New Asian woman champion

XU YUHUA, the 22-year-old woman international master from Hangzhou, China, is the new winner of the Asian Women's Individual Chess Championship.

She was undefeated throughout the 11-round competition and finished the clear winner with 8 1/2 points from 11 games. The championship, which began on April 9, ended on Tuesday at the Awana Genting Highlands Golf And Country Resort, Pahang.

With this victory, Xu gained possession of the Indira Gandhi challenge trophy and bagged US$500 in the process. Xu, the 1996 Asian junior girls' champion, also gained her third woman grandmaster title norm in this event.

Lebanese woman grandmaster Eva Repkova came in second. Repkova had been expected to challenge Xu for the top prize and indeed, after the ninth round had seemed set to do so, but an unexpected loss to Vietnamese player Le Thi Phuong Lien in the 10th round dashed her hopes.

In the final round last Tuesday, Repkova showed none of the effects of this loss to collect the full point from the Australian women's champion, Ngan Phan-Kostnistsky.

Repkova ended the tournament with eight points and with it, the second prize of US$400. Her closest rival, Rena Mamedova from Uzbekistan, lost to Vietnam's Nguyen Thoan Hua and stayed third with seven points.

Interestingly, just minutes into the start of the 10th round on Monday, the head of the Vietnamese contingent to the championship, Dang Tat Thang, mentioned casually to one of the arbiters that Repkova would lose her game to Le. It became apparent, as the game unfolded, that Repkova had walked into a line prepared by the Vietnamese.

Le proceeded to show her opponent the extent of her preparation, and Repkova, unable to put up any resistance, soon conceded the game to her when the checkmating threats could no longer be stopped.

Despite this loss, I found Repkova to be the most elegant player in the event. In most of her games, whenever she found herself with an advantage on the chessboard, she played dynamically to finish off her opponent in the most economical and straightforward manner.

My observations about Repkova should in no way distract us from the fact that Xu is also a very accomplished player.

Xu played with an air of calm and confidence. Her style is less tactical, but she would be patiently collecting small advantages at all stages of her game.

Nevertheless, being a less dynamic player than Repkova meant that she was more susceptible to drawing her games. In the tournament, she made no less than four significantly drawn games.

The closest I ever saw her come to a disadvantage in any of her games was in the ninth round when spirited play from Mamedova forced her to simplify into an end game where she was left with two pawns against Mamedova's knight and pawn. But Xu had seen to it that the position was still a draw.

Among all the players in the field, the one person who gave me the impression of being a very difficult opponent was Tamin Upi Darmayana.

Tamin Upi was the defending champion. Her resistance collapsed towards the end of the championship but she accounted for herself very well in the middle rounds.

She was a very game fighter, unwilling to concede much in her games, and she often found the resources to win or to save a lost position.

The Malaysian Chess Federation entered four local players in this tournament and I was glad to see that our players did not disgrace themselves.

Nurul Huda Wahiduddin and Samantha Lee gave good accounts of themselves, scoring 4 1/2 points each, and both Roslina Marmono and Lim Jeannie were not too far behind with four points each.

The Asian Women's Individual Chess Championship, like the Asian Cities Team Chess Championship which ended a week earlier, was organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation and fully sponsored by Resorts World Bhd.

Final standings: Xu Yuhua (China) 8 1/2 points; Eva Repkova (Lebanon) 8 points; Mekhri Ovezova (Turkmenistan) 7 1/2 points; Rena Mamedova (Uzbekistan) and Le Thi Phuong Lien (Vietnam) 7 points; Bagyashree Thipsay Sathe (India), Nguyen Thi Dung (Vietnam), Irina Gorshkova (Uzbekistan) and Nguyen Thi Thuan Hoa (Vietnam) 6 1/2 points;

Angela Khegai (Uzbekistan), Maria Lucia Sulistya (Indonesia), Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky (Australia) and Anupama Gokhale (India) 6 points; Tamin Upi Darmayana (Indonesia) 5 1/2 points; Maisa Ovezova (Turkmenistan) 5 points; Nurul Huda Wahiduddin (Malaysia), Samantha Lee (Malaysia) and Maral Ovezova (Turkmenistan) 4 1/2 points; Roslina Marmono (Malaysia) and Lim Jeannie (Malaysia) 4 points; Cynthia Yap (Singapore) 1 point; and Lee Wing-Ian (Macau) 0 point.

 

Asian cities and women's events

PLAYING SCHEDULE FOR THE ASIAN EVENTS

Today is the second day of play at the Asian cities team and the Asian women's individual chess championships, and here is the playing schedule for readers who intend to watch the action at the Awana Genting Highlands Golf and Country Resort.

The team event is held over nine rounds and already, two rounds have been completed. The third round starts today at 4pm, and tomorrow, there will be two rounds at 10am and 4pm. Sunday is a rest day, with play resuming on Monday with two rounds scheduled for 10am and 4pm.

On Tuesday, the eighth round will start at 4pm. Wednesday will be the last day of the team event with the final round scheduled to begin at 10am and the closing ceremony at 8pm.

The women's event is played over 11 rounds and except for the final round on April 21, all the games will begin at 2.30pm daily until April 20. The final round will start at 10am on April 21 in order to accommodate the closing ceremony on the same day at 8pm. The rest days for the competitors are on April 12 and 16.

Readers with Internet access should be able to follow the progress of the championships at the official Asian cities website at http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Stadium/6485/.

In conjunction with the two championships at Genting Highlands, the Chess Association of Selangor will be holding the Amcorp Mall national blitz open chess tournament this Sunday.

Since this is a rest day for the participants of the Asian cities and Asian women's events, many of them are expected to take part in the blitz tournament which shall be played at the Amcorp Mall in Persiaran Barat, Petaling Jaya.

The CAS, which is organising this event on behalf of the Malaysian Chess Federation, is offering a prize fund of RM2,500. The tournament will consist of a preliminary 13-round Swiss, and the top qualifiers will then play in a knock-out format for the main prizes.

Entry fees are RM10 for members of the CAS, and RM15 for non-members. Registration for the tournament must be made at the Amcorp Mall tomorrow between 3pm and 5pm, as entries will not be accepted on Sunday.

For enquiries, contact either Lim Tse Pin (tel: 03-733-0927) or Mrs Jackie Wong (tel: 03-703-8237).

OTHER LOCAL EVENTS THIS MONTH

Readers are reminded that the International Islamic University Malaysia will organise a team tournament on April 18 and 19 at the Hotel Wenworth in Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur. The university's chess club is organising the event together with the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Cash prizes totalling more than RM4,000 will be offered to the winners. The champion team will also get custody of the Dato Sabaruddin Chik challenge trophy.

Entry fees are RM120 for universities and other inistutions of higher learning, RM100 for schools and RM150 for public teams. Non-Malaysian teams are charged RM180. For more details, contact Azlan Adnan of the IIU (tel: 03-681-4052 after 4pm, or 016-271-1522).

Meanwhile in Johor Bahru, the Johor branch of the Police Administrative and Civilian Staff Union and the Johor Bahru Chess Club are jointly organising a team tournament on April 26. This event will be played on the third floor of the Bangunan JOTIC in Jalan Air Molek, Johor Bahru.

Each team can register a maximum of four players, but only three will play in each round. The entry fee is RM50 per team, and entries will close on Apr 24. For more details, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07-333-8215).

SHIROV, KRAMNIK AND KASPAROV

Mark Crowther, who publishes the excellent This Week In Chess webpage on the Internet weekly (http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html) mentioned briefly that the Luis Rentero/Gary Kasparov's so-called World Chess Council has announced its plans for the rest of the year.

According to the Spanish newspaper, El Pais, Alexei Shirov will replace Viswanathan Anand after the latter had rejected an invitation to play Vladimir Kramnik. Rentero had offered the place to Shirov after his impressive performance in the Linares tournament last month, in which he finished second behind Anand.

Kramnik and Shirov will play in Cazorla, Spain, in a 10-game match starting May 22. The winner will play Kasparov in another match over 18 games beginning October 16. Rentero, the self-proclaimed president of the World Chess Council confirmed these details on March 20. The final match has a US$1.3 million prize tag and will take place in Seville and Linares.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Let's continue to talk about the seventh Melody Amber tournament this week. As you already know, the Melody Amber was actually two tournaments in one. In each round, the participants were required two games against the same opponent: one was a Rapid Chess game and the other, a blindfold game.

Because of these unusual circumstances, you cannot expect the quality of these games to be as good as those played in normal events such as the Linares or Tilburg. Still, these top players were able to produce some interesting chess.

There have been some good games in the tournament, such as the seventh round games between Viswanathan Anand and Loek van Wely which featured attractive sacrificial attacks down the h-file with each player winning with the white pieces.

In the eighth round, Alexei Shirov and Veselin Topalov revisited Gary Kasparov's 9...h5 novelty from his last-round game in Linares. Shirov immediately played a new move, 10 Nd5, but Topalov appeared to equalise easily. Topalov missed several opportunities and was probably even winning with his passed g-pawn at one point. However, Shirov was the one who inflicted the finishing blows in the game.

Finally, check out Vassily Ivanchuk's cute winning tactic against Vladimir Kramnik in their seventh-round blindfold game.

Loek van Wely - Viswanathan Anand, Round 7

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d6 6. O-O Nc6 7. Nc3 a6 8. d5 Na5 9. Nd2 c5 10. Qc2 Rb8 11. b3 b5 12. Bb2 e5 13. Rae1 h5 14. Nd1 h4 15. e4 hxg3 16. hxg3 Ng4 17. Bc3 Bh6 18. f3 Nf6 19. f4 Ng4 20. Nf2 Bg7 21. Bf3 Nxf2 22. Rxf2 Nb7 23. Rh2 Qe7 24. Kg2 Bd7 25. Reh1 Nd8 26. Nf1 f6 27. Ne3 Nf7 28. Bg4 bxc4 29. bxc4 Bxg4 30. Nxg4 Qd7 31. Ne3 Rb7 32. f5 g5 33. Ng4 Rfb8 34. Rh7 Kf8 35. Kf3 a5 36. Ke3 Rb4 37. Bxb4 axb4 38. Rxg7 Kxg7 39. Rh7+ Kf8 40. Nh6 1-0

Viswanathan Anand - Loek van Wely, Round 7

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Be7 8. f4 O-O 9. Be3 Nc6 10. a4 Qc7 11. Kh1 Re8 12. Bf3 Bd7 13. Nb3 b6 14. g4 Bc8 15. g5 Nd7 16. Bg2 Bb7 17. Qg4 Nb4 18. Rf2 Bf8 19. Rd1 g6 20. Qg3 Rac8 21. Rfd2 d5 22. e5 Nc5 23. Nd4 Ne4 24. Nxe4 dxe4 25. Ne2 Bc6 26. Nc3 Qb7 27. h4 b5 28. axb5 axb5 29. h5 Na6 30. Qh3 Bb4 31. Kg1 Bxc3 32. bxc3 Bd5 33. hxg6 fxg6 34. Bxe4 Nc7 35. Bxg6 hxg6 36. Rh2 1-0

Alexei Shirov - Vesselin Topalov, Round 8

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. g4 h6 8. f4 e5 9. Nf5 h5 10. Nd5 Nxd5 11. Qxd5 Nc6 12. O-O-O Be6 13. Nxd6+ Bxd6 14. Qxd6 Bxg4 15. Qxd8+ Nxd8 16. Rd6 exf4 17. Bxf4 Ne6 18. Be5 Bf3 19. Rg1 Bxe4 20. Bh3 Rd8 21. Rb6 Bc6 22. Rb3 Rg8 23. Re3 g6 24. Bf6 Rd6 25. c4 Kf8 26. Rf1 Bd7 27. b3 g5 28. Be5 Rc6 29. Bg2 g4 30. Rd3 Be8 31. Bd6+ Kg7 32. Rf5 Kg6 33. Ra5 f5 34. Rd2 Ng5 35. Bxc6 Bxc6 36. Bf4 Ne4 37. Rd4 h4 38. b4 g3 39. hxg3 hxg3 40. b5 g2 41. Be3 axb5 42. cxb5 Be8 43. b6 Bc6 44. Rd1 Rh8 45. Re5 Nc3 46. Rd6+ Kf7 47. Rxf5+ Ke7 48. Rg6 Rh1+ 49. Kd2 Rf1 50. Rh5 Ne4+ 51. Kc2 Nf6 52. Rh4 Kf7 53. Rg5 Nd5 54. Bd4 Nf6 55. Rh6 Be4+ 56. Kd2 Ne8 57. Rg4 Rh1 58. Rf4+ Kg8 59. Re6 Bc6 60. Rxc6 bxc6 61. Rg4+ Kf7 62. Rxg2 Nd6 63. Kc2 Ke6 64. a4 Kd5 65. Bg1 c5 66. a5 Kc6 67. Rg6 Kb7 68. Rxd6 Rxg1 69. Rd7+ Kc8 70. Rc7+ Kb8 71. a6 1-0

Vassily Ivanchuk - Vladimir Kramnik, Round 7

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. Qc2 c5 7. O-O cxd4 8. Nxd4 Nc6 9. Nxc6 bxc6 10. b3 Ba6 11. Bb2 Rc8 12. Nd2 d4 13. Rfe1 c5 14. e3 e5 15. Nf3 Bd6 16. Rad1 Re8 17. exd4 cxd4 18. Ng5 g6 19. f4 Bc5 20. Qd2 Qb6 21. fxe5 Bb4 22. Qf2 Bxe1 23. Rxe1 d3 24. Bd4 Qd8 25. Nxf7 Ng4 26. Qf4 Qa5 27. Rf1 Rf8 28. e6 Qh5 29. Qxg4 1-0

 

Utut wins the day

Indonesian grandmaster Utut Adianto played to form and justified his seeding when he won the men's East Asian/Oceanic zonal championship at the Genting Highlands last month.

He finished the tournament with nine points, ahead of grandmaster Rogelio Antonio from the Philippines who obtained 7.5 points.

In joint third-fifth places were Vietnamese international master Nguyen Anh Dung, Indonesian international master Nasib Ginting and untitled Filipino player Fernie Donguines. The three players scored seven points each.

Edhi Handoko, another Indonesian grandmaster, was a disappointment as the second seed could only manage to score 6.5 points and tie for the sixth to ninth placings with Indonesian Irwanto, Filipino Barlo Nadera and Hiroyuki Nishimura from Japan.

Four Malaysians were among the field of 28 players. Mas Hafizulhelmi, the current national champion, was the best local player with a score of 5.5 points which automatically qualified him for a FIDE Master title. Darren Yong and Mohd Saprin Sabri obtained 4.5 points each, while Mohd Kamal Abdullah scored 3.5 points.

The other players who also automatically qualified as FIDE Masters were Aung Thant Zin (Myanmar), Donguines, Chito Garma (Philippines), Irwanto, Nadera, Nishimura and Terry Toh (Singapore). Nishimura, Garma and FM Anthony Ker (New Zealand) obtained international master norms.

The women's zonal championship was held at the same time. Australian international master Irina Berezina-Feldman won the event with a score of 8.5 points. Half a point behind her was Vietnamese international master Hoang Thanh Trang.

Third was another Vietnamese player, unheralded Nguyen Thi Tuong Van, who obtained 7.5 points. Three players - Tamin Upi Darmayana (Indonesia), Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky (Australia) and Mai Thi Thanh Houng (Vietnam) - tied for the fourth-sixth places with seven points each.

The three Malaysian players fared poorly. The best resistance was put up by Ong Hwa Lu who scored four points, while Eliza Hanum Ibrahim and Samantha Lee each obtained 2.5 points.

Nguyen Thi Tuong Van was automatically conferred the international master title by virtue of her 66.7 per cent score in the tournament, while Veronica Klimenko (Australia), Mai Thi Thanh Houng and Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky were made FIDE Masters.

The zonal tournaments were hosted by the Malaysian Chess Federation and played at the Genting Highlands. Adianto, Berezina-Feldman and Hoang qualified for the Interzonal which is the next stage of the World Chess Federation's current world chess championship cycle.

BAYVIEW CHESS UPDATE

Two rounds were played at the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League last Sunday after the tournament was opened officially by State Executive Councillor Dr Sak Cheng Lum.

In the morning, Penang Free School A whitewashed Penang Development Corporation 4-0 while Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling beat MSSPP Juniors by a narrow 2.5-1.5 score.

Old Frees Association fell to a shock 1-3 defeat at the hands of Chung Ling High School A, while the other results in Division One were Penang Free School B beating Hitachi Semiconductor 3-1, and Chung Ling High School B winning 3-1 against Universiti Sains Malaysia.

In Division Two, National Semiconductor beat Hewlett-Packard 3-1, while Chung Ling High School D beat DCI 2.5-1.5. Penang Free School C scored their first points by beating Mara Taiping 2.5-1.5, Union High School beat Penang Chinese Girls High School 2.5-1.5, and Bank Bumiputra beat MSSPP Girls 2.5-1.5.

In the afternoon session, Chung Ling High School A beat Penang Free School B 3-1, Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling beat Chung Ling High School B 3-1, and Penang Free School A beat Pessca 3-1. Two other matches were drawn 2-2: Universiti Sains Malaysia against Hitachi Semiconductor, and Penang Development Corporation against MSSPP Juniors.

Among the Division Two teams, Penang Free School C continued their winning streak by beating National Semiconductor 4-0, while MSSPP Girls beat Union High School 3-1 and Chung Ling High School D beat Penang Chinese Girls High School 3-1. DCI beat Hewlett-Packard 3-1, and Chung Ling High School beat Mara Taiping by a similar score.

The current standings after five rounds: Division One - PFS A 15 points, CLHSA 13.5 points, CLOBA 11.5 points, OFA and USM 10 points, CLHS B 8.5 points,Pessca, MSSPP Jrs and PFS B 8 points, PDC 4 points, and Hitachi 3.5 points.

Division Two - CLHS D 15 points, CLHS C 12.5 points, MSSPP Girls 11.5 points, Union and BBMB 10 points, HP and DCI 9.5 points, PFS C 6.5 points, NS 6 points, Mara Taiping 5.5 points, and PCGHS 4 points.

The Penang Bayview Chess League is annually sponsored by The City Bayview Hotel. The sixth and seventh rounds will be played tomorrow at the hotel's Sri Mas Room.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

In New York last month where the American leg of the Intel Rapidplay Grand Prix was held under the auspices of the Professional Chess Association, Gary Kasparov took the first prize with a 2-0 score over Vassily Ivanchuk in the final.

Earlier during the semi-finals, Ivanchuk had eliminated Alexander Morozevich (Russia) with a 2-0 result, while Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) played to a 1.5-1.5 draw. The blitz tie-break game was also drawn but Kasparov advanced to the final by invoking the draw odds rule.

[Event "Intel Rapidplay Grand Prix"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date ""]
[Round ""]
[White "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Black "Kasparov, Gary"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Bc4 O-O 9. O-O Be6 10. Bb3 Nc6 11. Bg5 Na5 12. Bxf6 Bxf6 13. Nd5 Nxb3 14. axb3 Bg5 15. Qd3 Bh6 16. Rad1 Rc8 17. Nd2 b5 18. c3 Kh8 19. b4 Ra8 20. Nb3 f5 21. Na5 Rc8 22. Qh3 Rf7 23. Rfe1 Qe8 24. Qh4 Qf8 25. exf5 Bxf5 26. f3 Bc2 27. Ra1 Bf5 28. h3 Qe8 29. Qf2 Qe6 30. Rad1 Qg6 31. Kh1 Rcf8 32. h4 Bc2 33. Rd2 Bxd2 34. Qxd2 Qg3 35. Nb7 Rxb7 0-1

[Event "Intel Rapidplay Grand Prix"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date ""]
[Round ""]
[White "Kasparov, Gary"]
[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. cxd5 Qxd5 4. e3 e5 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd2 Bxc3 7. bxc3 Qd6 8. Bd3 Nf6 9. f3 O-O 10. Ne2 Be6 11. O-O Rad8 12. Qc1 Nd7 13. Be1 Qe7 14. Qb1 Nb6 15. Bxh7+ Kh8 16. Bd3 Na5 17. e4 Nac4 18. f4 f6 19. f5 Bf7 20. Rf3 Kg8 21. Rh3 exd4 22. cxd4 c5 23. d5 Ne5 24. Bc2 Nbc4 25. Nf4 b5 26. Qb3 Ng4 27. Qg3 Nce5 28. Bd1 1-0

[Event "Intel Rapidplay Grand Prix"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date ""]
[Round ""]
[White "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Black "Morozevich, Alexander"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 dxc4 4. d5 Ne5 5. f4 Nd7 6. e4 Nb6 7. a4 a5 8. Be3 e6 9. Bxb6 cxb6 10. Bxc4 Bb4 11. Nf3 Nf6 12. O-O O-O 13. dxe6 Bxe6 14. Bxe6 fxe6 15. Qb3 Kh8 16. Ng5 Ng4 17. Nxe6 Qh4 18. h3 Rae8 19. Ne2 Rxe6 20. Qxe6 Bc5+ 21. Kh1 h5 22. Rad1 Rd8, 23. Rxd8+ Qxd8 24. Qd5 Qh4 25. Qg5 Nf2+ 26. Rxf2 Qxg5 27. fxg5 Bxf2 28. g6 Kg8 29. g4 hxg4 30. hxg4 Kf8 31. Kg2 Bc5 32. e5 Ke7 33. Kf3 Kd7 34. Ke4 Kc6 35. Nd4+ Bxd4 36. Kxd4 Kd7 37. Kd5 Ke7 38. e6 Ke8 39. Kd6 Kd8 40. b3 Ke8 41. e7 1-0