Surprising turn

Being named as the top seed in any tournament can work two ways: this top billing can inspire the player to go on to win the event or make the player muck up his attempt to justify the ranking. 

I do observe that at most top chess events in the world, the highest rated player generally justifies his top ranking. Cases in point: at the Biel tournament in Switzerland, the Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen came through beautifully to win; at the Dortmund tournament in Germany, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik cut a swathe through his opposition to take the first prize; at the British championship in England, grandmaster Michael Adams won the play-off for the title; and at the Lake Sevan tournament in Armenia, grandmaster Baadur Jobava won on tie-break after finishing in joint first place.

But for every success in justifying the top seeding, there is also the disappointment. As examples, at the Hangzhou women’s grandmaster tournament, woman grandmaster Ju Wenjun won convincingly ahead of the women’s world champion, Hou Yifan; and at the Fide women’s grandm prix tournament in Rostov, Russia, grandmaster Koneru Humpy was overshadowed by a brilliant display by the same Hou Yifan.

Just earlier this week, the 50th world junior chess championship ended in Chennai, India. For the open event, the top-seeded Maxim Matlakov, a grandmaster from Russia, couldn’t live up to his ranking and after two crucial back-to-back losses, he finished well outside the prizewinners’ list. 

After Matlakov dropped out of contention, the number of front-runners chasing for the world junior championship title was reduced to just four players: the Polish grandmaster, Dariusz Swiercz, two Armenian grandmasters, Robert Hovhannisyan and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, and an Indian Fide master, A Koushik Girish.

Girish dropped out of the picture soon afterwards (but not before he qualified for a grandmaster title norm) and the front-runners were now reduced to only three. On the back of a series of seven consecutive wins, Hovhannisyan had taken over the lead after the ninth round but Ter-Sahakyan and Swiercz were right behind him.

The pressure was relentless as Ter-Sahakyan and Swiercz kept at Hovhannisyan’s heels for the next two rounds. Then, Ter-Sahakyan’s challenge fell apart when he suffered two consecutives losses in his final two games.

With only the final round to be played, Hovhannisyan was left to contend with only Swiercz. At this late stage in the tournament, the Armenian grandmaster held a slim half-point lead over his rival. Swiercz would have to win his final game but it would seem likely to any observer that all Hovhannisyan needed was a draw in the final round to secure the first place.

But chess with all its tie-break possibilities can spring surprises. Hovhannisyan made his draw and Swiercz won his game. Both players were now tied at the top. But surprise, surprise, according to the tie-break system, the draw had actually pulled Hovhannisyan down from the perch, giving him only second place and the silver medal. As a result, Swiercz ended up as the new world junior chess champion despite having trailed in the tournament until the last round was played.

This being the world junior chess championship, Malaysia was represented in this event by the current national champion, Lim Zhuo Ren. Although Lim had been an active player in local tournaments for several years, this event was his first outside the country. (As far as I’m concerned, participating in last year’s Singapore open doesn’t qualify as taking part in a foreign country.)

I think the strength of the event surprised him and taught him many lessons. Though he didn’t create any wave in Chennai, at the very least he played more or less according to his rating expectation. I’m sure that the lessons he brought back from India will be put to good practice at the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship which is in progress at the Cititel MidValley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Speaking of which, today is the second day of the Malaysia Chess Festival of which the Malaysia open is one of the three main showcase events that are running until Aug 25. The other three events are the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng senior open tournament and the AmBank chess challenge. 

All these three events are played daily – do check with the organizers because sometimes there are two rounds in a day and sometimes only one round – but there are two rest days next week on Sunday and Wednesday.

On Sunday, though, the Svensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament will take place at the same venue.

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 27-28. Venue for both events is the Cititel MidValley Hotel 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).