Future champs

At the last minute on Sunday, I decided to take a short drive down from Penang to look in at the fifth and final leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament at the Syuen Hotel in Ipoh.

I wasn’t disappointment by what I saw. In fact, it was very encouraging. When I entered the tournament hall, I could see that the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) has a good thing going for them. The playing hall at the hotel was full and there were a total of 213 people playing chess.

Players of all ages, from the young to the old, and they had come to Ipoh not only from all over Perak but from other nearby states as well. As far as I could tell, there were players from Selangor and Penang but the organizers were quick to stress that that there were busloads of players from areas like Bagan Serai, Slim River, Grik, Kampar, Ayer Tawar, Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Siput. 

In fact, despite there being a closing date for entries that were announced much earlier, the PICA officials suddenly found an unprecedented number of unregistered players knocking at the door on Sunday morning. 

They had to adjust their entries quickly and would have gladly accepted all that turned up at the last minute if not for the fact that they had filled up the tournament hall and had run out of chess equipment. I was told that possibly, some 30 to 40 players were turned away reluctantly.

Because of this large number of players, the organizers also took a quick decision to increase the number of rounds to eight and at the same time, reduce the time control for each round.

Of course, some of the more serious participants may say that these factors made it not conducive to competing seriously (there was a lot of prize monies involved) but privately, I was thinking to myself, who cares? 

It was a great carnival atmosphere and I could see that the majority of the players were enjoying themselves tremendously. Noise level was high and impossible to shut out, but who cares again?

Naturally, the top boards got the most attention. They were the games that were usually among the last to finish and so, it gave the other players a great opportunity to mill around and watch the better players.

This is actually the second year of the grand prix. The series started last year and according to the PICA president, Chan Swee Loon, the association had received RM25,000 from Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) this year for the running of the five legs in various towns around Perak. 

The series began with the Taiping leg in April and then proceeded to Bagan Serai, Slim River, Kampar and finally, Ipoh. Chan said that the grand prix circuit had drummed up a lot of interest in the towns where chess is not normally played. Next year’s grand prix circuit, he added, would probably be increased to six legs and start earlier in January.

At the closing ceremony on Sunday, the Datuk Bandar of Ipoh, Datuk Haji Roshidi bin Haji Hashim enthused about the game and paid a glowing tribute to the late Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng, the founder of KLK. Then he sprang a surprise on the PICA by pledging that the Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh would contribute RM10,000 to next year’s grand prix circuit in the state.

Just for the record, the eight winners of the grand prix were Fong Yit San, Muhammad Nabil bin Azman Hisham, Fong Yit Ho, Ahmad Jamal Husni Jamaluddin, Jason Teh Chee Ying, Azman Hisham bin Che Doi, Amirul Rahimi bin Shamsuddin and Noor Ahmad Fazilah.

Up next

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School (MBSSKL) in Kuala Lumpur will hold the sixth MBSSKL open tournament 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).

Malaysia Chess Festival

Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship, Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng international seniors open championship and Malaysia chess challenge, Aug 18-25. Nine rounds, 90 minutes plus 30-second increment time control. Closing date: Aug 1. 

Swensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament, Aug 21, six rounds, 25 minutes per game; Merdeka individual rapid open chess tournament, Aug 26, seven rounds, 25 minutes per game; ASTRO Merdeka rapid open team chess tournament, Aug 28-29, nine rounds, 25 minutes per game. Closing date: Aug 15. 

All game are played at the Cititel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. For more information on the entry fees and prizes, visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com/2011/06/malaysia-chess-festival-is-on.html 

Raja Nazrin Shah open

Formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur open, the Raja Nazrin Shah international open chess tournament takes place at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur on Sep 4-10. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second increment from the first move. For details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia).