KL open announced

WILL WE ever get to see Hou Yifan, the women’s world chess champion from China, grace any of our local tournaments this year or ever again? I wonder.

The first and last time that she played in this country was in April last year when she participated – and won rather convincingly – the third Kuala Lumpur open chess tournament. 

A lot has happened since then. When she was playing here last year, she was still not the women’s chess champion. That crown was earned much later, at the women’s world chess championship in Turkey last December when she beat Ruan Lufei.

But personally, I shall doubt that she will play in this year’s fourth Kuala Lumpur open chess tournament. Come this November or December, Hou will be defending her world champion’s title against Koneru Humpy.

Of course, Hou may still want to come here and use the tournament as a training event to build up towards her title defence but really, there’s no real reason to do so. She might as well stay back in Beijing to train with the best of the Chinese coaches.

But coming back to the Kuala Lumpur open, it’s been confirmed by the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association that they will organize this competition at the Swiss Garden Hotel and Residences on Sep 4-10. The Masterskill Education Group is coming in again as the main sponsor.

The total prize fund for this year has been increased from RM30,000 to RM45,000, although the winner’s purse remains unchanged at RM10,000. However, there are now additional prizes for both women and junior chess players as recognition of the huge support from them in previous years. In addition, the final day blitz tournament has been reinstated. 

In the meantime, here is a game from the Candidates tournament which just ended in Kazan, the capital city of Russia’s Tatarstan Republic. 

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is quite a tactician. In this game, he planned on a direct attack on Boris Gelfand’s king. However, his attack fizzled out after his opponent made a thematic exchange sacrifice on the c3 square. Regardless, Mamedyarov tried to soldier on in a position that was fast turning against him. But at the end, faced with three black pawns threatening to roll down the centre of the board, he had to accept his fate. This was one of the very few decisive games in the quarter-finals. 

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – Boris Gelfand

Candidates quarter-finals, Kazan, Russia

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bc4 e6 7. Bb3 b5 8. O-O Be7 9. Qf3 Qc7 10. Qg3 O-O 11. Bh6 Ne8 12. Rad1 Bd7 13. f4 Nc6 14. f5 Nxd4 15. Rxd4 Kh8 16. Be3 Nf6 17. Qh3 d5 18. e5 Qxe5 19. Rh4 Rfc8 20. Kh1 Rxc3 (This is the thematic sacrifice. See the diagram. Actually, for a player of Mamedyarov’s stature, he should have seen it coming. Maybe he did, but he underestimated its effect. In any case, after the exchange, his attack was stalled and it allowed Gelfand to take full control of the centre and hence, ultimately the game.) 21. bxc3 Qxc3 22. Rd4 a5 23. Rd3 Qc6 24. c3 a4 25. Bc2 e5 26. Bg5 b4 27. Qh4 bxc3 28. Rh3 Kg8 29. Re1 e4 30. g4 Kf8 31. Be3 Qc4 32. g5 Bxf5 33. gxf6 Bxf6 34. Qh5 Bg6 35. Qg4 Qxa2 36. Bb1 Qc4 37. Qg2 a3 38. Ba2 Qc6 39. Rg3 Rb8 0-1

UP NEXT

Giant Tampoi youth open

The Johor Bahru Chess Association, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Giant Hypermarket Tampoi are jointly organizing the Giant Tampoi youth tournament at the hypermarket in Tampoi on Sunday. Seven rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM15 (players under 16 years old) and RM12 (players under 12 years old). Closing date for entries is May 25. More details available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@jyahoo.com). 

Chess camp

The Creative Chess Enterprise will hold a two-day chess champ at the Sekolah Sri Bestari in Bandar Sri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur on Jun 6-7. Entry fees: RM140 (elementary level), RM160 (players with national chess ratings below 1200 points) and RM180 (players with national rating above 1200 points). Closing date: May 22. For inquiries, call Balendran (012.3547011) or Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922).

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association will organize the fourth leg of this year’s Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament at the Grand Kampar Hotel on Jun 19. Like the three previous tournaments, this leg in Kampar will be contested over seven rounds with a 25-minute time control. The grand final will be played in Ipoh on July 10. Other than cash prizes, points are awarded to the top 10 winners of each leg and these would accumulate till the final leg. 

Entry fees for the Kampar tournament: RM25 (open section), RM15 (under 16 years old), RM10 (under 12 years old). For PICA members and Perak residents: RM20 (open section), RM10 (players under 16 years old). Closing date for entries is Jun 16. To register, call Yunus (013.3908129). Alternatively, visit the PICA blog at http://perakchess.blogspot.com for details. 

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School (MBSSKL) in Kuala Lumpur will hold the sixth MBSSKL open tounament at their school on July 23. Six rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM5 (MBSSKL students) and RM15 (others). Closing date for entries is July 9. For more details, visit http://mbsskl.edu.my or contact Sanusi or Madam Yong LY (03.20782293).

All eyes on Candidates

Chesswise, this has been a rather eventful fortnight. The field, which started out with eight players, has by now been whittled down to only two.

In case you do not know what I’m talking about, it’s about the world championship Candidates tournament. Ever since it was announced at the end of last year that Kazan would be the venue of this series of elimination tournament, I have been, well, eagerly awaiting it.

Before anyone asks, “Kazan, where?” let me just add as a preamble that this is the capital city of the Tatarstan Republic in Russia. It is supposed to be the eighth largest city in Russia. And it is also supposed to have a sport-mad culture. Come 2018, Kazan will be a venue for the FIFA World Cup.

But before then, it is the Candidates tournament that takes centrestage in Kazan and the rest of the chess world. The tournament actually consists of three stages: the quarter-finals on May 5-9, followed by the semi-finals on May 12-16 and the final which kicked off yesterday. The event ends next Thursday and that is when the official Challenger to the world champion will be known.

The Norwegian grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen, was supposed to be participating in this Candidates cycle but last November, he announced his withdrawal. He was replaced by Alexander Grischuk.

I think nobody misses Carlsen’s absence too much. Regretting his absence, maybe, but not to the extent of missing him. After all, this Candidates cycle still happen to feature, let me see, two former world chess champions, one former Challenger and five others who happen to be in the current list of top 15 chess players in the world. Yes, Carlsen isn’t missed much.

So back to the quarter-finals and the first two players to qualify through were Gata Kamsky and Boris Gelfand. Both were born in Russia but Kamsky is now an American citizen while Gelfand has become an Israeli. 

In his quarter-final tournament match-up, Gelfand had beaten the Bulgarian grandmaster, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, by a 2½-1½ score over four games. Similarly, Kamsky had shocked the Bulgarian former world champion Veselin Topalov by the same score line. 

Topalov’s defeat was easily the biggest upset result among the four quarter-final tournaments. Kamsky simply absorbed all the pressure from Topalov, even subjecting himself to defending difficult positions and falling into great time pressure. 

The other two quarter-final tournaments went into the play-offs. 

The first to qualify from these play-offs was Grischuk who beat the world number three player, Levon Aronian. All their four normal time control games were drawn but in the rapidchess play-off, Grischuk struck Aronian a big blow by winning two games.

Vladimir Kramnik, also a former world champion, scraped through the other play-off match which went into extra time. After having achieved four drawn games against the Azerbaijani grandmaster, Teimour Radjabov, in the normal regulation time control games, the two players again split the points in the four rapidchess play-off games. 

Progress to the second round or semi-final matches thus depended on a mini-series of blitz games. Radjabov won the first blitz game and was set to qualify when a draw hovered above the second blitz game.

However, Radjabov came undone by the chess clock. Quite inexplicably, the clock suddenly reset by itself in the midst of the game. By the time the game resumed, Radjabov’s concentration was gone and he lost tamely to allow Kramnik to level the score. 

It was now on to the second blitz mini-series. This time, it was Kramnik that won the first blitz game to take the lead in the match. There was to be no repeat of the same clock problem in the second blitz game which ended drawn. So at the end of a thrilling set of play-off games, Kramnik was the last player to advance to the semi-finals.

After two days of rest and recovery, the semi-final stage began on May 12. Kramnik found himself paired against Grischuk while Gelfand was drawn to play Kamsky. Needless to say, the tension that was so evident in the quarter-finals spilled over to the semi-finals. The four games in each match, played with normal regulation time control, were drawn and so, the players went into the rapidchess play-offs.

Here, Kamsky was the first to draw blood when he won the third game after a horrible blunder by Gelfand. Normally in such short matches, losing a game could prove fatal since there would not be enough games to recover sufficiently. 

But it wasn’t the case with Gelfand. With nothing left to lose, he threw everything against Kamsky in their last rapidchess game. And it was Kamsky that could not handle the psychological pressure. Almost immediately, he succumbed to Gelfand’s attack. The match was tied again and it would now go on to the blitz games. 

In the other match, Grischuk and Kramnik headed to their own blitz showdown after all their four rapidchess games ended drawn. 

It was here, in the blitz play-offs, that Grischuk and Gelfand finally prevailed in their respective matches to advance to the Final.

Tonight at seven o’clock, the second game of the Final between Grischuk and Gelfand will start. There are altogether six games at normal regulation time control. Who will be the eventual winner of this Candidates tournament, then? It’s going to be a thrilling finale which all of us can watch live on the Internet.

Various websites and blogs are carrying the games live and some of the best I can recommend are ChessDom (http://www.chessdom.com) and PlayChess (http://www.playchess.com). Alternatively, the Internet chess servers are all buzzing with activity as their members log in to watch. 

Up next

Warrior weekend

The Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC) will organize the Warrior rapid chess weekend tournament at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur this Sunday. Seven rounds, 25 minutes per game. Closing date for entries is today. Entry fees: RM20 (players below 12 years old) and RM30 (others). To register, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com). 

Giant Tampoi youth open

The Johor Bahru Chess Association, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Giant Hypermarket Tampoi are jointly organizing the Giant Tampoi youth tournament at the hypermarket in Tampoi on May 29. Seven rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM15 (players under 16 years old) and RM12 (players under 12 years old). Closing date for entries is May 25. More details available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@jyahoo.com). 

Chess camp

The Creative Chess Enterprise will hold a two-day chess champ at the Sekolah Sri Bestari in Bandar Sri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur on Jun 6-7. Entry fees: RM140 (elementary level), RM160 (players with national chess ratings below 1200 points) and RM180 (players with national rating above 1200 points). Closing date: May 22. For inquiries, call Balendran (012.3547011) or Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922).

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School (MBSSKL) in Kuala Lumpur will hold the sixth MBSSKL open tounament at their school on July 23. Six rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM5 (MBSSKL students) and RM15 (others). Closing date for entries is July 9. For more details, visit http://mbsskl.edu.my or contact Sanusi or Madam Yong LY (03.20782293).

 

Down to the wire

Last weekend, the national selection trials for the SEA Games continued from where it had left off two weeks earlier. 

When the men’s trials took a break in mid-event, international masters Mas Hafizulhelmi and Jimmy Liew were in the joint lead with four points from their first five games. One point behind them were international master Lim Yee Weng, current national champion Lim Zhuo Ren and Sumant Subramaniam. Further back were international master Mok Tze Meng, former national champion Kamalariffin Wahiduddin, Fong Yit San, Fong Yit Ho and Tan Jun Feng.

The race in the women’s selection trials was equally tight. At the midway stage, former national women’s champion Fong Mi Yen and Camilia Johari were both in the lead with four points and right behind them were the current national women’s champion, Nur Nabila Azman Hisham, and her sister, Nur Najiha Azman Hisham. Further back were Puteri Rifqah Fahada Azhar, Tan Li Ting, Sarika Subramaniam, former national women’s champion Nurul Huda Wahiduddin, Tang Kar Khei and Puteri Munajjah Az-zahra Azhar.

Normally, half-way standings can give a pretty good guide on how tournaments will turn out at the end but at the same time, they can be pretty misleading too.

The only non-surprise in the men’s selection trials was the consistency of Mas Hafizul in demonstrating that he was, perhaps, still the top player in the country. By the end of the tournament on Sunday, Lim Yee Weng had climbed up above Jimmy Liew in the standings although technically, both of them were tied in joint second place. 

There was a dead heat tie for the fourth and fifth places by Sumant and Kamalariffin, which even the tie-break systems were unable to resolve, but more about that later. And further down the list, Lim Zhuo Ren was in sixth place above his coach and mentor, Mok Tze Meng, who was in seventh position. Finishing below them were Fong Yit San, Tan Jun Feng and Fong Yit Ho.

And in the women’s selection trials, Fong Mi Yen had a rude awakening when she was bumped off the perch and could only finish joint fifth with Puteri Rifqah. Nur Najiha came triumphant to top the table while sandwiched in between the three of them were Tan Li Ting, Camilia Johari and Nur Nabila. In the second half of the table were Puteri Munajjah, Nurul Huda, Sarika and Tang Kar Khei.

Fong Mi Yen would be deeply disappointed with her play over the weekend because finishing in fifth place meant that effectively, she had missed qualifying for the four places in the women’s chess team that would be going to this year’s SEA Games in Jakarta. 

There would also be four places in the men’s chess team and three of these places are filled by Mas Haifzul, Lim Yee Weng and Jimmy Liew. Determining the last qualifier was more problematic and both Sumant and Kamalariffin had equal points and equal tie-breaks. Moreover, they had also drawn with one another in this tournament.

In order to break this tie, the Malaysian Chess Federation organized a play-off mini-match of two rapidchess games. Sumant won the first game but then, Kamalariffin struck back to win the second game. 

It was a tie again. According to the regulations, the two players now had to play two blitz chess games. Blitz games are normally played with five minutes on the chess clock so you can imagine tension running high in the two games. But then, there were still no decisive results when the two blitz games ended. Sumant and Kamalariffin were still tied.

The final resolution was to play Armegeddon blitz chess. Here, one player would be allotted five minutes on his chess clock while the other was given four minutes. The player with five minutes would be required to win his game, no if’s and no buts. If the game ends drawn, the player with four minutes would be adjudged the winner.

So this was going to be the decisive moment. There would be no more second chance for either player. In this game, Kamalariffin cracked and lost, thereby sending Sumant to the SEA Games. 

 

Up next

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association will organize the third leg of this year’s Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Slim River in Slim River on Sunday. Seven rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM25 (open section), RM15 (under 16 years old), RM10 (under 12 years old). For PICA members and Perak residents: RM20 (open section), RM10 (players under 16 years old). To register, call Yunus (013.3908129), Abu Bakar (014.2510852) or Uztaz Ismail (019.5520391). Alternatively, visit the PICA blog at http://perakchess.blogspot.com for details. 

Ampang chess master

The Ampang Jaya Chess Club and the Office of the Member of Parliament for Ampang are jointly organizing the Ampang chessmaster open tournament at the Medan Selera Ampang Waterfront on Sunday. Seven rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM10 (school children) and RM25 (others). For more information, contact Abdul Hakim Nordin (019.3925828). To register, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com). 

Warrior weekend

The Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC) will organize the Warrior rapid chess weekend tournament at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on May 22. Seven rounds, 25 minutes per game. Closing date for entries is May 20. Entry fees: RM20 (players below 12 years old) and RM30 (others). To register, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com). 

Giant Tampoi youth open

The Johor Bahru Chess Association, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Giant Hypermarket Tampoi are jointly organizing the Giant Tampoi youth tournament at the hypermarket in Tampoi on May 29. Seven rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM15 (players under 16 years old) and RM12 (players under 12 years old). Closing date for entries is May 25. More details available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@jyahoo.com). 

Chess camp

The Creative Chess Enterprise will hold a two-day chess champ at the Sekolah Sri Bestari in Bandar Sri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur on Jun 6-7. Entry fees: RM140 (elementary level), RM160 (players with national chess ratings below 1200 points) and RM180 (players with national rating above 1200 points). Discount of RM20 applies to anyone registering before May 15. Closing date: May 22. For inquiries, call Balendran (012.3547011) or Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922).

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School (MBSSKL) in Kuala Lumpur will hold the sixth MBSSKL open tounament at their school on July 23. Six rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM5 (MBSSKL students) and RM15 (others). Closing date for entries is July 9. For more details, visit http://mbsskl.edu.my or contact Sanusi or Madam Yong LY (03.20782293).

 

Three times a winner

Now, don’t start me off. I’m not going to launch myself with superlatives to describe Dr Nicholas Chan’s feat in winning the annual Selangor open chess tournament for the third year in succession.

All that I’m going to say to him is, congratulations. Short and simple.

Really, there are no big words to describe Chan’s hat-trick of Selangor open achievements. He was the champion in 2009, he made a great defence of this title last year and then, earlier this week, he overcame some mid-tournament jitters to become the Selangor open champion again. 

Add in his tournament victory in 2004 and Chan has won this event four times in the past eight years. 

It wasn’t all plain sailing, though. He led until the sixth round and even reeled off five wins in a row which included a win over international master Jimmy Liew. Then Chan hiccupped in the seventh round, losing to Indian international master Srinath Narayanan. Suddenly, he found Liew, Srinath and familiar Filipino player Ian Udani leap-frogging half a point over him.

With two rounds remaining, the tournament now became alive. There were four contenders who could easily be winner of the tournament. However, some of them had still to play one another and so, there would be no easy gallop towards the finish line. The event was wide open. 

In the eighth round, two of the leaders met. Udani and Srinath were paired together, but their game was drawn. Then, Chan beat Mohd Irman Ibrahim to draw level with the Indian and the Filipino. In the meantime, Liew took advantage of their lapse by disposing off his opponent, Abdul Rahim Ramli, to take the sole lead for the first time in the tournament. 

So by the end of the eighth round, the standings were: Liew in front with seven points and followed by Udani, Srinath and Chan just half a point behind. The ninth and final round would be crucial.

To end up as the champion, Liew would need to win his final game. A draw might have been enough too but he could possibly be subjecting himself to a tie-break with two other players. It wasn’t a completely appealing situation but maybe, it would be better than nothing. In any case, his final-round opponent, Udani, refused to follow the same script and in a tensely fought game, the Filipino prevailed over Liew.

Srinath was also in a good position to join Udani at the top of the standings if he could beat his opponent, the newly minted national closed champion Lim Zhuo Ren. But Lim proved to be a tougher nut than expected and he put paid to any idea that the Indian player could have.

These unexpected results presented Chan with a precious lifeline which he seized gladly. Among the top contenders, he had possibly the most comfortable pairing of all. Sitting across from Mark Siew, Chan outplayed his opponent to win the game and thus finish on equal points with Udani. 

But this is not the end of the story. Two players stood at the top of the standings with equal points. Who would be the champion? For Chan, his spurt of five wins in his first five games would now ensure him a much superior tie-break than Udani. And with this better tie-break came the coveted winner’s purse at the conclusion of this 38th Selangor open chess tournament.  

Up next

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association will organize the third leg of this year’s Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Slim River on May 15. Like the two previous tournaments in Taiping and Bagan Serai, this leg in Slim River will be contested over seven rounds with a 25-minute time control. The two remaining legs will be played in Kampar on Jun 19 and the grand final in Ipoh on July 10. Other than cash prizes, points are awarded to the top 10 winners of each leg and these would accumulate till the final leg. 

Entry fees for the Slim River tournament: RM25 (open section), RM15 (under 16 years old), RM10 (under 12 years old). For PICA members and Perak residents: RM20 (open section), RM10 (players under 16 years old). Closing date for entries is May 12. To register, call Yunus (013.3908129), Abu Bakar (014.2510852) or Uztaz Ismail (019.5520391). Alternatively, visit the PICA blog at http://perakchess.blogspot.com for details. 

Ampang chess master

The Ampang Jaya Chess Club and the Office of the Member of Parliament for Ampang are jointly organizing the Ampang chessmaster open tournament at the Medan Selera Ampang Waterfront on May 15. Seven rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees are RM10 (school children) and RM25 (others). For more information, contact Abdul Hakim Nordin (019.3925828). To register, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com). 

Warrior weekend

The Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC) will organize the Warrior rapid chess weekend tournament at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on May 22. Seven rounds, 25 minutes per game. Closing date for entries is May 20. Entry fees are RM20 (players below 12 years old) and RM30 (others). To register, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com). 

Chess camp

The Creative Chess Enterprise will hold a two-day chess champ at the Sekolah Sri Bestari in Bandar Sri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur on Jun 6-7. Entry fees: RM140 (elementary level), RM160 (players with national chess ratings below 1200 points) and RM180 (players with national rating above 1200 points). Discount of RM20 applies to anyone registering before May 15. Closing date: May 22. For inquiries, call Balendran (012.3547011) or Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922).

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School (MBSSKL) in Kuala Lumpur will hold the sixth MBSSKL open tounament at their school on July 23. Six rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees are RM5 (MBSSKL students) and RM15 (others). Closing date for entries is July 9. For more details, visit http://mbsskl.edu.my or contact Sanusi or Madam Yong LY (03.20782293).