It's time for change

JUDGING from the feedback so far, this year's Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit was very well-received by chess players. Better-than-expected entries have been recorded for the first four legs which were held in Selangor, Terengganu, Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan.

The first leg of the chess circuit was held at the Mid-Valley Megamall, KL, at the beginning of March and it attracted a good turnout from chess players in the Klang Valley. Almost 200 entries were received, but only 152 were allowed to play.

The surprise of this tournament was Fikrul Saifuddin's good showing in which he won all his six games. Mas Hafizulhilmi, who had been expected to take the top prize, had to be content with second place after he dropped half-a-point in the fourth round to 15-year-old Siti Zulaika who is the current national women's champion.

Interestingly enough, Fikrul and Mas Hafizul did not play against each other in this event. This was a common enough technical problem, caused by the large number of entries and not having enough rounds to ensure that the top contestants in the tournament would play each other.

Normally, six rounds would be sufficient to decide an undisputed winner in a tournament of not more than 64 players. A seven-round event can cater to a field of up to 128 participants but if you have more than 128 players, an accurate winner can only be obtained if there are eight or more rounds.

If there are fewer rounds than these optimum numbers, the tournament stands a risk of finishing with joint winners or, like in the case of the first leg, winners who had not met one another over the chess board.

Another inherent problem of insufficient rounds is that immediately below the winner and maybe, below the runners-up too, there will usually be a large pool of players bunched together with the same number of points.

In the first leg, there were no less than 11 players who finished with five points after Fikrul and Mas Hafizul. Eight players had 4.5 points, while 25 other players obtained four points!

Again, this is not an ideal result which we can hope for and the long-term solution to this problem is to increase the number of rounds to accommodate the increasing number of players.

But in one-day events like the chess circuit, the time factor will also be a major problem for organisers and players alike. For each additional round slotted into a tournament, the duration of the event increases by an hour. (This is on the assumption that the time control used is 30 minutes per game for each player.)

One way to get around this problem is to reduce the time control for each game to only 25 minutes for each player. This way, an extra round can be introduced into the tournament without lengthening its total duration. In fact, many overseas rapid-play tournaments are organised along this line.

Maybe, local organisers can also think about what the Penang Free School students are doing for their annual PFS open chess tournaments. Within a seven-hour playing period, they managed to fit in eight rounds rather effortlessly.

Their time controls are rather unique. For the first two rounds, all games are played using a 20-minute time control. Then, for the remaining rounds, they revert to 25-minute games.

Whether this solution will catch on remains to be seen but within our local context of trying to strike a balance between time and the number of rounds, perhaps other organisers may want to consider this formula.

Finally, maybe I should also mention here that the problems faced in the first leg did not go unnoticed by the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF). In the second leg in KL which attracted 139 participants, the MCF agreed to introduce a seventh round into the event.

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King of the castle

For two days starting tomorrow, Kellie's Castle in Batu Gajah, the unfinished monument to William Kellie Smith who was a pioneer rubber planter in Perak at the turn of last century (the Kinta Kellas Rubber Estate was planted by him), will again be the venue of what is arguably the country's most intriguing chess competition.

Trans-Clarity Resort, with help from the Perak International Chess Association, will organise the second Kellie's Castle open tournament within the castle grounds.

The two-day event will be played over eight rounds, with three rounds to be contested on Saturday and the remaining rounds on Sunday. There are at least 20 cash prizes totalling RM5,240, and this includes an attractive RM1,000 and a trophy for the winner.

Beside the top 10 winners of the open section of the tournament, there are also prizes for the best two players in the following categories: women, under-12 boys, under-12 girls, under-16, veteran and PICA members.

Anyone interested in taking part can register at the tournament venue between 1pm and 2pm tomorrow. For more information, call W.K. Wong ( 05-366 1692).

Chess in Historical Malacca

Entries will close today for the Malacca Historical City individual open chess tournament which is organised jointly by Kolej Yayasan Melaka and the Malacca Chess Association on April 28 and 29.

Ten cash prizes are on offer, with the first prize being RM1,200, second prize RM800 and third prize RM500. The fourth to sixth prizes are RM100 each, while RM50 will be given as the seventh to 10th prizes.

Entry fees are RM20 for members of the MCA while other participants will be charged RM25. The venue of the competition is Kolej Yayasan Melaka.

The organisers said that the Hotel Grand Continental( 06-284 0088), St Meridian Apartment (06-284 1166), The City Bayview Hotel (06-283 9888) and Air Keroh DeVillage Resort (06-232 8000) have special reduced rates for outstation players. Alternatively, the college's hostel is available for players on a tight budget.

For more information, contact Noraini Mohd Darus (06-281 7732) or visit the website at http://catur.kym.edu.my/

Penang grand prix

The third leg of this year's Penang grand prix chess circuit will be played at the clubhouse of the Residents' Association of Bayan Baru (RABB) on April 29. This tournament will be played over six rounds and there is a 30-minute time control for each game.

The event is open to members of the Penang Chess Association only and they will be charged a fee of RM10. The top prize is RM200, second prize is RM120 and third prize RM80. The fourth to eighth prizes range from RM50 to RM30. The best junior and lady players will also receive RM30 each.

The top 10 players from each leg of the circuit will receive grand prix points. At the end of the year, the best eight players will qualify for the Penang closed championship where they will be joined by two junior (under-15) players.

For enquiries and registration, contact Ooi Kiem Boo ( 04-226 2209; e-mail ooilsv@pd.jaring.my) or Ung Tay Aik (017-477 5418; e-mail taung@alumni.uwaterloo.ca).

Meanwhile, the PCA will hold its annual general meeting at the RABB clubhouse at 6pm on the same day.

National age-group chess championship

The Malaysian Chess Federation will organise this year's national age-group chess event at the Putra World Trade Centre from May 4 to 6.

There will be separate events for boys and girls in the under-8, under-10, under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-20 age categories.

For more information, contact Norhana (03-4108 2590).

Bridging the nations

DIPLOMATIC relations between the Americans and the Chinese are at an ebb. Not since the bombing of the Chinese Embassy building in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, two years ago (which Nato insisted was accidental) have tensions run as high in both countries as at present.

Just this week, for example, an American spy plane made an emergency landing in Hainan after it collided with a Chinese fighter jet in airspace off China.

It is in the midst of such political and diplomatic problems between the two giants of the Pacific that I wonder whether, ironically, sparring in chess is perhaps the best balm to soothe all tensions.

The political masters in the United States and China should do well to emulate the chess friendship that has been growing between the top players of the two countries recently. Last month, a very significant event took place on American soil. A team of top chess players from China visited Seattle, in the United States, to play an official four-round match with the best American players.

Datuk Tan Chin Nam
with the Chess Summit
Match jade trophy in Seattle.

Billed as the Chess Summit Match, it was the first of four matches between the United States and China that had been planned to take place over the next few years. The match was contested over 10 boards and it featured the top six players from each country, plus their two top women and two top junior players.

Playing for the US team were Boris Gulko, Yasser Seirawan, Gregory Kaidanov, Alexander Shabalov, Alexander Ivanov, Larry Christiansen, Irina Krush, Camilla Baginskaite, Vinay Bhat and Dmitri Schneider with Joel Benjamin, Elina Groberman and Hikaru Nakamura as the reserves.

The visiting China team comprised Ye Jiangchuan, Xu Jun, Peng Xiaomin, Zhang Zhong, Xie Jun, Yin Hao, Xu Yuhua, Qin Kanying, Bu Xiangzhi and Ni Hua. Their reserve players were Zhu Chen, Wang Lei and Wang Yue.

In the very first round, the United States won with a narrow 5.5 to 4.5 score. This was rather surprising because on paper, the Chinese were a much stronger side. Xie Jun, the women's world champion, was even playing in the senior side as their fifth strongest player, disdaining the fact that she was at the same time their top women's player.

The second round was split evenly between the two sides but, in the third round, the Chinese players scored a ripping 6.5 to 3.5 win against the Americans. The US team tried hard to come back into the match but they failed to produce anything more than a 5 to 5 draw in the fourth round.

This result meant that China took the four-round match by a 21 to 19 score which was a small but nevertheless emphatic two-point winning margin.

Significantly, the US team were stronger on the top six boards where they were more experienced. Here, the Americans achieved a 13.5 to 10.5 victory over the top six Chinese who included Xie Jun and another women's player, Zhu Chen, in the line-up.

It was interesting that on the women's boards where China was expected to do very well, the Chinese only managed to win narrowly with 4.5 to 3.5. However, the biggest revelation was on the bottom junior boards where the two Chinese players contributed heftily to the overall margin. Winning 6 to 2 over four rounds made all the difference between the two teams.

Incidentally, the match would never have happened had it not been for Datuk Tan Chin Nam. Tan's quiet but important role in the development of Malaysian chess is already well-known but on the international scene, he is also known for his fervour in promoting Asian chess.

China made great strides in chess because of Tan's belief that the Asians could one day be equal to the Westerners in this thinking game. So far, more than 25 years since China joined the international chess community, he has not been wrong.

Tan, who was the guest of honour in Seattle during the summit match and the closing ceremony, was justifiably the happiest man around when he presented the elegant teapot-shaped jade trophy to the secretary of the Chinese Chess Federation.

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Chess in historical Malacca

The Kolej Yayasan Melaka and the Malacca Chess Association will jointly organise a grand individual open chess tournament on April 28 and 29 in conjunction with the Malacca Historical City celebrations.

Ten cash prizes are on offer: the first prize is RM1,200; the second prize, RM800; and the third prize, RM500. The fourth to sixth prizes are RM100 each, while RM50 will be given as the seventh to 10th prizes.

Entry fees are RM20 for members of the Malacca Chess Association while other participants will be charged RM25. Entries will close on April 20.

According to the organisers, the Hotel Grand Continential ( 06-284 0088), St Meridian Apartment ( 06-284 1166), The City Bayview Hotel ( 06-283 9888) and Air Keroh DeVillage Resort ( 06-232 8000) have special reduced rates for outstation players. Alternatively, the college's hostel is available for players on a tight budget.

For more information, contact Noraini Mohd Darus ( 06-281 7732) or visit the website at catur.kym.edu.my.

King of the castle

Kellie's Castle, the unfinished monument to William Kellie Smith who was a pioneer rubber planter in Perak at the turn of the last century (the Kinta Kellas Rubber Estate was planted by him), will again be the venue of what is presumably the country's most intriguing chess competition.

On April 21 and 22, Trans-Clarity Resort, with help from the Perak International Chess Association, will organise the second Kellie's Castle open tournament at the castle grounds in Batu Gajah.

The two-day event will be played over eight rounds with three rounds to be contested on the first day and the remaining rounds on the next day. There are at least 20 cash prizes totalling RM5,240 and this includes an attractive RM1,000 and a trophy for the winner.

There are also prizes for the best two players among the women, under-12 boys, under-12 girls, under-16, veteran and members of PICA.

For more details of this competition and enquiries about accommodation, call Steven Ng ( 05-366 8198) or write to Kellie's Castle, Km 5.5 Jalan Gopeng, P.O. Box 11, 31000 Batu Gajah, Perak.

RSC junior event

The Royal Selangor Club will organise the fourth RSC juniors tournament for under-8, under-10 and under-12 players at the club's premises at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, on Sunday. This is a six-round event.

The entry fee of RM15 is inclusive of lunch. For more information or to register, contact the RSC sports office ( 03-253 2277 / e-mail: royselchess@hotmail.com). Entry forms are also available at the club's reception desk.

Places are limited to only 100 participants. Cash prizes and trophies will be given to the winners.

Klang chess fest

Tomorrow sees the start of the four-day Klang Parade chess fest which is jointly organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation and the Klang Parade. All games will be played in the concourse area of the Klang Parade shopping centre. Cash prizes totalling RM2,500, hampers, trophies and other prizes in kind will be given to the winners.

The chess fest starts with the under-12 and under-16 tournaments at 9am tomorrow. There are five prizes for each age group and the winners of the two categories will each receive RM100 and a trophy.

On Sunday, the under-20 open tournament will start at 9am. The prizes are RM100 for the winner, second RM80, third RM70, fourth RM60 and fifth RM50. There are also hampers for the best under-12 and under-16 boys and girls.

The Klang Parade blitz tournament will be played on April 14, with the Klang Parade open tournament held the following day.

For the blitz event, the winner will receive RM150 and a trophy. The second prize is RM80, the third prize RM70, fourth prize RM60 and fifth prize RM50. Hampers are given as the sixth to 10th prizes.

Only a maximum of 100 players will be accepted for each event. For registration or information, contact Rizal or Angie of Klang Parade ( 03-334 37889 / fax: 03-334 37313) or Norhana ( 03-410 82590).

BPM national allegro

The next leg of this year's Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit will be played in Johor Baru on Sunday.

This leg will be held over six rounds with a 30-minute time control for each game. If there are more than 100 participants, the tournaments will be played over seven rounds using a 25-minute time control.

Entry fees are RM10 for members of the Johor Chess Association, Bank Pertanian employees, players above 50 years old and girls below 12 years old, and RM15 for all other participants. To register, call Stephen Cheong (07-333 9636).