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).