Five days to go

There are just five days to go before the start of this year’s Malaysia Chess Festival. Are you ready for it? As for me, I’m preparing to make my way down to Kuala Lumpur very soon.

Normally, I would just be spending two or three days at the festival just to soak in the occasion, observing the participants and basically enjoy the fun among the people whom I’ve known for decades. However since last year, I have become more involved in the festival as a somewhat reluctant participant.

Yes, I’ve been roped in again to play in the second Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng seniors open tournament. Not to say that I’m totally prepared for it; I have to admit that just like last year, I am far from being comfortable. Apart from looking at chess games live on the Internet and doing some brief analysis and commentaries for this chess column, I haven’t sat down with real chess pieces and feeling their weight in my hands. Not for quite some time, I haven’t!

So it is with some trepidation that I’m getting myself involved again. And I know that the competition level this year isn’t going to be any easier than the maiden event last year. I took a sneak look at the preliminary list of players yesterday and true enough, it looks tough even before the first move is pushed.

Last year’s tournament had 18 participants but so far, I’ve seen 24 names in the players’ list. I am sure that before the event starts on Aug 18, they may be more additions to this number.

One reason for the increasing number is, of course, more players are now more aware of the existence of this event. Last year was just the curtain raiser; this year is the real competition.

Another reason is that the organizers in their infinite wisdom had decided to lower the age of entry into this tournament from 55 to 50, thereby enabling more people to make the transition from playing in open events to this senior event. It’s a good thought but I should say that the organizers should rein themselves in or otherwise, the continuing lowering of age limit will defeat the idea of holding a senior tournament in the first place.

As for the other two main draws of the Malaysia Chess Festival, the organizers say that they are confident of at least 100 entries for the main event, the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship, while 37 entries have been received for the AmBank chess challenge.

There are at least 17 grandmasters in the Malaysia open and this includes the defending champion, Vietnamese grandmaster Cao Sang. Also taking part are two woman grandmasters and nine international masters. The most prominent names among the Malaysians taking part will be Mas Hafizulhelmi and Lim Zhuo Ren.

These three main events will be held at the Cititel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on Aug 18-25. They will all be played over nine Swiss rounds using a 90-minute plus 30-second increment time control. 

Apart from these long time control tournaments, there are also the Svensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament on Aug 21, of which more than 200 entries have been received so far, and the Malaysia Chess Festival open blitz tournament on Aug 25.

Up next

Merdeka rapid events

Here is a reminder to all local chess players that the Merdeka individual rapid open tournament will be played on Aug 26 and the ASTRO Merdeka team rapid open tournament on Aug 28-29. Venue for both events is the Cititel MidValley in Kuala Lumpur. 

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 RM200 for four-player teams and RM250 for five-player teams. 

For more information, 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).