King of kings

 

Friendly games

 

Golden harvest for Mas

 

So close to a norm

 

Recognition at long last

Finally, chess received its just rewards from the Majlis Sukan Negeri Pulau Pinang.

In a breakthrough development for the Penang Chess Association, 16-year-old Ooi Chern Ee was picked as the recipient of the International Participation Award at the Penang State Sports Awards ceremony last week.

"We are very delighted with Ooi's success," said a beaming Dr Choong Sim Poey, president of the association.

"We have been nominating our people on their merits for the various awards for the past four years but we have never ever achieved the sort of success like what we have this year.

"Of course, the credit belongs entirely to Ooi because he has worked hard at the game and taken all the opportunities that came his way. The PCA happened to be there to provide him all the support he needed," said Dr Choong.

Ooi was one of 15 candidates nominated by the various sports bodies in Penang for the state's prestigious annual Sportsman Award.

Although he failed to lift this prize, he came away with the International Participation Award for his accomplishments in international sport events.

Last year, Ooi had taken part in three international chess events. The first was the world age-group individual chess championship in Szeged, Hungary, and the second was the Asian cities team chess championship in Kuala Lumpur.

But it was in the world team chess championship (popularly known as the Chess Olympiad) in Moscow that made him one of the most successful players in the Malaysian team.

Obviously, Ooi has impressed and convinced the judges sufficiently to enable him to walk away with the award at the presentation ceremony.

Until this year, chess had never featured highly in the books of the Majlis Sukan Negeri Pulau Pinang. Even today, chess still rates as a Category Three sport in the council which means that lesser weightage is given to chess when compared to the more popular or visible games which are placed in Categories One or Two.

"We have tried hard to get the Majlis to upgrade our status to at least Category Two but have not been successful. We will try again and perhaps on this occasion we may succeed," said Dr Choong.

STARTING OFF THE YEAR

Gerakan Youth will be organising a two-day chess competition at the Hotel Agora in MacAlister Road, Penang, next month.

This event features an international chess tournament as well as a Chinese chess tournament, to be run concurrently. Three rounds will be played on Jan 6 and four rounds on the following day.

The international chess section will involve the Penang Chess Association as the co-organiser while the Penang Chinese Chess Association will assist in running the Chinese chess section.

Eight prizes are offered in each of the two sections and the winner will receive RM500 and a challenge trophy.

The second prize is RM400, third prize RM300 and fourth prize RM200. The fifth to eighth-placed winners will get RM50 each.

Entry fee is RM5 and entries will officially close today.

If you need entry forms, they are available from Times Bookshop in Burmah Road, Penang.

For more information on the international chess section, contact Goh Yoon Wah in the evenings.

JOHOR BARU OPEN RESULTS

Three players tied for the top prizes in the open section of the Johor Baru open tournament which was played at the Bangunan Komtar in Johor Baru earlier this month.

Mok Tze Meng, Singaporean international master Giam Choo Kwee and Mohd Kamal Abdullah each scored 5 1/2 points and received RM533 in the six-round event which was jointly organised by the Johor State Economic Development Corporation and the Johor Baru District Chess Club.

Jopie, Joni Chin, Ong Chuan Hock, Sashidharan and Wan Ali Wan Manan each obtained five points to share the fourth to eighth prizes.

The ninth and tenth prizes went to Foong Chee Leng and Roger Yap. The two players scored 4 1/2 points.

In the under-16 section, the joint winners were Teh Hon Yoet, Alex Khoo and Tan Teh Hiang. Those with five points were Leong Chee Chong, Ting Tee Bee, Chen Bin Heng, Chai Wei Koong and Kiew Wan Siong, while three players - Liew Kiat Sing, Tey Arn Soon and Tan Chee Yeow - obtained 4 1/2 points each.

The under-12 section was won by Lim Seng Jiann who scored 5 1/2 points.

Behind him were Sin Yau Sin, Yee Kwan Yong, Azlan, Yap Son Pin and Tong Yat Pei who obtained five points each.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

It is a thoroughly Malaysian affair this week as I present some selected games from the national closed chess championship in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month.

Lim Chuin Hoong - Kamal Ariffin Wahiduddin

1.d4 c5 2.e4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 d6 5.Bc4 e6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Qe2 a6 9.Rd1 Qc7 10.Bf4 Nf6 11.Rac1 0-0 12.Bb3 Qb8 13.e5 Nh5 14.Bg5 Bxg5 15.Nxg5 Nf4 16.Qe4 Ng6 17.exd6 Rd8 18.Qd3 Nce5 19.Qd2 Bd7 20.h3 Qa7 21.Kh2 h6 22.Nge4 Rac8 23.Na4 Rxc1 24.Rxc1 Bc6 25.Nac5 b6 26.f4 bxc5 27.Nxc5 Nd7 28.Nxe6 fxe6 29.Bxe6+ Kh8 30.Rxc6 Ngf8 31.Bc4 Nb6 32.Qd4 Nfd7 33.Be6 Qa8 34.Rxb6 Nxb6 35.Qxb6 Qb8 36.Qxb8 Rxb8 37.d7 g6 38.b3 Kg7 39.g4 Kf6 40.f5 1-0

Mas Hafizul - Ghalam Sani

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f3 Bg7 5.Be3 0-0 6.Qd2 Nbd7 7.h4 c5 8.d5 a6 9.Bh6 Re8 10.h5 Bxh6 11.Qxh6 Nxh5 12.Nge2 Nf8 13.g4 Ng7 14.0-0-0 b5 15.Ng3 b4 16.Nce2 e5 17.c4 bxc3 18.Nxc3 Rb8 19.Bd3 Qf6 20.Nf5 Nxf5 21.exf5 Qg7 22.Ne4 Qxh6+ 23.Rxh6 Rd8 24.Rdh1 Bb7 25.Nf6+ Kg7 26.g5 Bc8 27.fxg6 hxg6 28.Rh8 1-0

Mohd Saprin - Ooi Chern Ee

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 7.c4 f5 8.Nc3 e5 9.Qe3 fxe4 10.Ng5 Nf6 11.0-0 Be7 12.Qg3 Qd7 13.b4 b6 14.Rd1 0-0 15.c5 bxc5 16.bxc5 d5 17.Qxe5 Bxc5 18.Ncxe4 Nxe4 19.Nxe4 Qg4 20.Bb2 Rae8 21.Qxg7+ Qxg7 22.Bxg7 dxe4 23.Bxf8 Rxf8 0-1

Thomas Lam - Suhaimi Asmuni

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 Bg7 5.h3 0-0 6.f4 c5 7.dxc5 Qa5 8.Qd2 dxc5 9.0-0-0 Nc6 10.e5 Nd7 11.Kb1 a6 12.Ne4 Qc7 13.Nf3 Rd8 14.Qf2 b6 15.g4 Bb7 16.e6 fxe6 17.Neg5 Nf8 18.Bc4 Rxd1+ 19.Rxd1 Rd8 20.Re1 h6 21.Bxe6+ Kh8 22.Nf7+ Kh7 23.N3g5+ Kg8 24.Nxh6+ Kh8 25.Nhf7+ Kg8 26.Nxd8+ Nxe6 27.Ndxe6 1-0

Mas Hafizul - Ooi Chern Ee

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Bg5 Nxe4 9.Nxe4 Bxg5 10.Nxd6+ Ke7 11.Nxc8+ Rxc8 12.0-0 Qxd1 13.Rfxd1 f5 14.c3 Rhd8 15.Kf1 e4 16.Ke1 g6 17.h3 Ne5 18.Nd4 Nc4 19.Bxc4 Rxc4 20.Ke2 Rc5 21.g3 Rcd5 22.f3 exf3+ 23.Nxf3 Rxd1 24.Rxd1 Rxd1 25.Kxd1 Bf6 26.Ke2 Kd6 27.Kd3 Kd5 28.b3 b5 29.Ng1 h5 30.Ne2 g5 31.Ke3 a5 1/2-1/2

Azahari Mohd Nor - Mas Hafizul

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.a4 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Be2 0-0 9.g4 Be6 10.Be3 d5 11.exd5 Nxd5 12.Nxd5 Bxd5 13.Rg1 Nc6 14.c4 Bb4+ 15.Kf1 Be4 16.Nc5 Bxc5 17.Bxc5 Re8 18.Qxd8 Raxd8 19.Rg3 Rd2 20.Re3 Bc2 21.Ke1 Rd7 22.Rc1 Bg6 23.h4 f6 24.b4 Rc8 25.h5 Bf7 26.g5 Nd4 27.Bg4 Be6 28.Bd1 Kf7 29.a5 Nf5 30.Re4 Rd3 31.Be2 Rh3 32.Kd2 Rd8+ 33.Ke1 Rh1+ 34.Bf1 Nh4 35.Ke2 Bf5 36.Re3 Bg4+ 0-1

Tan Wei Sin - Mohd Johan Jamil

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f4 e6 7.Be2 Qc7 8.0-0 b5 9.a3 Bb7 10.Bf3 Nbd7 11.Qe1 Rc8 12.Kh1 Nb6 13.Nde2 Be7 14.Qg3 0-0 15.f5 Rfe8 16.fxe6 fxe6 17.Bg4 Nxg4 18.Qxg4 Bf8 19.Nf4 Qc4 20.Be3 Na4 21.Nh5 Re7 22.Nxa4 bxa4 23.Rf3 Qxc2 24.Raf1 Qc4 25.Nf6+ Kh8 26.Nd7 Ree8 27.Nxf8 Qxe4 28.Qh3 Kg8 29.Nd7 1-0

Ooi Chern Ee - Abdul Haq Mohamad

1.d4 d6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d5 Ne5 5.e4 g6 6.f4 Ned7 7.Qe2 e5 8.dxe6 fxe6 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 Ng8 11.Nf3 c6 12.Bg5 Be7 13.h4 Qc7 14.0-0-0 Bxg5+ 15.hxg5 Qa5 16.Ne4 Qxa2 17.Qd2 Qa1+ 18.Kc2 Qa4+ 19.Kb1 c5 20.Nd6+ Ke7 21.Rh4 h5 22.gxh6 Nf8 23.Rf4 Nxh6 24.Nxc8+ Rxc8 25.Qd6+ Ke8 26.Rxf8+ 1-0

Kamal Ariffin Wahiduddin - Lim Yee Weng

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.g3 Bg7 7.Bg2 0-0 8.0-0 Bd7 9.Nd5 Nc6 10.Ne2 Rc8 11.c3 Nxd5 12.exd5 Ne5 13.Nd4 b5 14.Re1 Re8 15.h3 a6 16.b3 f5 17.Bb2 Nf7 18.Qd2 Kh8 19.Kh2 Nh6 20.Re2 Ng8 21.Rae1 Nf6 22.Qd3 Rc5 23.Ba3 Rc7 24.Nxb5 Bxb5 25.Qxb5 Rxc3 26.Rd1 0-1

Yusoff Ismail - Julian Navaratnam

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.e3 Nf6 6.Bd3 e6 7.Nf3 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.a3 Bd7 10.Re1 Rc8 11.Bd2 Na5 12.Ne5 Nc4 13.Nxc4 dxc4 14.Be2 b5 15.Bf3 a5 16.Ne4 Nd5 17.Rc1 b4 18.axb4 axb4 19.Nc5 Bxc5 20.Bxd5 exd5 21.dxc5 Qa5 22.Qf3 Rxc5 23.h3 c3 24.bxc3 bxc3 25.Bxc3 Rxc3 26.Ra1 Qc5 27.Red1 Be6 28.Qf4 h6 29.Rab1 Rc8 30.Rb8 Rxb8 31.Qxb8+ Qc8 32.Qe5 Rc2 33.Rb1 Kh7 34.Qd4 0-1

A move up for chess

Last month, the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) held its annual Milo/MSSM national sportsboy-sportsgirl awards at the Crystal Crown Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

There were many front runners for the sportsboy award but it finally went to a swimmer from Sabah who beat 13 other contenders for this title. The runner-up was an athlete from Johor but one of the surprises was chessplayer Ooi Chern Ee's third placing in the roll of honour.

It might have been a surprise for most people at the ceremony but for those who knew of Ooi's accomplishments in the past year, the result was not without anticipation.

But question is: Why only third? Why not second or even first?

Apart from Ooi's fine chess achievement at national and international levels, consider too his academic performance. In his PMR examinations, he obtained straight "A"s; as a fourth-former in Penang Free School last year, he was best student in the form. There could not have been a better candidate for the top award, in my opinion.

It was interesting that Ooi was not the only chessplayer nominated for this year's national sportsboy awards. He was, of course, the nominee of the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Pulau Pinang, after having garnered the Penang sportsboy award recently.

There was also present national champion Mas Hafizul Hilmi Agus who was the nominee of the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Kelantan. Presumably, Mas Hafizul would have won the Kelantan sportsboy award too in order to be at the national awards function.

So in Kuala Lumpur, chess was actually represented by two youngsters from different parts of the country. In previous years, there would hardly be any representative. Chess is certainly becoming more acceptable to students as an alternate to other more popular games or sports.

But there is a problem with the choice of winners of the sports awards, especially at state and national levels. The paradigm of chess is that it is usually recognised as a low category game.

Why should this be? Chess today is not the domain of the fuddy-duddies who indulge in the game when they are past their retirement age. Chess playing is not all sitting at a table; the rigours of a chess tournament demand that a player be both physically fit and mentally alert.

Chess is a youthful game dominated by people in their teens, 20s and 30s. People like Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov were already among the best players in the world when they were only in their teens and in their early 20s, they won the world championship.

In the list of the top 53 players in the world today, four of them are in their teens, 21 are in their 20s, and 18 are in their 30s. There are just nine players who are in their 40s and only one player in his 60s who is still an active professional.

Back to recognition for the game, is it because chess is not an official game at the Summer Olympics and thus is not viewed as a bona fide game by the Olympic Council of Malaysia? I know it is not from lack of trying that the Malaysian Chess Federation is not a full member in the OCM.

But chess has already been given full recognition by the International Olympic Committee. Last December in Moscow, IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch even agreed with World Chess Federation president Florencio Campomanes that there may be a possibility to include the game as a demonstration sport at the Atlanta Olympics.

If this is a possibility coming up, I see no reason why chess should continue to play second fiddle in the country. I say now is the time for the Malaysian Chess Federation to represent its case for full recognition from OCM.

GENERAL MEETING

The Penang Chess Association will hold its annual general meeting at 6.30pm tomorrow at the Bayan Baru Residents Association clubhouse. Before the meeting, the association will stage a competition at 4pm over 25 boards between its senior and junior members.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

The Professional Chess Association kicked off its activities this year by organising two top-class events. The first was the Tal memorial tournament in Riga - mentioned in this column last week - which was won by Gary Kasparov.

The second event was the Moscow leg of the PCA world chess Grand Prix which is sponsored by microchip giant Intel. The qualifying rounds were run according to the Swiss system and the six qualifiers then joined 10 seeded players in a knock-out Rapid Chess event.

There were 78 players in the qualifier - 67 grandmasters and 11 international masters - and the lucky ones were Alexander Khalifman, Ilya Smirin, Alexander Morozevich, Vladimir Epishin, Jonathan Speelman and Boris Gulko.

In the first round of the knock-out event, Vassily Ivanchuk beat Predrag Nikolic 2-0, Viktor Korchnoi tied with Zurab Azmaiparashvili 1.5-1.5 (but Korchnoi qualified on tie-break), Artur Yusupov beat Alexey Vyzmanavin 2-0, Vladimir Kramnik beat Smirin 1.5-0.5, Morozevich beat Gulko 1.5-0.5, Viswanathan Anand beat Khalifman 1.5-0.5, Speelman beat Veselin Topalov 2-0 and Kasparov beat Epishin 1.5-0.5.

For the second round, Ivanchuk beat Korchnoi 2-1, Kramnik beat Yusupov 2-1, Anand beat Morozevich 2-1 and Kasparov beat Speelman 1.5-0.5. So those that advanced to the semi-finals were Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Anand and Kasparov.

At this stage, Ivanchuk and Anand qualified for the finals by beating Kramnik and Kasparov respectively. Ivanchuk won 2-1 while Anand went through with a 1.5-0.5 result. Ivanchuk won the final with a 1.5-0.5 score against Anand.

[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "1995.04.28"] [Round "1.3"] [White "Speelman, Jonathan"] [Black "Topalov, Veselin"] [Result "1-0"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. Bg5 Bg7 4. Nbd2 O-O 5. c3 h6 6. Bxf6 Bxf6 7. e4 d6 8. Bc4 Bg7 9. Qe2 c5 10. dxc5 dxc5 11. O-O Nc6 12. h3 Qc7 13. Rfe1 Rd8 14. e5 Rb8 15. e6 f5 16. h4 Na5 17. Bd3 Rd6 18. Nc4 Rxe6 19. Qxe6+ Bxe6 20. Rxe6 Kf7 21. Rae1 Nc6 22. h5 g5 23. Bxf5 Bf6 24. Ne3 Rd8 25. Ng4 Kg7 26. Nxf6 exf6 27. b4 cxb4 28. Nd4 Rd6 29. Re8 Ne5 30. Ne6+ Rxe6 31. Bxe6 bxc3 32. Bb3 Qd7 33. Ra8 b6 34. Rd1 Qe7 35. Rdd8 f5 36. Rg8+ Kh7 37. Rh8+ Kg7 38. Rag8+ Kf6 39. Rxh6+ Ng6 40. Rgxg6+ Ke5 1-0

[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"]

[Site "Moscow RUS"]

[Date "1995.04.29"]

[Round "2.1"]

[White "Morozevich, Alexander"]

[Black "Anand, Viswanathan"]

[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. Bb3 d5 6. exd5 cxd5 7. d4 Bb4 8. Nf3 O-O 9. O-O Bxc3 10. bxc3 Qc7 11. Qe1 Nc6 12. Qh4 Ne7 13. Bxf4 Qxc3 14. Bd2 Qc7 15. Ne5 Nf5 16. Qf4 Be6 17. Bb4 Rfc8 18. g4 Nd6 19. Rae1 Nfe4 20. c4 dxc4 21. Bc2 Nf6 22. g5 Nh5 23. Qf3 g6 24. Nxg6 hxg6 25. Bxg6 fxg6 26. Rxe6 Qf7 27. Qd5 Nf5 28. Rxf5 1-0

[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"] [Site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "1995.04.30"] [Round "semi-final"] [White "Anand, Viswanathan"] [Black "Kasparov, Gary"] [Result "1-0"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 Bd7 5. c4 Nc6 6. Qd2 g6 7. Be2 Bg7 8. O-O Nf6 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Rb1 a6 11. b3 Qa5 12. Bb2 Rfc8 13. Rfd1 Bg4 14. Qe3 Nd7 15. Nd5 Bxb2 16. Rxb2 Bxf3 17. Bxf3 e6 18. Nc3 Rd8 19. Rbd2 Nde5 20. Be2 Nb4 21. h4 b5 22. cxb5 axb5 23. Nxb5 Nbc6 24. a3 d5 25. exd5 Rxd5 26. Rxd5 exd5 27. b4 Qa4 28. Rxd5 1-0

[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"]

[Site "Moscow RUS"]

[Date "1995.05.01"]

[Round "final"]

[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]

[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]

[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 c6, 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6. Be3 Nd7 7. c4 dxc4 8. Nc3 Ne7 9. Bxc4 Nc6 10. d5 Nb6 11. Bb3 exd5 12. Nxd5 Be7 13. O-O O-O 14. Rc1 Nxd5 15. Bxd5 Nb4 16. Bc4 a6 17. e6 fxe6 18. Qb3 Qc8 19. a3 b5 20. axb4 bxc4 21. Rxc4 Rb8 22. Rfc1 Qb7 23. Qa2 Bd3 24. Rf4 c4 25. Ne5 Qd5 26. Nxd3 cxd3 27. Qxd5 exd5 28. Rd4 Rxb4 29. Rxd3 Rxb2 30. Rxd5 Ra8 31. g4 a5 32. Rd7 Bf8 33. Rcc7 a4 34. Ra7 Rbb8 35. Bd4 Rxa7 36. Rxa7 Rb4 37. Be5 Re4 38. Bc3 Rxg4+ 39. Kf1 a3 40. Ke2 Rc4 41. Kd3 Rf4 42. Bd4 h5 43. Ra8 Kh7 44. Ke3 Rf7 45. f4 Bd6 46. Be5 Bc5+ 47. Kd3 Kg6 48. Ra5 Bb4 49. Ra4 Rb7 50. Ke4 Kf7 51. Ra6 Be7 52. f5 Rb4+ 53. Kd5 Rg4 54. Ra7 Rg2 55. Ke4 a2 56. Kf3 Rc2 57. Ke4 Re2+ 58. Kf4 Rxe5 59. Kxe5 a1=Q+ 60. Rxa1 Bf6+ 61. Kf4 Bxa1 62. Kg5 Bb2 63. h4 Bc1+ 64. Kxh5 Kf6 0-1

 

New stars at Olympiad