Imagine that

As expected, there’s no live coverage at all of the nine chess competitions at the SEA Games in Palembang, Indonesia. The only details that are available from the official website are the round-by-round results.

Fortunately, the people running the chess competitions are all experienced international chess arbiters and they have taken a lot of trouble to ensure all the results can be viewed on the Chess-Results.com website. This is the only consolation so far.

The SEA Games are actually already winding down both in Jakarta and Palembang, and accordingly so too are the chess competitions. The men’s and women’s standard chess events and the rapid chess events started yesterday and will end on Monday. A blitz chess competition also on Monday will bring the proceedings to a close.

Earlier this week, the mixed pair standard chess team, the ASEAN chess individual and the blindfold chess individual events have been completed.

Like I mentioned last week, our blindfold chess players – I mentioned only Mok Tze Meng but have discovered subsequently that Jimmy Liew was also playing in the blindfold event – arrived in Indonesia not knowing what to expect from the organisers, only to find out later that during the blindfold games, a player and his opponent would be seated at an empty chess board.

There would be no dramatic blindfolds to cover their eyes. Instead, they were allowed to stare and concentrate on the empty squares of the chess board while their pieces danced and jiggled around in their minds. 

When they decided on a move to make, they would write down that move in long form algebraic notation on a piece of paper that they would pass on to the game controllers who then verified the moves on a normal chess board (with chess pieces) that would be out of the players’ sight. 

And the most newsworthy part was that infractions of the tournament rules, such as making an illegal move or not writing down the moves properly, would lead to the arbiters rendering YELLOW cards to the players after giving them an initial verbal warning. 

After two yellow cards, the third infraction during a game would lead to a RED card, which meant the automatic loss of the game. Very interesting regulation, indeed.

Let’s have a look at one of the games from the third round of the blindfold event. Perhaps by playing through this game, you can appreciate how much the players can compute even without sight of the chess board. Le Quang Liem is Vietnam’s top grandmaster but still, he managed to lose a blindfold game one round later to a Pinoy player.

Zaw Win Lay (Myanmar) – Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) 

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nd2 e6 5.Nb3 c5 6.dxc5 Bxc5 7.Nxc5 Qa5+ 8.c3 Qxc5 9.Be3 Qc7 10.Nf3 Nc6 11.Bb5 Nge7 12.Bc5 Bg4 13.0–0 Bxf3 14.Qxf3 Qxe5 15.Rfe1 Qc7 16.c4 0–0–0 17.cxd5 Rxd5 18.Rac1 Nf5 19.a4 Kb8 20.b4 Rhd8 21.Bf1 b6 22.Be3 Nxe3 23.Qxe3 Re5 24.Qc3 Rxe1 25.Rxe1 Nd4 26.Qh3 h6 27.Qg4 Nf5 28.a5 Rd4 29.Re4 Rxe4 30.Qxe4 bxa5 31.bxa5 Qxa5 32.g4 Nh4 33.Qf4+ Qc7 34.Qb4+ Ka8 35.Qf8+ Kb7 36.Qxg7 Qf4 37.h3 Nf3+ 38.Kg2 Ne5 39.Kg1 a5 40.Bg2+ Kc7 41.Qf8 a4 42.Qc5+ Kd7 43.Bf1 Nf3+ 44.Kg2 Nd4 45.Kg1 Ke8 46.Bg2 Kd8 47.Qf8+ Kd7 48.Qc5 Ne2+ 49.Kf1 Qc1+ 0–1

I had also mentioned last week about the start of the women’s world chess championship match between 17-year-old Hou Yifan of China and 24-year-old Humpy Koneru of India in Tirana, Albania.

They are already playing the fourth game of the match today. If the match goes the full distance, it will end on Nov 30 with the tie-break games. You can follow the match live from the official website, http://www.wwcc2011tirana.com. The games start at 10pm Malaysia time.

Up next

Penang age group

The Penang Chess Association is holding this year’s Penang age group chess championship for boys and girls over five Sundays. The final two events, for players under 15 and 17 years old, will be played this Sunday. Venue is the clubhouse of the Residents’ Association of Bayan Baru in Bandar Bayan Baru, Penang. Entry fees: RM15 (PCA members) and RM30 (non-members). For inquiries, contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517) or visit http://penangchess.com for more information.

National scholastics

The Malaysian Chess Federation will organise this year’s national scholastics age group chess championships for boys and girls over two weekends. The under-13 and under-15 group events will be played tomorrow. Seven rounds for each event, time control of 60 minutes per game. Venue is the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre at the Wilayah Complex, Jalan Munshi Abdullah in Kuala Lumpur. Entry fees: RM40 (under-13 and under-15 events). 

The respective age group champions will be selected as the country representatives at the Asian schools chess championships in New Delhi, India on Dec 16-23. For inquiries, contact Zuraihah Wazir (017.2837808) or Najib Wahab (016.3382542).

Asian amateur open

The Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) will organise the second Asian amateur open and women chess championship in Kuala Lumpur from Nov 25 to Dec 1. The tournament is open to only Asian players who are either unrated or with an international rating of not more than 2100 points. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move.

Entry fees are USD125 for players with international ratings and USD150 for non-rated players. Malaysians wishing to play will be charged at RM412 and RM495 respectively. Closing date for entries is extended to Nov 14. 

Top prizes for the open section are USD1,500 (about RM4,500) for first, USD1,000 (about RM3,000) for second and USD800 (about RM2,400) for third. There are six other minor prizes that go down to USD200 (about RM600). For the women, there are four prizes with the best of them set to win USD400 (about RM1,200). There are also identical prizes for the four best unrated players.

All inquiries and requests for entry forms to the event secretariat (najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com).

Penang chess league

This year’s Penang Chess League will be held on Dec 3 and 4. Pending confirmation from the Penang Chess Association, there may be a change in the playing venue. The two-day team event is open to teams from four broad categories: public sector, factories, institutions of learning and others. 

Each team shall comprise four players and an optional reserve. Average rating per team during play should not be more than 2100 points. Seven rounds, time control of one hour play-to-finish for each game. Entry fees are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams), RM60 (under-12 teams). Closing date is Nov 29. 

More details available from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@yahoo.com or estan64@gmail.com) or visit http://penangchess.com for more information.

Penang heritage open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organise the Penang heritage city open chess championship at the Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel, Penang on Dec 6-10. Two separate events: open and challenger sections, both internationally rated. Nine rounds, 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move.

Entry fees for the open event: free for Malaysian national masters and all players with FIDE ratings of above 2300 points, RM100 (PCA members) and RM150 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 2000 and 2299 points, RM150 (members) and RM200 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 1800 and 1999 points, RM200 (members) and RM300 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 1600 and 1799 points, and RM250 (members) and RM350 (non-members) for players without any FIDE rating.

Entry fees for the challenger event: RM50 (PCA members) and RM100 (non-members) for players with a FIDE rating, and RM100 (members) and RM150 (non-members) for unrated players. 

Closing date for all entries is Dec 1 and thereafter, all late entries will be charged double. Direct all inquiries to Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@yahoo.com or estan64@gmail.com). More information also at http://penangchess.com

Sarawak open

The Sarawak Chess Association will hold the Sarawak open chess tournament at the Ultimate Professional Centre, opposite the Pullman Hotel, in Jalan Bukit Mata Kuching, Kuching on Dec 12-16. Internationally-rated event played over nine rounds, 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment for each move.

Entry fees: Free for grandmasters and international masters (men and women), RM25 (ladies and all players below 16 years old) and RM50 (all other participants). The closing date for entries is Dec 5.

Details available from Morsin Ahmad (012.8949415, morsinab@sarawaknet.gov.my), Abang Mohd Reduan (019.8887786, reduan_sahari@bsn.com.my) and Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, limkhwa@gmail.com).