EARLIER THIS week, I was looking at the list of foreign players who had either registered or shown an interest in playing in the Arthur Tan Memorial Malaysia open championship in 17 days’ time.
Impressive list by our regional standard, I must say. Although the organizers, the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) cannot say for sure that all those foreign players will eventually turn up, the tentative player’s list is still mouth-watering.
But the sad regret that I had to note is the possible absence of the Chinese players and this includes last year’s winner, Wang Hao. What I heard is that the Chinese are involved in their own chess league back home.
This is a pity because Wang Hao was the biggest hit of last year’s event. He was smashing his way through the event and cutting a path through all the resistance that terrified opponents were attempting to put up before him. One of his high-profile victims from last year will also be missing and this will be Ian Rogers.
Nevertheless, we shall still have a good list of grandmasters and international masters. Leading the pack shall be Indonesia’s top grandmaster, Utut Adianto, weighing in with a hefty Fide rating of 2589.
Other familiar names among the grandmasters will be Indonesia’s Susanto Megaranto (rated 2524), Vietnam’s Dao Thien Hai (rated 2560) and Nguyen Anh Dung (rated 2542), the Philippines’ Joey Antonio (rated 2539) and Nelson Mariano (rated 2437).
Then there are also a trio of grandmasters from Uzbekistan (Alexei Barsov, Safin Shukrat and Saidali Yuldashev), possibly two from India (Abhijit Kunte and Praveen Thipsay), Ziaur Rahman and Reefat Sattar from Bangladesh and Yu Shaoteng from China.
Among the international masters, the more familiar among them will be Tirto and Irwanto Sadikin from Indonesia, Ravi Lanka from India, and Wynn Zaw Htun and Myo Niang from Myanmar.
Meanwhile, the MCF also expressed confidence that there will be a big influx of entries between now and next week’s closing date, Aug 10, for the AmBank Group Malaysia Chess Challenge and the Astro Merdeka team chess championship.
There have been numerous enquiries from both local and foreign players. The Chess Challenge, in particular, will provide local players with an opportunity to gain an international rating or improve on their rating points if they already have one, since the event will be played using international time control.
There are only a mere handful of local events that can qualify as a rated event and this is one. If you have always been eyeing to have an international rating, do not waste this opportunity. All you need is to play against three other internationally rated players and score at least a point from them and you are on your way to accumulating your points.
The Merdeka team open championship, however, is not a rating event. But there are good prize moneys which are too attractive to ignore, prompting news that some of the more active state chess associations are planning an assault on this event. This will be good for both the organizers and states as the move will bring quality from around the country to Kuala Lumpur. In addition, the organizers are confident that as the closing date approaches, local non-state teams will also be registering.
You can download all details pertaining to these events, including the entry fees and prizes, from The Chess Network website at http://tcn.sourceforge.net
Alternatively, you can give a call to the Malaysian Chess Federation secretary, Abdul Hamid Majid, on 019.3158098 or email him at aham@pc.jaring.my
UP NEXT
Selangor Merdeka open
The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will hold a one-day event at the Sunway University College this Sunday to select players to represent the state at this year’s Merdeka team open championship. There will be two categories of event – an open section and a under-16 section – with each category limited to 60 players only.
Entry fees for the open event are RM15 for the CAS members and RM25 for non-members. For the under-16 event, the entry fees for members and non-members are RM10 and RM20 respectively. To pre-register for this event, email your name and age category to selangorchess@gmail.com
Chess clinic
The chess club of Sek Men Tengku Ampuan Rahimah in Klang has brought in Fide master Brian Jones from Australia to conduct a chess clinic for junior chess players on Aug 19. This four-hour clinic will be held at the school’s library starting 1pm and the fee is RM50 per participant.
Jones will take the participants through three interesting topics aimed at improving chess-playing knowledge and skills: How Good Is Your Chess, Never Give Up, and Tactics And More Tactics.
For more information or to register, contact the school’s chess club at starschool_chessclub@yahoo.com
The first 10 persons to register will receive an autographed copy of the magazine, Australian Chess, of which Jones is the editor.
MBS open
The Methodist Boys School in Penang is organising its first open chess tournament on Aug 20.
Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM8 for under-12 players, RM10 for under-18 players and RM12 for others. Non-members will be charged RM13 (under-12 players), RM15 (under-18 players) and RM17 (others).
To register, contact Gerald Goh (tel: 012.4100998), Paul Ma (tel: 016.4693102) or Thomas Chua (tel: 016.4760902). Closing date is Aug 19.
JB Merdeka open
The Johor Bahru District Chess Association will hold the 16th JB Merdeka open chess tournament at the Giant SouthernCity in Taman Suria, Johor Bharu on Aug 27.
Entry fees are RM20 for players in the open section, RM8 for under-16 players and RM6 for under-12 players. Closing date for entries is Aug 18. For details, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07.3338215, email: naraa@tm.net.my).
UTP 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 in an attempt to get into the Malaysia Book of Records. To accommodate this expected number of players, the closing date for entries has been extended to Aug 9.
In addition, the organisers have arranged buses to transport players from the Syuen Hotel in Ipoh at 7am on the day of the competition.
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, transportation and accommodation, contact Raja Farah (tel: 012.7749891 email: etakarina05@yahoo.com), Ku Nor Azmira (tel: 012.5951065, email: ku_miera@yahoo.com), Mazila (tel: 012.6573683, email: mazilamohamad@yahoo.com), Rosfadilah (tel: 017.6060914) or Mat Nor (tel: 017.9683376).
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