Making them winners

AT THE beginning of last year, when I wrote about the not-too-glowing performances of our junior players in the first Asean age-group chess championship in Vietnam, I met with an unexpected flak from some parents who had disagreed with my comments on the state of junior chess in Malaysia.

One year down the road, the second Asean age-group chess championship has come and gone. This time, with the championship played here in Kuala Lumpur, on home ground so to speak, how did our young charges fare? 

My opinion is, unfortunately, they are generally behind many of their peers from the Asean region. Yes, even though overall, our players had put up a better performance than last year, the results still showed that we lagged considerably behind the big winner, Vietnam.

The Vietnamese, especially those that played in the lower age-group events, were really a talented lot. I understand that the youngsters trained very hard for this event with their coaches in their provinces. It was the one major event of the year that they were looking forward to. 

It mattered little that their coaches were all home-grown players. The important thing was that the coaches did have a right system to impart the necessary knowledge to the children effectively. In the right environment, their young minds soaked up everything their coaches revealed.

It showed in the results: a second place in the boys' under-8 tournament, a one-two finish in both the boys' under-10 and under-14 events, a one-two-three sweep in the boys' under-12 event, and a first place in the boys' under-16.

But if you think the Vietnamese boys did rather well, the successes of their girls were even more astounding! Can you imagine a second place in the under-8, first and second in the under-10, first to sixth in the under-12(!!), first to fourth in the under-14, and first to third in both the under-16 and under-18? If this is not sheer dominance, I really do not know how else to describe it.

So for the second year in succession, the Vietnamese set the standard for the remaining of the Asean countries to follow. Against this backdrop, how do we gauge our players' own performances?

To sum it up in a nutshell, I would say there is a lot of hard work to be done not only by the players, but also by the state chess associations, the Malaysian Chess Federation and, most important of all, the parents.

Without the parents' support, our youngsters would have been nothing as chessplayers. At the championship, I could see the encouragement from the parents, especially those whose children were playing in the lower age-groups, but there were also parents who were around to support their sons and daughters who were playing in the under-16 and under-18 events.

Understandably, they can provide only the moral and financial support. Few parents can provide the theoretical or practical support. Ultimately, the children themselves are the ones who determine whether they will excel in this sport or not.

So it is left to the MCF and the state chess associations to play their roles in chess development in this country. The chess bodies are the ones who must supply the theoretical and practical support. Within limitations, I can see that the MCF has tried hard to organise as many junior events as possible in the country. But I am not alone in saying that much more can be achieved.

For instance, a question mark still hovers over this year's MSSM chess programme which the MCF has fought hard to be reinstated in the schools' sports calendar. Unless this tournament becomes a reality, I fear chess in the schools will remain stunted for a few more years.

I also have another fear. Unless the MSSM chess tournament becomes a reality, many of the chess state associations will remain in the doldrums, much to the detriment of the aspiring junior chess players in their state. Even now, some of the state chess associations exist only in name and there's hardly any activity. How can our young progress? How can we produce another international master like Mas Hafizul or Jimmy Liew, let alone a grandmaster? When will someone claim Dato Tan Chin Nam's offer of a RM30,000 reward for the nation's first grandmaster?

Even though there is a hill to climb for our Malaysian players and we are making a slow and plodding progress, I was nevertheless happy to see that several of our youngsters had played reasonably well enough in the championship to achieve some measure of success. 

For instance, Fong Yip Siang was sixth in the boys' under-8 event, Anas Nazreen Bakri was fifth in the boys' under-10, Abel Yap, Chan Litt Binn and Joshua Tan were placed eighth to 10th in the under-12, Pok Wern Jian was third in the boys' under-14, Jonathan Chuah was third and Gerald Soh fifth in the boys' under-16, and Lim Chuin Hoong was third in the boys' under-18. In the boys' under-16 contest too, Muhammad Musa Azmi, Nicholas Chan, Hafiz Shafruddin and Zach Han were placed sixth to ninth.

For the girls' events, Adeline Gan was fourth in the under-8, Wan Khye Theng was third in the under-10, Nur Shazwani was seventh in the under-12, Lim Han Ying finished fifth in the under-14, Siti Zulaika Foudzi was sixth in the under-16, and both Lee Su Ann and Lim Jean Nie were fifth and sixth in the under-18.

This year, all these youngsters will be one year older. Some will no longer be eligible to play in the next Asean age-group championship in Singapore, but there will be others to replace them. They will be more mature in thought and hopefully, in their understanding of the game too. I certainly hope that they will continue to improve further on their results but then, only time will tell and 11 months is actually not that long a time to wait.

World Championship continues...

The World Chess Federation will organise the final of the 2001/2002 world chess championship series in Moscow's Hall of Columns building from Jan 16 to 26. This match will see Vassily Ivanchuk meet Ruslan Ponomariov in a showdown to see who succeeds Viswanathan Anand as the next world champion.

Whoever wins the eight-game match will become the first player from Ukraine to be crowned as the world's best player. If the match ends tied after the eight games, it will go into the tie-break to decide the winner.

Ivanchuk had eliminated Anand sensationally in one of the semi-final matches last month. In the other semi-final match, Ponomariov had beaten Peter Svidler. 

The one-month lapse between the end of the semi-finals and the start of the final match was meant for the players to recover from the gruelling series of knock-matches and allow them to prepare. In the previous three championships, the finalists had continued playing the final match immediately after the semi-finals, and this had led to suggestions that the players were too tired to put up a good fight.

Readers with Internet access can follow the match from the official world championship site at http://wcc2001.fide.com

BPM Allegro Finals

After a long wait, last year's Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit concluded with the Final held in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 30. Drazen Serinek, a grandmaster from Slovenia who was passing through the country, won the seven-round event without dropping any game.

Tied second and third a point behind were Gerald Soh and Fikrul Saifuddin, while Singaporean international master Giam Choo Kwee, Nicholas Chan and Tham Tick Hong were joint fourth to six with 5.5 points each.

The players that finished with five points each were Siti Zulaika Foudzy, Kamaluddin Yusof, Marcus Chan, Gregory Lau, Ismail Ahmad, Pok Wern Jian, Zach Han, Zarul Shazwan, Mohd Johan Iskandar and Julian Navaratnam. Altogether, 95 players took part in the tournament.

UP NEXT

CAS Quarter Allegro

The Chess Association of Selangor will hold their first CAS quarter allegro tournament for the year at the Menara Tan&Tan in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 3. There will be seven prizes for the Open category and consolation prizes for the best under-12, under-16, ladies and veteran players.

Entry fees are RM10 for CAS members and under-12 players, and RM20 for other players. To register, contact Lim Tse Pin (012-298-4922), Mrs Jackie Wong (012-261-3688) or email chessmate@cas.com.kg before Feb 1. The tournament is limited to the first 70 participants.