Introduction

A very good day if you have found your way to this blog. Hello, I am Quah Seng Sun. I am known to some of my friends as SS Quah. A great part of my life is associated with the game of chess: first as a player, then an organiser and finally a chess journalist. As a chess writer, my column in The Star newspaper - sometimes weekly and sometimes fortnightly - spanned more than three decades from the 1980s (but not continuously) till the newspaper's management decided to stop it in March 2012. I reckon my output must number around a million words. 

This blog attempts to bring together all the chess columns.....well, maybe not all the columns since many were misplaced when I had relocated my home thrice. And with more words written than I can ever imagine condensed into an estimated 1,000-plus feature stories, if I can find them all, it will take a long time before I can ever complete digitising them. Some of the posts will be images only, whole pages scanned from the newspapers. Some others will be text only as I copy them over from various cloud depositories. I dare say that some may also be a combination of images and text, but let me see...

Hopefully as I go along, this blog will be filled with something to interest every chess-playing enthusiast. So, enjoy your past memories as we go way back into time. Definitely, I shall relive mine.

[NOTE 1: The chess columns have been arranged according to their original dates of appearance in the newspaper.]

[NOTE 2: As of 27 June 2021, I have managed to retrieve 588 of my chess columns in The Star newspaper. Have I passed the halfway mark? I really don't know. But what I do know is that I should still have undiscovered stuff in the store room.]

[NOTE 3: As of 29 June 2021, I had added a further 29 chess columns from The Star to this blog, making it 617 in total. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced all the newspapers from the 1980s until 1991, which is a great loss to me because I remember writing a memorable story on the Karpov-Timman FIDE Candidates final match in Kuala Lumpur. As at 04 July 2021, another two chess columns from The Star were found and added to this blog.]

[NOTE 4: As a small consolation, I have managed to locate and add 108 chess columns in text format to this blog as at 7 July 2021. I would have preferred to add the newspaper images but it is not possible. These text stories were the raw files that I emailed to The Star's Section 2/Star Two editors every week. As these were unedited, there are likely to be some differences from the version that finally appeared in print. Likewise, the preliminary headlines were mine and not the ones that appeared in print too. Total number of chess columns in The Star to date in this blog is 727.]

[NOTE 5: Odds and ends keep popping up. Managed to find four chess columns but I found that I had already put up the unedited text versions. Nevertheless, I've included the images of these pages into the posts. So today, 13 July 2021, I have 623 images of my chess columns from The Star newspaper onboard.]

[NOTE 6: As a bonus, I have uncovered some 17 stories I wrote for the National Echo in 1977 and 1978. At first. they were the occasional news stories about chess activities in Penang, written during my brief six-month stint in employment with this newspaper before I joined Ban Hin Lee Bank. Then in March 1978, I had persuaded the editor to give me space in the newspaper for an experimental chess column. This ran for a few weeks. Suffice to say, this short series of chess columns gave me the foundation to approach The Star later in 1984 for their own chess column.]

 

Social fun

I have been either an observer or participant in a chess team tournament for almost as long as I have been playing the game, and that’s going back a very long time. 

Team tournaments can be fun, if you don’t take it too seriously. If you are in the game for the money, which isn’t much anyway since you are splitting the prize with the other members of the team, then of course you must be very serious about where you are going to place your next piece. That should be the attitude.

But if your intention to just to enjoy the camaraderie of friends and the mental wrestling with other people, then don’t you think that it is perfectly all right to allow yourself to be more casual with the way you play?

As for me, I’m way past being in full competitive mood. I don’t wear my full armour suit anymore. Maybe a protective codpiece in case I lose my sense of danger, but that’s about all. I leave all the serious posturing to the younger generations below me. 

If they live for the thrill of “crushing” their opponent’s ego or “taming” them or wherever they call it nowadays, well and good. That’s their objective, their game plan, but it’s not mine anymore. 

No Sirree Bob, since I only play whenever I feel like playing, I’m good humoured about the losing bit. If people can feel happy with winning, I can also feel happy with losing. There’s absolutely no problem with me. I don’t feel psychologically crushed, I don’t sulk or regret. Just make sure you don’t allow me half a chance in our game, though. I’ll still go after you.

I won’t say much about the Universiti Sains Malaysia’s annual team chess tournament that ended just last weekend except it was a good show by the boys and the girls that organized it.

At the USM, organizing their annual chess festival is actually part of their extracurricular course activities. It contributes towards their credit points. So, their Bridge And Chess Club undertakes an individual tournament and a team tournament every year. I hear that this year, they will have a Chinese chess tournament as well, and it will be at the end of February.

A friend who just came back to playing chess after 10 years remarked that the crowd at the individual and team events was markedly different. Definitely, there should be less people at an individual competition but he also observed that while the players at the individual event were young – many of them in primary schools – the team competition attracted a lot more adult players.

Many of them had even come up from the Klang Valley for a weekend of chess. Was it about the money, I asked one of the competitors. I had noticed him at the USM events for the past three or four years.

Oh, definitely not, he had answered. Good if his team wins something, he said, but it was more about the fun of participating and meeting friends. Curiously enough, some of his friends were from, yes, the Klang Valley too! Imagine coming here to catch up with your friends back home! 

Yes indeed, the USM chess fest has certainly become a fixture on the local chess calendar. People are actually coming to play chess in this team competition regardless of the prize moneys.

Meeting friends, he had said. That’s just goes to show exactly what I was talking about. A team competition is always about meeting people and being social about it, a reunion of sorts. 

Nobody feels particularly threatened because in a team competition, sometimes the chances of meeting a “friendly” rival over the board can be remote. Their teams may meet each other but there are always enough chances that they won’t face one another if they are playing on different levels in their respective teams.

And even if they do, well, so what? Someone has to win, and someone has to lose. No point sulking over a loss. There will always be a next time. Anyway, we’re all adults and we should know better, right? Ha ha, I’ll leave it at that.

Next week is Chinese New Year, so I’ll catch up with everyone in a fortnight’s time. But before I go, I just want to tell you that the Tata Steel chess tournament is presently going on. Inclusive of today, there are only three rounds remaining.

In case you are not familiar with this event, it has a very long history going back to 1938. It used to be called the Corus tournament (does it sound familiar?) and before that, the Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee, named after the Dutch seaside town of Wijk aan Zee.

Anyway, the Tata Steel chess tournament is a very strong event. There are three Grandmaster Groups, with 14 players each and each competitor playing against every other.

The world’s chess eyes are mainly focused on the Grandmaster Group A tournament. This year’s players include world champion Viswanathan Anand, former world champions Vladimir Kramnik and Ruslan Ponomariov, world top-ranked player Magnus Carlsen and other equally big names: Levon Aronian, Alexei Shirov, Alexander Grischuk, Anish Giri, Wang Hao and Hikaru Nakamura.

The Grandmaster Group B have players like Wesley So, Li Chao, Vlad Tkachiev, Luke Shane and Le Quang Liem. And meanwhile the Grandmaster Group C, while featuring less known names, still have interesting participants like Katherina Lahno, Daniele Vocaturo and Mark Bluvshtein.

You can follow the live games and the fortunes of the players from the official Tata Steel Chess website, http://www.tatasteelchess.com/, from 8.30pm nightly. Do enjoy the games!

Up next

DATCC renegade chess

The Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre will organize the DATCC renegade rapid chess weekend at their Wilayah Complex premises in Kuala Lumpur this Sunday. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM15 (players under 12 years old) and RM25 (all other players). Please register before Jan 28. For inquiries, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542 or najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com.)

Percawi chess

The Kuala Lumpur FT Chess Association (Percawi) will organise the Percawi City Day age group open (under-18 open and under-18 girls’ open) at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 1. Six rounds, 30-minute time control games. Entry fee is RM15, inclusive of one-year Percawi junior membership. Closing date is Jan 31. To register, contact Collin Madhaven (016.2123578), Azwan (019.2788471) or Najib Wahab (016.3382542).

Cerdik chess

The Cerdik Catur Enterprise will organize their second Cerdik Catur tournament at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur on Feb 5. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM25 (adults) and RM20 (school children). To register, contact Fadli Zakaria (014.2312370 or cerdikcatur@yahoo.com.)

 

Focused or aimless?

If some of us are still feeling smug two weeks after the Malaysian side had beaten their Singapore counterparts in the annual chess match between the two countries, my advice is just this: stop. It’s over; let’s not waste further time with it. We should move on, because chess-wise there is a lot to do.

My own general sense of euphoria ended right after I had written last week’s article. I don’t gloat over the results because in reality, this isn’t much of an achievement. I know the Malaysian team badly wanted to win but what do the results really mean? Don’t read too much into it.

We went into the match with a senior team that lacked our best players. We missed out on several key players until the Malaysian Chess Federation were forced to field our better junior players for the senior side. Not that I am complaining about this, though. I’ve always been an advocate of the move to bleed in new talent. Our national chess body as well as our state chess associations must always allow talented juniors to come forward and show their mettle.

It’s the only way forward. If junior players are cloistered and shielded behind their age group events, we are simply limiting them. How on earth can they develop and blossom if not given the chance? So what the Malaysian Chess Federation did was right. In the absence of the usual senior regulars, the boys were asked to play like men. 

Budding players like Edward Lee, Evan Capel (yes, there are even former national champions who are no older than 20), Lim Zhuo Ren, Sumant Subramaniam and Yeap Eng Chiam … yes, they all stepped up admirably to fill the senior shoes. 

But this positive aside, what had also been at the back of my mind was whether or not the Singapore side had fielded their best players against us. 

I do acknowledge that their players like Daniel Chan, Jarred Neubronner and Tan Weiliang are at least among the top 15 active home-grown players in Singapore today, but their senior line-up was never near the best they could assemble either.

Despite this, there was still about a 100 rating-point gap that separated the two senior sides. With the strength of their senior side far out-weighing ours, it wasn’t any surprise than we lost out on these boards. We were not good enough, period. 

But at least, we redeemed ourselves with far better results in the age-group encounters. It’s almost impossible to determine for sure which side was the stronger on paper as many of the players were young and without official ratings. Nevertheless, based on the results, we were better in the age groups.

However, one thing became clear looking deeper at the results. Regardless of whether we talk about Singapore or Malaysia, the future of the game will always have to come through from the younger ranks. We shall have to continue nurturing and training them from small. There is no other way for succession planning.

The important question that needs be asked is how well are we moving forward today? What is the big picture? Are we focused or are we simply moving aimlessly? How are our young chess players here being trained? If you ask me, I’d say the road ahead is bumpy. It is not going along smoothly. Not at all.

Since November, we have lost our one and only big-name foreign chess trainer. The Bangladeshi grandmaster, Ziaur Rahman, has finished his stay here in Kuala Lumpur and returned to his home country. He was on contract for a year but he asked to be released early.

From what I heard, it was an amicable separation for both him and his private chess employers. And since his departure, all that we have left are the same old local chess coaches. We continue to be so dependent on them to impart chess knowledge to the young. 

In the last decade or so, chess coaching clinics have sprung up in the bigger chess centres around the Klang Valley and elsewhere in the country but sad to say, coaching techniques and quality are far from being uniform or consistent. 

So how can we determine whether one coach is better than another? Just because a local coach may have been successful as a player does not necessarily mean that they are competent enough to teach. On the other hand, a local coach who is just an average-level player can turn out to be a good teacher that inspires his students. I suppose that at the end of the day, the only measure of a coach in Malaysia is his track record, that is, how successful his students are when they play competitively. 

From my point of view, it looks unlikely that anyone will be bringing in more foreign chess coaches at anytime soon. Malaysia is spread too wide as a country, compared to a compact place like Singapore, and there is not enough spending power to support the presence of foreign coaches. It’s the vicious law of supply and demand.

To my mind, Ziaur Rahman was under-utilised during his short stay here. But for better coordination with all the state chess associations, more could have been achieved with him. But then also, chess exists in this country as a result of parents and volunteers pitching in their time or money for the game. The state chess associations are not exactly rich, so that leaves the parents to fork out the dough.

When I was in Singapore a fortnight ago, I had noticed that there are quite a number of foreign trainers – players with acceptable credentials – around to provide chess tuition to the children there. Fees are not cheap, but the parents are prepared to pay good money to make their children play better than the next kid.

One parent there claimed to have spent SGD20,000 over the years on foreign chess trainers for her children. Are our parents here capable of spending RM20,000 on their children’s chess and if so, how many such parents are there?

(Unfortunately, spending so much also puts the children under immense parental pressure to perform well in competitions and not all children can deal with it. However, this is not a topic I would want to raise here.)

Nevertheless to answer my own question, I doubt that there are many parents in Malaysia who are able to spend that amount of money on foreign chess tutors. And without these parents spending on foreign coaches, all we have left are the local ones. How far they can bring their students forward will depend on their local expertise. No more and no less. 

At the end of the day, some will say that we get what we pay for. We reap what we sow. I suppose its true, after all. 

Up next

USM chess festival

The 17th Universiti Sains Malaysia chess festival kicks off this weekend with an eight-round individual event on Saturday and Sunday, and a seven-round team event on Jan 22-23. For both events, 40-minute time control games. Entry fees for the individual tournament are RM17 (under-12 players), RM19 (under-18 players), RM21 (university and college players) and RM27 (others). Members of the Penang Chess Association will be charged at RM15, RM17, RM19 and RM22 respectively. For the team event, entry fees are RM70 (under-12 teams), RM90 (university, college and school teams) and RM110 (all other teams). Details are available from Lee Youn Hock (014.9445491), Sia Chye Ching (012.7258828) or Lee Chiew Seng (016.5152312). 

DATCC renegade chess

The Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre will organize the DATCC renegade rapid chess weekend at their Wilayah Complex premises in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 30. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM15 (players under 12 years old) and RM25 (all other players). Please register before Jan 28. For inquiries, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542 or najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com.)

Cerdik chess

The Cerdik Catur Enterprise will organize their second Cerdik Catur tournament at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur on Feb 5. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM25 (adults) and RM20 (school children). To register, contact Fadli Zakaria (014.2312370 or cerdikcatur@yahoo.com.)

 

Huge chess potential

I greatly believe that it is time for our Sports Ministry and Tourism Ministry to take a serious look at promoting sports tourism in this country. 

If the experience of this year’s Penang Heritage City international chess tournament is anything to go by, there is a huge potential for the country to attract quality sportsmen and sportswomen to come play in our regional tournaments and enjoy the best we can offer at the same time.

Never mind if it is only a regional tournament outside of the Klang Valley. If the event is serious enough and big enough, meaningful support from the authorities can mean a big difference in attracting players and tourists to come here.

The biggest surprise awaiting me at this tournament last week was the unusually large number of foreigners in the open section. Of course, I had anticipated that there would be foreign players in the field but I had not expected that there would be so many of them.

I counted 29 of them in the 71-player field, almost all from the countries around us but there was even one from distant Uzbekistan. Pleasant surprise, indeed!

Now, having known all that, what didn’t surprise me was that the Filipinos would dominate the event. Not at all. The Filipino players are known to be fiercely competitive, giving no quarter and expecting none in return, and they really made their presence felt. 

Can you imagine that when all the dust settled, nine of them took away the 15 prizes on offer? Four Filipino players among the top five prize winners, led by international masters Oliver Dimakiling and Oliver Barbosa who both finished with equal 7½ points with Dimakiling adjudged the overall winner by virtue of a tie-break.

Bangladesh’s Niaz Murshed, the sole grandmaster in the field, snatched the third prize while the fourth and fifth prizes were again claimed by two Filipino international masters, Yves Ranola and Luis Chiong.

Then there were also their other compatriots – Haridas Pascua, Edgar Olay, Julius De Ramos, Ian Udani and Christopher Castellano – among the other prize winners.

It was left to our own Mas Hafizulhelmi to leave the first mark by a Malaysian in the winners’ list. A very honourable sixth place for him, considering the strength of the field. But in truth, I was also very glad to see Tan Khai Boon, Edward Lee and Ng Tze Han finishing among the prize winners; all of them our national champions at one time or another.

There was also a sizeable Singaporean presence in the open section. All juniors, they came with their parents and coaches to play chess first and tour the heritage areas of George Town second.

Among them, I can pick out Andre Jerome Eng and Benjamin Foo as the only two bright sparks among the Singapore players who were capable of mixing it up with the top players but in the end it was only Eng that managed to take home a prize.

Finally, let me say something about Luis Chiong. Now, that was a name that I had to dig out from the deep recesses of my memory. How many years was it since I first met him? Must be 1977 or 1978 when one of the legs of the first Asian grandmaster chess circuit was held here in the same building, the Dewan Sri Pinang.

Physically, he has changed, of course. Everybody has changed. In 30 years, everyone changes. However, he said this building – referring to the Dewan – looked the same to him. Ah, at least he remembered that.

Up next  

Perak Grand Prix final

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will hold the final of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak chess Grand Prix at the Dewan Majlis Sukan Negeri Perak in Ipoh on Dec 19. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control. Entry fees are RM25 (open section), RM15 (under-16 players), RM10 (under-12 players). PICA members and players born or residing in Perak pay RM5 less. To register, contact Yunus Sharif (013.3908129). Entries close today.

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship at the Premier Hotel in Jalan Kampung Nyabor, Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

Christmas tournament

The Royal Selangor Club in Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur will organize a Christmas chess tournament for veterans above 45 years old and children below 12 years old on Dec 19. Five rounds, 25-minute time control. Entry fees are RM20 (children), RM40 (veterans 45 to 49 years old) and RM30 (veterans (above 50 years old). More information from Wahid Karim (013.3638815, awkarim@gmail.com) or Joseph Toh (016.6784648, joetohcl@hotmail.com). 

 

Lowkey affair

Normally, the first time is always very eventful: the first time you take part in a local tournament, the first time you return home with a prize, the first time you represent the country in a sport event. For organizations, maybe the first time your game is featured in a multi-sport event like the SEA Games. Or the Asian Games.

I remember when chess was first included in the SEA Games in Vietnam in 2003, the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) made a lot of fuss over the fact. Rightly so, because it also marked the first time the MCF ever went anywhere under the banner of the OCM.

Chess was also in the 2005 SEA Games in the Philippines and the Malaysian chess players were also right there mixing with the athletes of the other sports. But thereafter, for the 2007 Games in Thailand and the 2009 Games in Laos, chess was dropped from the respective organizer’s calendars.

Nevertheless, there is also the Asian Games which is a much bigger and more significant multi-sport event than the SEA Games. When chess was introduced into the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, there was much hope that the MCF would participate but it did not. 

But being absent once does not mean that we would be absent a second time. This year at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, the Malaysian chess players are finally there. 

It was a rather small contingent of three chess players that were picked for duty in Guangzhou: Mok Tze Meng, Alia Anin Bakri and Nur Nabila Azman. They would play in only the men’s and women’s individual rapid chess tournaments and come home immediately. There would be no Malaysian team in the men’s and women’s classical chess tournaments. 

When I asked the MCF secretary about this, he said that everything boiled down to mainly two issues: funding and player availability.

As far as the OCM was concerned, chess was in their B category of games, which means that if the MCF wanted to play in the Asian Games, the federation or the players would have to raise their own funds to stay and play in Guangzhou. 

As for player availability, many of them were indisposed due to commitment of work. Some had already taken time off for other chess tournaments so it was near impossible for them to play again this year. For the MCF to go down their list of eligible players would mean coming up with a hotchpotch team of dysfunctional players. So a decision was taken not to play in the team events.

All that was left was for Mok, Alia and Nur Nabila to play in the individual rapid chess events. Perhaps for this fact, the MCF decided against making any noise to inform the Malaysian chess public about our participation in this Asian Games. Personally, I feel that instead of keeping it also very low key, the MCF should still have announced it just for the record. But I defer to their decision.

Mok played in the men’s rapid chess individual tournament and finished 38th, while both Alia and Nur Nabila participated in the women’s rapid chess individual tournament and finished in 22nd and 28th spots respectively. Both events consisted of nine rounds of rapid chess games and these were completed in four days flat.

As a measure of the strength of the men’s rapid chess tournament, 12 of the participating countries sent their top grandmasters. Indeed, Mok found out the hard way that negotiating his way through this minefield of grandmasters was no easy task. His quest for a first grandmaster title norm will have to wait till another time.

The rapid chess gold medal went to Uzebekistan’s Ruslan Kasimdzhanov who scored 7½ points. By the way, Kasimdzhanov was the FIDE world chess champion in 2004 and he had been working with Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the latter’s world chess championship matches in 2008 and 2010.

Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem also scored 7½ points but he had to be contented with silver. The bronze medal went to China’s Bu Xiangzhi.

The women’s rapid chess tournament also featured several top-class players that included three women players with the full-fledged grandmaster titles as opposed to the lesser woman grandmaster title.

The Chinese grandmasters made a clean sweep of the top medals with Hou Yifan, as the outright winner of the event, taking the gold and Zhao Xue the silver. India’s Dronavalli Harika took the bronze.

Meanwhile, there are 17 teams taking part in the men’s team tournament and 12 teams in the women’s team tournament. In both events, China are the top seeds for the gold medal. The ninth and final round of both events is scheduled for today.

Up next  

Perak closed

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) together with the Majlis Sukan Negeri Perak and KLK Berhad will jointly organize the Perak closed chess championship at the Dewan MSN in Ipoh tomorrow and on Sunday. Only players born, residing and working in the state are eligible to take part. Nine rounds, 45-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM15 (PICA members and players below the age of 16) and RM20 (others). Contact Yunus (013.3908129) to register.

Chess camp

A fun and informative Kids For Chess camp for beginners, intermediate-level and aspiring tournament players will be held at the Pandan Lake Club in Pandan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 1-2. Entry fees are RM90 per participant. Closing date is Nov 30. More details available from http://www.kids4chess.com.

Penang Chess League

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the annual Penang Chess League at the Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Kheng Thean in Jalan Van Praagh, George Town on Dec 4-5. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. The event is open to teams from the public sector, business community, factories, institutions of learning and registered societies and clubs. Entry fees per team are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams) and RM60 (under-12 teams). Entries close on Dec 1. More information from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517)

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control games. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship at the Premier Hotel in Jalan Kampung Nyabor, Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Momentary slowdown

Just last week, I happened to be asking around a few people – they being adult chess players – what they would be doing if they were not playing chess on weekends. 

I thought it was quite a reasonable question to ask because right now, in the fourth quarter of the year, there is a certain lull in local chess activities. I wouldn’t say that chess activities have stopped but certainly, they have slowed down considerably. 

It happens all the time, almost like clockwork, because the main bulk of chess players get too preoccupied with school revision work and examinations until the end of next month.

The responses I received were varied but almost predictable. Watch football on television. Visit the shopping malls. Join the gym. Go for cinema shows. Indulge in photography pursuits. Catch up on reading. “Chess books?” I murmured. “No, just newspapers,” one replied. 

Go web surfing. Yeah, right, I thought, turn to the Internet for some instant chess gratification. “Maybe I’ll catch up with you on one of the Internet chess servers,” I told a friend, adding: “There are some great top-level tournaments going on.” “Erm, no,” he replied, “maybe I’ll see you on facebook instead.”

Like I said, varied but almost predictable responses. To an extent, my own non-chess hobbies may probably overlap with many other people’s too and it is exactly this period that I indulge more in them than at any other time of the year.

There is one person I know who turns himself completely off from chess in a big way at the end of the year. Come every mid-October, he will let go of all his wooden horses and turn his sights to real horses. The chess board at home gets transformed into the race courses of Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival. He owns a number of thoroughbred horses in Australia, you see.

Just last Saturday, he watched his horse So You Think thunder down the track at Melbourne’s Moonee Valley race course to lift the Cox Plate for the second time in two years. Come tomorrow, So You Think is again a favourite to win the Mackinnon Stakes at the Victoria Derby.

Just by mentioning the words “horse racing”, I would believe that you already know whom I’m referring to. In Australia, Datuk Tan Chin Nam is regarded as one of the most successful – if not indeed already the most successful – horse owners in recent history. A four-time winner of the Melbourne Cup, raced on the first Tuesday every November.

And come to think of it, that’s just next Tuesday, four days away. 

There are two ways to actually enjoy the Melbourne Cup races in Australia. One, be there yourself at the Flemington race course in Melbourne, or Two, entrench yourself in one of the drinking holes around Australia and cheer on the horses on television with scores of other beer guzzlers. 

Or alternatively, be an audience of one and watch the races on television at home here in Malaysia. The Australia Network says that they’ll be carrying the races live and it so happens that this channel is available on Astro. There’s definitely not the same thrill as One or Two mentioned above, but that’s what I’ll be doing.

In the meantime, I shall leave you this week with a mention that the annual World Youth Chess Championships are currently taking place in Greece. The official website is http://wycc2010.chessdom.com/ 

Among the 814 boys and 573 girls from around the world taking part, 14 of them are our own boys and girls battling in the under-8, under-10, under-12, under-14 and under-16 age group events in the championships. The event ends tomorrow. 

Up next  

Giant Kulai open

The Johor Bahru Chess Association, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Giant Kulai Hypermarket are jointly organizing a Giant Kulai open chess tournament in the hypermarket’s premises in Kulai, Johor this Sunday. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM12 (players below 12 years old), RM15 (players below 16 years old) and RM30 (other players). Entries close today. More information available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@yahoo.com). 

Kepong junior open

The Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Kepong Dua in Kuala Lumpur will organize their 16th junior open chess tournament for under-18, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8 players at the school this Sunday. Six rounds, 30-minute time control games. More details from Mdm Goh (012.9883351) or Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922).

MSSM-Masterskill chess

The Polgar Chess Asia has postponed indefinitely the organizing of the MSSM-Masterskill national scholastics chess championship that was scheduled for Nov 8-12 at the Masterskill University College campus in Ipoh, Perak. For more details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia) or Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com). 

SJKC Jln Davidson open

The Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Jalan Davidson in Kuala Lumpur will organize an open chess tournament for under-16 players at the school on Nov 14. Six rounds, 30-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM10 (players from SJKC Jalan Davidson) and RM12 (all other players). Entries close on Nov 12. More details from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578) and Bob Yap (012.2878378).

November rating tournament

The Cheras Chess Academy will hold a Fide-rated open tournament, limited to players with Fide ratings of 1950 and below, at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur on Nov 20-24. Seven rounds, two-hour play-to-finish time control games. Entry fees are RM50 (Fide-rated players) and RM80 (non-Fide-rated players). More details from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578, geodat@yahoo.com).

Chess camp

A fun and informative Kids For Chess camp for beginners, intermediate-level and aspiring tournament players will be held at the Pandan Lake Club in Pandan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 1-2. Entry fees are RM90 per participant. Closing date is Nov 30. More details available from http://www.kids4chess.com.

Penang Chess League

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the annual Penang Chess League at the Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Kheng Thean in Jalan Van Praagh, George Town on Dec 4-5. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. The event is open to teams from the public sector, business community, factories, institutions of learning and registered societies and clubs. Entry fees per team are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams) and RM60 (under-12 teams). Entries close on Dec 1. More information from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517)

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control games. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship at the Premier Hotel in Jalan Kampung Nyabor, Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Death by ringtone

If you had been watching the final round of the Chess Olympiad games live via the Internet from Khanty Mansiysk on Sunday, surely you would have noticed something amiss in the match between Malaysia and Bahrain. 

I was greatly puzzled while watching Mas Hafizulhelmi’s game. Although he was playing with the black pieces, he had already obtained a very comfortable position after 80 minutes of play . The game was transitioning from the opening stage to the middle game and it was starting to get exciting when abruptly it ended and a loss appeared against our player’s name. 

Of course, I couldn’t see what was happening in Khanty Mansisyk. All of us who were logged into the Chess Olympiad web server could only see this terminated chess board position with a terrible 1-0 score (see Diagram One). With no live video feed and no way to reach our players, we were all kept in deep suspense.

To make matters worse, I could see that Mok Tze Meng, Peter Long and Gregory Lau were all still playing as normal. Was there something wrong in Khanty Mansiysk? I was hoping that perhaps there was a problem with the organiser’s chess display software. But what if there was no problem and Mas Hafizul had indeed lost his game? If it was so, it would now need a big effort from the rest of our boys to overcome Bahrain.

To cut a long strong short, yes, our team managed to beat Bahrain but it was by the slimmest of margin. Long played out his game to a draw and then Lau uncorked a tactical surprise to bring in a whole point and keep the match level. Then, Mok settled matters with a win as well.

But what actually happened in Mas Hafizul’s game? It was not until about two days later that word filtered back from Khanty Mansiysk that he had fallen victim to what many chess players loosely call the dreaded Nokia Gambit: a mobile phone going off during a chess tournament.

According to rules of chess, all mobile devices are banned from chess tournaments. If any mobile device – and this includes a mobile phone – were to sound during play, the offending player would lose the game immediately. 

Since 2003, many chess players have found out to their deepest regret that the ringing mobile phone would bring about instant death. No two ways about it. In that year, the former Fide world champion, Ruslan Ponomariov, was the high profile offender when his mobile rang during a game. It was his 20th birthday and someone had called him to wish him Happy Birthday without knowing that his game was going on. An immediate loss.

Two years ago in another tournament, Nigel Short suffered the same fate when his new mobile phone tootled when it ran out of battery juice. Another immediate loss, another victim.

And in between those two celebrated cases, countless other players – both known and unknown – have also lost their games to a ringing mobile. Several years ago in Penang, I remember that there was this one same player who lost two games in two separate tournaments because his mobile phone went off. He never learnt his lesson the first time.

But by and large, chess players are getting smarter. They now remember to turn their mobile to the silent mode before they sit down at the chess board. Mas Hafizul, it seemed, had also done so. He confirmed having put his mobile into the silent mode. 

However, he did not reckon with his mobile phone’s alarm going off. Apparently, it doesn’t matter whether or not a mobile phone is in silent mode. When it’s time for the alarm to go off, it will. Mas Hafizul had set his alarm to go off daily at 12.20p.m. because he wanted to be reminded of lunch time. Unfortunately, the final round of the Chess Olympiad had started earlier at 11a.m. instead of the usual 3p.m. 

So, after 80 minutes into his game, amidst all the silence in the vast tournament hall, Mas Hafizul’s mobile suddenly woke up at 12.20p.m. I’m sure everyone in the Malaysian team were equally alarmed but none more alarmed than the unlucky mobile phone’s owner himself. No way could he extricate himself from this mess. And there was no other result than an immediate loss.

That explained everything. That explained why, after only 23 moves into the game and in an otherwise interesting position, the Malaysian team suddenly found themselves one game down. It wasn’t that our player was outplayed. No, he just became the latest victim of the dreaded mobile phone.

White: Mok Tze Meng (Malaysia)

Black: Khalil Bukhalaf (Bahrain)

1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ gxf6 6. g3 Bf5 7. Bg2 e6 8. O-O Bg7 9. Re1 O-O 10. d4 Nd7 11. c4 Nb6 12. Qb3 Qd7 13. a4 Rfd8 14. a5 Nc8 15. Bf4 Ne7 16. Ra4 Ng6 17. Bd2 Rab8 18. Bc3 e5 19. Raa1 exd4 20. Bxd4 b6 21. Qc3 Qd6 22. c5 bxc5 23. Bxc5 Qc7 24. Nd4 Bd7 25. a6 Bf8 26. Bxf8 Kxf8 27. Bxc6 Rdc8 28. Rac1 Bxc6 29. Qa3+ Kg7 30. Rxc6 Qd7 31. Rd6 Qc7 32. Qf3 Rb6 33. Qxf6+ 1-0 (After 33…Kh6 34. Qh4+ Kg7 35. Nf5+ Kg8 36. Qf6, checkmate follows.)

White: Gregory Lay (Malaysia)

Black: Husain Ayyad (Bahrain)

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 d6 3. g3 Nbd7 4. Bg2 e5 5. c4 g6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. dxe5 dxe5 8. O-O O-O 9. Qc2 c6 10. Rd1 Qc7 11. b3 Re8 12. Ba3 e4 13. Nd2 e3 14. fxe3 Ng4 15. Nf1 Qa5 16. Bb2 Nc5 (See Diagram Two. The start of an unfortunate adventure) 17. h3 Nxe3 18. Nxe3 Rxe3 19. b4 (An absolute spiffy tactical shot which Black did not see coming) 19…Qxb4 20. Rd8+ Bf8 21. Qd2 Re7 22. Nd5 Rxe2 23. Nf6+ Kg7 24. Nh5+ Kg8 25. Rxf8+ 1-0 (It’s checkmate after 25…Kxf8 26. Qd8+ Re8 27. Bg7+ Kg8 28. Qxe8.)

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UTP rapid chess

As part of Universiti Teknologi Petronas’ convocation programme this year, there will be a national rapid chess open tournament at the main hall of the university’s campus in Tronoh, Perak tomorrow and on Sunday. The Malaysian Chess Federation and the Perak International Chess Association are the co-organisers with the University. Seven round, 45-minute time control. Entry fees are RM35 (adults and players below 18 years old), RM30 (players below 16 years old) and RM25 (players below 12 years old). Closing date for entries is Oct 2. More information available from Saeksarn Sinnaso (017.5514682, saeksarnskill@gmail.com), Zulaizat (013.4666195) or visit http://nationalrapidchess.blogspot.com

UPSI open

The Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will organize an open chess tournament at their university campus in Tanjung Malim, Perak on Oct 23-24. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. Entry fees are RM30 (open), RM15 (school children) and RM10 (UPSI students). More details from Mohd Huzairi (013.5959350, mohdhuzairi89@yahoo.com) or Izza Hasrina (012.7412326). 

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

MSSM-Masterskill chess

The Polgar Chess Asia will organise the MSSM-Masterskill national scholastics chess championship at the Masterskill University College campus in Ipoh, Perak on Nov 8-12 in association with the Ministry of Education, Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Malaysia and the Malaysian Chess Federation. 

There will be six age group events: under-13 open and girls sections, under-11 open and girls sections, and under-9 open and girls sections, and each state, through their respective schools’ sports councils, may enter one official player for each section. individual non-official entries are also accepted with a RM100 entry fee. 

The respective winners get the right to be the official Malaysian representatives at the Asian schools chess championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Dec 16-23. More details available from Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia) or Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com). 

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship in Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Clash of the titans

Who do you think will win if a match were to be played today between Russia and China? Russia is, of course, the traditional chess power house of the world while China is the top chess-playing country in Asia.

If the top 10 players in each country are taken as the basis of comparison, the Russian men leads their Chinese counterparts by 89 rating points today. And if a comparison is made of their women chess players, the difference is even smaller: a mere 11 points separate the 10 best players from both sides.

Therefore, a match between these two chess super-powers would make a very good reason to determine which country is superior.

And actually, there is such a match going on today. It is the seventh such encounter between the two countries but it did not start out as an annual match because after the first one was played in Shanghai in 2001, there was a three-year gap before the second match was organized in Moscow in 2004.

After that, the chess federations of the two countries thought it best to have an annual match and so, Argun in Russia was the host in 2006, followed by the fourth match in Nizhni Novgorod in 2007, Ningbo in China in 2008, and last year’s match in Sochi, Russia.

This year’s match is taking place today in Yinzhou, Ninbo in China, having started on Aug 4 and will end this Sunday. Each side is fielding five men’s players and five women’s players.

The match comprises a Scheveningen style of team event where the members of each team will play the members of the opposing team once at normal time controls, followed by rapidchess games and finally, a series of blitz games. Of course, to ensure an even playing field, the men are competing among themselves only and likewise, the women are playing among themselves too.

In the first round, the China men’s team won with a 3-2 score but the Russian women won 3½-1½. In the second round, the Russian men were almost whitewashed when China won by 4½-½. However, the women’s teams fought to a 2½-2½ draw. In the third round, Russia and China tied at 2½-2½ in both the men’s and women’s contests.

The fourth round saw the men drawing on all the boards while the Russian women edged out their Chinese opponents by a 3-2 margin. In the fifth, both the Chinese men’s and women’s sides won by 3-2. 

The final score at the end of the normal time control games on Tuesday was 27 points to the China team and 23 points to Russia. 

The Chinese men’s team could take credit that they did not lose any of the rounds. At their worst, they drew the third round but at their best, they almost totally blanked out the Russian men in the second round.

Here are two Wang Hao games from the match. Wang Hao is the current national champion of China. He is also a previous winner of the Malaysia open chess tournament in 2005. The first game below was from the fifth round while the other one was played in the fourth round.

White: Vladimir Potkin (Russia)

Black: Wang Hao (Chinese) 

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 c5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.a3 Bxc3 9.bxc3 Qc7 10.Bb2 Na5 11.cxd5 exd5 12.Ne5 Re8 13.a4 Rxe5 (A rather inspired exchange sacrifice. In exchange for the rook, Black gets a dominating knight into the game.) 14.dxe5 Qxe5 15.h3 c4 (This fixes White’s black-squared bishop and after which, Black can look to exchanging off White’s other bishop.) 16.Bc2 Bf5 17.Re1 Bxc2 18.Qxc2 Nb3 19.Rad1 Re8 20.f3 Nc5 21.Rd4 Nd3 22.Re2 (It was time to eliminate the black knight with 22.Rxd3.) 22...Nh5 23.e4 (23.Rxd3 is too late because of 23...cxd3 24.Qxd3 Nf4.) 23...Nhf4 24.Rd2 f5 25.Ba3 fxe4 26.fxe4 Qg5 27.Kh2 Rxe4 28.Qd1 Qe5 29.Rxe4 dxe4 30.Qg4 h5 0-1

White: Wang Hao (China) 

Black: Sergei Rublevsky (Russia) 

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 Qc7 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Be3 Be7 9.f4 d6 10.a4 0-0 11.Kh1 Re8 12.Bf3 Rb8 13.Qd2 Na5 14.b3 b6 15.Rad1 Bb7 16.Nde2 Rbc8 17.Bf2 Nc6 18.g4 d5 19.e5 Ne4 20.Nxe4 dxe4 21.Bg2 Nb4 22.c3 Red8 23.Bd4 Nd5 24.Qc2 e3 25.Qd3 Bc5 26.c4 Bxd4 27.Qxd4 Nf6 28.Qxe3 Nxg4 29.Qg3 h5 30.Nd4 Bxg2+ 31.Kxg2 Qb7+ 32.Kg1 Rd7 33.h3 Nh6 34.Rd2 Rcd8 35.Rfd1 g6 36.Qe3 Kg7 37.Kf2 Qc7 38.Ke2 Kh7 39.Rd3 Qb7 40.Qf3 Qc7 41.Qc6 Rc8 42.Qxc7 Rdxc7 43.Nf3 Nf5 44.Ng5+ Kg8 45.Rd8+ Rxd8 46.Rxd8+ Kg7 47.Ne4 h4 48.Kd3 Rc6 49.b4 Rc7 50.Nf6 Rb7 51.Ra8 a5 52.b5 Ng3 53.Ne8+ Kh6 54.Nd6 Rc7 55.Rh8+ Kg7 56.Rb8 Rc5 57.Rxb6 g5 58.Rc6 g4 59.Ne4 gxh3 60.Nf2 Rxc6 61.bxc6 Nf5 62.Nxh3 Kf8 63.c7 Ne7 64.Kd4 (This was a mistake that threw away the full point. White should have played 64.c5 and 65.c6 to cut off Black’s king from the queenside.) 64...Ke8 65.Kc5 Kd7 66.Kb6 Kc8 67.Ng5 Nf5 68.Kxa5 Kxc7 69.Kb5 Nd4+ 70.Kb4 Kc6 71.a5 Ne2 72.Nh3 Nd4 73.c5 Kb7 74.Kc4 Nc6 75.Kb5 Nd4+ 76.Kc4 Nc6 77.Ng5 Nxa5+ 78.Kd3 Kc6 79.Ke4 Nb3 80.Kf3 Nxc5 81.Kg4 Nd3 82.Nh3 Kd5 83.Kxh4 ½-½ 

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Merdeka rapid events

Here is a reminder to all local chess players that the Merdeka individual rapid open tournament will be played on Aug 28, the Merdeka team rapid open tournament on Aug 29-31, and the Merdeka individual national age-group rapid open tournament will be on Sep 5. Venue for all three events is the Cititel hotel ballroom at the MidValley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur. 

For the individual rapid event, entry fees are RM20 for players below 16 years old and RM30 for others. For the team rapid event, entry fees are RM300 for four-player teams and RM375 for five-player teams. Junior teams (all players to be below 16 years old) will be charged at RM150 for four-player teams and RM175 for five-player teams. For the age-group event, the entry fee is RM25. More details from Hamid Majid (019.3158098, fax 03.40244337, aham@pc.jaring.my or aham4you@gmail.com).

 

Serious business

Bangladeshi grandmaster Ziaur Rahman, who is based in Malaysia for the next year or so, will soon be getting down to the serious business of training young chess talents in the country.

The Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF), working with the training provider and sponsors, have finalised a 15-month development programme stretching over six standalone terms, each aimed at growing the potential talent amidst our youngsters.

Each term of the MCF Young Talent chess development programme is self-contained and will last 30 days. In each programme, all aspects of chess training will be covered and these include constant assessment of a player's capability and understanding of the game, an intensive study into the chess middlegame and endgame and of course, focusing on the important chess opening theory.

Ziaur Rahman will take the students through all stages of chess preparation, identify their playing styles, their strengths and weaknesses, and look into areas of improving them. To achieve this, he will have a small group of local international masters to assist him during each term. 

According to the MCF, the focus of the programme will be unearthing and developing junior chess talents in the country who are between eight and 14 years old as they represent the future of our chess achievements. Nevertheless, older youths are more than welcomed to participate. 

The 15-month programme will run from this month until September next year. The first term is scheduled from July 24 until Aug 22 so that the first set of students who pass out from the programme can also plan to take part in this year’s Malaysia Chess Festival that’s already planned for September. 

There will be fresh intake of new students every term. The second term starts in September, the third term in November, the fourth in February next year, the fifth term in April 2011 and the sixth term in July 2011. Therefore, there are ample opportunities for readers to send their children to attend these intensive MCF development programmes.

The approach to each term’s programme is simple: group training for all students to learn the common fundamentals and basics of chess, and a personalized session where the students are paired with either the grandmaster or an international master and participate in a more detailed study mode. The latter session will help the trainer fine-tune the student to take best advantage of his or her playing style and preferences.

At the end of the term, each student would have undergone a maximum of 68 hours of end-to-end chess improvement experience and learning. 

The MCF says the fee of RM500 has been made attractive because of sponsorship. Normally, such training programmes with grandmasters can easily cost between RM4,000 and RM6,000. Students interested to attend the first term should contact the MCF before July 19. However, due to initial space constraints, only 10 students will be accepted.

The MCF also stressed that the development programme is not meant for beginners in the game. The students are required to possess certain playing strength and skills, and the training provider may request for additional information to substantiate a student’s playing strength before accepting him into the programme.

For enquiries or to request for the programme prospectus, contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com) or the MCF secretary Gregory Lau (012.9020123).

Fischer’ body exhumed

The body of former world chess champion Bobby Fischer was exhumed from his grave at an Icelandic church last Monday. This came weeks after the Supreme Court in Iceland gave the final go-ahead to authorities there to extract Fischer’s tissue sample in order to prove a paternity case.

According to reports, the process was completed smoothly and Fischer’s coffin was not unearthed from the ground. Instead, the earth at the side of the grave was dug and a hole then drilled into the coffin to extract the tissue sample. Present were a specialist doctor, a priest, the local sheriff and several lawyers.

The chess legend died intestate and his estate, worth at least USD2 million, is being claimed by various parties, including the United States government. Nine-year-old Jinky Young from the Philippines is set to inherit the bulk of Fischer’s estate if DNA tests prove conclusively that she is Fischer’s daughter. Other claimants include Fischer’s Japanese wife and his two nephews.

Up next  

Perlis team open

The Perlis Chess Academy, the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Perlis and the Persatuan Catur Prestij Perlis will jointly hold the Perlis team open tournament at the Dewan Sek. Men. Putra in Kangar, Perlis on July 24. Entry is limited to the first 70 teams.

Entry fees are RM30 for teams representing schools and institutions of higher learning, RM50 for teams from Perlis and RM70 for all other teams. For more details, contact Syaifulzamani bin Ismail (013.3939838) or visit http://chessperlis.blogspot.com. 

MBS chess

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur will hold the fifth MBSSKL chess open tournament at the school premises on July 24. Entry fees are RM5 for MBS students and RM15 for non-MBS students. For enquiries, contact teachers NK Chin or (Mdm) LY Yong at the school (03.20782293).

Perak grand prix

The sixth leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament will be played at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan St Anthony in Teluk Intan, Perak on July 25. 

Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. Closing date for entries is July 22. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129), Hamisah (012.5008723) or Andrew (016.6295352). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

Tebrau open

The Johor Chess Academy, the Rukun Tetangga Sri Tebrau, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Johor Bahru Chess Association are jointly organizing the 21st Tebrau open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru on Aug 2.

Entry fees are RM10 for players below 10 years old, RM12 for players below 16 years old and RM30 for all other participants. Closing date is July 30. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525 or jb_chess_association@yahoo.com).

 

Game of joy and creativity

… but don’t get too carried away.

Today is already the third day of the Kuala Lumpur open chess tournament. As a chess enthusiast, if you still haven’t heard about this event, where have you been?

It’s one of the country’s bigger chess tournaments this year. For one thing, there’s an unprecedented number of foreign players in the event and for another thing, there’s also a record number of titled players. Compared with last year’s tournament, this year’s KL Open is definitely richer in quality.

With these increased chances for grandmaster norms and international master norms in this tournament, will our local players be willing to rise to the occasion? More so, will they be willing to seize the opportunities? 

Unfortunately, my observation is that there are not enough local players registered for this event for reasons best known to them. Maybe they are working, maybe they don’t have enough leave, maybe they are saving their leave for other major events later in the year….I don’t know. Anyhow, among those that are playing in the tournament, let’s admit it: only a handful has the realistic chance of scoring a title norm. 

Nevertheless, our local players should strive hard to try and attain these norms – or at the very least, gain the experience from playing these foreign players – because after all, this tournament is organized specifically with these objectives in mind.

But please don’t get me wrong. The games are tough enough without me putting any additional pressure on the local players to perform. 

In a chess tournament, there is always the competition. The competitive effort to be better than the next guy. Maybe there are a few draws here and there but by and large, someone has to win a game and someone has to lose. And it gets tougher as the tournament progresses because players tire and you get to meet opponents closer to your own standards. 

You are no longer overwhelmed by people whose chess strengths are better than yours. At the same time, there are also no more weaker players for you to bully. As a tournament progresses, you meet opponents of relatively the same standard as you and that’s where the tough gets tougher.

Nevertheless at the end of the day, you must remember that it is only a game and not a matter of life and death. Therefore, forget about the results and go enjoy playing your chess. 

Once a round is over, forget about the results of that game and look forward to preparing for the next one. Euphoria is temporary and so is disappointment. However, what’s important is why should a player suffer needlessly through a tournament? 

If you love playing chess, it is not an ordeal when you lose a game. But if you fear losing a game or even your rating points, then taking part in competitions is not for you. If you harbour thoughts of getting unrealistic returns from your investment, which is the entry fee and all the incidental expenses, then a tournament such as this is not for you too. Set your expectations right and you’ll start enjoying life over the chessboard.

Have you heard of Damocles? No? According to classical Greek culture, he featured in an anecdote that is known as the Sword of Damocles. 

The Damocles in this story was a court employee living in the time of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a tyrant who lived about 2400 years ago. One day, Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority, Dionysius was truly fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places with him for a day, so that Damocles could taste that fortune first-hand. 

At the evening’s banquet, Damocles very much enjoyed being waited upon like a king. However at one point, he looked up to see a sharpened sword hanging directly above his head by a single horse hair. All at once, he paled and lost all appetite, and he asked leave of Dionysius, saying he no longer wanted to be so fortunate.

This is only a story but the message is clear enough. The value of the sword is not that it falls but rather, that it hangs and threatens to strike.

So, what I’m trying to say is, don’t play chess like there is a sword of Damocles hanging over you. Winning and losing are part of the game – any game – but if you fear that the horse hair is going to snap any moment, then the psychological impact will definitely affect you and your game. Some people may disagree with me but that’s not the way that I would want to play chess.

I feel inspired enough to give you yet another story today. It’s about Confucius. More people will have heard about this famous Chinese sage instead of that relatively unknown classical Greek courtier. There are many wise sayings attributed to Confucius and this is one of them.

Confucius, it is said, once mentioned that if you choose a job you love, then you will never have to work a day in your life. Very profound, isn’t it? If you love your job, it becomes a passion, something you look forward to every day. A job? It’s something you have to do, whether or not you like it.

Put it into the context of chess, if chess is what you truly love, then playing chess is never a chore that needs to be done; chess becomes a game of joy and great creativity, regardless of the ultimate outcome. 

Coming back to the Kuala Lumpur open, the fourth and the fifth rounds are being held today: the fourth round starts at 9am while the fifth game begins at 4pm. Venue is the Grand Olympic Hotel in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur. 

Tomorrow, there’ll only be one game (the sixth round) in the morning. In the afternoon, get ready to rumble with that articulate British grandmaster, Nigel Short, who will be in town briefly for a simultaneous exhibition before he scoots off to Bangkok for a tournament there. The participants of this event will also have the chance to sit down with Short for a meal after the games are over.

There’ll be two more rounds on Sunday and one on Monday morning to round off the Kuala Lumpur Open. On Monday afternoon, a blitz tournament is scheduled before the official prize-giving ceremony at 6pm.

However, this is not all. I hear that the organizers are planning a KL Masters tournament immediately after the KL Open ends. This will be a small nine-round round-robin tournament to offer more opportunities for local players to try for a title norm or even to improve their ratings.

I am sure there are enough grandmasters and international masters from the KL Open who are willing to continue playing a few more days in Malaysia. The ultimate mix of players will decide if this KL Masters tournament ends up as a GM, IM, WIM or rating tournament!

Any questions? Just direct them to MCF Secretary Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com) or KLCA Events Director Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia).

Up next  

Perak grand prix

The third leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played in Parit Buntar on Apr 25. Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. Participants are reminded that entries will close on Apr 8. PICA will release the registration details later.

KL rapid grand prix

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize the fourth leg of the KL rapid grand prix on May 8 and 9. Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the Royal Selangor Club (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. Venue is the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, (http://www.klchess.com/)

 

Youths rule!

If I’m tasked with drawing up a wish list of the top three chess events to follow through the Internet this year, I wouldn’t have any problem in identifying the world chess championship match this April between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov and the end-of-year Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk as among them.

The third? This has got to be a no-brainer choice for me. It can only be the annual tournament at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. Chess people know it better as the Corus chess tournament.

The Corus chess tournament actually goes back a very long time but in those old days, the event wasn’t known as Corus. That came much later in year 2000. When the event began in 1938, it was known simply as the Hoogovens tournament, named after the Dutch steel and aluminium producer, Koninklijke Hoogovens. In 1999, this company merged with British Steel and the new entity became the Corus Group.

So this tournament is well steeped in history. Earlier this week, the latest in the long line of Corus chess tournaments ended in Wijk aan Zee. Its main attraction was the 14-man Group A event that featured some of the world’s top players including Viswanathan Anand (the current world chess champion), Vladimir Kramnik (a previous classical chess world champion) and Magnus Carlsen (currently the highest ranked player in the world).

Then, as if this trio just wasn’t enough, the other participants included some of the most well-known veterans in international chess: Alexei Shirov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko and the evergreen Nigel Short. 

Now, many of you reading this column will know that occasionally I’d enthuse about how chess today is dominated by players who are getting younger in their years. This is, of course, a worldwide phenomenon and in fact, not even restricted to chess alone. We find that youths are dominating all areas of sport.

Much so at the Corus chess tournament too. Apart from the 19-year-old Carlsen, the other “babies” of the Group A tournament were Sergey Karjakin (20 years old), Hikaru Nakamura (22 years old) and Fabiano Caruana (17 years old).

But of course, how can I term this young man a baby when he is presently the highest ranked player in the world and was a co-winner at Corus two years ago? I can hardly term him as a baby, can I? 

And in all seriousness, Karjakin is no baby chess player either, because he has impeccable chess credentials too. He started off in Corus this year as the defending champion but his crown was snatched away by one of the other “baby” players, Carlsen.

So there we have it, in the last three years the most significant feature of the Corus chess tournaments was the domination of teenaged chess grandmasters. Carlsen was only 17 years old when he became a joint winner in 2008. Karjakin was 19 years old when he won the event in 2009. And now in 2010, Carlsen has won the tournament out-right at 19 years of age.

By the way, Carlsen wasn’t the only teenager making a great splash at this year’s Corus event. In the Group B tournament, another teenager was creating a lot of interest: 15-year-old Anish Giri of the Netherlands. Giri, whose father is Nepalese, was born and raised in Russia. In February 2009, he qualified as a chess grandmaster and at that time, he was also the world’s youngest.

Giri won the Group B event ahead of many of his contemporaries and rivals that included 16-year-old Wesley So of the Philippines, 16-year-old Parimarjan Negi of India and 19-year-old David Howell of England. 

For good measure, I also want to mention that the Corus Group C tournament was won by 20-year-old Li Chao from China. Li will get his chance to play in the Group B tournament next year just as Giri will also get him chance in next year’s Group A tournament. 

With so many youthful chess talents from around the world making names for themselves, I think chess is in for a very interesting and exciting future. I just can’t wait for more of them to take over the world.

This week, I’d like to feature an exciting game that was played in the final round of the Corus Group A tournament between Shirov and Leinier Dominguez. At the critical point in the game when the two players agreed to a draw, Shirov was actually winning. However, chess is not played on position alone. There’s also the time factor to contend with and both players were tremendously short on time at that stage of the game. After the game, Shirov discovered that had he pressed on to win the game, he would have won the tournament too, overtaking Carlsen at the top of the standings.

White: Alexei Shirov

Black: Leinier Dominguez

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Bc4 Qb6 8.Bb3 e6 9.Qd2 Be7 10.0–0–0 Nc5 11.f3 Qc7 12.Kb1 0–0 13.g4 b5 14.a3 Rb8 15.h4 Bd7 16.Bxf6 Bxf6 17.g5 Bd8 18.h5 a5 19.g6 Nxb3 20.Nxb3 fxg6 21.hxg6 h6 22.Nxa5 (The start of all the complications. White could have chosen the straight-forward 22.Qxd6 and won a pawn) 22….Rxf3  23.e5 Be8 24.exd6 Qxa5 25.Rxh6 gxh6 26.Qxh6 Bf6 27.d7 Bxc3 28.dxe8Q+ Rxe8 (White needs to be very careful because a careless 29.Rd7 loses to 29….Rf1+ 30.Ka2 Ra1+ and he will be checkmated) 29.Qh1 (This could easily have been the Move Of The Game, a quiet sort of move that protects the back rank and now really threatening 30.Rd7 next) 29….Re7 30.Qxf3 Bg7 ½-½ (White should be winning after 31.b4 Qc7 22.Qa8+ Bf8 33.Rf1 etc)

Up next  

Seri Putra chess

The Perak International Chess Association will organize the Seri Putra chess tournament (open, under-15, under-12 and under-10 events) at the Sekolah Menengah Seri Putra hall on Sunday. 

Entry fees are RM5 for the under-12 and under-10 events and RM10 for the under-15 and open events. The closing date for entries is Feb 4. To register, contact Abu Bakar Abdullah (014.2510852 or 014.2510952) or visit http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

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 feature four legs from February to May and followed by the grand final in June. The first leg will be held this weekend.

Each leg will have six rounds with a 45-minute rate of play per player for each round. 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/)

Malaysia-Singapore match

Get set for the resumption of the Malaysia versus Singapore chess duel 2010 on Feb 16-17. This double round chess match over 40 boards will take place at the Cititel Express in Kuala Lumpur. On Feb 16, the players shall fight over two games played with long time controls while on the following day, there’ll be two games with rapid time controls. If all our top players can set some time off from their Chinese New Year celebrations, this will be a very keenly contested match. And if all you can spare some time off from your own celebration, come and watch and support your team in action.

Pearl Point age group

The Excel Chess Academy will organize the Pearl Point age group chess tournament for under-11 and under-9 players at the Pearl Point shopping mall , Old Klang Road, Kuala Lumpur on Feb 21. 

Entry fees are RM18 per player but it will cost only RM15 to register through a school. Closing date is Feb 19. More details from Jax Tham (jaxtham@hotmail.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 the success of last year’s Malaysian Masters tournament at the DATCC, next comes the Malaysian Women’s Masters tournament starting Feb 26. There will be 16 players who will play knock-out matches. 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

The third DATCC Kuala Lumpur commercial and recreational chess league at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex will 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. Details are available from Hamid Majid (019.3158098, aham@pc.jaring.my) or Najib Abdul Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@hotmail.com).