On the campaign trail

The message was clear enough. The World Chess Federation (Fide) must change or else it will continue to lose influence and significance in the world at large, said Anatoly Karpov, the 12th world chess champion, who was in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Karpov, 59 years of age, was in the country for three days as part of a whirl-wind visit through several south-eastern and east Asian countries to raise support from national chess federations in his campaign to be elected as the next Fide president. 

According to the Fide presidential candidate, the leadership in Fide has not had much achievement in the past 15 years and the federation has also neglected the interests of many of the chess federations in its fold.

One of the sore points that Karpov raised was that the incumbent Fide president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, had alienated international sponsors from playing their roles in the world body.

“Chess is one of the most active sports in the world and Fide has 158 member countries. In terms of members, we are among the biggest international sports federations in the world and yet we don’t see long-term ties with sponsors that should benefit us,” Karpov charged.

“For example, world chess championship matches used to offer big prize moneys by the millions of dollars but ever since the present Fide president came on board, we have seen lower prize moneys. In fact, the many changes in the formats for the world championship cycles have caused a lot of confusion in the chess world and is it any wonder that international sponsors have shied away from this mess since 1995?” he asked.

If his team gets elected at the Fide congress this September, one priority would be to bring dignity back into chess. According to him, short 10-game or 12-game matches were hardly reflective of chess struggles at the highest levels. “World championship matches should not be less than 16 or 18 games but Fide presently finds difficulty to bring in quality sponsors who can support matches of this length. Why should this be so?” he said.

Karpov gave another example of the decreasing visibility, saying that significant activities like world championship matches used to be played in the big cities of the world – New York, London, Seville, Paris – but he claimed that since 1995, these events were being moved to lesser cities. 

“Also, it doesn’t say much for chess that this year’s chess Olympiad, which is the traditional biennial gathering for the world-wide chess family of close to 160 countries, is being held in Siberia, a place called Khanty-Mansiysk,” he claimed. 

And in truth, that is correct because I’ve written about Khanty-Mansiysk before. Even getting there is going to be problematic enough, as most connecting flights are only available from Moscow and it’s a journey of several days.

But the chord that struck home was that in recent years, national chess federations have been feeling the pinch of paying increasingly higher fees to Fide for all sorts of activities. The smaller chess federations such as the Malaysian Chess Federation find that annual fees have been growing significantly. 

Getting new players onto the Fide rating list, no matter their rating levels, means getting billed for them. Federations need to pay significant amounts for players to have their chess titles formalized. Then there are the high registration fees for registering even Fide-rated events. All these fees add up and it is not surprising that there are countries that find themselves temporarily out-of-benefit from Fide because fees are in arrears. The MCF, for example, found out painfully that our players were temporarily removed from the Fide rating list because of unsettled fees.

According to Karpov, countries should not be forced to fund Fide. It should be the other way around, that Fide should instead be helping the countries raise their own funds for their internal activities.

“It should make sense,” he argued, “that a happy national chess federation will contribute more towards the progress of chess.”

Apart from Malaysia, Karpov and his small entourage that included his candidate for deputy president, Richard Conn Jr, had moved through China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

While in Kuala Lumpur, Karpov paid a courtesy call on Olympic Council of Malaysia president Tunku Imran ibni Almarhum Tuanku Ja'afar at the OCM office in Kuala Lumpur and was guest of honour at a function hosted by the Malaysian Chess Federation’s honorary life president, Datuk Tan Chin Nam, who incidentally also sits in Karpov’s Advisory Team.

The former world champion also played two exhibition blitz games with Malaysian international master Mas Hafizulhelmi and up-and-coming youngster Yeoh Li Tian, winning both of them.

Up next  

Tebrau open

The Johor Chess Academy, the Rukun Tetangga Sri Tebrau, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Johor Bahru Chess Association are jointly organizing the 21st Tebrau open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru on Sunday. 

Entry fees are RM10 for players below 10 years old, RM12 for players below 16 years old and RM30 for all other participants. Closing date is today. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525 or jb_chess_association@yahoo.com).

DATCC razzmatazz

The Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC) will organize their third DATCC razzmatazz rapidchess weekender at their premises in the Wilayah Complex, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. 

Entry fees are RM30 for adults and RM15 for children below 12 years old. For inquiries, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com) or Justin Kumar (018.3960781, kjustin09@yahoo.com). 

Cerdik Catur

The Cerdik Catur chess challenge will be played at the Kompleks Belia dan Kebudayaan Negeri Selangor in Section 7, Shah Alam on Aug 8. For Shah Alam residents, the entry fees are RM20 for adults and RM15 for under-18 players. Non-Shah Alam residents are required to pay RM5 more. For inquiries, contact Mohd Fadli Zakaria (014.2312370, seme_event@yahoo.com). 

Merdeka rapid events

The Merdeka individual rapid open tournament will be played on Aug 28 and the Merdeka team rapid open tournament on Aug 29-31. Venues for both events is the Cititel hotel ballroom at the MidValley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur. Closing date for entries is Aug 10.

For the individual rapid event, entry fees are RM20 for players below 16 years old and RM30 for others. For the team rapid event, entry fees are RM300 for four-player teams and RM375 for five-player teams. Junior teams (all players to be below 16 years old) will be charged at RM150 for four-player teams and RM175 for five-player teams. More details from Hamid Majid (019.3158098, fax 03.40244337, aham@pc.jaring.my or aham4you@gmail.com).

 

Mating season

I’ve this particular friend, you see, who calls me up once in a long while to enquire about forthcoming big tournaments in the country. He’s always like that. He very keen on chess but he seldom plays. A few times I’d bump into him at tournaments but more often, I don’t see him anywhere.

Lately, I haven’t heard a word from him. I thought his interest in chess tournaments was waning but out of the blue, he gave me a tinkle again two weeks ago.

“Hey,” he asked me, “mid-August is coming up soon. That’s school holidays time, isn’t it? Haven’t you heard anything yet about this year’s Malaysia open?” 

Yes and no, I told him. Yes, I have been informed about the Malaysia open. Or maybe I should say more correctly, the Malaysia Chess Festival. But no, mid-August is not school holidays time any more. Not this year any way, because the schools’ mid-term break has been shifted to Sep 3-12.

Because of the shift in the school holidays, the organizers of the Malaysia Chess Festival have also shifted the chess festival to accommodate more locals to play in some of the programmes.

This year’s festival dates run from Aug 29 to Sep 7. All the traditional features are there: from typical one-day local rapidchess events to full-fledged international Fide-rated tournaments. 

If you need to warm up your nimble mind and fingers before the big events start, the first item on the Malaysia Chess Festival calendar is the new one-day Merdeka individual rapid open tournament at the ballroom of the CitiTel Midvalley hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 28.

After that, you can then proceed to the traditional Merdeka team rapid open tournament. This event has a history going back some 30 years. It had its humble beginnings at the Wisma Belia before progressing to larger venues like the Putra World Trade Centre before finally finding its present home at the CitiTel Midvalley.  

Like in previous editions, this annual event brings out the teams from all over the country. Although not billed as such, it is often acknowledged as the unofficial national team open championship. As such, it is not unusual to find several state teams from both ends of the country converging in Kuala Lumpur over the Merdeka weekend and mingling with a mish-mash of other teams and players.

This Merdeka team event is a great crowd-puller not least because many foreigners who take part in the Fide-rated Malaysia open tournament that comes later are often roped in to play.

Naturally, the local players take this into their stride. In recent years, I have seen that our local teams have become more adept at challenging the foreign player-led ones for the main prizes. No more are they satisfied for the special prizes that have been created for the best performing local teams. 

It’s now the big prizes – RM5,000 for the champion team, RM4,000 for the runners-up, RM3,000 for third place, and many more – or none at all, which is good because we are shedding the old mentality that had been our glass ceiling for decades.

So for this year, the 30th ASTRO Merdeka team rapid open tournament will be played at the same CitiTel Midvalley hotel ballroom from Aug 29 to Aug 31. 

Although entries for both the Merdeka individual rapid open and the Merdeka team rapid open will close on Aug 10, do register early for this event because the organizers are capping the entries at 100 players for the individual event and 50 teams for the team event due to constraints of space. 

The biggest three events in the chess festival will commence immediately after the conclusion of the Merdeka tournaments from Sep 1 to Sep 7. 

The top billing is, of course, the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open chess tournament which is already in its seventh year. There is a USD4,000 first prize which should see a host of foreign grandmasters and international masters turning up. Even the prize for the top Malaysian player is worth USD800.

With this incredible foreign talent pool here, there will be lots of opportunities for all players to work on their own title norms. Anyone serious enough about their chess should not miss the chance to participate.

Apart from this, there’s also the AmBank Malaysia chess challenge, also another Fide-rated event but limited to players whose international ratings are below 2200 points. I know that there will be some comparisons with the main event in terms of prestige but believe you me, the challenge of playing in this lesser tournament cannot be any easier. Just ask any of the previous participants and they will tell you that this AmBank chess challenge can be equally mind draining.

This year, the organizers are introducing a new event into the chess festival: a tournament for senior chess players. This idea had been under discussion for at least a year and at long last, it is time to take the wrappings off the first Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng international seniors open chess tournament.

It’s not any ordinary social tournament for senior citizens, mind you. This is as serious as any international chess event can be, except that no player can be younger than 55 years old.

Maybe as a comparison, I should mention that the World Chess Federation have their world senior and world women’s senior chess championships organized since 1991. Illustrious names Vasily Smyslov, Efim Geller, Mark Taimanov, Alexey Suetin, Viktor Korchnoi and Nona Gaprindashvili have appeared in the world senior’s roster as worthy winners.

So this seniors tournament is going to be a new event in the Malaysia Chess Festival. Of course, anything new will require some time to gain a degree of acceptance but there is no reason why this inaugural tournament cannot take a short-cut and attain the same prominence as the other events.

Need more information and details about the Malaysia Chess Festival? Just contact Abdul Hamid at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre (019.3158098, fax 03.40244337, aham@pc.jaring.my or aham4you@gmail.com) and he’ll send you the entry forms. 

Up next  

Perlis team open

The Perlis Chess Academy, the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Perlis and the Persatuan Catur Prestij Perlis will jointly hold the Perlis team open tournament at the Dewan Sek. Men. Putra in Kangar, Perlis tomorrow. For more details, contact Syaifulzamani bin Ismail (013.3939838) or visit http://chessperlis.blogspot.com. 

MBS chess

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur will hold the fifth MBSSKL chess open tournament at the school premises tomorrow. For enquiries, contact teachers NK Chin or (Mdm) LY Yong at the school (03.20782293).

Perak grand prix

The sixth leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament will be played at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan St Anthony in Teluk Intan, Perak this Sunday. For more information, contact Yunus (013.3908129), Hamisah (012.5008723) or Andrew (016.6295352) or visit http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

Tebrau open

The Johor Chess Academy, the Rukun Tetangga Sri Tebrau, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Johor Bahru Chess Association are jointly organizing the 21st Tebrau open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru on Aug 1.

Entry fees are RM10 for players below 10 years old, RM12 for players below 16 years old and RM30 for all other participants. Closing date is July 30. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525 or jb_chess_association@yahoo.com).

DATCC razzmatazz

The Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC) will organize their third DATCC razzmatazz rapidchess weekender at their premises in the Wilayah Complex, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur on Aug 1. 

Entry fees are RM30 for adults and RM15 for children below 12 years old. For inquiries, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com) or Justin Kumar (018.3960781, kjustin09@yahoo.com). 

 

Battle lines drawn

Come this September, we shall see what will possibly be the most acrimonious presidential contest for the World Chess Federation (Fide) for a long while. 

Lining up on one side of the contest is the incumbent president of the world body, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is seeking re-election since first getting elected to the top post in 1995. On the other side is his very worthy opponent, former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov.

When nominations closed at the end of last month for the submission of electoral tickets, the only two teams that met the deadline were that of Ilyumzhinov and Karpov. This means that they will go head-to-head in a direct clash of wills and personality that will see no compromise from either party.

Lined up on Ilyumzhinov’s team are Georgios Makropoulos, Ignatius Leong, Nigel Freeman, Beatriz Marinello and Lewis Ncube. 

Makropoulos is the president of the Greek Chess Federation but he is also the Fide deputy president since 1996. Leong is the president of the Singapore Chess Federation and also the Fide general secretary since 2005. Freeman, the president of the Bermuda Chess Federation, is the current Fide treasurer, a position held since 2006. Marinello is a former president of the United States Chess. NCube is a former president of the Zambia Chess Federation and presently a Fide vice-president since 2006. 

All of them, except for Marinello, are seeking to be returned to the same positions they are currently holding in the federation while Marinello is seeking to fill a Fide vice-president’s slot.

Karpov’s ticket consists of Richard A Conn Jr of the United States who is the candidate for deputy president, Ukrainian Chess Federation president Viktor Kapustin who is the candidate for treasurer, Malaysia’s own Abdul Hamid Majid who is the candidate for secretary general, and the two candidates for vice-presidents, Angolan Chess Federation president Dr Aguinaldo Jaime and woman grandmaster Alisa Maric who is also the vice-president of the Belgrade Chess Federation.

I did mention at the start that this Fide election may be the most acrimonious in recent years. For the first time in many years, Ilyumzhinov faces a very serious opponent. The credentials of Anatoly Karpov speak for itself. People know him as the 12th world chess champion, having succeeded Bobby Fischer in 1974 and only giving up his world title to Garry Kasparov in 1985. Truly, he is one of the greatest chess players of all time.

However, Karpov’s very attempt at becoming the next Fide president has been full of obstacles, not least from within Russia itself. This is because Fide regulations require all candidates to be nominated by their own chess federations, and only one candidate at any one time. 

And therein lies the problem because both Ilyumzhinov and Karpov are from Russia. The problem became even more complicated after both of them claimed to have their federation’s nod. 

According to reports, the Russian Chess Federation had narrowly nominated Karpov as its candidate at a meeting in May. A few days later at another meeting which was purportedly just shy of a quorum, Ilyumzhinov was nominated. A sticky situation that became more absurd when the Russian government sacked the president of the Russian Chess Federation and installed someone else to look after the federation’s affairs.

Lawsuits have also been flying around from both parties. Earlier, Ilyumzhinov had sued Karpov for libel. The former world champion fought back with a suit to force Fide to disclose the nomination forms of Ilyumzhinov’s team. At the heart of the matter was the status of Marinello because it was claimed that she was not a member of either the Chilean or Brazilian chess federations.

If the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland rules in Karpov’s favour, it could mean the automatic disqualification of the whole of the Ilyumzhinov ticket because there’s also another Fide regulation that stipulates that at least one member of a ticket must be a woman candidate. It would be impossible for Ilyumzhinov to replace Marinello at the last minute.

In the meantime, both candidates are continuing to circle the globe to visit national chess federations and drum up support for their teams at the Fide election in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. Yes, it’s going to be an intense but interesting fight indeed.

Up next  

Perlis team open

The Perlis Chess Academy, the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Perlis and the Persatuan Catur Prestij Perlis will jointly hold the Perlis team open tournament at the Dewan Sek. Men. Putra in Kangar, Perlis on July 24. Entry is limited to the first 70 teams.

Entry fees are RM30 for teams representing schools and institutions of higher learning, RM50 for teams from Perlis and RM70 for all other teams. For more details, contact Syaifulzamani bin Ismail (013.3939838) or visit http://chessperlis.blogspot.com. 

MBS chess

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur will hold the fifth MBSSKL chess open tournament at the school premises on July 24. Entry fees are RM5 for MBS students and RM15 for non-MBS students. For enquiries, contact teachers NK Chin or (Mdm) LY Yong at the school (03.20782293).

Perak grand prix

The sixth leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament will be played at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan St Anthony in Teluk Intan, Perak on July 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. Closing date for entries is July 22. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129), Hamisah (012.5008723) or Andrew (016.6295352). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

Tebrau open

The Johor Chess Academy, the Rukun Tetangga Sri Tebrau, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Johor Bahru Chess Association are jointly organizing the 21st Tebrau open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru on Aug 1.

Entry fees are RM10 for players below 10 years old, RM12 for players below 16 years old and RM30 for all other participants. Closing date is July 30. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525 or jb_chess_association@yahoo.com).

 

Serious business

Bangladeshi grandmaster Ziaur Rahman, who is based in Malaysia for the next year or so, will soon be getting down to the serious business of training young chess talents in the country.

The Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF), working with the training provider and sponsors, have finalised a 15-month development programme stretching over six standalone terms, each aimed at growing the potential talent amidst our youngsters.

Each term of the MCF Young Talent chess development programme is self-contained and will last 30 days. In each programme, all aspects of chess training will be covered and these include constant assessment of a player's capability and understanding of the game, an intensive study into the chess middlegame and endgame and of course, focusing on the important chess opening theory.

Ziaur Rahman will take the students through all stages of chess preparation, identify their playing styles, their strengths and weaknesses, and look into areas of improving them. To achieve this, he will have a small group of local international masters to assist him during each term. 

According to the MCF, the focus of the programme will be unearthing and developing junior chess talents in the country who are between eight and 14 years old as they represent the future of our chess achievements. Nevertheless, older youths are more than welcomed to participate. 

The 15-month programme will run from this month until September next year. The first term is scheduled from July 24 until Aug 22 so that the first set of students who pass out from the programme can also plan to take part in this year’s Malaysia Chess Festival that’s already planned for September. 

There will be fresh intake of new students every term. The second term starts in September, the third term in November, the fourth in February next year, the fifth term in April 2011 and the sixth term in July 2011. Therefore, there are ample opportunities for readers to send their children to attend these intensive MCF development programmes.

The approach to each term’s programme is simple: group training for all students to learn the common fundamentals and basics of chess, and a personalized session where the students are paired with either the grandmaster or an international master and participate in a more detailed study mode. The latter session will help the trainer fine-tune the student to take best advantage of his or her playing style and preferences.

At the end of the term, each student would have undergone a maximum of 68 hours of end-to-end chess improvement experience and learning. 

The MCF says the fee of RM500 has been made attractive because of sponsorship. Normally, such training programmes with grandmasters can easily cost between RM4,000 and RM6,000. Students interested to attend the first term should contact the MCF before July 19. However, due to initial space constraints, only 10 students will be accepted.

The MCF also stressed that the development programme is not meant for beginners in the game. The students are required to possess certain playing strength and skills, and the training provider may request for additional information to substantiate a student’s playing strength before accepting him into the programme.

For enquiries or to request for the programme prospectus, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com) or the MCF secretary Gregory Lau (012.9020123).

Fischer’ body exhumed

The body of former world chess champion Bobby Fischer was exhumed from his grave at an Icelandic church last Monday. This came weeks after the Supreme Court in Iceland gave the final go-ahead to authorities there to extract Fischer’s tissue sample in order to prove a paternity case.

According to reports, the process was completed smoothly and Fischer’s coffin was not unearthed from the ground. Instead, the earth at the side of the grave was dug and a hole then drilled into the coffin to extract the tissue sample. Present were a specialist doctor, a priest, the local sheriff and several lawyers.

The chess legend died intestate and his estate, worth at least USD2 million, is being claimed by various parties, including the United States government. Nine-year-old Jinky Young from the Philippines is set to inherit the bulk of Fischer’s estate if DNA tests prove conclusively that she is Fischer’s daughter. Other claimants include Fischer’s Japanese wife and his two nephews.

Up next  

Perlis team open

The Perlis Chess Academy, the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Perlis and the Persatuan Catur Prestij Perlis will jointly hold the Perlis team open tournament at the Dewan Sek. Men. Putra in Kangar, Perlis on July 24. Entry is limited to the first 70 teams.

Entry fees are RM30 for teams representing schools and institutions of higher learning, RM50 for teams from Perlis and RM70 for all other teams. For more details, contact Syaifulzamani bin Ismail (013.3939838) or visit http://chessperlis.blogspot.com. 

MBS chess

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur will hold the fifth MBSSKL chess open tournament at the school premises on July 24. Entry fees are RM5 for MBS students and RM15 for non-MBS students. For enquiries, contact teachers NK Chin or (Mdm) LY Yong at the school (03.20782293).

Perak grand prix

The sixth leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament will be played at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan St Anthony in Teluk Intan, Perak on July 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. Closing date for entries is July 22. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129), Hamisah (012.5008723) or Andrew (016.6295352). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

Tebrau open

The Johor Chess Academy, the Rukun Tetangga Sri Tebrau, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Johor Bahru Chess Association are jointly organizing the 21st Tebrau open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru on Aug 2.

Entry fees are RM10 for players below 10 years old, RM12 for players below 16 years old and RM30 for all other participants. Closing date is July 30. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525 or jb_chess_association@yahoo.com).

 

New winners

The first thing that I’ve got to do this week is to admit that I was wrong with my prediction two weeks ago. Yes, I was wrong because this year, a teenager did not run away with the title of national chess champion.

Instead, the honour this year went to Tan Khai Boon. Although he’s 28 years old, not in the same age group as our national chess champions of the past few years, but he certainly is still young enough to prove to be the equal of any of them.

He is known well enough in local chess circles but if you don’t know him, let me tell you that when he is in his best form, he can be a very tough nut to crack. At the national championship, he has shown that this was indeed very true. 

Now before I say anything more, I must mention here that both of this year’s national championship and national women’s championship met with an unprecedented number of entries: 94 for the national and 44 for the national women’s. These numbers brought wide smiles to the Malaysian Chess Federation as well as to the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia which co-hosted the events at their campus.

The only possible setback when a field is too large is that even with nine rounds, it can be possible for a tournament to finish with some of the top seeds playing with one another much later in the event. Sometimes, they may not even get to meet. This is a recognized trait of the Swiss pairing system. Because of this and under the right conditions, a large-player field can sometimes mean a sprint towards the finish line for some players. 

Anyway, Tan entered the national championship not as the top-seeded player. He was only ranked fourth in the tournament and he lost the very first game that he played. Losing in the first round is not a very good omen for any player because for the rest of the tournament, he will have to play “catch up” with the tournament leaders. 

This was precisely what happened to Tan. He picked himself up after the loss and gave chase to the leaders. For the next five rounds, he was always one step behind them. He kept pace with them but somehow because everyone was sprinting forward at the same time, he never seemed able to over-haul them. Not until the sixth round, anyway.

He was lucky. In the fifth round, the leaders began to falter as the pressure set in. Mohd Nabil Ahmad Hisham, one of them, had breezed through his first four games to lead the standings but now, he couldn’t keep up with his own blistering pace. With a draw in the fifth round, he suddenly found himself tied on equal points with Yeoh Li Tian and Mohd Tariq Amru.

In the sixth round, all these three players could do no better than to draw their games. In the meantime after Tan got over his first-round loss, he kept his cool and began winning one game after another. By the end of the sixth round, he now found himself tied with Mohd Nabil, Yeoh and Mohd Tariq as the joint tournament leaders.

It was at this point in the championship that Tan realized that maybe, just maybe, he did have a realistic chance to pull ahead of them and go on to win the tournament. But there were still three more rounds to go. 

Regardless, he pushed on. Mohd Nabil kept up with him, but both Yeoh and Mohd Tariq lost their games. So by the end of the seventh round, it was down to a two-horse race. 

By now, the pressure on the players had crept a notch higher. Who would be the first to capitulate? In the eighth round, the two top contenders finally played one another. Imagine, it took eight rounds of this 94-player tournament before the top two front-runners could face off. How would they fare in this game?

Unfortunately, Mohd Nabil’s form imploded and left Tan as the sole leader of the tournament. So, before the start of the final round, Tan already held a one-point lead over the rest of the field. A draw would be enough for him to clinch the title but he cruised through with his last victory. Eight straight wins in nine games had landed him with the Tun Hussein Onn challenge trophy and the title of Malaysia’s newest national master. 

Over in the national women’s championship, the race to the finish was just as tense once Alia Anin Bakri faltered in the defence of her title. She got off to a breezy start but she then gave away a draw in the third round. A fifth-round loss meant that her effort to retain her title was effectively over. 

So all eyes now turned to both Fong Mi Yen and Tan Li Ting who were both seeded just below Alia in this tournament. 

In the fourth round, both of them met. That’s the other trait of a Swiss pairing system. When the number of participants is smaller, the chances of the leaders meeting early would increase almost proportionately. Here with only 44 players, it wasn’t a surprise that this had happened in the fourth round and there were still five more rounds to go.

Anyway in the fourth round, Mi Yen got the better of Li Ting to take sole lead of the national women’s championship. It was a lead that she held on tightly to until the end of the tournament despite losing in the sixth round to Amira Shahmina Zulkafli. 

That sixth-round loss actually allowed Amira Shahmina to level up with Mi Yen as co-leaders but Amira Shahmina could not keep up the momentum and promptly dropped half a point behind by the end of the next round. 

By contrast, Mi Yen kept her cool to collect two more points in the seventh and eighth rounds, and a draw in the ninth round was enough for her to be declared as the new national women’s champion. With it went the title of national woman master and the opportunity to hold the Tan Sri Sabbaruddin Chik trophy for one year.

Top six players in the national championship: Tan Khai Boon 8 points; Edward Lee and Kamal Ariffin Wahiduddin 7 points each; Yeoh Li Tian, Mohd Saprin Sabri and Nik Ahmad Farouqi 6½ points each.

Top seven players in the national women’s championship: Fong Mi Yen 7½ points; Tan Li Ting, Amira Shahmina Zulkafli and Nithyalakshmi Sivanesan 6½ points each; Alia Anin Bakri, Puteri Rifqah Fahada and Camila Johari 6 points each.

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MBS chess

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur will hold the fifth MBSSKL chess open tournament at the school premises on July 24. Entry fees are RM5 for MBS students and RM15 for non-MBS students. For enquiries, contact teachers Mr NK Chin or Mdm LY Yong at the school (03.20782293).