Masters of the game

New Year’s Day brought on some mixed news for the Malaysian chess scene. I don’t like to use well-worn clichés but anyway, the good news should come first and the good news is that we have had two new International Masters confirmed by the World Chess Federation since last November.

Last September, we knew that Mok Tze Meng had been awarded a provisional IM title pending his rating points jumping above 2400. Well, his title has now been confirmed. 

The other player who now has a confirmed IM title is Lim Yee Weng. His application to Fide was made in November 2008 after he had achieved his three IM title norms at the Turin Chess Olympiad in 2006 and two of the Malaysia open tournaments in 2007 and 2008. At that time, Fide agreed to the application but made his IM title conditional upon his rating rising above 2400 points. He did achieve this subsequently and the title was finally confirmed in last November’s rating list.

Good for the two of them because they had put in a lot of hard work to get their titles.

As it stands right now, Malaysia has five international masters. 

Jimmy Liew was the first to achieve this title so there is always a special place reserved for him whenever this subject of international masters is raised locally. Mas Hafizulhelmi was our second player to gain this title and he also has a special place in Malaysian chess because after all these years, he remains our strongest player. 

Apart from Liew, Mas Hafizul, Mok and Lim, our other international master is Wong Zijing who is unfortunately inactive because he’s totally caught up with his studies overseas. Hopefully, we shall be able to see him return to active chess duties sometime in the future.

The bad news is that suddenly, I found Malaysia’s name disappearing from the Fide list of member nations. For that to happen, it can only mean one thing: that the Malaysian Chess Federation’s (MCF) membership standing with Fide has not been regularized in the past one year. 

The MCF has been such a long-standing member of the world body since 1974 (even longer if we consider the days of the old Chess Association of Malaysia, which was the MCF’s predecessor) that it is embarrassing that this should happen. 

Unfortunately, such delistings do happen once in a while even to more active chess federations. The least that the MCF should do now is to take steps to rectify this hiccup as soon as possible.

Up next  

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).

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.

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). 

Malaysian women’s masters

I hear that the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) after seeing the success of last year’s Malaysian Masters tournament at the DATCC, is seriously considering to organize an equivalent event for the top women players in the country. It will be billed as the Malaysian Women’s Masters, and the matches will be played in February and March on a knock-out masis.

More information available from MCF secretary Gregory Lau (012.9020123, greglau64@gmail.com or malaysianchessfederation@gmail.com).

 

Winning edge

 

Impressive play

 

Conditional title

 

King of kings

 

Spanish adventure

THE BIGGEST responsibility that can be given to any of our national players when taking part in an international team chess competition such as the Chess Olympiad is the honour of playing on the first board for the team.

In Calvia, Spain, this honour fell on Mok Tze Meng and Siti Zulaikha. They will be the first to tell you that this is a heavy responsibility. Not only are they going to meet the strongest opposition, they have the enviable task of trying to hold their own against them. 

It is not easy to face grandmasters or international masters across the board when you know that the odds are stacked against you, that these titled players are just waiting for the slightest mistakes from you before they pounce. 

But I am glad to mention here that both Mok and Siti played exemplarily well in the Chess Olympiad and they should be proud of their achievements. 

Siti had an impressive start to the tournament with five points from her first nine games but unfortunately, her performance in subsequent rounds were more difficult and she could only collect a further 1½ points from her next five games. Nevertheless, she came back with a woman international master (WIM) norm. She is not a WIM yet, but this norm is definitely her first step towards getting the title. 

As an indication of the tough opposition that she faced, Siti’s opponents included IM Lilit Mkrtchian (Armenia), WGM Eva Repkova (Slovakia), WIM Cecile van der Merwe (South Africa), WIM Vlasta Macek (Croatia), WIM Sarai Sanchez Castillo (Venezuela), WIM Anna Muzychuk (Slovenia), WIM Niina Sammalvuo (Finland), WIM Olga Sabirova (Uzbekistan) and WIM Knarik Mouradian (Libya).

Mok’s opponents were equally daunting. Already in the first round, he was facing veteran GM Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland) and in the second round, it was IM Oscar de la Riva Aguado (Andorra). His other titled opponents included IM Kivanc Haznedaroglu (Turkey), IM Danilo Canda (Nicaragua), GM Evgeni Ermenkov (Palestine), IM Bernardo Roselli Mailhe (Uruguay) and IM Kevin Denny (Barbados). 

But it was a pity that despite his good efforts in Calvia, Mok still missed out on his IM norm. Nevertheless, his 8½ points from 14 games was still a massive contribution which saw the men’s team finish with 28 points in 70th position, 24 places ahead of their pre-tournament seeding. 

Lim Yee Weng on second board, scored seven points which included a draw with GM Joseph Gallagher (Switzerland). Leong Mun Wan obtained six points, Hafiz Shafruddin contributed 3½ points and Zarul Shazwan Zullkafli collected three points.

Our women’s team finished in 40th position, which was not only 16 places better than their pre-tournament seeding but possibly the best result ever achieved by our women’s team at the Chess Olympiad. Apart from Siti’s 6½ points, Nur Shazwani Zullkafli scored 7½ points, Roslina Marmono achieved three points and Wan Khye Theng 4½ points.

UP NEXT

Busy calendar ahead

With the school holidays now upon us, the chess associations around the country are beginning to be active again and over the next three weeks or so, there are tournaments lined up in Penang, Perak, Johor and Sarawak. Happy playing!

Johor Bahru open

Entries close today for the Johor Bahru District Chess Association’s 10th Johor  Bahru open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru this Sunday. Entry fees are RM30 for the open category, RM8 for the under-16 category and RM6 for the under-12 category. For details, contact Narayanan Krishnan (07-333 8215, naraa@tm.net.my).

Union age-group

There will be an age-group chess tournament for under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8 players at the Union Primary School in Jalan Burma, Penang this Sunday. Entry fees for Penang Chess Association (PCA) members are RM10 for players under 16 years old and RM8 for those who are below 10 years old. Non-PCA members are required to pay an additional RM2. Fees paid after today will be subjected to a surcharge of RM5. To register, contact Loo Swee Leong (016-423 1168, leoloo168@yahoo.com) or Lim Poay Sim (012-490 1822, pslim159@hotmail.com).

Sarawak open

The Sarawak Chess Association (SCA), Kelab Shell Lutong and the Miri Chess Association will jointly organise this year’s Sarawak chess open tournament at the Machinda Hall, Kelab Shell Lutong in Miri on Dec 3-5. This is a nine-round event with a one-hour time control. Entry fees are RM5 for ladies and under-18 players, and RM10 for all other participants. Entries close on Nov 25. 

For more details, contact Lim Kian Hwa (013-8165163, lkhwa@tm.net.my) or James Brodie (082-616177 (office), 082-451973 (residence)) in Kuching, Mathew Lutu (019-8554705, mathew.lutu@shell.com), Bujang Poli (019-8147018, bujang.poli@shell.com) or Jim (ksl_ltg@streamyx.com) in Miri, Marzuki Hussain (019-8144369, marzuki_hussain@petronas.com.my) in Bintulu, Yii Hee Tiong (016-8916621) in Sibu or Wong Toh Hua (013-8040809) in Sarikei.

Perak tournaments

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will hold two events in early December in association with the state’s Youth & Sports Department and Perak Gerakan Youth. The Perak closed chess tournament will be run on two consecutive days on Dec 4-5 while on Dec 5, the Anak Malaysia chess tournament will be organised.

Entry fees for the Perak closed are RM15 for PICA members and under-16 players, while non-members will be charged RM20. For the Anak Malaysia event, the fees are RM5 and RM10 respectively. Entries received after Nov 30 will be surcharged an additional RM5. For details or registration, contact Yunus (013-3908129) or Martin Abu Bakar (019-5121888).

PICA is also holding regular chess sessions every first and third Saturdays of the month at the YMCA Ipoh from 2pm to 4pm. For more information, contact PICA treasurer Chan Swee Loon (019-5563027).

PCA grand prix, 4th leg

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will hold the fourth leg of their annual PCA Grand Prix at the clubhouse of the Residents’ Association of Bayan Baru (RABB) on Dec 5. Only the first 100 entries will be accepted. 

Entry fees for PCA members are RM15 (adults), RM10 (under-18 players) and RM7 (under-13 players) while non-PCA members are required to pay RM20 (adults), RM15 (under-18) and RM10 (under-13). Fees must be paid by Nov 28 or otherwise, there is a surcharge of RM5 for registration on the day of the tournament. For more information, contact Marcus Yeoh (012-472 3873, marcusypl@yahoo.com) or Tan Eng Seong (012-429 9517, estan64@streamyx.com). 

USM team open

The Universiti Sains Malaysia will organise their 11th USM team open tournament at the university grounds on Dec 11-12. Entry fees are RM60 for schools and institutes of higher learning, and RM100 for all other teams. Closing date for entries is Dec 4. For more details, contact Choo Chee Wai (012-6127712) or Tan Chooi Nee (012-4344339) or email the Kelab Bridge& Catur USM (usm_chess_club@yahoo.com). Members of the chess-malaysia mailing list can download the entry form from http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-malaysia/files/. 

Mok's the new champion