Title at the end of the rating ladder

COME THIS time next week, we shall know for sure whether Malaysia has obtained yet another titled player.

Siti Zulaikha Foudzi is in line to become only our second woman international master if her international rating rises above 2200 points in the World Chess Federation (Fide)’s July rating list.

She is close to this mark, actually, because in the April list, her rating already stood at 2169. 

Part of Siti’s rating gain should come from the national women’s championship as well as the Royal Selangor open this year but until today, it cannot be confirmed whether or not Fide had received the tournament reports from the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF). 

We shall have to wait until the next international rating list comes out. The good news is, we do not have too long to await as it will be released in about a week’s time.

But the local events aside, our national women’s champion would have picked up additional points from the recently concluded Turin Chess Olympiad. Hopefully, her gains in these events will tip the scale in her favour.

Siti has already obtained her three woman international master title norms. 

Her first was at the Commonwealth chess championship in Mumbai, India, way back in Apr 2003. From nine games, she scored the required four points. At that time, her notable opponents included woman grandmaster Ramaswamy Aarathie, international master Bakre Tejas and woman international master Swati Ghate.

Her second norm was at the world girls’ chess championship, also played in India, in Nov 2004. She played 13 games and achieved 7½ points against players such as woman grandmasters Anna Ushenina and Ekatyerina Korbut, and woman international masters Karavade Eesha, Tania Sachdev and Marties Benadorp.

Siti’s third norm was achieved at the Calvia Chess Olympiad two years ago where she obtained five points from nine games. In this event, she had played against woman grandmaster Eva Repkova, international master Lilit Mkrtchian and four woman international masters.

For good measure, Siti had also scored a norm at Turin where she scored 5½ points from nine games. Her opponents included woman grandmaster Zhao Xue, international master Svetlena Petrenko and six woman international masters.

Another piece of good news to announce here is that Lim Yee Weng, who played third board for Malaysia in Turin had also secured his third and final international master norm at the Chess Olympiad. 

However, he will need to raise his international rating from his present 2330 to the required 2400 points before Fide can confer him the title. This will be his next goal which, unfortunately, he is unlikely to achieve in the July rating list.

He will have other opportunities to climb up the rating ladder but he will not be the first to agree that making the forward surge to top the 2400 rating mark will be a big challenge.

Lim’s first norm was obtained at the SEA Games in Ho Chi Minh City in Dec 2003, scoring five points from nine games. His opponents included grandmasters Wong Meng Kong, Wu Shaobin, Zaw Win Lay and Rogelio Antonio, and international masters Wynn Zaw Htun, Mark Paragua and Bui Vinh.

His second norm was achieved at the Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open in Aug 2005 where he scored six points from 11 games. Among his opponents were grandmasters Wu Shaobin, Abihjie Kunte, Dao Thien Hai and Edhi Handoko, and international masters Sriram Jha, Jayson Gonzales and Wynn Zaw Htun.

In Turin, Lim’s third norm was obtained from nine games where he scored five points. Among his opponents were grandmasters Pablo Segundo, Christopher Lutz, Joseph Gallagher and Eugene Torre, and international masters Jure Borisek and Igor Zugic.

In the meantime, it is reliably learnt that Wong Zi Jing has had his international master title ratified during the Fide Chess Congress in Turin, thus making him officially our country’s third international master.

UP NEXT

Stonemaster open

There will be a Stonemaster allegro open tournament, organised by Stonemaster Event Management Enterprise, at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur this Sunday. This tournament is restricted only to players who do not have a world (Fide) rating. The organisers will also conduct a one-hour chess seminar half-way through the event.

Entry fee is RM20 per player. To register for both the tournament and the seminar, email seme_event@yahoo.com or contact Fadli (016.2092404). 

UTM Convofair

The Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Tronoh, Perak, will organise a one-day tournament at the Foyer Chancellor Hall in conjunction with the university’s Convofair on Aug 13.

The organisers are aiming to attract around 900 players as this will also be an attempt by the university to get into the Malaysia Book of Records.

Altogether, there will be 10 categories – the open and institutions of higher learning (men and women), the under-12, under-15 and under-18 (boys and girls).

For more information on the entry fees, prizes and accommodation for outstation players, contact Raja Farah Raja Sariffuddin Shah (tel: 012.7749891), Ku Nor Azmira Mohd Roslim (tel: 012.5951065) or Mazila Mohamad (tel: 012.6573683).

Our players should stand proud

ASK ANY serious chess player here what recent chess activity has transfixed the attention of most chess players in the country and he will surely point to the performance of the national men's and women's teams at the Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy, which concluded just five days ago.

More than at any time previously, the whole of Malaysian chess was solidly behind our two teams. We shared their joys and their despairs during their courageous, often roller-coaster, ride during the Chess Olympiad.

I have never seen so much passion coming from our chess supporters before. All these, of course, thanks to the Internet where we had three things going to generate continuous interest among our chess players.

Firstly, there was live coverage of the games at the Chess Olympiad. It was not the first time that chess games were broadcast live through the Internet and certainly, it will not be the last time either. 

Not only were the games of the leading countries shown in real time, the lesser countries also had their equal time in the sun. Every round, without fail, anyone with a decent, broadband Internet access could tune in to any of the 499 games daily. That's a lot of games to satiate the chess soul, believe me!

It helped further that the matches would start at 9pm Malaysian time daily and continued until about 1am in the morning. By past midnight, maybe 75 per cent of the games would have finished. So it was more or less like prime time viewing in Malaysia for chess players to follow the big games on their computer screens.

Secondly, our senior-most international master, Jimmy Liew, decided to start a chess blog where daily, he would update with the latest adventures by our chess representatives in Turin. 

He created some controversies with his comments when many chess players misconstrued his intentions and thought him over-critical of some of our players but in truth, he was simply giving a matter-of-fact opinion of our teams’ chances. He spoke from a vantage point of knowing the game intimately and the players well.

His chess blog was read far and wide, even within international circles, and you can still access it at http://www.rainswater.com/chess

Thirdly, a lot of heated discussion about our players was also generated on the chess-malaysia mailing list. There were plenty of agreements and disagreements, and at one point, even our players in Turin joined in 

For the first time since chess-malaysia was created in 1998, it became an interactive forum to connect our representatives in Turin with their chess friends back home and I think they appreciated the words of encouragement.

By the way, our men’s team could only finish in 80th position out of 148 teams while our women’s team was a creditable 44th out of 108 teams. Our women, led by Siti Zulaikha Foudzi, played very consistently to score 20.5 points while our men played their hearts out to collect 25.5 points. 

Their highest points during the 13-round competition was a mauling of Canada by 3.5-0.5 and a 2.5-1.5 win against Switzerland which was described in some circles as the biggest upset of the ninth round. In this match, Mas Hafizul delivered a masterly knock-out blow to the veteran super-grandmaster, Viktor Korchnoi, in a mere 21-move game.

There are more to say about our teams’ performances but this shall be left to the next fortnight.

UP NEXT

Sri Aman open

The Sri Aman open tournament for under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8 players will be held at the Sek Keb Sri Aman in Bandar Baru Air Itam, Penang, this Sunday.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association (PCA) are RM10 for under-16 players and RM8 for under-10 players. For non-PCA members, these will be RM15 and RM13 respectively. Entries accepted after Jun 4 are subjected to an additional RM5 as penalty. For details, contact Eoh Thean Keat (tel: 016.4540070, email: t_k_eoh@hotmail.com)

Perak rapid open

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organise a one-day, seven-round tournament at the Kolej Syuen in Jalan Kampar, Ipoh, on Jun 18. The event will be run in two categories. The Category A is an open event for players with a Perak rating of at least 1600, while the Category B event caters to players with a Perak rating of 1599 or less, including all new players. 

Entry fees are RM5 for players under 12 years old, RM8 for PICA members and RM10 for all other players. For details, contact Yunus Sharif (tel: 05.5458453 or 013.3908129) or Hamisah (tel: 012.4313326).

CLB open

The SMJK Chung Ling Butterworth will hold their first open tournament at their school on Jun 18. Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM10 for under-18 players and RM15 for others. Non-PCA members are required to play RM15 and RM20 respectively.  

Registration and inquiries: Tan Eng Seong (tel: 012.4299517, email: estan64@streamyx.com) or Teh Wei Li (tel: 019.4161486). Closing date for entries is Jun 17.

Stonemaster open

There will be a Stonemaster allegro open tournament, organised by Stonemaster Event Management Entreprise, at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Jun 25. This tournament is restricted only to players who do not have a world (Fide) rating. The organisers will also conduct a one-hour chess seminar half-way through the event.

Entry fee is RM20 per player. To register for both the tournament and the seminar, email seme_event@yahoo.com or contact Fadli (016.2092404) before Jun 20.