Wild draw

It’s just not the same any more. Not since the growing popularity of computer chess programs, anyway. 

Way back in the past when we talked about blindfold chess, it would mean just that: two players who were literally blindfolded. It was great publicity. I remember that in the early 1990s, this newspaper even once published a colour picture of two blindfolded players on the front page. 

It’s not so dramatic nowadays. Players in blindfold games are now more inclined to sit at a laptop computer. Some people say that the players stare blankly at an image of an empty chessboard on the computer’s monitor but there is much more going on than that. You see, their brains are whirring along – thinking, calculating and assessing – and the chessboard, though empty, helps them in the visualization process. And they are still required to record their every move.

So to the experienced chess players, an empty chessboard is not a hindrance at all; not when there are still the visible game scores to follow. These reminders are more than sufficient in allowing them to play normally. 

How normal or accurate could their games be, you may ask? Well, very normal indeed. For example, at the Amber tournament in Monaco last month, half of the games were played in this so-called blindfold fashion and I tell you, there were games of sheer accuracy and brilliancy. 

This week, I would like to show you one rather remarkable game from this event. 

Vladimir Kramnik (rated 2785) – Vassily Ivanchuk (rated 2779)

20th Amber Blindfold, Monaco, 2011

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.d4 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 c6 7.Qc2 0-0 8.0-0 b6 9.Rd1 Nbd7 10.Bf4 Bb7 11.Ne5 Rc8 12.Nc3 Nh5 13.Bc1 f5 14.Qa4 Nxe5 15.dxe5 Qc7 (Something new from Ivanchuk which left Kramnik wondering how to refute.) 16.cxd5 (Later, Kramnik commented that he should have played the immediate 16.Bf3.) 16…cxd5 17.Qxa7 (And finally, White decides to take the offered a-pawn. So the queen is offside but it’s not so simple for Black to trap it with 17…Ra8 immediately. There is bigger game on the kingside.) 17…Bc5 (To support the b-pawn just in case the black queen needs to move away but more importantly, the bishop occupies the diagonal and gets aimed at White’s king.) 18.Bf3 f4 19.g4 (If 19.Bxh5, then 19…fxg3 rips into the white kingside. White sidesteps this but now comes a stunning move.) 19…Ng3! 

(See diagram) 20.b4 Ra8 21.Nxd5 Nxe2+ 22.Kf1 Rxa7 23.Nxc7 Bxf3 24.Nxe6 Nc3 (Possibly, 24…Bxb4 could have won the game. After Ivanchuk misses that, Kramnik steers the game into safe waters.) 25.bxc5 Nxd1 26.cxb6 Ra4 27.Nxf8 Kxf8 28.Rb1 Rxa2 29.b7 Rxf2+ 30.Ke1 Re2+ 31.Kf1 (Of course, not 31.Kxd1 Rb2+ 32.Ke1 Rxb1 and the white b-pawn falls.) 31…Rf2+ 32.Ke1 ½-½

Up next

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association informs me that the first leg of this year’s Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament in Taiping a fortnight ago was a remarkable success with 217 participants. There could have been more players but the last-minute entries were turned away due to space constraints of the venue.

The second leg of the grand prix will be held at the Sekolah Menengah Teknik Kerian, Jalan Siakap, Bagan Serai this Sunday. Like the Taiping leg, this second leg will be contested over seven rounds with a 25-minute time control. The other three legs will be played in Slim River on May 15, Kampar on Jun 19 and the grand final 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 Bagan Serai 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). To register, call Yunus (013.3908129), Kamaruddin (019.4316793) or Mas’ud Hamzah (012.4681665). Alternatively, visit the PICA blog at http://perakchess.blogspot.com for details. 

Percawi Labour Day team

The Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory Chess Association (Percawi) will organize a Labour Day team tournament at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur this Sunday. Six rounds, 30-minute games, four players per team. Entry fee: RM160 (companies and government departments), RM80 (schools, colleges and universities). Details available from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578) and Bob Yap (012.2878378).

Selangor open

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organize their 38th Selangor open chess tournament at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur from Apr 28 to May 2.

This nine-round, Fide-rated tournament will have 10 main cash prizes totaling RM7,000 with the winner receiving RM2,500. There are also various minor category prizes. Entry fees: RM70 (CAS members with Fide ratings), RM80 (CAS members without Fide ratings), RM90 (non-CAS members with Fide ratings) and RM100 (non-CAS members without Fide ratings). Grandmasters and international masters play for free. Universities, colleges and schools that submit four players or more will receive a 20 percent discount. Entries received after Apr 21 will be charged an extra RM20.

For enquiries, contact Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922, selangorchess@gmail.com), Mat Zaki Yeop (017.2032051) or Yeoh Chin Seng (012.6199816). More information available from http://selangorchess.blogspot.com 

Perlis events

In conjunction with the 68th birthday of the Raja of Perlis, there will be two tournaments in Perlis on Apr 30 and May 1. On Apr 30, the Perlis Chess Academy will organize the Perlis open tournament with cash prizes totalling RM1,610. Entry fees: RM10 (players under 18 years old), RM15 (Perlis residents) and RM20 (non-Perlis participants). 

Then on May 1, Kilang Gula Felda Perlis will organize the Gula Perlis open chess challenge. The cash prizes for the Gula Perlis event amount to RM5,555. Four DGT digital chess clocks are also given as lucky draw prizes. Entry fees: RM15 (players under 18 years old) and RM20 (adults). 

Venue for both events will be the Dewan Belia in Kangar, Perlis. More details available from Syaifulzamani (013.3939838), Darwis (012.4128207), Abdul Aziz (019.5700828), Azrul Sani (019.4651122).

Chess camp

The Creative Chess Enterprise will hold a two-day chess champ at the Sekolah Sri Bestari in Bandar Sri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur on Jun 6-7. Entry fees: RM140 (elementary level), RM160 (players with national chess ratings below 1200 points) and RM180 (players with national rating above 1200 points). Discount of RM20 applies to anyone registering before May 15. Closing date: May 22. For inquiries, call Balendran (012.3547011) or Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922).

 

Allure of Amber

 

Championship homepage launched

The Asian cities team and Asian women's chess championships homepage on the Internet was launched officially earlier this week by Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister Datuk Sabbaruddin Chik, who is also the president of the Malaysian Chess Federation.

He said the time was ripe for the MCF to take advantage of the Internet to publicise its activities to the chess world. During the two events, readers with Internet access can receive regular updates from the homepage at http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Stadium/6485/.

The championships are due to start next week at the Awana Genting Highlands Golf and Country Resort. Resorts World Berhad is the main sponsor for the two events, while the Dubai Chess and Culture Club donated US$25,000 towards the cost of running the championships.

Meanwhile, I shall be going to Genting Highlands with a happy heart next week, having received the blessings from my employer, Ban Hin Lee Bank Berhad, for me to assume duties as the chief arbiter of the Asian women's chess championship.

I know it will be a heavy responsibility and it may not be easy to keep the peace between 19 women who are jostling for the Indira Gandhi challenge trophy and eyeing the cash prizes at the same time.

The highest rated player is China's woman international master Xu Yuhua who weighs in with a rating point of 2335. Whether or not she will win the championship remains to be seen, but she will face tough competition from woman grandmaster Eva Repkova who is representing Lebanon. Repkova is rated at 2330.

The incumbent champion, Indonesian woman international master Tamin Upi Darmayana (rated at 2250), of course, cannot be overlooked in this contest of 11 rounds. Then there are also two former Asian women's champion, woman international masters Gokhale Anupama and Bagyashree Thipsay Sathe, who are both from India.

The other titled players who are capable of creating an upset in this event are woman international master Maria Lucia Sulista of Indonesia, and woman Fide masters Angela Khegai (Uzbekistan), Rena Mamedova (Uzbekistan) and Ngan Koshnitsky (Australia).

As for the remaining players, the untitled rated players are Nguyen Thi Thuan Hoa (Vietnam), Maria Sergeeva (Kazakhstan), Nguyen Thi Dung (Vietnam), Le Thi Phuong Lien (Vietnam), Irina Gorshkova (Uzbekistan), Roslina Marmono (Malaysia) and Nurul Huda Wahiduddin (Malaysia), while those unrated are Malaysia's Samantha Lee and Lim Jeannie, and Singapore's Cynthia Yap.

Amber tournament

I received a number of enquiries last week after I reported on the Melody Amber tournament in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. All of those enquiries were curious about the blindfold games between the participants. Everyone wanted to know how they were played.

What I know about the blindfold chess is that the games were played on a computer system designed by Tasc BV of the Netherlands. Each player would sit in front of a screen displaying an empty chessboard and he would make his moves through his mouse or keyboard.

What a move is made, it would be announced on the screen of the player's opponent. The computer system, at the same time, checked on the legality of the moves and all the time used by the players would be registered automatically.

Although the players always saw an empty board, the arbiters and audience were able to follow the game on video screens which were not visible to the players.

The Melody Amber tournament was actually a combination of two events. The first was a Rapid Chess tournament which was tied by Alexei Shirov and Vassily Ivanchuk with eight points each. Anatoly Karpov was third with seven points and Vladimir Kramnik was fourth with 6 1/2 points.

Further down the table were Ljubomir Ljubojevic with six points, Vesselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand with five points, Jeroen Piket, Matthew Sadler and Loek van Wely with 4 1/2 points each, Joel Lautier with four points and Predrag Nikolic with three points.

The other event was the blindfold chess itself. Kramnik demonstrated a marked superiority over the other players by winning the blindfold event with 8 1/2 points. Anand and Shirov were tied with seven points each, while further back were Ivanchuk and Topalov with 6 1/2 points each, Lautier with 5 1/2 points, van Wely with five points, Karpov, Ljubojevic and Piket with 4 1/2 points, Nikolic with 3 1/2 points and Sadler with three.

The eventual winner of the Melody Amber tournament was decided by a combination of the results of the Rapid and blindfold events. Shirov and Kramnik thus shared the top honours with 15 points each. Third was Ivanchuk with 14 1/2 points, while Anand had 12 points.

The remaining standings: Karpov and Topalov 11 1/2 points each, Ljubojevic 10 1/2 points, Lautier and van Wely 9 1/2 points, Piket nine points, Sadler 7 1/2 points and Nikolic 6 1/2 points.

Readers with Internet access can go to http://www.tasc.nl/amber7 to view the details of this rather unique tournament.

University tournament

Readers who are interested to take part in the International Islamic University Malaysia's team tournament on April 18 and 19 should note that there has been a change in the tournament venue to 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.

For more details, contact Azlan of the IIU (tel: 03-681-4052 after 4pm).

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association will organise the third of their nine-leg chess grand prix this Sunday at the Pusat Rekreasi Catur in the Taman DR Seenivasagam in Ipoh.

Six rounds are scheduled for this tournament, and the time control is 25 minutes per player for each game. Only players who are born, residing, working or studying in Perak will be eligible to take part.

The overall grand prix standings will be based on the best five tournament performances of each player. The top 24 players at the end of the grand prix series will qualify for the Perak state championship in September this year. The interim grand prix standings will also be used for selecting Perak players to national events like the Merdeka team championship.

Those interested in playing in the third leg must register at the playing venue by 8.30am tomorrow. For more details, contact WK Wong (tel: 05-366-1692).

Tebrau open

Players in the south of the peninsula can take part in a team tournament on April 26. This team event, jointly organised by the Johor branch of the Police Administrative and Civilian Staff Union and the Johor Bahru Chess Club, will be played on the third floor of the Bangunan JOTIC along Jalan Air Molek, Johor Bahru.

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

Focus on Melody Amber rapid chess