandmaster Tu Hoang Thong have been among other foreign chess professionals coaching the Singapore boys and girls regularly, and their efforts are starting to show good results.

I am told that their professional fees are not cheap. Wu, for example, charges between S$60 to S$70 (about RM135 to RM160) for a two-hour private tutorial.

Perhaps the Malaysian Chess Federation could have instituted a similar programme years ago when the Georgian grandmaster, Eduard Gufeld, was such a regular figure darting in and out of the country. At that time, the MCF's honorary life-president, Datuk Tan Chin Nam, had offered Gufeld's services to the federation but sadly, this offer was never taken up.

It was a missed golden opportunity because the MCF will not be able to afford paying for Gufeld now. Gufeld has already set himself up in the United States where he runs a popular and successful coaching service. Needless to say, he now "talks'' in US dollars.

Perhaps where we are going wrong is in the types of tournaments we organise. Rapid chess events may be cool and popular but they do not train our players to play and pace themselves correctly. We certainly need more local tournaments at longer time controls so that our players can learn what it is like to think more deeply.

And finally too, it is about time that the MCF gets down to the urgent task of persuading the Education Department to reinstate the MSSM chess programmes. It has been a few years since chess disappeared from the schools' activity calendar; it is time for the game to reappear if we want to rejuvenate scholastic chess interests nationwide.

UP NEXT

THE Penang Chess Association will organise the fourth leg of this year's Penang Chess Grand Prix circuit at the Bayan Baru Residents' Association clubhouse on Dec 31 at 8.30am.

This tournament will comprise six rounds and the entry fee is RM10 for PCA members. Anyone interested can contact Ooi Kiem Boo ( 04-226 2209, office; 04-658 0809, residence / e-mail: ooilsv@pd.jaring.my).

Fiery quest for the finals

THE world chess championship in New Delhi, India, has reached a most interesting stage. The field in the men's championship has now been reduced to only four players in the semi-finals stage, thus making it easier to focus our attention on the event. As for the women's championship, the finals are now in progress.

When the event kicked off some 2 1/2 weeks ago, there were 72 players entering the first knockout stage of the championship. Even when half of this field was eliminated, they were joined by another 28 players who, by virtue of being higher seeded, had the right of entry into the second round.

But by the fifth round, the number of contenders had been whittled down to only eight. Along the way, many fancied players had seen their aspirations dashed for at least another year.

For example, in the first round, the biggest casualty was France's Joel Lautier who lost at the hands of Rafael Leitao of Brazil. But there were also a lucky few who survived this stage, like Vietnam's Dao Thien Hai who eliminated Ukrainian wonderboy Ruslan Ponomariov, and Poland's Bartlomiej Macieja who beat England's Jonathan Speelman.

Dao's run ended in the second round when he lost to England's Michael Adams while Macieja found the inspiration to progress further when he beat his compatriot, Mikhail Krasenkow. However, there were no bigger upsets in this round other than Jann Ehlvest beating Vassily Ivanchuk, and Nigel Short losing to the virtually unknown Igor Nataf of France.

Armenia's Vladimir Akopian, who had played so wonderfully in Las Vegas last year when he advanced until the final stage, hit a wall this time when he was beaten by Aleksei Aleksandrov of Bulgaria. In the meantime, Russia's youngster Alexander Grischuk who was a key member of the Russian team at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad, got the better of his higher rated opponent, Ilya Smirin of Israel.

The fancied names that made it through this round included top-seeded Viswanathan Anand, Alexander Morozevich, Adams, Alexei Shirov, Peter Leko, Veselin Topalov, Evgeny Bareev, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand and Alexander Khalifman. In addition, the dark horses who managed to sneak into the third round were Vladimir Tkachiev, Loek van Wely and Jeroen Piket.

For van Wely and Piket, however, this was as far as they could go, for they were now eliminated by Alexei Dreev and Gelfand respectively. Macieja again surprised everyone by beating Alexander Beliavsky but, apart from this rather unexpected result, the more fancied players who survived this round included Anand, Khalifman, Adams, Shirov, Svidler, Topalov and Morozevich.

Tkachiev and Grischuk also found their way through to the next round. Tkachiev beat Uzbekistan's Rustam Kasimdzhanov while Grischuk beat Grigory Serper.

By the fourth round, the world championship had become decidedly tighter and, consequently, more interesting. Basically, there weren't any more easy pushovers except for maybe three pairings. Anand, as expected, ended Macieja's fine run. Khalifman also ended Leitao's fine run, while Bareev stopped the unassuming Boris Gulko in his tracks.

Of the other line-ups, Adams beat Svidler, Topalov took care of Dreev, Grischuk eliminated Ehlvest, and Shirov disposed of Gelfand.

Meanwhile, Tkachiev continued to surprise by beating the fancied Morozevich.

The highlight of the fifth round, the quarter-finals of the world championship, was the anticipated clash between Anand and Khalifman. It was rather disappointing that the match between the aspirant and the incumbent had to occur at this stage of the championship as many would have preferred that they meet in the final.

But such was the pairing and, according to reports from Delhi, the playing hall was jam-packed with Indian spectators for this match. This year alone, Khalifman had already lost to Anand thrice with the black pieces, so the biggest question mark was how he would play against Anand in the first game.

To Khalifman's credit, he chose the aggressive Marshall Attack against Anand's Spanish Opening and he held the initiative for a long time. But although the play was exciting, the advantage never tipped significantly either way and, before long, both players had agreed to a draw.

The second game was drawn, so the match headed into the play-offs.

The first two games were drawn, then Anand struck in the third game, forcing Khalifman's resignation. In the fourth play-off game, Khalifman held a very slight edge in the position but it was not enough to win. With this game drawn, Anand thus advanced to the semi-finals. We shall see a new world champion.

In the other quarter-final matches, Adams won comfortably against Topalov while the Grischuk-Tkachiev and Bareev-Shirov games went into the play-offs. Grischuk and Shirov won their respective play-off games and are now meeting each other in the semi-finals. Adams is presently playing Anand in the other semi-finals.

The winners of the two semi-final matches will then travel to Teheran for the final match of this world championship series from Dec 20 to 26. There will not be any Christmas break for the players and they may still be playing chess as Ramadan ends and Syawal begins in Islamic Iran.

The women's world championship will be spared the potential problems of women playing chess in Iran because the cycle will end this week in Delhi itself. Because there were fewer players to begin with, the World Chess Federation could arrange for the women's cycle to be completed in six rounds instead of seven.

For the women's final, Xie Jun is defending her title against another Chinese player, Qin Kanying. For Xie, it has been a casual stroll since she entered the championship in the second round as the top seed. The only time that she had to stretch herself was in the semi-finals in which she secured her place in the finals with a win against Ekaterina Kovalevskaya during the play-off.

By comparison, Qin had to battle her way from the first round. But in beating Alisa Maric in the semi-finals, Qin is halfway to realising her ambition of winning the world championship.

It will not be an easy match for Qin. Xie, a two-time world champion, is a very experienced opponent. She would not be where she is today if she is not a formidable player. Even as you read this, the women's finals may well be over!

The official homepage for the world chess championship which is run by Fide Commerce in conjunction with the Indian and Iranian organisers is http://wcc2000.fide.com but an equally interesting coverage is offered by http://www.kasparovchess.com.

Chess mailing list

More in my next column about Malaysia's first and only chess e-mail discussion list to enable members to talk about the state of Malaysian chess. However, if you can't wait until then, you could join immediately by sending an empty e-mail to pg-chess-subscribe@egroups.com.

Selangor 'Fun Karnival' events

THE Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organise a series of tournaments from tomorrow until Dec 22 at the Mines Exhibition Hall, Sungei Besi, Kuala Lumpur, in conjunction with the "100 Fun Karnival 2000''.

This weekend will feature four individual events. Apart from an open tournament, there will be separate events for the under-eight, under-10 and under-12 age groups. Each event will be a six-round Swiss with a time control of 30 minutes per player.

Three rounds will be played tomorrow and another three on Sunday. Players who have already registered with the CAS must confirm their entries at the playing venue at 9.30am tomorrow.

The entry fee for the open section is RM15 while the three age-group events are free of charge for the players. Only the first 100 entries will be accepted, and participants will receive gifts from the organisers.

The total cash prize is RM2,200, of which RM500 will go to the winner of the open section. The winners of the three age-group events will receive RM150 each.

Apart from these individual events, the CAS will organise the under-15 and under-18 competition for school teams at the same venue on Dec 21 and 22. Each team shall comprise at most four players, of whom one is a reserve.

Again, these shall be six-round Swiss events with the same time control. Teams must confirm their entries at the Mines Exhibition Hall at 9.30am on Dec 21. The entry fee depends on the number of players in each team and is calculated at RM15 per player. Participants will be given a "100 Fun Karnival'' T-shirt each.

Only the first 20 teams will be accepted for each category, and there is a total cash prize of RM1,000 to be won.

The seven chessmen

LAST year's world chess championship in Las Vegas, the United States, brought an unlikely duo to the forefront of chess: Armenia's Vladimir Akopian and Russia's Alexander Khalifman.

Unless you are very familiar with the international chess scene, you will be forgiven if you were to ask: Akopian who? Khalifman who? These two players, although they are chess grandmasters, do not feature as prominently as their higher profile contemporaries such as Vladimir Kramnik or Alexei Shirov or Michael Adams who were eliminated on their way to the finals.

But it was to Akopian's and Khalifman's credit that, against the odds, they had battled their way through almost a month of knock-out mini-matches to earn a shot at the championship title which was eventually won by the latter.

This year's World Chess Championship, now being played in New Delhi, follows the same format as last year's edition. There are the same series of short, knock-out matches to determine two players who will then contest for the title.

This type of short, knock-out matches makes it rather difficult for anyone to predict the winner accurately. Will the top contenders assert themselves this time, or will the title again go to someone relatively unknown?

If you are betting that someone relatively unknown will pull it off again, then there is no shortage of potential candidates to think about: some 90 names ranging from Indonesian grandmaster Adianto to Poland's international master Zaja.

But if you are putting your money on one of the top contenders, then there is a shorter list of candidates to consider and choose from. After all, all the top stars of the chess world are participating except for Gary Kasparov, Kramnik, Judit Polgar and Anatoly Karpov.

Kasparov's absence is predictable since he remains at odds with the World Chess Federation (Fide); Kramnik is probably still enjoying his new status as Kasparov's successor to a debatable and unrecognised world championship title; and Karpov is a fading star with his own set of Fide-related problems.

Meanwhile, Polgar was somehow not invited. She was denied a "wild card'' entry into the championship despite good results in the Istanbul Chess Olympiad last month.

In their absence, there are seven players who are most likely to make an impact in Delhi: Viswanathan Anand, Adams, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Leko, Shirov, Vassily Ivanchuk and Khalifman.

The 31-year-old Anand is the firm favourite, being the top-rated participant. Besides, he is also on home turf. The World Chess Championship is not unfamiliar to him. In the 1997 series, he had advanced as far as the finals, only to meet his match in Karpov. Anand's tournament victories so far this year have included winning the World Blitz Championship and the Fide World Cup in Shenyang, China.

Adams, two years younger than Anand, is also a top contender. His successes this year have included winning the Redbus tournament and two rapid chess events in Bordeaux, France, and Frankfurt, Germany. He reached the semi-finals in last year's World Chess Championship where he was eliminated by Akopian.

Morozevich, 31, is an immensely talented player. He put in a brilliant performance on the second board for the Russian team at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad. He is hopeful that the momentum from Istanbul will carry him through in New Delhi.

Leko, 22, is among the youngest championship hopefuls. Earlier this year, he beat Khalifman in a short match and this has given him the self-confidence to do well in the World Chess Championship.

Shirov, 29, is a former world junior champion. His games are often exciting but he walks on a tightrope in his games. Everybody expected him to survive until the final in Las Vegas last year but his devil-may-care attitude in his games saw him crash out at the quarter-final stage.

Ivanchuk, 32, is often described as highly-strung, displaying mood swings in matches. He can win brilliantly but is also susceptible to spectacular losses. Yet, he remains a contender for the World Chess Championship this year. His successes this year have included the Keres Memorial tournament, the Stein Memorial tournament and the Montecatini-Terme tournament. He was a quarter-finalist in last year's world championship.

Then there is the 35-year-old Khalifman who is defending the title that he won last year. This time, he is no longer a relative unknown. His greatest triumph this year was in the Hoogeveen tournament in which he scored 5.5 points from six games against difficult opponents. Will he be able to emerge the winner again for the second year? Time will tell.

According to the tournament schedule, the second round started yesterday and the second game of the mini-match will be played today. If it is a 1-1 tie, tomorrow will be used for the play-off games.

The third round knock-out matches will be played from Dec 3 to 5, and the fourth round will be from Dec 6 to 8. The quarter-final matches are scheduled from Dec 9 to 11 and the semi-finals, from Dec 12 to 16. For the finals of this world championship, the venue will be Teheran, Iran, where the games will be contested from Dec 20 to 26.

Together with the men's championship, a women's world championship is also being held at the same time. However, unlike the men's championship, the women's championship will last until Dec 16 and all the games will be played in New Delhi. In a way, this will avert any potential problem with the Iranian authorities regarding women playing chess in public.

For the women's championship, defending champion Xie Jun, Alisa Galliamova and Maya Chiburdanidze have been seeded directly into the second round.

There is a homepage for the World Chess Championship which is run by Fide Commerce in conjunction with the Indian and Iranian organisers.

The URL for this event is http://wcc2000.fide.com/ and you can follow the games daily from 4pm (Malaysian time) onwards.

Up next

The Chess Association of Selangor will organise their fourth quarter open allegro tournament on Dec 10 at the Sunway College in Petaling Jaya. For more information, call Jackie Wong ( 03-703 8237) or Lim Tse Pin ( 012-298 4922).