Chess goldmine

ONCE IN a while, an interesting chess website would pop up momentarily on the Internet and come to my notice. It had been far inbetween since I have been so taken in by a chess website, but I must say that the Olimpbase website, while it was still accessible at www.olimpbase.org, held great promise.

It was the only website I know that contained all the history on the men’s Chess Olympiads since its inception in 1924. Although there was no information on the women’s Chess Olympiads, this website was still a goldmine of information.

For example, we all know that the Soviet Union/Russia are the all-time most successful country in chess but would you know that in all the Chess Olympiads they had taken part in since 1952, they have never settled for less than a second position? 

It has been a series of firsts all the way, interrupted only in 1978 when the Soviet Union finished second behind Hungary and in 2004 when Ukraine finished above Russia.

Another way of looking at it, the Soviet Union had played in the Chess Olympiad 19 times, achieved 981 points from 1300 games and finished with a 76.2% score. Russia, after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, played seven times in the Chess Olympiad and scored 263½ points from 388 games with a 67.9% success.

The dominance of the Soviet Union and Russian chess machinery meant that very few living chess players today remembers that there was a time when the United States of America were once the power in the chess world. 

In the early years of this biennial chess event, the American chess team had won the event four times in a row from 1931 to 1937.  

The Americans won the title a fifth time – in 1976 – but this was because the Soviets refused to play the Chess Olympiad in Israel. Incidentally too, this Chess Olympiad in Haifa was the same reason that prevented Malaysia from participating in that year too.

Although the Malaysian Chess Federation was only founded in 1974, Malaysia had begun taking part in the Chess Olympiad two years earlier in Skopje, Yugoslavia. Our pioneering and experimental Chess Olympians were Chan Mun Fye, Dr Foo Lum Choon, Loh Chee Hoong, Kao Yin Keat, A Ariff and Fang Ewe Churh. In 1972, the team had finished in 59th position out of 62 teams.

Last year marked the 16th time that Malaysia have been represented at a Chess Olympiad. Again, from the Olimpbase website, there were some remarkable statistics.

For instance, from our 16 Chess Olympiads, we have played against 103 countries. Against some of them, we have played several times. The Faroe Islands featured eight times and interestingly, we have played seven times time against Hongkong, Singapore and Belgium.

Our scores against our southern neighbours have never been encouraging. Out of these seven encounters, we have only managed a 37.5% success against them, or 10½ points from 28 games. We have never beaten them, and the best we have achieved are two drawn matches.

Since 1972, we have had 57 players who have represented the country. The list reads like a Who’s Who of Malaysian chess and among them, Jimmy Liew has played in six Chess Olympiads for Malaysia – an unbroken string from 1978 to 1986, and then in 1996, for a total of 76 games and a 57.2% score.

Mok Tze Meng and Christi Hon have appeared five times at the Chess Olympiad. Mok has played 52 games and Hon 59 games, with a score of 49% and 48.3% respectively. Dr Foo, one of the pioneers of Malaysian chess played in four Chess Olympiads between 1972 and 1980, with 58 games played.

Those who have turned out three times for the country are Mas Hafizulhelmi, Ng Ek Teong, Eric Cheah, Lim Yee Weng, Wong Zi Jing, Mohd Kamal Abdullah and Ismail Ahmad. The players who have played twice in the Chess Olympiad are Ooi Chern Ee, Goh Yoon Wah, Jonathan Chuah, Francis Chin, Chan Mun Fye, Azahari Md Nor, Peter Long and Fang Ewe Churh.

Finally, the Malaysians who have represented Malaysia, although in only one Chess Olympiad, are Ng Tze Han, Choong Yit Chuan, Ng Ee Vern, Fairin Zakaria, Leong Mun Wan, Tan Wei Sin, AM Mustapha, Mohd Nor Norazmi, Choo Min Wang, Wahid Karim, Yahya Mohd Salleh, Chang Hing Wah, Gregory Vijendran, Mohd Noor Yahaya, Nicholas Chan, Tan Bian Huat, Ignatius Si, Loh Chee Hoong, Hafiz Shafruddin, Zarul Shazwan Zulkafli, Lau Beng Hock, Lee Soi Hock, Jamaluddin, Abdul Rahman Ahmad, Bernard Ng, Yeoh Chin Seng, Woo Beng Keong, Ng Ek Leong, Kao Yin Keat, Kamal Ariffin Wahiduddin, Quah Seng Sun, Tan Vooi Giap, Sabar Md Hashim, Laurence How, Hamid Majid, Chew Soon Keong, A Ariff and Anuar Zainal Abidin.

One of the most appealing features of this site was the ability to call up the individual performances of each player. It was also possible to list all their games at the Chess Olympiad and play through them interactively. There was also a link for you to download all the Chess Olympiad games to your desktop. 

All these, unfortunately, had disappeared from the Internet. We can only hope that the server hosting this site would be active again soon.

UP NEXT

UM 9th college open

The Tun Syed Zahiruddin residential college (ninth college) of University of Malaya will hold an open team chess competition at the college hall on Feb 19. The event is held over six rounds and each team can comprise only four players. Entry fee is RM60 per team, and the first prize is RM800.

For inquiries, contact Pang Yew Tom (tel: 016.6249018) or Geetha (tel: 016.7388557). Closing date for entries is Feb 12.

Penang Free School open

The Penang Free School Chess Club in Penang will organise an eight-round open tournament at their school hall on Feb 20. There are 12 cash prizes with a first prize of RM200.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM15 for adults, ladies and veteran players, RM10 for under-18 players and RM7 for under-12 players. For non-members, the entry fees are RM20, RM15 and RM10 respectively.

For more details or to register, contact Jonathan Choo (tel: 016.4012748), Chan Kim Kooi (tel: 016.4384890) or Koay Zi Hao (tel: 04.8264241).