Remembering Tan Chin Nam

This one-off story, written some six years after my column stopped, commemorated a friend who had been associated with the game almost as long as I. 

The text message came in at 6.14pm. Sent by See Swee Sie, President of the Penang Chess Association (PCA), it read: "It is with great sadness that I inform you, though you most probably already know.  Dato Tan has passed away." Barely five minutes later, my good friend in Kuala Lumpur, Hamid Majid, texted me: "It is with sadness, that I announce the passing away of Honorary Life President Dato Tan Chin Nam at 4:30 today, Sunday, 21 Oct 2018."

I felt devastated. I had dreaded the day when he would pass away and with each passing year of the Malaysia Chess Festival, I became more certain that the moment would happen soon, if not later. After all, he was already 92 years old this year. Yet, when it happened on 21 Oct 2018 at 4.30pm, the news floored me.

I made a few telephone calls to Hamid and Swee Sie but there was not much of additional information from them. Hamid said the family was making final arrangements soon. Nothing more I could do but wait. That night even as I went for the Old Frees Association annual dinner in Kuala Lumpur, my thoughts were far away.

I first met him in 1974. At that time, he was just plain Tan Chin Nam but already a well-respected property developer. Of course, being a mere 20-year-old at that time, I didn't know much of this man. Who was he, I had asked silently at that time, that wanted to start the new Malaysian Chess Federation to take over from the defunct Chess Association of Malaysia? Anyway, I was down in Kuala Lumpur with the then first PCA president, Fang Ewe Churh, to attend that inaugural meeting of the Federation, and got to know him.

It has been 44 years. That's a very long time. If ever I was in Kuala Lumpur for a stretch of several days, I would try to fit in a visit to him at his office or his former home at Desa Kudalari. Initially built to look over the Selangor Turf Club – horse racing was one of his other great passions in life – his condominium unit later commanded a grand view of the KLCC Twin Towers.

Once, he invited me to his home for "some games of chess" but before we even played a single game he excused himself first because he needed his afternoon nap. So there I was, enjoying the grand view from his balcony while he slept in his reclining chair in the living room.

While he was still able to travel around for corporate meetings in Penang in the 1990s and 2000s, I would meet him with my chess board. In between chess games, he would ask me about the progress of chess in Penang. He really took a very keen interest in the affairs of the association. If we needed any money for chess activities in Penang, we looked no further than his company on the island. He would ask me to go see his niece and present my proposal to her. And occasionally, I'd buy some local street food to share with him. Once I brought some Penang chee cheong fun which he attacked with gusto.

Tan celebrated his 80th birthday in March 2006. It was a grand affair at the Renaissance Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Each of his guests was presented with a copy of his memoirs, Never Say I Assume! They were all pre-signed copies as it would have been impossible for him to sign them all on the spot. He called me over. "Seng Sun, give me your book," he told me and I duly handed it over. Then in his shaky handwriting – he was already suffering from Parkinson's – he added the words, "Dear Seng Sun my good friend of 32 years."

In the last few years of his life, he had been sickly. About five years ago, he suffered a fall which restricted his movements. For several years, he gamely tried to continue walking but later gave it up and remained largely confined to a wheelchair. He had his good days and bad days, according to his personal secretary. When I visited him at his house last year, I was forewarned that he might not be awake. True enough, he never stirred from his bed the whole time I was there.

This year, I was lucky. Tan was lucid enough to turn up at the closing ceremony of the Malaysia Chess Festival. But I could see the fatigue in his eyes. Like always, everyone milled around him, everyone greeted him and he acknowledged them back with a stare, sometimes with a nod. But he never spoke. And that was the very last time I met him. Eight weeks later, Tan was gone from this earth.

On the morning of the 22nd of October, his obituary appeared in the newspapers. I told Swee Sie that I shall have to go to the funeral home to pay my last respects on Monday even though the obituary notice said that the wakes would be opened to the public on Tuesday and Wednesday.

So I turned up at the Xiao En Centre in Cheras on Monday afternoon. Of course, nobody was there yet. There were no guests, no family members, just two representatives from Xiao En. There were rows and rows of chairs and meanwhile, their staff was still preparing the ballroom. Tan's body was in the holding room, I was informed, while I talked to the Xiao En people. And then suddenly, one of them turned to me and made an incredible offer, "Come follow me. I can give you some private moments with Dato."

I duly followed her to the holding room and thus there I was, standing beside the Big House and looking down at the most serene Dato Tan Chin Nam, dressed in a light blue shirt with yellow tie and a dark jacket, and having his final rest. "Goodbye," I mouthed silently, "I'm going to miss you."

Doyen of local chess

Last week, I was writing about the youngest faces that had come to play, and perhaps to make a name for themselves, in the main event of this year’s Malaysian Chess Festival, the Arthur Tan Malaysian open chess championship.

It then struck me that if I want to do a similar story on the oldest player in the festival, I would have to look not at this same event but instead, I would have to cast my eye at the Lee Loy Seng seniors open chess championship for inspiration. 

But then again, everybody – and by “everybody”, I mean all of us in the chess circle – knows for a certainty that currently, the oldest active chess player in the country is none other than Datuk Tan Chin Nam himself.

He is the doyen of Malaysian chess, all 85 years of him. Although he was perhaps frailer than when I last saw him about a year ago, his mind was still as keen as ever. “Still up to playing chess,” he reminded me when we sat across the chessboard in the second round.

Tan, however, for all his enthusiasm, soon found out to his dismay that results still favoured the more, ahem, younger seniors as he finished the event with a modest 1½ points that he collected from nine games.

But despite the setback, he still took pride in his final game of the tournament. He lost but for much of that game he showed that he could still mix it up as well as his opponent. He absorbed the attack in a complicated game and then simplified the position to a point where he held a piece advantage. It was only a gross blunder in the critical last hour of play when tiredness had crept into both players’ game that spoilt everything for Tan. 

A draw would have been an equitable result in that game, seeing that both he and his opponent had fought and defended well.

Readers may remember that at last year’s Malaysian Chess Festival, Tan had announced that he intended to take a two-year sabbatical from sponsoring the festival so that he could enjoy playing the game for once without thinking about pumping money into organizing it. 

There could be other reasons and I would think that one of them was that he wanted to see how the organizers would rise to the challenge and continue with this chess festival with only his moral support.

Well, I would believe that he was encouraged by what he saw: the hard work put in by the organizers in the last two to three months to get their acts together. At the closing ceremony of the festival, he promised to end his sojourn and make next year’s edition the grandest Malaysian Chess Festival of all.

By the way, perhaps I should also mention that as the most senior chess player at the festival, Tan was at least 10 years older than the next most senior competitor, Thailand’s 74-year-old Pricha Srivatanakul.

   

 

Up next

National rapidchess

The Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Tronoh, Perak will organize the second national rapidchess championship at their university campus tomorrow and on Sunday on behalf of the Malaysian Chess Federation and the Perak International Chess Association. Eight rounds, with a time control of 25 minutes and 10-second increment per move. First prize for the open category is RM1,000. Entry fees are RM30 (players under 12 years old), RM35 (players under 16 years old) and RM40 (all others). For enquiries, contact Ariana (019.5451813), Nabilah (014.9045157), Thakshna Moorthy (016.9950070) or Khairil Anwar (013.3533720). More information also from http://nrcc2011.blogspot.com 

DATCC events

The Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC) at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur is now open daily to chess players. Operating hours: Mondays to Fridays (1pm to 8pm), Saturdays and Sundays (9am to 5pm). 

DATCC Blitz Sunday

The DATCC will hold a blitz tournament at the Wilayah Complex on Oct 9. A prize fund of RM500 is on offer, More information available from Kaber Azzad (012.6178624, info@chess-malaysia.com).

 

DATCC team open

The first round of the fourth DATCC team open team chess tournament will be played at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur starting Oct 22. Thereafter, the next seven rounds will be played on consecutive Tuesdays, and the final round on Dec 24. Entry fee is RM400 per team with a maximum of 10 players in each team. Total prize money is RM6,000. More information available from http://datcchess.blogspot.com. 

 

Remembering Lim Chong Eu

I STARTED chess quite late in my school life. It was not until Form Three going on Form Four that I finally got into playing the game. Before that, chess meant almost nothing to me. Hard to imagine it now, but it’s true.

It took me about five years from the time I saw my first chess pieces before I started learning to play. I still remember the occasion when I laid my eyes on the pieces. Again, it was at the end of the year. It was in Standard Four and there was this guy, one of my classmates, who was showing around his set of mysterious wooden pieces.

For a young boy whose only exposure to the chequered board at that time was the game of draughts (or checkers, if you like), I took the revelation that there could be other forms of board games rather coolly. But I never got involved with the game. Not at all.

Anyhow, that was my first exposure to chess. I’m telling all this because that classmate of mine turned out to be the younger son of Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu, Penang’s second chief minister who passed away more than a week ago.

I don’t know at all whether Tun Dr Lim played chess or if he did, how good was his standard but I do know that my classmate friend must have got the inspiration for the game from one of his father’s closest buddies.

In case anyone doesn’t know, that would be Prof Dr Lim Kok Ann from Singapore, an expert on bacteriology who later became the general secretary of the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

The two Lims – Tun Dr Lim and Prof Dr Lim – had forged a close friendship since their University days in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a friendship that later contributed a significant part to the growth of chess in this country and beyond.

In 1974, FIDE was celebrating its Golden Jubilee and had wanted their affiliates to organize chess events in their part of the world. At that time, Prof Dr Lim was already the FIDE Zone 10 president and he wanted to organize the first Asian team chess championship.

It was here that the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) entered into the picture. The federation was formed the same year and its founding president, Datuk Tan Chin Nam, had quickly persuaded Malaysia’s second Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, to donate a handsome silver challenge trophy in his name.

But still, where could the tournament be held? At this point, both Datuk Tan and Prof Dr Lim turned to the one friend that they had in common: Tun Dr Lim who, five years earlier had become the Chief Minister in Penang.  Datuk Tan had known Tun Dr Lim since the 1960s and remember, the two Lims were fast friends since the 1940s.

When the idea was mooted to Tun Dr Lim, he readily agreed to let the MCF use the Dewan Sri Pinang for the Asian team chess championship. But Tun Dr Lim went further than just providing the venue. 

Through the state government, he also rendered a lot of assistance to support the numerous other activities in Penang during the FIDE Golden Jubilee celebrations, in particular, the FIDE Bureau meetings that were held at the Merlin Hotel (now the City Bayview Hotel).

As a consequence of his unreserved support for chess, Tun Dr Lim was made an honorary patron of both the MCF and the Penang Chess Association. Where the MCF was concerned, he was with excellent company as the other honorary patrons of the federation were the nation’s first three Prime Ministers: Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn. Unfortunately, with his passing last week, he has become the last of the patrons of the two chess bodies. 

Lim Chong  

It is with a heavy heart that I mention here of the passing of a chess friend and fellow chess journalist. Lim Chong, the economic news service sub-editor with Bernama, died last Thursday on a flight from London to Kuala Lumpur. In the 1980s, Lim was in charge of the chess pages in The Malay Mail.

UP NEXT

Penang Chess League

The annual Penang Chess League takes place tomorrow and on Sunday at the Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Kheng Thean in Jalan Van Praagh, George Town. 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. More information from Penang Chess Association assistant secretary 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.

National junior

The Malaysian Chess Federation will organize the third national junior chess championship at the Hotel Olympic, Jalan Davidson, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 15-19. There will be two categories: the boys under-20 and girls under-20 events. This will be a FIDE-rated event over nine rounds and full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (existing FIDE-rated players) and RM80 (non-rated players). For more information, contact Gregory Lau (012.9020123, msianchess2010@gmail.com), Zuraihah Wazir (017.2837808) or Haslindah Ruslan (019.2069605). 

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.

Main man

 

Smooth transition

 

Change of guard

 

Reunion dinner

 

FIDE elections: no solution yet

WITH THE World Chess Federation (Fide)’s Congress starting tomorrow in Turin, Italy, the countdown has already begun for the Fide elections.

It will be an electrically-charged occasion at the Chess Congress with emotions running high. A fortnight ago, I had mentioned that for the first time in more than two decades, there is a serious challenger to the incumbent Fide president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

Bessel Kok, a highly respected corporate figure in Europe, is heading the Right Move team which is challenging Ilyumzhinov’s Chess Fidelity team in the elections. 

Earlier this week, an update from the Right Move website, http://www.rightmove06.org, mentioned that there are 41 national chess federations that have openly declared their support for Kok’s team but the Chess Fidelity website, http://www.chessfidelity.com, claimed that the Ilyumzhinov ticket has the public support of 78 national federations. 

Anything can still happen between now and the actual elections but going by the numbers so far, the Chess Fidelity team is expected to romp home easily.

Readers will remember that about two weeks ago, Malaysian Chess Federation president Dato Tan Chin Nam had issued an open letter on the Internet urging both sides to put aside their differences and form a joint presidency in the interest of chess unity.

After Tan’s letter appeared, Fide general secretary Ignatius Leong, in his capacity as delegate from Singapore, also issued an open letter to urge both Ilyumzhinov and Kok to work together. 

Recognising that both men have their respective strengths and weaknesses, Leong proposed a solution where Ilyumzhinov, who is also the Head of State of the Russian republic of Kalmyk, would become the Fide chairman and Kok the Fide president.

“They are eminent persons – the incumbent president is charismatic and controversial while the challenger is a professional corporate leader with impeccable credentials,” Leong said.

In urging both presidential candidates to consider Fide’s overriding needs, Leong said a unification ticket would provide Fide with a unique opportunity to morph into a modern, professional, dynamic, transparent and sustainable organization.

In a reply from Ilyumzhinov, the Fide president declared that he would be prepared to discuss Leong’s proposal and he was always ready to work towards chess unity.

However, the suggestion was rejected outright by Kok who said that such a solution would be illegal and contrary to the Fide statutes. More importantly, said Kok, he would not misplace the trust placed in his team by the chess federations who had supported him.

Subsequently, Leong declared that since his overture to Kok has been rebuffed, he had no choice but to throw his whole unreserved support behind the Ilyumzhinov ticket.

The outcome of the Fide elections will be keenly awaited around the chess world but until it takes place, there are still opportunities that both tickets may yet accept a compromise solution. Let us wait and see.

In the meantime, with a record 146 teams in the open division and 108 teams in the Women’s Olympiad, you can watch games live at the Chess Olympiad’s official site at http://www.chessolympiad-torino2006.org/

A Google search on Turin Chess Olympiad will also uncover many other chess websites around the world that are also reporting daily on the results.

UP NEXT

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School in Kuala Lumpur will hold their first open chess tournament at the school tomorrow. This event will be played in six age groups, from under-8 to under-17, with attractive prizes that include a two-day, one-night stay at the First World Hotel, Genting.

Entry fees are RM10 for students of the Methodist Boy’s Secondary School and the Methodist Boys’ Primary School and RM15 for all other students. 

Registration and inquiries: Mdm GK Saw (tel: 016.2008797 between 3pm and 7pm), Mdm S Selvarani (tel: 016.2008796 between 8am and 12pm) or NK Chin and Mdm SP Gan (tel: 03.20782293 between 8.30am and 1pm). Alternatively, visit http://www.mbsskl.com for the details.

Penang age-group

The first leg of the Penang age-group chess tournament for under-8, under-10, under-12 and under-14 boys and girls, sponsored by the Penang state government and organised jointly by the Socio-Economic & Environmental Research Institute (SERI) and the Penang Chess Association, will be held at the Kompleks Penyayang Masyarakat, Penang on Sunday.

To register, contact Tan Eng Seong (tel: 012.4299517, email: estan64@streamyx.com). Only a maximum 200 entries will be accepted with no more than 30 players in each category. A second leg will be held at Seberang Jaya or Kepala Batas in September. 

Sri Aman open

The Sri Aman open tournament for under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8 players will be held at the Sek Keb Sri Aman in Bandar Baru Air Itam, Penang, on Jun 11.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association (PCA) are RM10 for under-16 players and RM8 for under-10 players. For non-PCA members, these will be RM15 and RM13 respectively. Entries accepted after Jun 4 are subjected to an additional RM5 as penalty. For details, contact Eoh Thean Keat (tel: 016.4540070, email: t_k_eoh@hotmail.com)

CLB open

The SMJK Chung Ling Butterworth will hold their first open tournament at their school on Jun 18. Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM10 for under-18 players and RM15 for others. Non-PCA members are required to play RM15 and RM20 respectively.  

Registration and inquiries: Tan Eng Seong (tel: 012.4299517, email: estan64@streamyx.com) or Teh Wei Li (tel: 019.4161486). Closing date for entries is Jun 17.

Stonemaster open

There will be a Stonemaster allegro open tournament, organised by Stonemaster Event Management Entreprise, at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Jun 25. This tournament is restricted only to players who do not have a world (Fide) rating. The organisers will also conduct a one-hour chess seminar half-way through the event.

Entry fee is RM20 per player. To register for both the tournament and the seminar, email seme_event@yahoo.com or contact Fadli (016.2092404) before Jun 20. 

Over Bloody Eighty

ON MARCH 8, many people had opened their copies of The Star to find a very prominent write-up on Datuk Tan Chin Nam in the Star Biz section of the newspaper. 

A retired business tycoon was how The Star had described him, and the write-up went on to relate how, from his humble beginnings, he had grown his riches from property development to eventually join the list of the richest Malaysians.

“Mr Low-Cost Housing” and “Mr Condominium” are just some of the nicknames that he is known for but to chess players in this country, Tan is nothing more than the “Father of Malaysian Chess.”

If not for this man, there will hardly by a chess movement in the country. Though this game is still far from being popular here, there is considerable support at the grassroots, as evidenced from the scores of weekend tournaments held around the country.

If you are addicted to allegro chess, which is chess played with 25 or 30-minute time control, you are already indebted to Tan for it was he who demanded that the World Chess Federation (Fide) in the mid-1980s recognise and popularise this mode of chess.

It would seem strange to any outsider that Tan could make demands on Fide and get his way. But when you come to know that for a four-year period from 1982 to 1986 he was the Fide Deputy President for Asia, you will come to realise the influence he had on world chess.

In Nov 1995, he was even featured on the cover of Chess Life, the official magazine of the United States Chess Federation. It was perhaps the rare but ultimate accolade paid to a man who had contributed much to propagate chess interest throughout the world.

Tan’s first brush with chess in Malaysia began in 1974 when he agreed to take up the post of president of the Malaysian Chess Federation. It was a role that he filled until the late 1980s when he stepped down. 

Though he was made the federation’s first and only honorary life president in recognition of his contributions, he continued to play an active and supportive role in the background. Lately though, Tan had agreed to assume the president’s post again.

But first and foremost, Tan was a businessman. His other commonly known nickname was “Mr Property Grandmaster”, a convenient marriage between his roles as a major property developer and chess enthusiast. There was a third side to him: that of a horse owner.

In the mid-1970s, Think Big was probably the horse that shot Tan to fame in the competitive world of horse racing. In more recent years, Saintly was another of his horses that found fame on the racetracks of Melbourne. But between Think Big and Saintly, there were many others too that found fame or fell from grace. 

Like Gufeld, a horse named after the late Soviet chess grandmaster from Georgia. Edvard Gufeld the chess player was Tan’s friend and a man of rather generous proportions. Tan had chosen to name one of his horses after Gufeld because, well, its gait was rather similar to that of the grandmaster. 

Tomorrow, Tan will be celebrating his 80th birthday. It is certainly a milestone for this man whom I have known for 32 years, spanning the time when he was simply Mr Tan until today when he is Datuk Tan.

Datuk Tan, happy birthday to you from the chess players of Malaysia.

UP NEXT

Klang Parade open

There will be a Klang Parade age-group tournament for under-12 and under-18 players tomorrow and the Klang Parade open tournament on Sunday. Both events are jointly organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation and Klang Parade and will take place at the Concourse area of the shopping centre. 

Entry fees for the age-group event are RM15 for the under-18 players and RM10 for the under-12 players. For the open event, entry fees are RM10 for under-12 players and RM15 for everyone else. More details: Angie (tel: 03.33437889, fax: 03.33437313) or Gregory (tel: 012.9020123).

PICA/YMCA open

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and the YMCA are jointly organising a one-day chess tournament at the Dewan YMCA in Jalan Raja Muda Aziz, Ipoh, on Mar 26.

Entry fees are RM10 for PICA and YMCA members, ladies and players below 16 years old, and RM15 for others. Entries received after Mar 24 will be charged an extra RM5. Inquiries: Yunus Sharif (tel: 013.3908129), Hamisah (tel: 012.4313326) or Grace (05.2540809).

PCGHS open

The Penang Chinese Girls’ High School will organise their annual chess tournament at their school hall this Sunday. For members of the Penang Chess Association (PCA), entry fees are RM10 for under-18 students and RM15 for others. Non-PCA members are required to pay RM15 and RM20 respectively. 

Inquiries and registration: Tan Eng Seong (tel: 012.4299517, email: estan64@streamyx.com), Carmen Yuen (tel: 016.4161299, email: vern_cy@hotmail.com), Chuah Suan Eng (tel: 016.4340616, email: joychou_harrypotter@hotmail.com) or Lim Shueh Min (tel: 016.4592984, email: yhpets_2020@hotmail.com). 

Selangor tournament

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organise their second quarter allegro tournament at The Chess Network in the Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur, on Apr 2. Their Category One event is for unrated adults and players with a national rating of at least 1400 points, while the Category Two event is meant for those with a national rating of less than 1400 and also unrated under-18 players.

Entry fees: Category One event – RM15 for CAS members and RM25 for non-members; Category Two event – RM10 for CAS members and RM20 for non-members. Walk-in entries are charged an additional RM5. To register, email selangorchess@gmail.com, stating your name and category.

Bandaraya chessmaster Johor open

The Johor Bahru District Chess Association and Majlis Bandaraya Johor Bahru are jointly organising a one-day tournament at the Dewan Jublee Intan in Johor Bahru on Apr 9.

Entry fees are RM8 for under-12 players, RM10 for under-16 players and RM30 for others. Inquiries: Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07.3338215, email: naraa@tm.net.my).

Temerloh open

The Persatuan Catur Temerloh Pahang (PCTP) and the Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia are jointly holding a two-day tournament at the Bangunan Umno in Mentakab on Mar 25-26. Total prize money is RM5,000.

Entry fees are RM12 for under-12 players, RM15 for PCMM members and Temerloh residents, and RM25 for all others. Closing date is Mar 23. Inquiries: Fazli (tel: 019.9299767), Bahari (tel: 013.9777084) or Haslindah Ruslan (tel: 019.2069605, email: haslindahr@yahoo.com).

Mind gymnastics

 

King of the game

 

No takers

 

Bridging the nations

DIPLOMATIC relations between the Americans and the Chinese are at an ebb. Not since the bombing of the Chinese Embassy building in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, two years ago (which Nato insisted was accidental) have tensions run as high in both countries as at present.

Just this week, for example, an American spy plane made an emergency landing in Hainan after it collided with a Chinese fighter jet in airspace off China.

It is in the midst of such political and diplomatic problems between the two giants of the Pacific that I wonder whether, ironically, sparring in chess is perhaps the best balm to soothe all tensions.

The political masters in the United States and China should do well to emulate the chess friendship that has been growing between the top players of the two countries recently. Last month, a very significant event took place on American soil. A team of top chess players from China visited Seattle, in the United States, to play an official four-round match with the best American players.

Datuk Tan Chin Nam
with the Chess Summit
Match jade trophy in Seattle.

Billed as the Chess Summit Match, it was the first of four matches between the United States and China that had been planned to take place over the next few years. The match was contested over 10 boards and it featured the top six players from each country, plus their two top women and two top junior players.

Playing for the US team were Boris Gulko, Yasser Seirawan, Gregory Kaidanov, Alexander Shabalov, Alexander Ivanov, Larry Christiansen, Irina Krush, Camilla Baginskaite, Vinay Bhat and Dmitri Schneider with Joel Benjamin, Elina Groberman and Hikaru Nakamura as the reserves.

The visiting China team comprised Ye Jiangchuan, Xu Jun, Peng Xiaomin, Zhang Zhong, Xie Jun, Yin Hao, Xu Yuhua, Qin Kanying, Bu Xiangzhi and Ni Hua. Their reserve players were Zhu Chen, Wang Lei and Wang Yue.

In the very first round, the United States won with a narrow 5.5 to 4.5 score. This was rather surprising because on paper, the Chinese were a much stronger side. Xie Jun, the women's world champion, was even playing in the senior side as their fifth strongest player, disdaining the fact that she was at the same time their top women's player.

The second round was split evenly between the two sides but, in the third round, the Chinese players scored a ripping 6.5 to 3.5 win against the Americans. The US team tried hard to come back into the match but they failed to produce anything more than a 5 to 5 draw in the fourth round.

This result meant that China took the four-round match by a 21 to 19 score which was a small but nevertheless emphatic two-point winning margin.

Significantly, the US team were stronger on the top six boards where they were more experienced. Here, the Americans achieved a 13.5 to 10.5 victory over the top six Chinese who included Xie Jun and another women's player, Zhu Chen, in the line-up.

It was interesting that on the women's boards where China was expected to do very well, the Chinese only managed to win narrowly with 4.5 to 3.5. However, the biggest revelation was on the bottom junior boards where the two Chinese players contributed heftily to the overall margin. Winning 6 to 2 over four rounds made all the difference between the two teams.

Incidentally, the match would never have happened had it not been for Datuk Tan Chin Nam. Tan's quiet but important role in the development of Malaysian chess is already well-known but on the international scene, he is also known for his fervour in promoting Asian chess.

China made great strides in chess because of Tan's belief that the Asians could one day be equal to the Westerners in this thinking game. So far, more than 25 years since China joined the international chess community, he has not been wrong.

Tan, who was the guest of honour in Seattle during the summit match and the closing ceremony, was justifiably the happiest man around when he presented the elegant teapot-shaped jade trophy to the secretary of the Chinese Chess Federation.

UP NEXT

Chess in historical Malacca

The Kolej Yayasan Melaka and the Malacca Chess Association will jointly organise a grand individual open chess tournament on April 28 and 29 in conjunction with the Malacca Historical City celebrations.

Ten cash prizes are on offer: the first prize is RM1,200; the second prize, RM800; and the third prize, RM500. The fourth to sixth prizes are RM100 each, while RM50 will be given as the seventh to 10th prizes.

Entry fees are RM20 for members of the Malacca Chess Association while other participants will be charged RM25. Entries will close on April 20.

According to the organisers, the Hotel Grand Continential ( 06-284 0088), St Meridian Apartment ( 06-284 1166), The City Bayview Hotel ( 06-283 9888) and Air Keroh DeVillage Resort ( 06-232 8000) have special reduced rates for outstation players. Alternatively, the college's hostel is available for players on a tight budget.

For more information, contact Noraini Mohd Darus ( 06-281 7732) or visit the website at catur.kym.edu.my.

King of the castle

Kellie's Castle, the unfinished monument to William Kellie Smith who was a pioneer rubber planter in Perak at the turn of the last century (the Kinta Kellas Rubber Estate was planted by him), will again be the venue of what is presumably the country's most intriguing chess competition.

On April 21 and 22, Trans-Clarity Resort, with help from the Perak International Chess Association, will organise the second Kellie's Castle open tournament at the castle grounds in Batu Gajah.

The two-day event will be played over eight rounds with three rounds to be contested on the first day and the remaining rounds on the next day. There are at least 20 cash prizes totalling RM5,240 and this includes an attractive RM1,000 and a trophy for the winner.

There are also prizes for the best two players among the women, under-12 boys, under-12 girls, under-16, veteran and members of PICA.

For more details of this competition and enquiries about accommodation, call Steven Ng ( 05-366 8198) or write to Kellie's Castle, Km 5.5 Jalan Gopeng, P.O. Box 11, 31000 Batu Gajah, Perak.

RSC junior event

The Royal Selangor Club will organise the fourth RSC juniors tournament for under-8, under-10 and under-12 players at the club's premises at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, on Sunday. This is a six-round event.

The entry fee of RM15 is inclusive of lunch. For more information or to register, contact the RSC sports office ( 03-253 2277 / e-mail: royselchess@hotmail.com). Entry forms are also available at the club's reception desk.

Places are limited to only 100 participants. Cash prizes and trophies will be given to the winners.

Klang chess fest

Tomorrow sees the start of the four-day Klang Parade chess fest which is jointly organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation and the Klang Parade. All games will be played in the concourse area of the Klang Parade shopping centre. Cash prizes totalling RM2,500, hampers, trophies and other prizes in kind will be given to the winners.

The chess fest starts with the under-12 and under-16 tournaments at 9am tomorrow. There are five prizes for each age group and the winners of the two categories will each receive RM100 and a trophy.

On Sunday, the under-20 open tournament will start at 9am. The prizes are RM100 for the winner, second RM80, third RM70, fourth RM60 and fifth RM50. There are also hampers for the best under-12 and under-16 boys and girls.

The Klang Parade blitz tournament will be played on April 14, with the Klang Parade open tournament held the following day.

For the blitz event, the winner will receive RM150 and a trophy. The second prize is RM80, the third prize RM70, fourth prize RM60 and fifth prize RM50. Hampers are given as the sixth to 10th prizes.

Only a maximum of 100 players will be accepted for each event. For registration or information, contact Rizal or Angie of Klang Parade ( 03-334 37889 / fax: 03-334 37313) or Norhana ( 03-410 82590).

BPM national allegro

The next leg of this year's Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit will be played in Johor Baru on Sunday.

This leg will be held over six rounds with a 30-minute time control for each game. If there are more than 100 participants, the tournaments will be played over seven rounds using a 25-minute time control.

Entry fees are RM10 for members of the Johor Chess Association, Bank Pertanian employees, players above 50 years old and girls below 12 years old, and RM15 for all other participants. To register, call Stephen Cheong (07-333 9636).

Gufeld wins race!

 

A private quickplay meet