Beyond envy

“Hey, Greg,” I asked the Malaysian Chess Federation’s secretary when I bumped into him in Kuala Lumpur recently, “what’s become of our standing with the World Chess Federation (Fide)?”

In case you are not aware, Malaysia’s name had been missing from Fide’s list of member countries since the beginning of the year. Our Fide-rated players suddenly found themselves delisted from the Fide rating list. Gregory Lau, the MCF secretary, would be the best person to bring me up to date on this matter.

“Oh, don’t you know,” he replied almost casually, “we are back on board Fide since last Friday at about 9pm. If you check the Fide website, all our players are back in the rating list.”

That was quite a relief to hear. We are again a member in benefit. At first, I wanted to say that the MCF should shoulder the full blame for letting our membership lapse but on second thoughts, was it really all the fault of the MCF? 

I don’t think so. In fact, the MCF’s position is beyond envy. The federation receives so little or no funding from the government and whatever little financial resources it has goes back to cover its administrative costs. 

From what I know, Fide was owed in excess of Euro2,000. At today’s exchange rates, that’s at least RM10,000. While a chunk of it went towards settling the membership dues, there are also other obligations towards Fide.

For example, it costs Euro270 to register a team for the Chess Olympiad. If we send both the men’s and women’s teams, the cost is doubled. Then there are also the rating fees for our players. As long as a player is registered with Fide and he is in their “active” list, the federation is required to pay one Euro for that player.

Getting a chess title confirmed is also not cheap. For instance, an application for an international master title will cost the federation Euro165 and in the past year, we had two new international masters. Fide has the right to increase the fee by 50 percent to 100 percent if title applications are made after their deadline for submission. 

And finally, if you want to organize a Fide-rated round-robin tournament, be prepared to pay the registration fee too. It’s calculated based on the strength of the tournament. For Swiss tournaments, the fee is one Euro per player. On top of that, if the organizer fails to submit the results to Fide, a penalty fee kicks in.

All in all, these fees simply add up to a lot of money. For voluntary organizations like the MCF, it digs a deep hole in the pockets. And this is just fees due to Fide alone. What about participation in regional events? They cost money too but only this time, the Asian Chess Federation is the beneficiary of the fees. 

So don’t think that chess is a cheap game. If a federation is not careful, one fine day it will find itself temporarily excluded from Fide until the arrears are settled. That’s what happened to the MCF. The big fear is this: okay, so our arrears have been settled for now but what will happen in the next one or two years? Nobody knows….

Finally still on the topic of ratings, I have some quick statistics here based on the latest January 2010 list. We, that is Malaysia, have three players rated above 2400 in Mas Hafizulhelmi (2420), Mok Tze Meng (2414) and Wong Zijing (2410). We have also four players above 2300: Nicholas Chan (2398), Ooi Chern Ee (2336), Peter Long (2331) and Jimmy Liew (2315).

Then comes 26 players with ratings of above 2200, followed by 37 players rated above 2100. The rest are below 2100. 

Up next  

City Day fun

Come celebrate City Day in Kuala Lumpur this Monday with a fun blitz event at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex. This will be an 11-round event with only five minutes on the chess clock. Entry fee is RM25 per player. For registration and details, contact Hamid Majid (019.3158098 or aham@pc.jaring.my) or Najib Wahab (016.3382542 or najib.wahab@hotmail.com)

Seri Putra chess

The Perak International Chess Association will organize the Seri Putra chess tournament at the Sekolah Menengah Seri Putra hall on Feb 7. Note that the organizers are now holding the under-10, under-12, under-15 and open events on the same day.

Entry fees are RM5 for the under-12 and under-10 events and RM10 for the under-15 and open events. The closing date for entries is Feb 4. To register, contact Abu Bakar Abdullah (014.2510852 or 014.2510952) or visit http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

KL rapid grand prix

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize a KL rapid grand prix beginning next month. The grand prix, sponsored by the Malaysian Intellectual Development Foundation and the Royal Selangor Club (RSC), will feature four legs from February to May and followed by the grand final in June. The first leg will be on Feb 6-7.

Each leg will have six rounds with a 45-minute rate of play per player for each round. The top 10 winners of the open and under-12 sections will be given free entry to their respective sections in the final. Total prize fund for the grand prix is RM6,600.

Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the RSC and RM20 for non-members. For the under-12 section, the entry fees are RM5 for children of KLCA and RSC members and RM10 for others. All legs will be played at the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, http://www.klchess.com/ 

UTP open

The Universiti Teknologi Petronas will organize their UTP chess open tournament at their campus in Bandar Seri Iskandar, Tronoh, Perak on Feb 21. There will be an open section as well as an under-18 and under-12 sections. 

Entry fees are RM20 for the open, RM15 for under-18 and RM10 for under-12. UTP students and staff need pay only RM15 upon presentation of their matrix cards.  Closing date is Feb 7. More details, contact Hussein (017.6410194, husseinnordin@gmail.com), Faizal (017.3934291, faizalakram91@gmail.com) or Qistina (019.2602094).

Malaysian women’s masters

After the success of last year’s Malaysian Masters tournament at the DATCC, next comes the Malaysian Women’s Masters tournament starting Feb 26. There will be 16 players who will play knock-out matches. More information is available from MCF secretary Gregory Lau (012.9020123, greglau64@gmail.com or malaysianchessfederation@gmail.com) or Najib Abdul Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@hotmail.com).

3rd DATCC chess league

The third DATCC Kuala Lumpur commercial and recreational chess league at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex will kick off on Mar 24. The DATCC chess league is a Fide-rated team tournament played over nine rounds with long time controls. Each round will be played on Wednesdays at the chess centre. 

Entry fee is RM400 per team of a maximum 10 players. Junior teams (players below 20 years old) are charged at RM200. Any entry received after Mar 12 will need to pay an extra RM100. Details are available from Hamid Majid (019.3158098, aham@pc.jaring.my) or Najib Abdul Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@hotmail.com).