Full house

It's not often that I get to attend a MSSM chess tournament, so the fact that this year's national schools chess tournament was held in Penang meant that, by hook or by crook, I had to go and see this competition of the best of the nation's schoolboys and schoolgirls.

I was surprised when I arrived at the beach hotel in Tanjung Bunga, where the MSSM chess was taking place. The hotel was practically overrun by youthful chess players. On the sixth floor where the competition was played, the crowd had spilled out of the tournament hall into the foyer.

Players, teachers, coaches and parents: they were sprawled all over the floor. The noise level was high as the chess players, those who had finished their games and were required to leave the tournament hall, were either talking chess or in the midst of playing still more chess. 

In a corner of the foyer, the organisers had thoughtfully set up a closed circuit television to beam one or two games from the tournament hall. People were standing around and casting glances at the screen every now and then.

I looked around the foyer and picked my way gingerly towards the door of the tournament hall. I knew that once inside, I would be able to find some peace and quiet, look at a few of the unfinished games and perhaps even catch up with some familiar faces.

Of course, this MSSM being held in Penang meant that it did not surprise me to see several of the Penang Chess Association's committee members present to help in the running of the event. But I was surprised to see the Malaysian Chess Federation's secretary, Gregory Lau, there too. It was certainly a good gesture of him to lend the MCF’s presence to this national tournament.

Lau grabbed hold of me and started introducing me around as one of the pioneers of the MSSM chess movement. “You know,” he was saying, “this chap was actually playing in the very first MSSM tournament here in Penang in 1972?”

I could see people's eyes lighting up. Boy, was I uncomfortable. The very first MSSM at the Dewan Sri Pinang was 40 years ago. That really showed up my age, hasn't it? Luckily, the moment quickly passed.

But I’d like to make a swift observation between 1972 and 2011. Way back then, there were only eight state teams participating in the inaugural MSSM chess competition. The number of chess players involved? A grand total of 32 players. Boy, were we lost in the vast expanse of the Dewan Sri Pinang’s big auditorium! 

Last week, however, there were no less than 540 participants divided into three age groups (under-18, under-15 and under-12) and separated into events for teams and individuals, and boys and girls. In fact, there weren’t enough space to seat all of the players together in the tournament hall – and they were sitting elbow to elbow – which meant that the organizers were forced to adopt a novel solution which reduced the number of rounds from seven to six, and resting each age group once during the tournament. 

For the record, this is the list of winners at this year’s MSSM chess competition: 

Individual section: boy’s under-18 champion – Muhd Nabil bin Azman Hisham (Selangor); girl’s under-18 champion – Alia Anin Azwa bt Bakri (Melaka); boy’s under-15 champion – Elgin Lee Kah Meng (Penang); girl’s under-15 champion – Nur Nabila bt Azman Hisham (Selangor); boy’s under-12 champion – Muhammad Sirajuddin Munawar (Kedah); girl’s under-12 champion – Puteri Rifqah Fahada bt Azhar (Selangor).

Team section: boy’s under-18 champion – Penang; girl’s under-18 champion – Wilayah Persekutuan; boy’s under-15 champion – Wilayah Persekutuan; girl’s under-15 champion – Wilayah Persekutuan; boy’s under-12 champion – Wilayah Persekutuan; girl’s under-12 champion – Penang.

Up next

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association will organize the fourth leg of this year’s Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament at the Grand Kampar Hotel on Jun 19. Like the three previous tournaments, this leg in Kampar will be contested over seven rounds with a 25-minute time control. The grand final will be contested in Ipoh on July 10. Other than cash prizes, points are awarded to the top 10 winners of each leg and these would accumulate till the final leg. 

Entry fees for the Kampar tournament: RM25 (open section), RM15 (under 16 years old), RM10 (under 12 years old). For PICA members and Perak residents: RM20 (open section), RM10 (players under 16 years old). Closing date for entries is Jun 16. To register, call Yunus (013.3908129). Alternatively, visit the PICA blog at http://perakchess.blogspot.com for details. 

SJKC Jalan Davidson open

The Cheras Chess Academy and Percawi will assist the SJK(C) Jalan Davidson in Kuala Lumpur to organize an open chess tournament at the school hall on Jun 19. Entry fees: RM12 (students from the school and Percawi members) and RM15 (others). To register, contact Kids For Chess (03.91316474 or 016.2123578).

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School (MBSSKL) in Kuala Lumpur will hold the sixth MBSSKL open tounament at their school on July 23. Six rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM5 (MBSSKL students) and RM15 (others). Closing date for entries is July 9. For more details, visit http://mbsskl.edu.my or contact Sanusi or Madam Yong LY (03.20782293).

 

Budget cut

So it happens yet again. The rumour that I have been hearing for the past months has been confirmed. Chess is out from this year’s national schools’ sports programme, a victim of the drastic cost-cutting measures by the Ministry of Education.

According to a news report last week, the ministry had slashed its annual grant to the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) from RM6 million to a measly RM1.5 million. As a result, the MSSM is forced to reduce the number of sports in its calendar from 24 to 13.

Of course, I’m disappointed with the consequences of the budget slash. Who wouldn’t be? A student’s all-round education should encompass both academic and non-academic activities. While emphasis should rightly focus on academic results, non-academic activities should not be overlooked. This nation is not built on bookworms alone. 

So chess is one of the sports affected. There won’t be an MSSM chess tournament at the national level this year. No doubt, there may still be some school chess tournaments on a state-wide level if the states can find the funds themselves, but without a school competition at national level, it will never be the same.

As I said earlier, it is not the first time that it has happened to chess. More than 10 years ago when the country was hit by a financial recession, chess was a convenient victim. Funds were also withdrawn from chess at the MSSM and it was only many years later that the game was re-instated into the programme.

In the process, we lost more than a generation of chess players. The luckier states like Selangor and Penang were able to continue nurturing their young crop of players but in most of the other states, chess development in the schools was practically at a stand-still. These states suffered the most. Losing this generation of chess players meant that many of our young citizens never had the opportunity to uncover or develop their full potential. Goodness knows how many of them were wasted.

Then, when chess was re-introduced into the national sports programme a few years ago, it took a while before the game got back into its natural groove. No doubt, the same thing is going to happen again. There’ll be another generation lost.

The only comfort which chess players can perhaps derive from this setback is that we are not alone. Together with chess, other sports like bowling, squash, archery, table tennis, rugby, cricket, sailing, softball, handball and cross country have been axed from the programme.

But is this the time for self-pity? No! Not for chess nor any of the other games that were taken off the MSSM calendar. If anything, this is the opportunity for the state sport associations and the national sport federations to do something positive on their own to maintain the interest and momentum in the sport they profess to represent.

If a state education department cannot organize a state-wide school chess competition, come in with your expertise to hold your own state-level age group tournaments. If there is no MSSM competition for your game, the federation should step in to help out with a national age group event.

In this sense, perhaps chess is a little fortunate because the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) has had an annual national age group chess competition running for a few years already. It started about the same time that chess went off the MSSM radar in the last decade.

It just grew from there. The national age group competitions never stopped even when chess was re-instated into the MSSM calendar. They simply co-existed, one event complementing the other.

So this year, the national age group competition in March will be taking on a special importance again. It will be a premier junior tournament to judge the chess abilities of our youth on a national platform. I would urge them – all the chess players who are still below the age of 18 – to come and give your support to this event. It will be your chance to demonstrate that scholastic chess can continue growing despite this momentary setback.

Incidentally, I shall be in Kuala Lumpur this weekend to attend a meeting at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre – initiated by the grand old man of Malaysian chess, Datuk Tan Chin Nam – of interested chess parties in an effort to find a common ground for chess organizations and chess personalities to grow together.

I laud his effort for a brain-storming session. We have got to take the cue from the axing of MSSM chess. It is now even more imperative for everyone connected with chess to cooperate together as one and take the game up to the next level. In the face of shrinking grants, chess in this country should look to more efficiency. By working together, we’ll find that the chess pie is certainly still large enough for everyone to share.

See you at the meeting on Sunday morning!

Up next  

KL rapid grand prix

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize a KL rapid grand prix beginning next month. The grand prix, sponsored by the Malaysian Intellectual Development Foundation and the Royal Selangor Club (RSC), will have four legs from February to May and followed by the grand final in June.

Each leg will feature six rounds with a 45-minute rate of play per player for each round. The first leg will be on Feb 6-7. The top 10 winners of the open and under-12 sections will be given free entry to their respective sections in the final. Total prize fund for the grand prix is RM6,600.

Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the RSC and RM20 for non-members. For the under-12 section, the entry fees are RM5 for children of KLCA and RSC members and RM10 for others. All legs will be played at the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, http://www.klchess.com/ 

UTP open

The Universiti Teknologi Petronas will organize their UTP chess open tournament at their campus in Bandar Seri Iskandar, Tronoh, Perak on Feb 21. There will be an open section as well as an under-18 and under-12 sections. 

Entry fees are RM20 for the open, RM15 for under-18 and RM10 for under-12. UTP students and staff need pay only RM15 upon presentation of their matrix cards.  Closing date is Feb 7. More details, contact Hussein (017.6410194, husseinnordin@gmail.com), Faizal (017.3934291, faizalakram91@gmail.com) or Qistina (019.2602094).

Malaysian women’s masters

After seeing the success of last year’s Malaysian Masters tournament at the DATCC, the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) has announced the organizing of an equivalent event for the top women players in the country. Billed as the Malaysian Women’s Masters, the event will involve 16 players who will play knock-out matches starting Feb 26.

More information is available from MCF secretary Gregory Lau (012.9020123, greglau64@gmail.com or malaysianchessfederation@gmail.com) or Najib Abdul Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@hotmail.com).

3rd DATCC chess league

Even as the second DATCC Kuala Lumpur commercial and recreational chess league grounded to a halt on Tuesday, the organizers – the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre – are already planning for the third such event which shall kick off on Mar 24.

The DATCC chess league is a Fide-rated team tournament played over nine rounds with long time controls. Each round will be played on Wednesdays at the chess centre. 

Entry fee is RM400 per team of a maximum 10 players. Junior teams (players below 20 years old) are charged at RM200. Any entry received after Mar 12 will need to pay an extra RM100. More details from Hamid Majid (019.3158098, aham@pc.jaring.my) or Najib Abdul Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@hotmail.com). 

 

Tough competition

 

Juniors' week

 

A return to schools

 

MSSM chess: feedback from Sarawak

THANK YOU for your article dated Jan 16 in The Star. I write to you to put the record straight and to give credit where it is due. 

You have stated that it was Mr Henry Chai of Sarawak that had convinced the MSSM to bring chess back to the fold this year. I wish to inform you that Mr Henry Chai was the senior assistant director in charge of the sport section for the Sarawak Education Department from June to December 2003. And it had been agreed upon in principle by MSSM earlier that chess would be rescheduled in the MSSM Calendar in 2004. 

At that time, Mr Liong Chou Chuan was the senior assistant director in charge for this matter. It was he who had managed to convince his counterparts on the importance of chess in developing thinking skills in the students. The inclusion of chess in the Vietnam SEA Games had also helped our cause. 

As one of those involved in inter-school chess competition in Sarawak, I have followed the chess competition closely. Initially, the MSSM chess tournament was struck out of their calendar based on the fact that chess was not a sports event. The economic crisis had been used as a basis for the removal of the event. 

But on our side, we had written in an appeal based on the fact that many countries have adopted the chess game as a curricular activity to enhance students’ thinking abilities. Studies have proven that students involved in chess programmes showed an increase of as much as 20% and 15% in Mathematics and language scores respectively. Besides, those students are found to be more disciplined and self-controlled. 

Please search for ‘scholastic chess’ for further details on the research done. 

Therefore, I believe that chess is an excellent tool to train our students to think creatively. I would sincerely hope that the Malaysian Chess Federation would help in promoting chess playing in schools in the future. 

While I agree with you that qualified persons be trained and appointed to run the MSSM chess competition, I disagree with the rapidchess style of competition as you have suggested. No doubt it is more entertaining and suitable for the quickie style of play preferred by youngsters, but it could impede the impact of the chess game upon the students – cultivating thinking skill, discipline and so on. Maybe reducing the time frame is acceptable, but please do not turn school-level chess tournaments into spectator sports. 

Thank you for your fortnightly contribution. I appreciate that. 

Wong Tok Hua, Sarawak

Mr Wong, thank you for your clarification. Your letter is one of the “missing links” which helps to complete the whole picture of how chess was removed from the MSSM calendar in 1998 and only now, due for reinstatement this year.

When I was in Vietnam last year for the SEA Games, I saw for myself how chess can be a great spectator sport. In the final of the rapidchess events, especially during the play-off sessions, the thrill of the kill on the chessboard kept the audience very much on edge. 

All the high drama told not only on the players’ faces but the audience as well. It was tension felt by everyone as the players strained to squeeze a win from their games. We could see that rapidchess is THE future for chess; that this is the direction that chess must take to popularise itself to a wider audience locally. 

Even at international level, the World Chess Federation has already seen it fit to move away from the longer time controls to the shorter Shirov time control of one hour 30 minutes with a 30-second increment per move.

But having said this, I do agree with you that the MSSM chess should not be turned into a full-fledged rapidchess event. 

We certainly need a time control that is longer than 30-minute games so that we can give enough time to the players to think reasonably well through their games. The objective should still be to train the players to think critically and creatively, and not turn the games into a clock-bashing lottery. 

I would believe that the one-hour time control is reasonably long enough for games at the MSSM level. However, the greater concern to me is not the time control but the pressure put on the players to play too many games in too few days. Chess competitions should not be turned into extreme tests of endurance.

GAME OF THE WEEK

This game from the fifth round of the men’s Standard chess competition at the SEA Games in Ho Chi Minh City last month was an interesting struggle. Villamayor emerged from the opening with a greater spatial advantage but he was unable to capitalise on it. A few ill-considered moves soon allowed Mas Hafizul to slowly turn the table on his opponent.

On the 52nd move, Villamayor thought that he had a chance to claim for a draw through a three-fold repetition of position. The arbiters were called in to settle the claim but after some deliberation, the claim was rightly rejected. In the play that followed, Mas Hafizul closed down the position to prevent further spurious claims and then converted the game into a patient win.

White: Mas Hafizulhelmi (2397) - Black: Buenaventura Villamayor (2477) 

1.g3 d5 2.Bg2 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.b3 Bg4 5.Bb2 Nbd7 6.0–0 e6 7.d3 Bd6 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Bxf3 0–0 10.Nd2 a5 11.a3 Qe7 12.Bg2 e5 13.c4 Rfe8 14.Re1 Rad8 15.e3 Nc5 16.Qc2 e4 17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.dxe4 dxe4 19.Reb1 Be5 20.Ra2 f5 21.b4 axb4 22.axb4 Nd3 23.c5 Ra8 24.Rxa8 Rxa8 25.g4 Qh4 26.Nc4 Bc7 27.gxf5 Kh8 28.Kf1 Rg8 29.Nb2 Qg5 30.Bxe4 Ne5 31.Nc4 Qh5 32.Nxe5 Qxh3+ 33.Ke2 Bxe5 34.Bf3 Rg5 35.Rd1 Rxf5 36.Qe4 Rg5 37.Rh1 Qf5 38.Qxf5 Rxf5 39.Be4 Rf6 40.Bxh7 Kg7 41.Be4 Re6 42.Rb1 Kf8 43.Kd3 Ke8 44.b5 Kd8 45.f4 Bf6 46.Bf5 Re7 47.bxc6 bxc6 48.Rb8+ Kc7 49.Rb6 Bh4 50.Ra6 Kb7 51.Rb6+ Kc7 52.Ra6 Kb7 53.Ra2 Re8 54.Ra4 Rh8 55.Kc4 Kc7 56.Ra2 Kb7 57.Rb2+ Kc7 58.Rg2 Kb7 59.Rb2+ Kc7 60.Be4 Re8 61.Kd3 Rd8+ 62.Ke2 Re8 63.Kf3 Re6 64.Bf5 Re8 65.Rh2 Be7 66.Rh7 Bxc5 67.Rxf7+ Re7 68.Rxe7+ Bxe7 69.e4 Kd6 70.e5+ Kd5 71.Be4+ Kd4 72.Bxc6 Bb4 73.Kg4 Ba5 74.Kf5 Bc7 1–0

UP NEXT

CAS junior grand prix events

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will hold the first leg of this year’s ninth Royal Selangor 1600 junior grand prix chess tournament at the Sunway College on Feb 8-9. 

This tournament is one of four junior events that CAS will organise in the next two months for players born in 1986 or later, and with a Selangor rating of 1600 points or lower. Players without rating points are also eligible to take part.

The other legs will be played on Feb 21-22, Mar 6-7 and Mar 20-21. Players will earn GP points from these legs and the top 40 players with the highest accumulated GP points will qualify for the grand prix final in April. 

Entry fees are RM10 for CAS members and RM20 for non-members. Entries and enquiries should be forwarded to chessmate@cas.com.kg. For more information, contact Lim Tse Pin (012-298-4922).

Back in the good ol' MSSM

 

25 years of MSSM action

 

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