Words of a master

 

Powerful lessons

 

Two Ks plodding on

 

Epic duels

 

Toiletgate

I’m still surprised by the speed of the Internet. A fortnight ago, within hours of my article appearing in TheStar Online, I received an email from British grandmaster Nigel Short. 

He disagreed with the one-liner where I had mentioned him. So, we both agreed that I should produce his email this week to set the record straight and put this matter to rest. Here is GM Short’s message:

“Dear Quah,

”I strongly take issue with your comments in "The Star" that Garry Kasparov and myself "committed an unthinkable crime" by taking the World Championship outside Fide. The fact is that Florencio Campomanes abrogated our right to vote on the venue of World Championship. It was this illegal action, totally contrary to the Fide statutes, which prompted the split. If you wish to talk of "the chess crime of the century" then this was it.

”Your comments have damaged my reputation publicly in Malaysia. They are totally unfair and do not give even half the picture. I ask you to print a retraction immediately.

”Regards,

Nigel." 

Thank you, Nigel, for the clarification. Okay, with this out of the way, let us return to the world chess championship in Elista where the unification match had developed as many twists and turns as any journey up our hill resorts. 

I thought Vladimir Kramnik would be able to coast home with his two-point lead over Veselin Topalov but I was wrong. Soon after the fourth game was played, a bizarre series of protest and counter-protest threatened to bring the match to an abrupt halt. 

Toiletgate was how chess journalists everywhere were describing the developments in Elista. 

It all started with the Topalov camp complaining that Kramnik was spending too much time in his relaxation room’s toilet, walking in and out and spending time inside. Each player has his own private toilet and since the toilets were the only places without surveillance cameras, the insinuation was that Kramnik could be accessing some electronic devices there. 

Gasp! Cheating at the world championship match? There was no proof but the Appeals Committee decided to lock both private toilets and requested the two players to share a common, designated toilet.

This time, it was the Kramnik team’s turn to protest and Kramnik refused to play the fifth game until his private toilet was reopened. Well, it wasn’t and so, he forfeited this game.

This prompted a crisis in Elista with the whole unification match threatened with a meltdown. World Chess Federation (Fide) president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was forced to cut short a meeting with his boss, Russian president Vladimir Putin, to deal with it.

After some protracted negotiations, Kramnik’s right to use his private toilet was reinstated and the original Appeals Committee was replaced. In return, Kramnik had to accept that he had forfeited a point in fifth game.

He agreed to continue with the match but made it clear that he was playing under protest and he reserved the right to pursue this point later in court. 

So, after a dramatic four days, the match resumed. At first, Kramnik held on with two draws. Then disaster struck for him when he lost two consecutive games – the eighth and ninth. For the first time in the match, Topalov was leading 5-4.

However, with only three games remaining, it became Topalov’s turn to buckle under the pressure. He blundered in the 10th game and the score leveled at 5-5.

This is as far as I know as my deadline loomed earlier this week. If you have Internet access and had been following the games nightly, you will know that the match either ended yesterday with a decisive victory to one of the players or it had gone right down to the wire with a critical tie-break today. 

Remember, if there is a tie-break, you can follow the games live beginning 7pm this evening from the official world championship website http://worldchess2006.com or you can visit Susan Polgar’s excellent blog at http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/

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Penang chess camp

There will be a chess camp for junior chess players at the Han Chiang College on Dec 4-7. This chess camp, limited to a maximum of 100 participants only, will be conducted for four levels of strengths: elementary, beginner, intermediate and advanced.

For details, contact Marcus Yeoh (tel: 012.4723873, email: marcusypl@yahoo.com

11th GACC inter-varsity chess

The Tuanku Bahiyah Residential College (Second Residential College) of Universiti Malaya will organize the 11th edition of the Rakan Muda GACC world inter-varsity chess championship at the University on Dec 5-13.

This nine-round, Fide-rated annual event is open to all local and international universities, colleges and institutes of higher education. There will be both an individual and a team event. 

For inquiries, contact Jackson Toh (tel: 012.6702294, email: gacc11.director@gmail.com) or Belinda Lau (tel: 012.8812479, email: gacc11@yahoo.com), or you can visit the website at http://www28.brinkster.com/gaccwivcc/

Sarawak open

The Sarawak Chess Association will hold their Sarawak open chess tournament at the Borneo Chess Academy premises in Jalan Song, Kuching, on Dec 8-11. This will be played over nine rounds.

Entry fees are RM10 for women and under-18 players and RM20 for others. A deposit of RM10 is required, which is refunded when you complete the tournament.

To register, contact Lim Kian Hwa (tel: 016.8603180, email: lkhwa@tm.net.my or limkh@sarawaknet.gov.my) before Dec 5

It’s over even as it began

THIRTEEN YEARS ago, the chess crime of the century was committed. Gary Kasparov and Nigel Short committed an unthinkable crime when they hijacked the world championship match and took it outside of the World Chess Federation (Fide).

Since that watershed event in 1993, the world championship crown had gone two separate ways. 

Fide claimed that the world chess title was still theirs to organize legitimately. In response to the split, it sanctioned a match between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman, which Karpov won. 

Then, the format of the world chess championships changed and in quick succession, the title passed to Alexander Khalifman, Viswanathan Anand, Ruslan Ponomariov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Veselin Topolov.

On the other hand, Kasparov could choose and select whom he wanted to play with and as a result, preserved his hold on his so-called world chess crown until 2000 when he lost it to Vladimir Kramnik. 

During these 13 years, there had been several attempts to reunify the two titles but all were subsequently aborted because the players disagreed over the terms of the unification attempts.

However, the latest attempt to bring the two crowns together has now succeeded. 

Even as you read this, the fifth game will be played today between Kramnik and Topalov in Elista, the capital city of the autonomous Kalmyk Republic in Russia where the Kalmyk president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, doubles up as Fide’s president.

So it was with a great sense of anticipation last Saturday that I joined thousands of people around the world to watch the games unfold on the Internet. It would be a great match between two great players who are quite evenly matched. Who would prevail?

Common sense tells us that when you have two very experienced and world-class players playing one another, it will be a very tough but even match. In a 12-game match, maybe we’ll see either Topalov or Kramnik scraping through with something like only one or two points difference.

But what happened? 

On Saturday, the first game was evenly matched. Though Kramnik was one pawn ahead, Topalov could have easily forced a draw with his more active pieces. But he chose not to and he lost his way and the game. Score: 1-0 to Kramnik.

The second game on Sunday was full of fireworks. Topalov took the game to Kramnik and went for a kingside attack. At one point, he could have pressed home the advantage after Kramnik blundered but he overlooked it. There was no second chance and Kramnik steered the game into another win. Score; 2-0 to Kramnik.

I fear the unification match is over, even at this early stage. I do not see Topalov recovering from this disastrous start to a world championship match. He is no Bobby Fischer or even a Kasparov. There will be no miraculous recovery.

And Kramnik is no novice in the game. Remember, he beat Kasparov to be where he is today. Having taken Topalov’s measure, he will hunker down and consolidate his play, offering his opponent little chance of recovering lost ground.

Topalov will be forced to take even more risks in his play because every single draw will take Kramnik closer to winning the match. By taking more risks, he will self-destruct and be punished mercilessly by Kramnik.

At the end, this unification match will be a momentous event for chess but it will go down in history too as a big triumph for Kramnik and a better-to-be-forgotten disaster for Topalov.

Before this match began, Kasparov was asked in an interview whom he thought would be the winner. Interestingly, Kasparov hinted that Topalov was not the favourite that many people had assumed him to be. 

He made a very astute observation: “Kramnik has a more profound understanding of the game while Topalov has energy and confidence on his side.”

Another hint of the players’ relative strengths can be gleaned from the fact that prior to this unification match, Kramnik and Topalov had faced one another 39 times between 1994 and 2005, with Kramnik having won 10 times and Topalov five times, with the other games drawn. In their last encounter together, Kramnik had been the victor.

UP NEXT

Penang chess camp

The Penang Chess Association will organise a chess camp for junior chess players at the Han Chiang College on Dec 4-7. This chess camp, limited to a maximum of 100 participants only, will be conducted for four levels of strengths: elementary, beginner, intermediate and advanced.

For details, contact Marcus Yeoh (tel: 012.4723873, email: marcusypl@yahoo.com

Turing test

 

Champion comes to town

 

Intelligent machine

 

Kasparov wins the first game

As the continuation page of the newspaper is missing from my collection, I shall supplement the remaining portion of the article in text form below:

But Deep Junior saw more with 32…Nxd4. After 33.Ng6+ Kg8 34.Ne7+, it looked to Kasparov that Deep Junior would have to accept a repetition but he had missed 34...Kf8 35.Rxh7 Nb3+ with checkmate to follow: 36.Kc2 (if 36.axb3, then 36…Qd1 is checkmate) 36...Na1+ 37.Kc3 Qd2+ 38.Kc4 b5+ 39.Kc5 Qd6 checkmate)

Gary Kasparov – Deep Junior, Game Three 

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Nf3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 b6 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Bd3 Be7 9. Bd2 O-O 10. g4 Nxg4 11. Rg1 Ndf6 12. h3 Nh6 13. e4 dxe4 14. Bxh6 exd3 15. Rxg7+ Kh8 16. Qxd3 Rg8 17. Rxg8+ Nxg8 18. Bf4 f6 19. O-O-O Bd6 20. Qe3 Bxf4 21. Qxf4 Bxh3 22. Rg1 Qb8 23. Qe3 Qd6 24. Nh4 Be6 25. Rh1 Rd8 26. Ng6+ Kg7 27. Nf4 Bf5 28. Nce2 Ne7 29. Ng3 Kh8 30. Nxf5 Nxf5 31. Qe4 Qd7 32. Rh5 Nxd4 33. Ng6+ Kg8 34. Ne7+ Kf8 35. Nd5 Qg7 36. Qxd4 Rxd5 0-1

The fourth game was probably one of the most difficult to understand. There was none of the tactical cut-and-thrust complications that we had seen in the first half of the match and instead, we were treated to a game full of strategical manouevrings.

The gist of this game was Deep Junior’s plan to get its pawn to b6 where the computer program had hoped that it would cut a wedge into Kasparov’s position. But Kasparov always had his defensive resources available to keep the game on an even keel.

Deep Junior’s 32nd and 34th moves were so typical of computer programs. Knowing that the position was going nowhere, it resorted to abide its time by moving its king to h1 and then back to g1. Of course, in this particular game, the time wastage was not a very important factor.

Kasparov was obviously not going to trying anything adventurous and he would be contented with a draw. And once the queens went off the board on the 48th move, the draw was already inevitable.

The problem, however, was with Deep Junior. Being a pawn up, it assessed the position as being better for itself but there was absolutely no way that Kasparov was going to commit the biggest blunder of his life. Deep Junior’s operator soon got the hint and agreed to a draw with Kasparov.

Deep Junior – Gary Kasparov, Game Four 

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e6 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Nf6 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 Nd7 9.Nc2 Be7 10.Be2 b6 11.0-0 Bb7 12.h3 0-0 13.Be3 Rc8 14.Qd2 Nce5 15.b3 Nf6 16.f3 Qc7 17.Rac1 Rfe8 18.a3 Ned7 19.Rfd1 Qb8 20.Bf2 Rcd8 21.b4 Ba8 22.a4 Rc8 23.Rb1 Qc7 24.a5 bxa5 25.b5 Bb7 26.b6 Qb8 27.Ne3 Nc5 28.Qa2 29.Na4 Ne5 30.Nc2 Ncd7 31.Nd4 Red8 32.Kh1 Nc6 33.Nxc6 Rxc6 34.Kg1 h6 35. Qa3 Rdc8 36.Bg3 Bf8 37.Qc3 Ne5 38.c5 Nd7 39.Qxa5 Nxc5 40.Nxc5 Rxc5 41. Qa4 R5c6 42.Bf2 d5 43.Bxa6 Bc5 44.Bxc5 Rxc5 45.Bxb7 Qxb7 46. exd5 exd5 47.Qa7 R5c7 48.Qxb7 Rxb7 49.Rxd5 Rc6 50.Rdb5 h5 51.Kf2 Re6 52.f4 g6 53.Kg3 Kg7 54.Kh4 Kh6 55.R1b4 Rd6 56.g3 f6 57.g4 hxg4 58.hxg4 Kg7 59.Rb3 Rc6 60.g5 f5 61.Rb1 ½-½

UP NEXT 

Royal Selangor grand prix 

The Chess Association of Selangor kicks off the Royal Selangor Grand Prix - a tournament created to improve the chess-playing skill of Malaysian junior players - on Feb 15-16 at the Sunway College, Bandar Sunway.

All Under-18 players with CAS ratings of 1600 or less, including those without a rating, are eligible to take part. There will be 12 prizes in each of the four preliminary legs, and every player who takes part in them will accumulate grand prix points. The top 40 players with the highest GP points will qualify for the Grand Final, and the top 10 players will be eligible for the year-end chess camp.

For more information, contact Lim Tse Pin (tel: 012-2984922, email: tsepin@maxis.net.my)

SouthernCity chess tournament 

The Johor Bahru District Chess Association will hold the third SouthernCity open chess tournament at the XTRA Hypermarket in Taman Suria, Johor Bahru on Feb 23 beginning 8am.

Entry fees are RM30 for the open section (first prize is RM300), RM7 for the under-16 section (first prize is RM100) and RM5 for the under-12 section (first prize RM80).

Closing date is Feb 21. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07-3338215, email: naraa@tm.net.my)

Man vs machine

 

Clash of the old Titans

 

Lords of the Ring

 

An impressive showing

THE 18-year-old Ruslan Ponomariov emerged relatively unscathed from his first test as the world chess champion at the annual Linares grandmaster tournament in Spain earlier this month. 

This tournament, which was watched with an uncharacteristically higher interest by the chess world, was won expectedly by Gary Kasparov but Ponomariov's chess ability made the strongest statement by far.

In a way, Ponomariov's second placing was a clear indication to the world chess elite that his triumph in Moscow in January was not a fluke. There, he had beaten Vassily Ivanchuk quite comprehensively to claim the chess crown but in Linares, he more than held his own against people like Michael Adams, Alexei Shirov, Ivanchuk and another former world champion, his predecessor, Viswanathan Anand. 

Ponomariov began the tournament by again getting the better of Ivanchuk. His satisfaction was, however, shortlived as in the second round, Adams rudely brought him back to earth with a carefully grounded out win. A series of draws then followed, during which time Ponomariov was careful to bide his time.

In the ninth round, Ponomariov struck back at Adams and won a crafty game. He scored another win against Vallejo Pons, the tournament's tail-ender, in the 13th round but was himself at the receiving end against Kasparov in the 14th round. Nevertheless, Ponomariov's 6.5 points were enough to let him finish second in Linares, and a vindication for him.

When Ponomariov has firstly won the world chess crown in Moscow, his success was met with an incredulous "Who's Ponomariov?" among many chess players.

Kasparov, in particular, had been vicious in his comments about the new world champion, remarking on his web site that if he were to meet Ponomariov, he would not know who Ponomariov was. It was a stinging remark, belittling his effort in Moscow and meant to mean that Ponomariov was certainly not in his league and could not be taken seriously.

But Ponomariov had his sense of humour. During the opening ceremony of the Linares tournament, he made it a point to sit beside Kasparov. Well, Kasparov simply ignored him during the whole proceedings and it was clear that the atmosphere between the two of them was thick enough to cut with a knife.

But the course of the tournament must have changed Kasparov's opinion of the younger man, for at the closing ceremony, Kasparov had loosened enough to be seen laughing and talking to Ponomariov. Maybe, he felt magnaminous enough after having won the tournament. Who knows? But from this alone, it is clear that Kasparov has already taken his measure of Ponomariov.

Here's a game from Linares' ninth round. Adams played the Marshall Attack as Black, hoping to score a quick win against Ponomariov, but he failed to reckon with Ponomariov's own aggressive play in the centre of the board. An interesting game.

Ponomariov - Adams: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d4 Bd6 13. Re1 Qh4 14. g3 Qh3 15. Re4 g5 16. Qe2 Nf6 17. Nd2 Bf5 18. f3 c5 19. Qf2 c4 20. Bc2 h6 21. b3 cxb3 22. axb3 Rfc8 23. Bb2 Bb4 24. Re5 Bxc2 25. cxb4 Bg6 26. Rc5 Re8 27. Nf1 Rad8 28. d5 Nd7 29. Ne3 h5 30. f4 h4 31. f5 hxg3 32. hxg3 Bh5 33. d6 Re4 34. Rac1 Nxc5 35. bxc5 Kh7 36. Bf6 Rg8 37. d7 Rh4 38. Qg2 Bf3 39. Qxh3 Rxh3 40. Kf2 g4 41. Nf1 Rh5 42. d8=Q Rxd8 43. Bxd8 Rxf5 44. Ne3 Rh5 45. Bh4 1-0

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Kuittho Chess Challenge

The two-day Kuittho Chess Challenge starts tomorrow at the College University Technology Tun Hussein Onn campus in Batu Pahat. This is a tournament for undergraduates of local universities and colleges, school children and other Malaysians.

Entry fees are RM40 per person except for primary schoolchildren who are charged RM20 each. For enquiries, call Ho Kok Hoe (tel: 017-758-1200), Norrsallawati Md Said (tel: 012-764-4372) or Muhammad Suhaib Mohd Azmi (tel: 012-451-9476).

PFS Open

The Penang Free School Open, incorporating the first leg of this year's Penang Grand Prix, will be held this Sunday in the school hall. The tournament will be played over eight rounds with a time control of 20 minutes per player for the first and second rounds, and 25 minutes for the remaining rounds. 

Entry fee is RM10 per player. To register, contact Chin Chee Boon (04-8275910) or Pak Cheng Yeong (04-3906855). Closing date is Mar 30.

TCN Rapidchess

The Chess Network will hold a Rapidchess tournament for the under-12 and under-16 age groups at the Wilayah Complex in Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur this Sunday. Registration will begin at 9am.

There are 10 prizes each for the two categories, and the total prize fund is RM500. There are also membership prizes to join the World Chess Network where players can compete online with other chess players around the world, and hampers for the best girl players. For more details, contact Abdul Hamid Majid (019-3158098).

Royal Selangor Juniors

The Chess Association of Selangor will organise the 16th Royal Selangor junior tournament for the under-10 and under-16 categories on Saturday and Sunday at the Sunway College in Bandar Sunway. On Apr 6 and 7, it will be the under-12 and under-18 events.

There are 40 prizes worth more than RM4,800 and the champion of each category will receive RM200 and a pewter trophy each. Time control for the seven-round tournament is 60 minutes per player. 

Those wishing to play in the under-12 and under-18 events have until Apr 5 to register by email with CAS secretary Lim Tse Pin <tsepin@maxis.net.my>. Please state your name, identity card number and category of event in your email. Entries are limited to 60 players per category on a first-come basis. Entry fees are RM10 for CAS members and RM 20 fornon-members. 

BPM Allegro

The Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit continues with:

-- the Kelantan leg in Kota Bharu on Mar 30. To register, contact Cikgu Rahman (tel: 09-7878079).

-- the Johor leg at the Menara Landmark in Johor Bahru on Apr 7. To register, contact Aaron Chua (012-7599319) or John Ang (012-7515314) or email aaronchua8@hotmail.com before Apr 5. Email entries must state the players' names. All participants must report at the playing venue by 8am on the day of the tournament. 

The other legs of the chess circuit will be held in Malacca on Apr 14, Kuantan on May 5, Alor Setar on Jun 29, Kangar on Jun 30, George Town on Jul 14, Ipoh on Jul 21, Seremban and Kota Kinabalu on Aug 11, Kuching on Aug 18, and Labuan on Sep 29. 

Kellie's Castle Open

The Perak International Chess Association will organise the third Kellie's Castle open tournament in Batu Gajah on Apr 21. This is a seven-round event with a total prize fund of RM3,840. The winner will receive RM800 and a trophy. There are altogether 10 main prizes and six other prizes for the best veterans, ladies and PICA members. Entry fees are RM20 for PICA members, ladies and under-12 players, and RM25 for all others.

On Apr 20, PICA will organise the Kellie's Castle youth tournament at the same venue. The prize fund is RM970 and apart from the 10 main prizes, the best under-10, under-12, under-15 and under-18 boys and girls will receive prizes too. Entry fees are RM12 for under-12 players and RM15 for others.

For enquiries and entry forms, contact Steven Ng (05-3668198), WK Wong (05-3661692) or Yunus Sharif (05-5458453). Closing date for both events is Apr 6.

Three against the Federation

THE two maverick K's of the chess world have been joined by a third K to speak out against the World Chess Federation (FIDE) on the latter's policy changes to the time controls used in official chess events and their treatment of the history and tradition of the world chess championships.

In an open letter to the global chess community last month, Anatoly Karpov and Gary Kasparov, the 12th and 13th world champions, and Vladimir Kramnik, the self-proclaimed 14th world champion, claimed that the world's top chess players have been denied a voice in FIDE's decision-making processes.

The trio said that any changes to the time-honoured traditions and rules of classical chess should only be made after such plans are studied and debated in an open forum between FIDE, the national federations and the professional players.

The three players also voiced concern over FIDE's claim to the world chess championship. They said that the championship had existed long before FIDE was founded and a century of tradition could not be wiped away. It was unacceptable to them that FIDE were claiming rights to the world championship while at the same time working to destroy the structures upon which the tradition was built.

The letter brought a swift response from FIDE which insisted that they had always welcomed dialogue with members of the world chess fraternity. According to FIDE, policy decisions were often made after consultations with a cross-section of administrators, players and sponsors.

It was in this same spirit that the FIDE presidential board accepted a compromise solution in March on the new time control after it noted the concerns of some European chess federations on the issue.

Last December in Teheran, Iran, the FIDE presidential board had approved a new time control of 40 moves in 75 minutes, 15 minutes for the remainder of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move from the first move, which would be mandatory for all chess events effective from January this year. In the compromise solution, this time control would be mandatory for the world championship events which would include the zonal and continental championships, and optional or recommendatory for other FIDE and international rating and title tournaments. For tournaments using analogue chess clocks, the time control of four hours for the duration of the whole game would be recommendatory for title tournaments.

On the issue of the world chess championship, FIDE maintained that they had well-documented historical facts on how FIDE had begun the steady implementation of the qualification systems to the world chess championship titles since 1947.

As such, the Teheran declaration last December had only served to reiterate FIDE's clearly established role as the only custodian of the world chess championship titles.

As custodian, FIDE would have the right to bestow the world championship title on any individual who has participated and won an event solely organised by FIDE for this purpose. This would include a fair and democratic qualification process approved by the FIDE members and not subjected to abuse by any individual or group.

Since 1947, this process had produced world champions in Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Bobby Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Alexander Khalifman and Viswanathan Anand.

Interestingly, the independent World Players' Council (WPC) were also quick to voice their opinion. Saying that chess was not the only sport where the official international federation has the rights to organise the official world championship, the WPC stated that it was obvious that FIDE has more rights than any other body.

The WPC singled out Braingames which had invited Kramnik, a loser in a qualification tournament, to play Kasparov in a match last year.

The WPC also reminded the three K's that all the top active chess players, except for themselves, had participated in the last official world championship in New Delhi and Teheran in December.

"We are ready to participate in the search for ways to modify the world championship cycle but to turn the championship into a selection process to play against Kasparov, which will in its turn be the qualification to the match with Kramnik, we think is unacceptable," the WPC declared. "The world championship should finally become an honest sport competition of all the strongest sportsmen without any privileges for whoever."

On the issue of time control, the WPC said each organiser would have a chance to choose whatever appropriate time control suitable for his own tournament. Nobody, according to the WPC, was saying that the classic time control could not be used.

Taking a parting shot at the three K's open letter, the WPC said Karpov's action was really surprising. In early 1998, after having beaten Anand in Lausanne, Switzerland, Karpov had declared himself as the champion and Kasparov as the imposter. Then, in January this year, Karpov, when facing the Commission of Sports Arbitrage in Lausanne, had admitted that the titles of the 14th and 15th world champions belonged legitimately to Khalifman and Anand.

Quah Seng Sun can be contacted at ssquah@schach.pc.my while his previous columns are archived at http://chesscolumn.20m.com. Join Malaysia's only chess mailing list by sending an empty e-mail to pg-chess-subscribe@egroups.com or alternatively, visit http://http//www.egroups.com/list/pg-chess.

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11th Dell KDU Penang chess league starting soon

THE northern region's biggest chess event, the annual Dell KDU Penang Chess League, kicks off on June 10 at the premises of Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU) in Penang. The tournament, now in its 11th year, is organised by the Penang Chess Association and co-sponsored by both Dell Asia Pacific and KDU.

The championship will be played on consecutive Sundays (except July 8 and 15) and is scheduled to end on Aug 5.

Only teams representing the public and private sectors, institutions of learning and registered associations, societies and clubs are allowed to play in the league. A guest player may be included in each team, but the other players in the team must strictly be employees, students or members of the organisation which they represent.

Players who are unable to join as guest players in any team are requested to contact the PCA immediately. If the response is encouraging enough, the PCA will consider grouping them together to play under the association's banner.

Provision has been made for a maximum participation of 30 teams, and each team is allowed up to eight players. However, only four players from each team will play in any one round.

This year's event will again be split into three divisions. The third division will comprise teams of mainly novice players, while the first and second divisions will be made up of the more regular teams that have been taking part in previous chess leagues.

The entry fee is RM150 per team and cash prizes are guaranteed for the top teams in each division.

For more details, contact Chan Kim Beng ( 012-451 8811 / e-mail: Kim_Beng_Chan@Dell.com), Goh Yoon Wah ( 04-645 5362 / e-mail: yoon@caissa.pc.my) or Ung Tay Aik ( 017-477 5418 / e-mail: taung@alumni.uwaterloo.ca).

BPM national allegro

The next two legs of this year's Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit will be played in Malacca on May 13 and in Kuantan on May 20.

Each of these legs will be held over six rounds with a 30-minute time control for each game. However, if the number of participants is more than 100, the tournaments will be played over seven rounds using a 25-minute time control.

Entry fees are RM10 for ladies, Bank Pertanian employees and members of the state chess association organising their respective legs, RM5 for players below 12 years old, and RM15 for all other participants.

The prizes for the open section will be RM300 for the winner, RM200 for the second-placed, RM150 for the third, RM100 each for the fourth and fifth, and RM60 each for the sixth to 10th. The best Bank Pertanian player will also win RM60 while the best players in the other categories will get RM50.

To register for the two events, contact Ishak Ahmad ( 06-283 5878) for the Malacca leg and Wan Abdullah ( 019-916 3824) for the Kuantan leg.

The remaining legs in the series are in Perlis on June 9 (Bahari Baharom; 019-568 6256), Kedah on June 10 (Sohaimi; 04-730 7288), Penang on July 15 (Ooi Kiem Boo; 04-226 2209), Perak on July 22 (Dr Yee Meng Keong; 05-546 4530), Negri Sembilan on Aug 12 (Charles Chan; 06-631 7971), Sabah on Aug 12 (Sylvester Asai; 088-764 305), Sarawak on Aug 19 (Lim Kian Hwa; 082-427 772) and Labuan on Oct 28 (Sebli Hassan; 087-463 471).

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association will hold their grand prix event on May 12 and 13 at the Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Ipoh.

The two-day Category A event for players with PICA ratings of above 1,700 will be held over two days while the Category B event for players with no PICA ratings or with rating points below 1,700 will be held on May 13. Both events will be conducted over six rounds but with different time controls. For more information, contact W.K Wong ( 05-366 1692).

Kasparov in trouble

THE big surprise in the current 16-game match in London between Gary Kasparov, 37, and Vladimir Kramnik, 25, is the way in which the younger player has baffled his older opponent in just about every game.

Instead of trying to out-prepare Kasparov, Kramnik cleverly plays chess openings that he knew Kasparov would not expect. For instance, Kramnik had dropped his usual Nf3 English openings, his Petroff and Sicilian defences in favour of the solid Berlin defence. This strategy undermined the confidence of the normally unperturbable Kasparov.

Let me recap the first five games. The first game was drawn but in the second game, Kramnik drew blood when Kasparov misplayed it. The third game saw Kasparov trying hard to win but he did not succeed. Then came the fourth game in which Kasparov's tenacious defence of a worse-off position saved him from another loss. The fifth game was a quiet draw.

Gary Kasparov eyes up his opponent Vladimir Kramnik in the 10th match
of the 16-game World Chess Championship in London.

In the sixth game, Kasparov escaped from another lost position in a superbly fought game. Kramnik played a sharp, attacking game and took some positional risks by advancing both his rook pawns in an attempt to attack on the dark squares.

Around the 30th move, Kasparov looked better but Kramnik showed his real strength in time pressure and took full advantage of a misjudgment by his opponent to achieve a won game shortly after the time control. He kept up the pressure and looked almost certain to pocket a full point but somehow, as in the fourth game, Kasparov found some brilliant defensive moves to escape with a draw.

The seventh game was a disappointment because both players agreed to an 11-move draw. Why did Kasparov, playing with the white pieces and a point behind, offer a draw? No explanations were given but I'm sure he would have something to say about this after the match.

This far in the match, Kasparov's only virtue has been his resilient defence of some pretty desperate situations. However, in the eighth game, he finally played like the player we knew.

He sprung a surprise on Kramnik which enabled him to fight for the advantage with the black pieces. However, Kramnik was equal to the task and managed to hold his position by making some good practical decisions despite being short of time.

The ninth game saw Kramnik repeating the Berlin defence opening which had served him so well in the first and third games. At the cost of some passivity, Kramnik frustrated Kasparov by short-circuiting his creativity and attacks.

Then came Kasparov's worst-ever defeat in the 10th game. In just 25 moves, Kramnik unleashed an attack on Kasparov's king and forced the latter to resign the game or face immediate material loss to avert checkmate.

Kramnik was aided by an opportunity to sacrifice a piece deep in Kasparov's position. Surely a player like Kasparov must have seen it coming; it was puzzling why he had allowed it in the first place. A faulty miscalculation, perhaps?

In the 11th game, Kramnik varied from the Berlin defence to another system known as the Accelerated Archangel variation. Either fear of Kasparov's preparation or the desire for the advantage of surprise must have induced this change. Anyway, the queens came off early and an endgame of rook and two pawns against two bishops was quickly reached. Kramnik very comfortably held the draw.

The 12th game was also interesting. Kasparov put Kramnik to the test but the latter was again up to the challenge. Kasparov grabbed a pawn in uncharacteristic fashion and withstood what looked like a tremendous attack from Kramnik.

But halfway through the attack, in a decision that showed his maturity, Kramnik decided to give up playing for a win and instead switched into a defensive mode to save the draw. As he had done so many times with the black pieces in this match, Kramnik dug in and Kasparov was unable to make any headway.

With only four games remaining in the match, Kramnik was leading Kasparov by 7-5. The 13th game was drawn in 14 moves.

It now appears that Kasparov has given up all hope of even drawing level in the match. After this game, he said he was tired and depressed over missed opportunities.

Tomorrow will be the last day for the match and the 16th game will be played. My gut feeling is that there will not be much of a game tomorrow. Kasparov may want to get everything over with fast and leave London as soon as possible!

You can view the final game through the Internet and the various websites dedicated to this match include http://www.chesscenter.com/wcc2000/ (the London Chess Centre), http://www.chessclub.com/ (the Internet Chess Club) and http://www.kasparovchess.com/. The official site is at http://www.braingames.net/.

The most popular bi-annual chess competition, the 34th Chess Olympiad, opened in Istanbul last Saturday. There are 126 men's and 84 women's teams taking part.

Tipped to win the men's event is the Russian team led by world champion Alexander Khalifman on the first board, Alexander Morozevich on the second board and Peter Svidler on the third board. Other players in the team are Sergei Rublevsky, Konstantin Sakaev and Alexander Grischuk.

However, the Russian team, after beating Morocco 4-0 in the first round, could only beat Italy by a 3.5-0.5 score in the second round, thus enabling Hungary, also a strong title contender, to leapfrog them.

Hungary has a very strong line-up in Peter Leko, Zoltan Almasi, Judit Polgar, Lajos Portisch, Gyula Sax and Robert Ruck. After beating the United Arab Emirates 4-0 in the opening round, the Hungarians followed through with a similar 4-0 score against Myanmar.

The Malaysian men's team--comprising Mas Hafizulhilmi, Mok Tze Meng, Wong Zi Jing, Ismail Ahmad, Azahari Md Nor and Jonathan Chuah--played a difficult first round and were almost routed by Poland. It was left to Mas Hafizul to salvage an important half-point from this match.

However, the second round was easier and the Malaysians lost no time in beating Jersey 4-0.

The women's event will probably be dominated by the Chinese powerhouse again. Led by women's world champion Xie Jun, the Chinese team beat Brazil in the first round and Spain in the second round by similar 3-0 results.

The Chinese women's greatest challenge will come from Georgia who have players like former world champion Maya Chiburdanidze, Nana Ioseliani and Nino Gurieli.

Malaysia has a team playing in the women's section and after a first-round 0-3 debacle at the hands of the Czech Republic, the team reversed its luck with a 3-0 score against the Yemenis.

The Malaysian team comprises Lim Jeannie, Samantha Lee, Eliza Hanum Ibrahim and Siti Zulaikha Foudzi. The adventures of the two Malaysian teams in Istanbul can be obtained from the official homepage of the Chess Olympiad at http://www.istanbulchessolympiad.com. The games are played daily from 1am Malaysian time, but both today and Nov 11 are rest days for the competitors.

UP NEXT

Perak closed tournament this month

The Perak International Chess Association will hold the Perak closed tournament over two weekends at the Great World Centre in Jalan Kampar, Ipoh, this month. This will be a nine-round event with a time control of 90 minutes per player for each round.

The tournament is open to all chess players in Perak who have a state rating of at least 1,700 points. Players without any rating points will be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

The first two rounds will be played on Nov 11; this will be followed by three rounds on Nov 12. There are two more rounds on Nov 18, and the tournament wraps up with the final two rounds on Nov 19.

Prizes include RM300 and a trophy for the winner, RM200 and a trophy for the runners-up, and RM120 and a trophy for the third placed player. The fourth to 10th prizes range from RM100 to RM30. The prizes are sponsored by Super Highway Computer (Ipoh) Sdn Bhd.

For enquiries, call W.K. Wong ( 05-3661 692).

Penang Grand Prix continues

The Penang Chess Association will organise the third and fourth legs of this year's Penang chess Grand Prix circuit at the Bayan Baru Residents' Association clubhouse on Dec 10 and 31 respectively.

Both legs will comprise six rounds. For enquiries call Goh Yoon Wah ( 04-644 5687) or Ooi Kiem Boo ( 04-226 2209 / 04-658 0809).

Kasparov vs Kramnik

IT HAS been such a long time since Gary Kasparov played a series of games against one and the same opponent that I had almost forgotten the thrill of following the games live through the Internet.

Heck, the last time that the Russian did play a match, his opponent wasn't even human! In May 1997--and that's three years ago, mind you--he precipitated the downfall of mankind by managing to lose a six-game match to Deep Blue which was IBM's little pile of chess nuts and bolts.

Since then, he has carefully avoided playing another match even against his fellow humans. True, there were two attempts to lead Kasparov back to the board but both attempts floundered because of obstacles erected by him.

Nobody is presently more peeved with Kasparov than Alexei Shirov, formerly of Latvia but now a Spanish citizen. Two years ago, Kasparov attempted to set up a small body to organise a match between Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik to determine a winner who would then play him in a chess match.

World No.2 Kramnik (left) is meeting the No.1 Kasparov in the
ongoing London match that boasts a £2mil (RM11mil) prize money.

Clearly, Kasparov would have preferred his friend and compatriot Kramnik to win, but when Shirov unexpectedly won the match, Kasparov downplayed Shirov's achievement by saying that such a match would be of little commercial value. Just imagine how much irreparable damage was done by that statement. It appears that Kasparov was never serious about playing against Shirov at all!

Viswanathan Anand was another "victim''. The Indian grandmaster was promised a match against Kasparov in September last year but the latter caused potential sponsors to back away from the match when he refused to support the idea of a regular cycle of matches among top players.

Anand was preparing hard for this match to the extent that he had to forego playing in many lucrative events in the second half of last year, especially the world chess championship in Las Vegas that was organised by the World Chess Federation.

But Kasparov's name had pulling power and if Kasparov had a preferred bias for playing Kramnik, sponsors would be found to put together such a match with terms even Kasparov himself could not refuse.

This match is now going on in London. It is a series of 16 games which would be completed in four weeks. Already, the match is almost at the halfway stage and there are only nine more games to be played. Four games are played in a week: on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

At this point of writing, Kramnik holds a one-point lead over Kasparov after the first five games. The first game was drawn but in the second game, Kramnik drew first blood when Kasparov misplayed the game while in time trouble. The third game saw Kasparov trying hard to level the score but to no avail, then came the fourth game in which Kasparov's tenacious defence saved him from another loss. With both players feeling very tired at this stage, a draw in the fifth game was never really in doubt.

One good point of this match is that all the games start at 11pm local time, not too late for us here to follow via the Internet. There are various websites dedicated to covering this event live, including:

www.chesscenter.com/wcc2000/ (the London Chess Centre)

www.chessclub.com (the Internet Chess Club)

www.kasparovchess.com

www.braingames.net (the official site which even sports real video clips of the games)

Your move

THIS position arose after Vladimir Kramnik, playing with the white pieces, had captured a pawn with 43.Bxb6. The position looked bad for Gary Kasparov as he was a piece down and Kramnik was threatening to push up his a-pawn. However, with the rooks, bishops and knights still on the board, there was still a lot for Kasparov to play for.

The game continued 43. ... Kd7, 44.a4 Rh3, 45.Nc5+ Kc6, 46.a5 Re3+, 47.Kd1 Re7, 48.Rc8+ Kb5, 49.Ne4 Rxe4, 50.Rc5+ Ka6, 51.Nc7+ Kb7, 52.Rxf5 Be3, 53.Bxe3 Rxe3, 54.Rxf7 Re5, 55.a6+ Kb6, 56.Rg7 Ra5, 57.Kd2 Ra1, 58.Kc2 Rh1, 59.Kb2 (This looks like a blunder as 59.Rg8 looks like a win, e.g. 59. ... Kxc7 60.a7 or 59. ... Ra1 60 Rc8) 59. ... Rh8 (This position is a draw! After Black plays 60. ... Rc8 to win the a7 pawn, the rook and knight versus rook endgame is a fairly straightforward draw) 60.Kb3 Rc8, 61.a7 Kxa7, 62.Kb4 Kb6, 63.Nd5+ Ka6, 64.Rg6+ Kb7, 65.Kb5 Rc1, 66.Rg2 Kc8, 67.Rg7 Kd8, 68.Nf6 Rc7, 69.Rg5 (Cutting off the white king from the black king) 69. ... Rf7, 70.Nd5 Kd7, 71.Rg6 Rf1, 72.Kc5 Rc1, 73.Kd4 Rd1+, 74.Ke5 (1/2-1/2)

Could you have done better than Kramnik?

UP NEXT

Istanbul Olympiad (Oct 28-Nov 12): The Malaysian Chess Federation will send the national men's and women's teams to play in the 34th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey. The biennial Chess Olympiad is organised by the Turkish Chess Federation under the auspices of the World Chess Federation (Fide).

The men's team: international master Mas Hafizulhilmi (captain), Wong Zi Jing, Mok Tze Meng, Jonathan Chuah, Ismail Ahmad and Azhaari Md Nor. The women's team: Eliza Hanum Ibrahim (captain), Siti Zulaika Foudzi, Samantha Lee and Lim Jean Nie.

MCF secretary Abdul Hamid Majid will be manager of both teams, while MCF committee member Zainal Ishak will head the Malaysian delegation to the Fide general assembly and congress which will be held concurrently with the Chess Olympiad.

A total of 201 teams from 126 countries, comprising 861 men and 422 women, are expected to play in the event.

Royal Selangor Club junior and veteran events (Oct 29): The club will organise its third junior tournament at the multi-purpose hall of the Dataran Merdeka venue in Kuala Lumpur. This will be a rapid-play event over six rounds for the under-10 and under-14 age groups. The first round will start at 9am. There will also be a veterans tournament at the same time for players aged 50 years and above.

Entry forms can be obtained at the RSC's Dataran Merdeka premises or at the Bukit Kiara Sports annexe. Registration can also be faxed to 03-252 3643 or e-mail: awkarim@hotmail.com. Entry fees are RM15 for the two junior sections and RM20 for the veterans section, and will include lunch. Cash prizes and trophies will be given to winners.

Kepong Open (Nov 5): Now in its seventh year, the tournament continues to grow from strength to strength. Even before the closing date is reached, the target of 300 entries has already been achieved. As such, due to organisational and equipment constraints, the tournament organisers said they are unable to accept any more entries. Registered players are reminded to turn up at SJK(C) Kepong Dua in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 5 before 8.30am. The school's parent-teacher association is organiser of the event which is held in four age categories.

Chance of a lifetime

ABDULLAH Che Hassan is one lucky kid. While most chess players only dream of playing against the strongest chess player in the world, Abdullah actually did it.

Thanks to the Internet, Abdullah played Gary Kasparov in the early hours of March 15; he was one of 30 children worldwide selected to play the former world champion in a clock simultaneous chess exhibition.

The event, set in New York City, was billed the "United Nations of Chess." It involved players from every continent except Antarctica. The simultaneous exhibition marked the worlwide launch of Kasparov's http://kasparovchess.com website.

Ten children played him live in the ABC Times Square television studios and 20 more were logged online in the website's Playing Zone. In the television studios, 20 computers, each representing one online player, were set in two rows next to where the other 10 kids were playing. Kasparov went from hand to mouse and back again as he walked round and round the room.

In a normal simultaneous exhibition, a player is required to make his move immediately when the chess master arrives at his board. But for the online simultaneous exhibition, some technological tricks were employed to ensure smooth play. When Kasparov arrived at a computer, he clicked a special "Move Now" button that sent a signal to the player to let him know that Kasparov was at his board.

Kasparov was in no way distracted by this unusual format, winning 28 games and drawing only one against his opponents. Unfortunately, the 30th game was not played as the player could not log onto the website. The lone draw was achieved by Victoria Zaks of Israel and it came from a repetition in a position where the 12-year-old girl was doing fine.

Abdullah was not so lucky in his game. He was nervous initially because, he says, "I respected Gary too much." Although he had prepared for Kasparov's opening move, 1 d4, Abdullah said that he played too fast, hoping to beat the grandmaster on time. He managed to hold on for 51 moves, finally resigning because he had to go to school. Despite the loss, the young lad said that playing Kasparov was a chance of a lifetime.

(In the exhibition, Kasparov was given two hours on his clock while each of his opponents had one hour. Considering that Kasparov had to play 29 opponents moving from one game to another, his average time spent on each game was a mere three minutes!)

Abdullah was informed of this opportunity to play Kasparov through an e-mail message from the International E-mail Chess Group, of which he is a member.

The message said that Kasparov would be launching his new http://kasparovchess.com website in New York City and the organisers of the event were looking for 25 to 30 chess players from around the world, aged 16 years and under, who would be interested to play in the exhibition through the Internet.

Abdullah responded to the e-mail and, as he was the only one from Malaysia to submit an application, he was given the opportunity to play.

Two weeks before the event, the organisers had a few anxious moments when they lost touch with Abdullah. They even contacted me to help them find the boy. Fortunately, Abdullah replied to the organisers in the nick of time.

UP NEXT

BPM Allegro Events

The next three legs of this year's Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit will be played in Kuantan on March 25, Kota Kinabalu on March 26 and Kota Baru on April 8.

The entry fees are RM10 for members of the organising chess associations, Bank Pertanian employees, players above 50 years old and girls below 12 years old (there are no under-12 boy players), and RM15 for all other participants.

Prizes for the open section will be RM300 for the winner, RM200 for the second-placed, RM150 for third, RM100 for fourth and fifth, and RM60 for sixth to 10th. The best Bank Pertanian player will also win RM60, while the best players in the other categories will get RM50.

To register for the event, contact Wah Abdullah ( 09-583 3205) for the Kuantan leg, Sylvester Asai ( 088-764 305) for the Kota Kinabalu leg, and Nizam Hamzah ( 09-790 9870) for the Kota Baru leg.

The other legs of the series are in:

Malacca: April 15 (contact Eugene Kong 06-232 1018)

Kuala Lumpur: April 23 (Ibrahim Yaacob 03-636 3082)

Sarawak: May 1 (Lim Kian Hwa 082-427 772)

Perak: May 21 (Dr Yee Meng Keong 05-546 4530)

Johor: June 11 (Stephen Cheong 07-333 9636)

Negri Sembilan: June 24 (Charles Chan 06-631 7971)

Kedah: July 23

Perlis: July 24 (Khirluddin Darus 04-976 5485).

Shah Alam Open

The Selangor Library will organise the Shah Alam Open over four days from March 26 to 29 at the Radisson Hotel, Shah Alam. The event, sponsored by Tenaga Nasional Bhd, offers cash prizes totalling RM5,000.

The tournament will be divided into five categories with each category played on a different day and with different entry fees:

Under-12: March 26, RM10

Open: March 26, RM25

Student: March 27, RM15

Under-12 team: March 28

Under-18 team March 29

For more details, contact Hashim 03-5519 7667.

National Age-Group Chess Championship

The second Bank Rakyat-PWTC national age-group chess championship will be held at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur on April 1 and 2. This tournament will be played over seven rounds with a time control of one hour per player for each game.

There are six age-groups in this event: under-eight, under-10, under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18, with separate competitions for boys and girls.

The prize fund of RM6,000 is sponsored by Bank Rakyat Malaysia and this amount will be awarded between the top five players in each category. In addition, champions will receive challenge trophies.

The Malaysian Chess Federation will also consider the champions for qualification to the World Age-Group Chess Championship in Spain this October.

Entry fees for the Bank Rakyat-PWTC tournament are RM15 for the under-18, under-16 and under-14 age groups, and RM10 for the under-12, under-10 and under-eight age groups. Registration will be in PWTC's lobby foyer between 3pm and 6pm on March 31; last-minute entries will not be entertained.

Participants are required to produce either their identity cards or birth certificates for verification upon registering. If you have Internet access, you can download the entry form from my web page at http://www5.mol.com.my/qss/Library

The completed entry form can be posted, without the entry fees, to Hamid Majid, 5-1-10 Medan Intan Apartments, Jalan 1/21-C, Gombak, 53000 Kuala Lumpur. Alternatively, e-mail him at aham@pc.jaring.my

Tebrau Open

The Johor Baru District Chess Club will hold its 11th Tebrau open chess tournament at SM Sri Tebrau in Taman Sri Tebrau, Johor Baru, on April 2. The event is divided into the open, under-16 and under-12 sections with each section offering 10 prizes.

The entry fee for the open category is RM10; for the under-16, RM7; under-12, RM5. Games start at 8am. Participants are required to register with the organisers by March 30. Only the first 300 particiapnts will be accepted.

For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan 07-333 8215 or e-mail naraa@tm.net.my

Free School Open

Penang Free School will hold its annual open tournament on April 9. It will be an eight-round event with an entry fee of RM8 per person and prizes totalling RM600.

The first prize is RM200, second RM120, third RM80, fourth RM50, fifth RM40, sixth RM30 and seventh to 10th RM20 each. There will also be prizes in kind for the three best players in the under-15, under-12 and ladies groups, and the best performers among the under-10, Penang Free School and Old Frees players.

Closing date for entries is April 8. The first 200 people to register before this date will get souvenirs. To register, contact Saw Chee Wooi ( 04-829 7695) or Tan Jee Jian ( 04-828 4487) or e-mail pfschessclub@yahoo.com

 

Awaiting foreign flavours

CHESS enthusiasts in the country can expect some fascinating clashes between our local junior players and several veteran foreign players when they compete in an international chess tournament in Penang towards the end of next month. 

This round-robin event, which will be known as the Wah Seong Penang international master chess tournament, is organised by the Penang Chess Association and will be played at the CitiTel Penang from Feb 26 to Mar 5. The sponsor is Wah Seong (M) Trading Co Sdn Bhd. 

The list of invited foreign players has not been finalised but tentatively, grandmasters Herman Ardiansyah and Edhi Handoko from Indonesia, international master Liu Wenzhe of China and Fide master Maung Maung Lwin of Myanmar have been identified. 

The other six participants in the tournament will be our local players led by international masters Mas Hafizulhelmi and Jimmy Liew, Fide master Wong Zijing and national champion Jonathan Chuah. Ng Tze Han and Lim Chuin Hoong, both nominated by the Penang Chess Association to play in this event, complete the line-up. 

There will not be any prize money for the winners but the champion is given custody of the Dato Tan Kim Yeow trophy. 

However, since the tournament is expected to qualify as a Category Four event, there is an added incentive for the two Fide masters and three non-titled players who can aspire to gain an international master title norm if they can score at least six points from the nine games. 

Although this shall only be the fifth time in 28 years that the Penang Chess Association is organising an international-level event, the association is confident that the Wah Seong Penang IM tournament can be the first of several more that will be held in the state. 

Selangor chess kicks off the new year 

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organise a six-round CAS closed under-20 tournament for its members on Sunday. Registration for this event starts at 9am and the games will be played from 10am to 6pm. 

Cash prizes, millennium T-shirts and complimentary entries to future CAS tournaments will be given to 10 winners in the under-20 section and three winners in the under-12 section. Non-CAS members who wish to play in this event can contact Mrs Jackie Wong ( 03-7038237) or Lim Tse Pin ( 012-2984922) for more details. 

In the meantime, the CAS first quarter allegro tournament on Jan 16 attracted 70 participants. The open section was won by Ng Ee Vern who scored 5.5 points from six games. The players who scored five points were Law Zhe Kang, Fikrul, Rizal, Chin Ching Shiung and Terry Van Der Veen, while a further half point behind were Thaw Chee Yin, Cheah Eu Gene, Ismail Ahmad and Foong Chee Leng. 

The CAS members section was also won by Ng Ee Vern with Law Zhe Kang placed second, Chin Ching Shiung placed third, Thaw Chee Yin fourth and Cheah Eu Gene sixth. Lim Han Ying won the Best Girls section, Gerald Soh took the under-16 prize with Nicholas Chan and Marcus Chan placing second and third respectively, while the under-12 prize was won by Zarul Shazwan with Fang Chin Yao in second place and Abel Yap third. 

Also, in the first CAS closed blitz tournament held recently, there were 28 players. The winner of the CAS members section was again Ng Ee Vern who scored 6.5 points from seven games. Jointly second and third were Mok Tze Meng and Nicholas Chan with 5.5 points each, while fourth was Julian Navaratnam with five points. The other winners were Navin Pillay, Chin Ching Shiung and Marcus Chan with 4.5 points each, and Thaw Chee Yin, Cheah Eu Gene and Wong Zi Chuang with four points each. 

The under-16 winner was Nicholas Chan, with Marcus Chan second and Wong Zi Chuang third. The best under-12 player was Thaw Chee Hou, while second and third were Anas Nazreen Bakri and Mohd Kamal Firdaus respectively. 

In a Deep Blue funk over Kasparov 

FOR two years after Gary Kasparov lost to IBM's Deep Blue in the historical match between man and machine three years ago, he kept challenging IBM and the Deep Blue development team to a rematch. 

Until earlier this month, computer scientists and chess players worldwide were salivating on the anticipation that a third match would prove once and for all whether Deep Blue's defeat of Kasparov in 1997 was indeed a fluke. The only question was when the match would be played. 

These scientists and chess players do not have to wait anymore. There will not be any third match. 

According to Hsu Feng-hsiung, one of the three main programmers of Deep Blue, the rematch is unlikely to take place because Kasparov has effectively backed down from his challenge. 

About two weeks ago, Hsu released an open letter on the Internet to relate the developments after Deep Blue had beaten Kasparov in 1997. 

Hsu said that he had done everything within his power to make the new match happen, but Kasparov had not responded positively, and added that he doubted Kasparov would change his mind. 

In his open letter, Hsu said that when Kasparov challenged the Deep Blue team for a rematch at the end of the 1997 match, he believed that the Deep Blue team had a personal obligation to honour Kasparov's request. 

When Hsu left IBM a few months ago, he spent a small personal fortune to get the right to the chess chip. Officially, he was getting the right to commercialise the chess chip but his real purpose was to answer Kasparov's challenge. If Kasparov was serious about his challenge, Hsu would see to it that Kasparov got his match. 

Towards the end of last year, Hsu contacted Owen Williams who was Kasparov's agent. In his first e-mail, Hsu asked Owen directly whether Kasparov was serious about the match and whether Kasparov was indeed willing to play the match as a world title match. According to Hsu, the initial response was not encouraging as Owen ruled out the possibility of a title match immediately and was noncommittal about the new match. 

"In reality, I was not unhappy that Owen ruled out the possibility of a title match. I don't believe that a computer should be the World Champion. Personally, I believe that the title should be for humans only. Some of the potential sponsors did indicate that a match with the title on the line was certainly more desirable, although I believed that it might be okay if Kasparov was willing to state that he would treat the match as seriously as if it were a title match," Hsu wrote. 

After a long sequence of e-mail exchanges, Owen sent a message vaguely suggesting that Kasparov was not interested. Hsu now said that he then asked Owen point blank: "Can I safely assume that Gary is not interested in a match any more?" and received Owen's reply that "Gary does not want to be involved in any way." 

Hsu mentioned that throughout the entire sequence of e-mail exchanges, Owen never said a straight yes or no to his question of whether Kasparov was interested in a match. But, Hsu added, the last e-mail has only one reasonable interpretation and that was, after over two years of issuing public challenges, Kasparov was no longer interested in playing a new match. 

"I don't know the reason behind Kasparov's decision. Maybe his priority changed; maybe he felt offended somehow in my dealings with Owen. (But) it is no longer of concern to me. Even if Kasparov somehow changes his mind, the chance of a new match is now very slim," he said. 

"Given what has happened so far, it would be very hard to convince match sponsors or funding sources that the match will happen. Kasparov could change his mind yet again or come up with match conditions that are unacceptable. Anyway, I give up. I have now done everything possible to make the match happen," Hsu added. 

Hsu said that there were people who were interested in seeing the chess chip commercialised. However, he said it was unlikely to happen as the Deep Blue chess chip was not commercially viable. 

To be commercially viable, he would have to redesign a new chip but without a new match, it was difficult for him to muster the energy to create it. He said that the only chance that anyone would ever see the chess chip commercialised would be if he decided to build a Shogi (a Japanese chess game) chip someday. "Then you may see a new chess chip designed as a by-product," he added. 

Web game ends on sour note

THE Internet chess game between Gary Kasparov and the World has ended after 124 days of play. On a positive note, it was claimed by Microsoft, which hosted the event on its MSN network, that the game attracted more than seven million visitors from 79 countries during the course of the four-month game.

It was a fascinating game which went much better than I had expected. On Oct 8, I wrote about how Kasparov had not managed to gain a clear upperhand, and how the World team had maintained its strategy of active defence, even taking risks during the early stages of the game (see http://http://www5.mol.com.my/qss/Chess/1999/99Oct08.html).

Soon afterwards, however, the event became deeply embroiled in controversy. There were charges that ballot stuffing, delayed move transmissions and computer hacking had denied the World team a draw.

Angry World players, furious at what they saw as the unwillingness of Microsoft to address the problems, then organised a cyber-mutiny by voting for a move that would have given their queen to Kasparov for free. This move had been voted by about 67% of the players but Microsoft refused to accept it and instead chose the next most popular move. Needless to say, this further enraged the World players.

The game, when it started on June 21, had been hyped by Kasparov as "perhaps the most important in the history of chess," but most people, myself included, had expected him to win easily against a disorganised team in which the votes of rank amateurs counted just as much as those of grandmasters.

But the World had an unexpected asset in 15-year-old Irina Krush who is the reigning US women's chess champion and one of four appointed Internet coaches for the game. Her job was to recommend moves for the World players and she had a lot of help from a team of grandmasters in St Petersburg, Russia, and other strong players around the world. As a result, the World put up an unexpectedly tough fight to lead the game into a near equal queen-and-pawn ending.

As an indication of her influence, Krush's recommendations were adopted by the World voters 48 times in the first 50 moves, including every instance after the sixth move.

But in a close vote in a crucial position on Sept 29, her suggestion for the 51st move was rejected in favour of a pawn move that was widely regarded as markedly inferior. The next day, someone calling himself Jose Unodos posted an e-mail saying he had rigged the vote in favour of the pawn move. Hours later, Microsoft officials posted a reply saying they had checked their security procedures and found no flaws.

Nevertheless, Unodos insisted that the 51st move was not the only time his vote stuffing had affected the choice of the World. He claimed he had also been successful in the 19th and 26th moves.

Five days after the vote stuffing claims surfaced, another participant, Martin Sims, revealed that he too had been able to rig the voting. His choice of a ridiculously weak move that would have given up the queen to Kasparov allegedly obtained 4.55% of the votes. Sims said he was not trying to sabotage the game, "but the fact that the move got into the top five choices proves that ballot-stuffing can and almost certainly does occur, and Microsoft's security reassurances are empty."

Things came to a boil on the 58th move when Krush's recommendation was posted late to the Microsoft site, causing the World to choose an inferior move that gave a decisive advantage to Kasparov. Disgruntled World voters rejected Microsoft's explanations for the delay and registered their protest by voting overwhelmingly on the 59th move to give up the black queen. This choice was not accepted by Microsoft which then proceeded to choose the next move from among the voters' choices.

According to Spanish chess journalist Leontxo Garcia writing in El Pais, the majority of the fans became even more upset when Microsoft "would not even let them lose the way they wanted."

However, it must be said that not everyone agreed with all the ruckus made by most of the World players. I, for one, am not impressed with these irresponsible players' plan to sabotage the game one way or another.

Granted that people like Unodos and Sims had a point to prove, but at least the game could continue without the World losing immediately. You just had to accept as a fact of life that there are always hackers on the Internet.

However, when you have a large group of people who plan a most deliberate attempt to throw the game, it becomes objectionable and a great disservice to chess. They may claim that it was their right to give up their queen in a nonsensical way as a sign of protest, but I would support Microsoft, as the host for the game, for rejecting the farcical move immediately. The company had a right to ensure that the game, despite all that happened, would not end so stupidly.

Another chess writer, Michael Greengard, was also critical of the World voters. He said the complexity of this game has been mind-boggling and even teams of grandmasters were unable to find the correct moves.

If anyone should be worried about vote rigging, he said, it would have been Kasparov himself. Three or four times during this game there were votes decided by fewer than 100 voters and all were in favour of the best move for the World.

He claimed that if there had been rigging, it would have been much earlier in the middlegame, and not during a hyper-complex queen's ending that few people understood.

"So now we have a lot of sore losers who do not even realise when the game was lost. Instead of the positive coverage this event deserves, this group of people are now even spamming the media centres to cry about how Microsoft had cheated them," he said.

He added that Microsoft had run this event for far beyond its expected life and budget, advertising it heavily all over the Internet. "It has done wonders for chess awareness and, from what I can tell, been great fun for thousands of people around the world."

Kasparov vs The World

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.c4 Nc6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.0-0 g6 8.d4 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Bg7 10.Nde2 Qe6 11.Nd5 Qxe4 12.Nc7+ Kd7 13.Nxa8 Qxc4 14.Nb6+ axb6 15.Nc3 Ra8 16.a4 Ne4 17.Nxe4 Qxe4 18.Qb3 f5 19.Bg5 Qb4 20.Qf7 Be5 21.h3 Rxa4 22.Rxa4 Qxa4 23.Qxh7 Bxb2 24.Qxg6 Qe4 25.Qf7 Bd4 26.Qb3 f4 27.Qf7 Be5 28.h4 b5 29.h5 Qc4 30.Qf5+ Qe6 31.Qxe6+ Kxe6 32.g3 fxg3 33.fxg3 b4 34.Bf4 Bd4+ 35.Kh1 b3 36.g4 Kd5 37.g5 e6 38.h6 Ne7 39.Rd1 e5 40.Be3 Kc4 41. Bxd4 exd4 42. Kg2 b2 43. Kf3 Kc3 44. h7 Ng6 45. Ke4 Kc2 46. Rh1 d3 47. Kf5 b1=Q 48.Rxb1 Kxb1 49. Kxg6 d2 50. h8=Q d1=Q 51. Qh7 b5 52. Kf6+ Kb2 53. Qh2+ Ka1 54. Qf4 b4 55. Qxb4 Qf3 56. Kg7 d5 57. Qd4+ Kb1 58. g6 Qe4 59. Qg1+ Kb2 60. Qf2+ Kc1 61. Kf6 d4 62. g7 (1-0)

Just for the record, Kasparov announced a forced mate in 25 moves after 62 ... Qc6+ 63. Kg5 Qd5+ 64.Qf5 Qg2+ 65.Qg4 Qd5+ 66.Kh4! Qg8 67.Qf4+ Kc2 68.Qf8 Qh7+ 69.Kg5 Qh2 70.g8(Q) Qg3+ 71.Kf5 Qf3+ 72.Ke6 Qb3+ 73.Kd6 Qb4+ 74.Ke5 Qe1+ 75.Kxd4 Qa1+ 76.Ke4 Qa4+ 77.Ke3 Qa7+ 78.Kf3 Qb7+ 79.Kg3 Qc7+ 80.Qf4 Qxf4+ 81.Kxf4 Kd3 82.Qb3+ Kd4 83.Qb5 Kc3 84.Ke3 Kc2 85.Qb4 Kc1 86.Kd3 Kd1 87.Qd2 mate.

If Black deviates from this line, then checkmate arrives even sooner.

UP NEXT

* Kepong Junior Open (Sunday, Nov 7): The parent-teacher association of SJK(C) Kepong Dua, Kuala Lumpur, will hold the sixth Kepong junior open tournament at the school hall. The tournament is divided into the under-8, under-10, under-12 and under-16 categories. The top four winners in each age group will also receive cash prizes, while the next six winners will get consolation prizes. For enquiries, contact Mrs F.L. Wong ( 017-888 2216, 03-636 4197 between 3pm and 10pm).

* Perak Closed (Nov 13-21): The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organise the Perak closed championship at the Great World Centre, Jalan Kampar, Ipoh. This will be a nine-round Swiss event with a 1 1/2-hour time control per player for each game. All players residing, working, studying or born in Perak with a state rating of 1,700 and above are eligible to participate in the tournament. Entry fees are RM15 for PICA members and RM20 for non-members. There are 10 cash prizes totalling RM1,000 with the top prize being RM300. The tournament is sponsored by Super Highway Computer (Ipoh) Sdn Bhd. For enquiries, contact W.K. Wong ( 05-366 1692).

* JB Open (Nov 14): The sixth Johor Baru open tournament, jointly organised by the Johor Baru District Chess Club and Johor Land Bhd, will be at the Dewan Menara Komtar. There are three sections in this event: the open, under-16 and under-12. The open section features 10 cash prizes totalling RM1,710 with a first prize of RM500. The winner will also receive the Piala Mentri Besar Johor. The under-16 and the under-12 sections also have 10 cash prizes each. The top prizes for the two sections are RM100 and RM80 respectively. Entry fees are RM20 for the open section, RM7 for the under-16 section and RM5 for the under-12 section. Entries will close on Nov 12; only the first 300 entries will be accepted. For details, contact Narayanan Krishnan ( 07-333 8215 / e-mail:naraa@tm.net.my).