Summit uncertainty

As typical with all high-stake chess events, especially the world chess championship matches, the pre-match mind games usually start well before the first move is played.

This year’s world championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and challenger Veselin Topalov is no different. The mind games actually started months ago when both parties were negotiating the terms for this match. It was to be expected that both sides would want the best conditions for their players without acceding any concession to their rival. Nevertheless at the end of the day, they would have to agree on a common ground for the match to proceed.

That, of course, would have been settled a long time ago. Today, we are scheduled to see the start of the first game of the match in Sofia, Bulgaria but will we? As I write this story earlier this week, there is a big question mark over this happening.

You see, even the best man-made plans can be torn asunder by the unpredictability of Mother Nature and as we all know, for much of the past 10 days or so, Europe has been affected by an event happening on the fringe of that continent.

Who would have expected that a volcanic eruption on Iceland could have affected air travel everywhere on the globe? Although travel within Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas are generally unaffected, tens of thousands of flights within, in and out of Europe have been cancelled. Air passengers are stranded everywhere and even the alternative land travel is pretty much choked up. 

It’s a chaotic situation that is even affecting chess. Anand, who is based in Spain, has suddenly discovered that Mother Nature, aided unwittingly by the European Union, has no respect for world champions. His flight from Madrid took him to Frankfurt but on landing there, his contingent was told that the airport was closing and the connecting flight to Sofia had been cancelled. Stranded!

This is not the best news for anyone who is directly involved in the high-stake world championship match. At the every worst, it will throw the player’s psychological preparation totally out of whack. We shall not know how much Anand has been affected until he sits down to face Topalov. 

I’m sure that to a lesser degree Topalov is also affected. However he is already comfortably settled into Sofia for several weeks now and his preparations continue uninterrupted. I’m pretty sure too that he cannot give a darn about Anand’s present predicament. Whatever happens to the weather, every free day in Sofia is an opportunity for him to rest and psyche himself up properly for the match.

So the pressure is mostly on Anand himself. When I wrote this story earlier this week, I understood that the world champion had already finalized plans to travel overland into Bulgaria. Maybe, he would have had arrived in Sofia by Wednesday and wrecked by travel fatigue. His preparations are totally disrupted. Would one or two days be enough for him to recover his frame of mind?

In this regard, both Anand and the All India Chess Federation have made statements and requests to both the World Chess Federation and the match organizers from the Bulgarian Chess Federation to delay the start of the match for three days. This was while Anand was still stuck at Frankfurt.

To the vast majority of chess players worldwide, it was a request made not totally unreasonably. Although chess players are waiting for the match to start, they would only want to see both players come to the both fully prepared physically, technically and psychologically. 

However, the match organizers saw it differently. They said that they could not agree to the postponement of the opening ceremony two days ago because they had contractual agreements with many third parties. Nevertheless, the organizers said they were still open to the postponing of the first game from today to tomorrow but this would still have to be discussed internally. Let’s see how this turns out.

In the meantime, I am priming myself up to watch the match over the Internet. There’ll be a maximum of 12 games, all playing with classical time control, and they all start at 8pm, local time here in Malaysia. 

Unless there are changes to the schedule, there will be a rest day after every two days of play with an additional rest day thrown in on May 9 before the 12th game. If the score reaches 6-all, the players will break the tie with a series of faster games on May 12.

The official world chess championship website is at http://www.anand-topalov.com/ but there is a host of other high profile chess websites and blogs covering the event too. Fully recommended are Chessdom.com (http://www.chessdom.com), Chessbase.com (http://www.chessbase.com) and Susan Polgar’s web-blog (http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com).

On paper, Topalov, who is presently ranked second in the world at 2805, must be considered a slight favourite over Anand, who is ranked fourth at 2787. But external influences aside, one can imagine almost anything to happen in this match.

I’ve mentioned often enough that Topalov is an enterprising player that creates energy on the chessboard. He sees resources where others may well get bogged down in complications. His games are stuff to excite any onlooker. 

On the other hand, Anand is more experienced in match play and his game is more sound and filled with better judgment. This shorter match of 12 games is supposed to favour the older Anand (he’s 40 years old, five years older than Topalov) who is likelier to get tired over a longer match. The Indian grandmaster is also believed to play better if it ever comes to the faster tiebreak games.

Up next  

Perak grand prix

The third leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Sek Men Teknik Kerian in Jalan Siakap, Bagan Serai on Apr 25. 

Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. Entries will close on Apr 22. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Mas’ud Hamzah (012.4681665).

Stonemaster chess

The one-day second Stonemaster amateur chess tournament for 2010, organized by Cerdik Catur Enterprise will be held at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Kuala Lumpur on Apr 25. Only players without a national rating or a national rating of below 1650 are allowed to play. Entry fees are RM30 for adults and RM20 for school children. Closing date for entries is Apr 23. For details, contact Mohd Fadli Zakaria (014.2312370, seme_event@yahoo.com) or Cikgu Farah (017.9100836). 

 

Selangor open

The nation’s longest-running chess tournament is back! The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will hold their 37th Selangor open chess tournament at the Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur from Apr 29 to May 2.

This nine-round, Fide-rated event will have 10 main prizes totalling RM6,000 with the winner getting RM2,200. There will also be various minor category prizes. Entry fees are RM80 for CAS members with Fide ratings, RM90 for CAS members without Fide ratings, RM90 for non-CAS members with Fide ratings and RM100 for non-CAS members without Fide ratings. Entries received after Apr 25 will be charged an extra RM20.

For enquiries, contact Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922) or Mat Zaki Yeop (017.2032051).

KL rapid grand prix 

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize the fourth leg of the KL rapid grand prix on May 8 and 9. Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the Royal Selangor Club (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. Venue is the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, (http://www.klchess.com/)