Words of a master

 

Beijing bound

 

Impressive play

 

Breathing chess again

The friendly match between the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre and the
Neo Manhattan Chess Centre (picture by Hairul Hamid)

THE FINAL four months of any year is usually the slowest period for chess in Malaysia. In case you haven’t noticed, usually from September onwards, chess activities would suddenly ground down almost to a snail’s pace. It’s that dreaded end-of-year syndrome that I always hate. 

After the hustle and bustle of August, it would become so quiet on the chess front. It is as if people have switched off and gone into hibernation mode. A long time ago, I used to refer to it as that strange sensation of falling off a cliff, not that I’ve actually experienced it.

In part, it’s due to chess fatigue. A nice fatigue that comes after a high. August is always the peak season for the game in Malaysia. Chess players from around the world had converged in Kuala Lumpur, and local players also took it as an opportunity to renew their friendship and acquaintance. So, after spending all the energy, what else was left except to glow and lie low?

In part too, chess activities ground to a near halt because many of our players, being school children, are caught up with their end-of-year examinations. A good proportion of our chess players are adults, but the youth remain the engine of growth for chess in this country and many of our local tournaments simply revolve around them.

In a way, it is rather unfair to the adult chess population here that they are at times penalized by the slowdown in chess activities. But then too, considering that adults also have a life outside chess, issues such as careers, families and other recreational activities are just as important, if not MORE important than just playing chess. There’s more to life than just hanging out with the chess cronies, right?

Wrong! There’s nothing more important that your chess buddies. And because there’s nothing more important than that, that’s why the chess doldrums are almost at an end. This month, we are going to see a revival in activities, starting with the second DATCC team open chess league on Tuesday.

The first time I heard about this new event, I was wondering: eh? Didn’t the DATCC team open chess league end in mid-August? It’s hardly three months and here it is again. I gave the DATCC office a tinkle and was told that the adult chess players in the Klang Valley were clamouring for more long games. Seems that after having taken a bite at the cherry, they wanted more.

So the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre agreed to organize a second such team event for them. This time around, though, instead of playing on Wednesdays, the weekly matches will be played mostly on Tuesdays from Nov 10 to Dec 15, followed by the last three rounds on the Dec 19-20 weekend.

The tournament won’t drag on for as long as the first series and will be limited to only nine rounds. However, it will still be played to a long time control of 90 minutes and 30-second increment per move. The organizers told me that apart from cash prizes for the winning teams, there’ll be dinner vouchers and free room nights from the CHM Hotel Chain.

The other main activity for this month will be the first DATCC Fide-rated open tournament for individuals, a nine-round Swiss event over two weekends. The first four rounds will be played on Nov 14-15, and the final five rounds will be on Nov 20-22. Same time control as the team event, and similar prizes are offered too.

For more information on the two events, contact Abdul Hamid Majid (019.3158098, 03.40219576, aham@pc.jaring.my)

Meanwhile two weeks ago, the DATCC hosted the Neo Manhattan Chess Centre (NMCC) to a friendly match that ended with a victory to the visitors. The NMCC is actually a local chess outfit with its premises at Taman Tun Dr Ismail in Kuala Lumpur. Set up in the early days of this year, the chess centre was quite active initially with varied activities such as talks and seminars, monthly blitz events and thematic tournaments but somehow, their activities slowed down considerably after May.

Nevertheless, the NMCC is still around and last Oct 25, a few of their players visited the DATCC in the Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur for the low-key match over two rounds and on six boards.

The NMCC won the match but victory did not come without some drama on the chess board. The first leg of the battle went the way of DATCC with a narrow victory margin but any chance of the DATCC repeating the feat in the return leg was completely dashed when the NMCC struck back emphatically. The match ended with a flattering 7½-4½ score line to the NMCC.

UP NEXT

Malaysia inter-state chess

The Sarawak Chess Association and the Lanang Chess Association will jointly organize the Malaysia inter-state chess championship at the Catholic High School stadium in Sibu on Dec 25-27. This is a two-in-one tournament comprising both an individual event and a team event.

Each state is invited to send four players for the individual event and their accumulated scores will also be counted for the team results. Apart from these four official entries per state, other players – except those that played in the last Chess Olympiad in Dresden – are also eligible to take part in the individual tournament.

The championship will be a Fide-rated event of seven rounds. Entry fee is RM50 per player, and registrations must reach the organizers before Nov 15. For details, contact Lim Kian Hwa (082.203202, 082.427772 or 016.8603180, email: lkhwa@tm.net.my) or Joseph Ting (084.330087, 019.8597778 or 016.8893185).