Making the grade

THE Malaysian Chess Federation ended the old millennium by organising a very quiet and largely unpublicised double round-robin masters tournament, comprising six of the country's senior and junior players, at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur last month.

Although Mas Hafizulhelmi dominated the event and finished unbeaten with 7.5 points from 10 games, he had a rather slow start to the tournament. After winning from Nicholas Chan in the first round, Mas Hafizul experienced a run of three consecutive draws with Ismail Ahmad, Jonathan Chuah and Ng Tze Han.

In the fifth round, however, Mas Hafizul scored a win against Lim Chuin Hoong who was at that time the tournament leader. This important win caused the lead to change hands and from then on, Mas Hafizul took a firm grip on the event and never allowed anybody to catch up with him.

In the home stretch, Mas Hafizul scored three more wins against Chan, Chuah and Lim, and allowed Ismail and Ng to draw with him.

It was remarkable that Lim, who lost both his games to Mas Hafizul, could finish in joint second position with Ng. In the last round, Lim tried to take the game to his opponent but the more experienced Mas Hafizul had already obtained a firm grip on the game which he refused to relinquish.

Lim's loss could have been heaven-sent for Ng who was playing the last-placed Ismail but fate was unkind to him. All he needed was a draw to take the sole second place in the tournament but somehow, Ng's attack was misplaced and he found himself at the losing end.

Chuah could have had a satisfying tournament, but after an encouraging start of two wins and four draws, he suffered three losses in a row to the three leaders. In the last round, he was glad for the opportunity to take a quick draw with Chan.

By all accounts, Chan is one of the country's most promising young players but he was never expected to finish anywhere higher than the fifth place in this tournament. Nevertheless, the tournament was beneficial to the 14-year-old boy who has managed to obtain his first-ever international rating points here.

By my estimate, Chan's performances against his more experienced rivals have earned him an initial rating of about 2095 points. This should be reflected in the World Chess Federation's July 2001 international rating list.

Ismail found himself out of his depth in this event. But it was a rejuvenated Ismail who managed to turn the tables on Ng in the final round. It was a precious win which ensured that he would not finish the tournament in sole last position.

The final standings in the double round-robin event: Mas Hafizulhelmi 7.5 points, Ng Tze Han and Lim Chuin Hoong 6 points each, Jonathan Chuah 4 points, Nicholas Chan and Ismail Ahmad 3 points each.

Moving up the list

The World Chess Federation (Fide) have just released its latest world rating list of players who have, at one time or another, played in international events which were recognised for rating purposes by the world chess body.

It is a very elite group of about 37,000 people on this list and even if you have been playing in international chess tournaments for some time, the chances are that you may still not find your name on this list unless you have performed up to expectations.

This may change, of course, if the local governing chess body in the country, which in this case is the Malaysian Chess Federation, takes it upon itself to organise more small and closed events like the recently- concluded Malaysian Masters tournament in KL.

There are 60 Malaysians inthe Fide list this January. But sad to say, many of them have not played in international events for a long time and are now classified as inactive. We had such good potential players in Eric Cheah, Christi Hon and Peter Long who have since moved on to other interests in life.

Mas Hafizulhelmi remains our highest rated player. In the January list, his rating is 2456, obtained from the Istanbul Chess Olympiad last year. This is an increase from the 2441 rating points from the July 2000 list. Slowly but surely, Mas Hafizul is inching towards the rarified atmosphere of 2500 rating points and I would like to see him achieve this as soon as possible.

Jimmy Liew, despite not having played any rateable game in the last six months, is still our number two player in the country with 2333 rating points. After Liew is Mok Tze Meng who gained 13 rating points from his games in Istanbul. Ng Tze Han, fourth in the standings, is rated at 2283.

A surprising entry into the Malaysian Top Five is Wong Chee Chung who enters at 2282 rating points. He had played reasonably well last year in the Singapore national championship.

Wong Zi Jing played nine rateable games in Istanbul and is now positioned with 2267 points. Placed below him are Lim Chuin Hoong with 2249 points, Aaron Yee with 2240 points, Ng Ee Vern with 2224 points and Deon Moh with 2215 points.

Among the other local players who have either gained or lost points in the past six months are Jonathan Chuah with 2211 points, Lim Jean Nie with 2165 points, Azahari Md Nor with 2106 points and Ismail Ahmad with 2064 points. All of these players had participated in Istanbul last year.

I should also add that the Fide rating list only shows players who are rated above 2000 rating points. The rating scale is actually open-ended and below this threshold of 2000 points, the unpublished names of players must be very large.

As far as I know, there are two Malaysian players who took part in one of the First Saturday tournaments in Budapest, Hungary, last August. Unfortunately, both did not fare too well to make the cut at 2000 points.

Both Shafruddin Fariz and Shafruddin Hafiz played 25 games each in Budapest and their ratings from this event are the same 1931 points.

Mailing list

Individual e-mails are great when it comes to an almost instant communication with people from around the globe. However, mailing lists are even better when you want to distribute your thoughts to a wider audience. An e-mail message sent to a mailing list will be distributed automatically to reach the electronic mailboxes of the list subscribers.

Two years ago, I set up an e-mail chess mailing list to test the response of local chess players. Unfortunately, it was not very well-received at that time and the utilisation was low.

About two months ago, I decided to widen the coverage of the mailing list by inviting several local chess players from the length and breadth of the country to join. So far, the response has been terrific because these local players have found themselves an outlet through which they can raise several issues on the state of Malaysian chess.

This is an open and largely unmoderated list and anyone can subscribe and contribute to it. To join the list, all you need to do is to send an empty e-mail to pg-chess-subscribe@egroups.com and follow the instructions that come back to you.

However, in order to get the most from this mailing list, I would advise you to visit http://www.egroups.com/list/pg-chess and register yourself online. As a registered subscriber, you can participate in polls and download files which are put there by other members.

More importantly, as a registered subscriber, you become a member of Malaysia's first and only online chess forum and you can participate by contributing your views on issues very close and dear to all of us. I hope to meet more of you soon in our own cyberspace community soon.

Asians gain the upper hand

WHO would have thought that it would take more than 600 years before chess is championed by Asians? It has finally happened, through the efforts of India's Viswanathan Anand and China's Xie Jun at the world chess championships that were held in New Delhi and Teheran late last month.

For the first time in the long history of the ancient game, both the men's and women's chess crowns are held simultaneously by Asian chess players. And from the way that they achieved these successes, you would have believed that it had come so easy to them.

In fact, the way I see it, it was way too easy for the top seeds in their respective championships. For most of the earlier rounds, Anand and Xie had marched through their opponents like a knife cutting through butter.

Anand's first real test came in the quarter-final stage where he disposed off the defending world champion, Alexander Khalifman. This was an exciting match. The first and second games were drawn and so, the match headed into the play-offs.

The first two games of the play-offs were also drawn, then Anand struck in the third game. 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 advanced to the semi-finals where he was to play Michael Adams.

The first game between Anand and Adams was drawn, but the Indian outplayed the Englishman in the second game. Two more draws followed and suddenly, Anand found himself in the final. For the final match between Anand and Alexei Shirov, the venue shifted from New Delhi to Teheran.

The organisers had expected this match to go the full distance of six games but to everyone's surprise, all it took to decide the new men's world champion were four thrilling games! Viewers following the games through the Internet were kept enthralled throughout the short battle.

The first game was a draw but then, Shirov decided that if he wanted to win the match, he would have to take a lot of chances and risks. So, in the second game, despite playing with the black pieces, Shirov served up a most complicated game. However, Anand kept his cool and adroitly converted the endgame into a full point.

Disaster again struck for Shirov in the third game. He gave up one of his rooks to wreck the position around Anand's king, but this enterprising sacrifice was not enough to force a win. Through accurate play, Anand managed to cover his weaknesses and then, after having done so, he used his material advantage to force a resignation from Shirov.

The fourth game saw Shirov throwing caution to the wind as it would be a make-or-break game for him. With all his guns blazing, Shirov launched into a kamikaze attack.

Anand declined to castle and Shirov responded by ripping open the centre. A terrific attack followed during which Shirov's mass of centre pawns threatened to weave a mating net around Anand's king. But suddenly, the queens were off the board. Without the queens, Shirov's initiative petered out and Anand had no trouble realising his material advantage.

Xie also had no problem in winning the final match against her compatriot, Qin Kanying, but there was one difference. Xie was already the defending champion and she fully justified her top ranking by breaking through the dense rows of European players to reach the final. With Xie in such intimidating form, it would have been very naive to expect Qin to perform miracles in this match.

In the first game, Xie played an interesting novelty and won. It took only one mistake on Qin's part and her position became practically hopeless. Xie edged closer to victory by drawing the second game.

Qin managed to strike up a fight but nothing came out of it. The final position in this game was so sterile. Similarly in the third game, Qin tried her best but could only reach an equal rook endgame.

The fourth game presented Qin with the final chance to draw level in the match. However, she failed to put her plans into practice and simply flowed with the tide. Her only salvation was that Xie only needed to draw the game and once she saw a perpetual check, she was no longer interested to find a simple way to win.

So, after a gruelling month of chess in India and Iran, the 2000 edition of the world chess championship came to a close.

With the start of the new millennium, Asia suddenly finds itself with two worthy chess champions. Will this herald a new age for chess in Asia, or will we find that Anand's win is only a slight aberration in the world chess order? Only time will tell.

Perak chess calendar

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) has released its calendar of activities for this year and between now and July, chess players in the state can expect to play in five local chess tournaments.

The most immediate activity takes place this weekend at the Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman library in Ipoh. There is a two-day Category A event starting tomorrow at 2pm for Perak players with internal ratings of at least 1,700 points. This tournament is played over six rounds with a time control of one hour on each player's clock for each game.

On Sunday, a six-round Category B tournament with a 30-minute time control will also be organised from 8.30am. To play in this tournament, players must have no internal Perak rating or have a rating of more than 1,699 points.

Three other similar events will be held on the weekends of March 10 and 11, May 12 and 13, and July 7 and 8. According to the PICA, players who perform well in the Category A tournaments will be short-listed for the Perak team which will be sent to this year's Merdeka team championship in Kuala Lumpur at the end of August.

The other main tournament that the association will be holding will be the second Kellie's Castle open tournament in Batu Gajah on April 21 and 22. The PICA is also holding its annual general meeting in Ipoh on March 11.

Readers interested in taking part in these tournaments should call W.K. Wong ( 05-366 1692).

CAS clarification

Last month, the Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) organised the Metro Hundred Chess Carnival at the Mines exhibition hall in Seri Kembangan on behalf of Metro Hundred Sdn Bhd. Apparently, the winners of the tournament have not received their prizes.

In a short statement released earlier this week, CAS said that the event was not funded by them. However, according to CAS, the prize money for the winners would be paid by Metro Hundred on Feb 15.