The big four

As had been expected last week, the Indian grandmaster and current world chess champion, Viswananthan Anand, has been knocked off the second spot on the latest international rating list which was released by the World Chess Federation earlier this week. 

His rating took a tumble from the 2810 rating points a year ago (the January 2011 rating list) to 2799 this January. Without a doubt, his last three performances in Bilbao, Moscow and London had greatly affected his ratings and he is now placed fourth in the world rankings.

The Norwegian grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen, now 21 years old, has retained his number one standing in the world. But more than that, over the past year, his rating has increased from 2814 points in January 2011 to 2835 points in the January 2012 list. 

Considering that the top players in the world are playing with one another exclusively, this is actually a gain of 21 points against top chess opposition.

More tellingly, Carlsen’s present rating of 2835 points is a good 30 points more than his nearest chess rival, Levon Aronian from Armenia. Over the past year, Aronian’s rating has not changed and remains at 2805 points. But because of Anand’s drop down the list, Aronian has been propelled from third to second-placed. 

Similarly, Vladimir Kramnik has been pushed up from fourth to third in the world ranking. But at least for this Russian grandmaster, he has seen his rating increase by 17 points from a year ago to 2801 in January 2012. This has been helped by an impressive display of chess technique at the London Chess Classic last month which he won comfortably.

So there you have it, the top four players in the world today are Carlsen, Aronian, Kramnik and Anand. 

Fifth in the world rankings is Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov whose rating is 2773. His rating had also risen by 29 points over the past year. At this time last year, he was placed in 12th position among his peers.

The Bulgarian grandmaster, Veselin Topalov, remains sixth in the world today, unchanged from a year ago. However, five points have been shed by him and he stands today with 2770 rating points.

Sergey Karyakin is in seventh position with 2769 points, Vassily Ivanchuk is eighth with 2766 points, Alexander Morozevich is ninth with 2763 points and Vugar Gashimov rounds up the top ten with 2761 points.

Outside of this top list includes Alexander Grischuk who is also with 2761 points, Hikaru Nakamura with 2759 points, Peter Svidler with 2749 points, Boris Gelfand with 2739 points (placed 16th in the world today), Fabiano Caruana with 2736 points, China’s Wang Hao with 2733 points and Gata Kamsky with 2732 points.

There are 44 players whose ratings are at least 2700 points. Apart from Anand and Wang, the only two other Asian players in this exclusive 2700-plus club are Le Quang Liem from Vietnam with 2714 points and Krishnan Sasikiran from India with 2700 points. 

Sasikiran’s position in the world rankings has remained relatively unchanged: an increase of 10 rating points has seen his ranking rise from 45th a year ago to 44th position this January.

Le’s climb has been more phenomenal: a 50-point increase. Accordingly, his ranking has gone up from 79th in the world to 29th today.

Turning my sights to the top women players in the international rating list, I see that Judit Polgar is still the number one woman chess player in the world with 2710 rating points. Her grip on the women’s world ranking has been total. Nobody has been able to touch her for years. 

But in the next few years, we may be able to see someone else come closer to challenging Polgar’s status. If there is any woman chess player who can do it, it is likely to be that lass from China, Hou Yifan, who is the current women’s world champion.

In the January 2012 rating list, Hou is finally the number two in the world, having displaced the former number two, Humpy Koneru, who is now the world’s number three woman player.

But interestingly enough, Hou’s present rating is very little changed from a year ago. Then, she was at 2602 points while now, her gain is only three rating points to 2605. It is just that Humpy’s poor performances lately have lost the Indian player some 18 points. She had been most affected by her terrible display at the women’s world championship match in November. 

Finally, I should also mention that China’s Ju Wenjun who was here in Kuala Lumpur playing in last year’s Malaysia open championship is now ranked as the sixth best woman chess player in the world. Over the past year, she had risen from 13th position. 

 

Tale of two players

This year-end may be a fitting time to pay some tribute to two chess players who have placed Asia on the world chess map. It’s fitting that they should be the representatives from two of the oldest civilisations in the world, China and India.

The two players are the current holders of the men's and women's world chess championship crowns: India's Viswanathan Anand and China's Hou Yifan.

Hou's exploits on the chess board are still fresh in our minds. Only last month, she had defended her world champion’s title successfully against Humpy Koneru who was rated so much higher than her. And incidentally, Koneru is also from India. 

Moreover just three days ago, Hou had helped the China team to win the women's world team chess championship in Turkey.

Hou is the dominant woman chess player in the world today and her rivals have good reason to be afraid of her. After all, can you imagine that a girl who is not quite 18 years old can already have so much experience on the chess board and is presently the women's world champion? There are still countless years for her to improve further. I would reckon that she will continue to have a good grip on the title for a long time to come.

But unlike Hou, Anand is already 42 years old. He is at an age where he is finding it increasingly challenging to play against other top chess grandmasters in the world.

The past four months especially have been a very trying period for Anand. All of a sudden he has found his form dipping. No longer is his game as feared as before. For a world chess champion, he has discovered to his dismay that it is getting harder to win.

It all started in September with the Chess Grand Slam Masters Final tournament. This six-player top-scale event was arranged as a double round-robin tournament with the first leg in Sao Paolo, Brazil and the second leg in Bilbao, Spain. The event had featured some of the best grandmasters in the world – players like Magnus Carlson, Lev Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Vasily Ivanchuk.

Anand finished the event with a 50 percent score. In the process, six draws peppered his results. He also lost two games which he made up with two wins against the tail-ender. A world champion scoring 50 percent in tournament play isn’t quite inspiring.

Anand’s woes continued after a break of about a month. At the sixth Tal memorial tournament in Moscow in November, he achieved the dubious distinction of drawing all his games. 

Till today, the former late world champion Mikhail Tal is admired foremost for his attacking style of play. Some say Tal’s style was reckless and unsound. Maybe it is true. However, his play did create the imbalance in his games and Tal thrived on the knife’s edge. 

However in this tournament, the players did not do much justice to the memory of the man that they had come to celebrate. An astounding 77.8 percent of the games – or 35 games out of the 45 played – were drawn. Anand’s own nine games was a significant contribution to this statistic. 

Finally in December, there was the London Chess Classic. Again, Anand’s result was lack lustre. It was his third 50 percent result in a top-notch tournament. He drew six of the eight games, lost one and won one.

All these indifferent results suggested that Anand the world champion was slipping down the top rankings. 

Long before these three events, he had already been displaced by Carlsen as the number one ranked player in the world. Now after these three events, he is down to number four in the world ranking list. Even Aronian and Kramnik have climbed above him.

More alarmingly, Anand’s rating has suffered in the process. When the World Chess Federation comes out with their January 2012 rating list this weekend, Anand’s rating will fall below the 2800-point level again. The last time he was below this level was in the May 2010 rating list.

It may be interesting to speculate why Anand’s form has suffered so much in the past four months. Perhaps it is because he is holding back his chess strength. 

Next May in Moscow, he shall be due to defend his world chess champion’s title against Boris Gelfand. 

Anand claimed that he hasn’t started his preparations yet. He would do so, he said recently, after the New Year. But even if he hasn’t started on his new preparations, he has certainly started to stop revealing his old preparations and ideas.

It makes sense to hold back your discoveries and only reveal them when the proper time comes. The Grand Slam Masters Final in Sao Paolo/Bilbao, the Tal Memorial in Moscow and the London Chess Classic were not the proper time nor the proper place, not when the title defence is just five months away.

Some people tend to dismiss Gelfand as a serious challenger to Anand because of his lower profile but in my opinion, all these people do not know the real Boris Gelfand. He has the necessary experience to cause Anand pain if the Indian is not careful. In the early 1990s, Gelfand was already a top grandmaster from the old Soviet Union. After the turbulence of the Soviet Union’s disintegration, Gelfand eventually migrated to Israel which he now calls home.

 

Shock pullout

If you are waiting for the next world chess championship match to be played between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, you can forget about it.

It’s not going to happen any time soon, not after the gifted 19-year-old Norwegian (he’ll be celebrating his 20th birthday in 11 days’ time, on Nov 30) pulled out from the Candidates matches that are due to be played next March.

It was a decision that shocked the chess world. The Norwegian grandmaster is currently the highest rated player in the world. Certainly, a match between him and defending champion Anand would have captured the world’s imagination.

But in order to reach Anand for the title, Carlsen would have to go through the series of elimination Candidates mini-matches. First off would be the Candidates quarter-final match and if he was successful, then the Candidates semi-final match and then the Candidates final match itself. The winner earns a ticket at a tilt with Anand in 2012.

Last week, Carlsen informed the World Chess Federation (Fide) that he was withdrawing from the Candidates. He claimed that the current world championship cycle was unfair to him. Also, the rules were not sufficiently modern enough. As such, he would not be able to motivate himself to compete. 

What Carlsen wanted was an end to the Candidates matches. He preferred an eight to 10 player world championship tournament to decide who would be the world champion, like what was played in 2005 and 2007. He didn’t like the idea of a series of knock-out matches.

Well, maybe to a teenager, the matches are not exciting or appealing enough. But to the rest of the world – and when I say the “rest of the world”, I mean the top-ranked professional chess players – the return to the Candidates matches were what they demanded and received from Fide. 

Few of the professional chess players wanted the world championship title to be decided on tournament play. There are tournaments a-plenty to satisfy the professional players throughout the year but a true test of a worthy champion, they said, is the ability to go through a series of games in a match with his challenger. For example, if two players were to play for the very highest stakes, would they want to stake everything on only one game or on a series of games? 

Therein lies the other argument in Carlsen’s withdrawal: the world championship is not a fight on equal terms. While players have to slug it out in the Candidates quarter-finals, semi-finals and final matches, the champion only needs to sit pretty and wait for a challenger to emerge.

Why should one player have one out of two tickets to the final, which is to the detriment of all remaining players in the world, he asked. Curiously enough, he then made a very puzzling comparison. Imagine, he said, if the winner of the 2010 Football World Cup directly qualifies to the 2014 World Cup final while all the rest of the teams fight for the other spot.

To me, this comparison with the World Cup is simply not spot-on. World championship chess and the football World Cup are two different creatures. World championship chess is a contest between individuals whereas the World Cup is a team game. 

In any tournament for individuals, the players do not change once the event had started. In team events, the players in a team do change from game to game. Even if two football teams play each other in quick succession, in all practical likelihood, the make-up of the teams on the two occasions would be different. Thus, it makes little sense to make this sort of comparison.

Another of Carlsen’s argument was that five years was too to complete a world chess championship cycle. To me, this is certainly true. However, one must understand the turmoil that world chess had undergone in the last two decades.

Since the days of Wilhelm Steinitz (the year was 1886), there had been a long chain of undisputed world chess champions. This chain snapped in 1993 when Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short chose to play their world championship match outside Fide. From 14 years, there were two parallel championship cycles. 

Although unification of the two titles eventually happened in 2006 after a lot of intense negotiation, the stakeholders still had much to demand from Fide.  You can say that Fide had to tread a fine line to satisfy everyone involved and that needed time. But eventually, everything settled down and there is now again one accepted format and one undisputed world chess champion in Anand. It was a tough lesson learnt. Would anyone want to repeat the same mistake?

But of course, it is all up to Carlsen. If he chooses to withdraw from the Candidates matches, that is up to him. Nobody can force him to accept a system which he dislikes. So without him playing, there is no potential Anand versus Carlsen world chess championship match to look forward to.

Nevertheless, the situation is still okay by Fide. All this had been anticipated and one or two days later, the world body announced that Alexander Grischuk has replaced Carlsen in the Candidates.

The Candidates matches will be world class with or without the Norwegian grandmaster. Only difference is that it will have that little less glamour. In fact, come next year, I’ll be looking forward to Veselin Topalov versus Gata Kamsky, Vladimir Kramnik versus Teimour Radjabov, Levon Aronian versus Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand versus Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. 

Up next  

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 from tomorrow until Nov 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).

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 on Nov 27-28. 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.

 

Fighting draws

One feature that anyone following the recent world chess championship match in Sofia, Bulgaria between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov could not fail to notice was the absence of short draws.

Yes, the two players did agree to draw seven of the 12 games but all of them were great fighting draws. The games were hard fought all the way and the players had to prove to one another that they’d only agree to split a point when there was no more possibility of squeezing a win from the position.

Great fighting chess. That was what we all wanted to see when those two players came together. Of course, we know that Topalov’s uncompromising style would guarantee excitement in every game. He wouldn’t take a draw if he could help it. It was just not his style. It was aggression all the way. Streetwise aggression.

However, Anand refused to let all that aggro affect him too much, if at all. He had such a universal style that he could absorb everything that his opponent threw at him and then he would throw everything back at the opponent.

The end result? Twelve games that made us worldwide spectators sit up enthralled from the first to the last move. Though I was only observing the games through the Internet, the feeling and excitement was exactly the same as the time I was watching Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman play onstage in Kuala Lumpur 20 years ago. You’d think you were watching only two persons on a huge but near empty stage but no, there was also all the tension that went with the game.

Same here, online. We marvelled at the resourcefulness of the players. We applauded when we saw the players go for each other’s throat and we groaned when we noticed their mistakes. They are undeniably humans first, prone to making mistakes and other inaccuracies, and only chess gods second. 

Of course, it helped that when we watched through the Internet, there’d be some chess grandmasters or international masters around to give their real-time opinions about the games. It helped create a better understanding of the games for all the spectators. The downside, of course, was having to put up with the incomprehensible comments of the kibitzers in the Internet chat room at the same time. That was the only compromise but if you can ignore them, the three or four hours that you spend online can be very beneficial to any learner of chess.

A lot of the fighting games in Sofia could be put down to a little-known chess rule that has become very popular lately at top-level chess events, but never employed before at the world chess championship level. It’s known as the Sofia Rule, not because it was used in this match but because it’s generally accepted that the it was first used in a top-level chess competition in the Bulgarian capital in 2005.

The Sofia Rule dictates that players could not draw their games by agreement. They could have technical draws through stalemate or threefold repetition of position or the 50-move rule or through insufficient material, but that was all. Other draws would only be allowed if the arbiter declared it as a drawn position.

The FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009 series of tournaments did not even allow players to offer a draw directly. The draw had to be claimed with the arbiter, who was assisted by an experienced grandmaster. 

At this world chess championship match, Topalov tried to impose the Sofia Rule on Anand during the pre-match negotiations. He would not talk to Anand over the board, he declared. He would also ignore any attempt by Anand to offer a draw by talking to him during a game. If there was any draw offer, he would make it through the arbiter.

This request was rejected by Anand because according to him, world championship chess should be played with world championship regulations, and the Sofia Rule had never been accepted in any world championship regulation before.

Of course, there could always be a first time but how could there be a first time when both players cannot agree to using the rule? Nevertheless despite Anand’s rejection of the rule, Topalov’s team insisted that they would use it unilaterally and effectively force Anand to recognize it.

I think Anand’s response to this Sofia Rule was masterful. It was okay with him if Topalov refused to offer draws or accept draws. Anand was prepared to fight it out with Topalov in each and every game, no matter how long they played, but even without talking to his opponent, Anand could still tacitly offer to repeat positions on the chessboard. He was confident that if Topalov refused to accept such offers, it would make him continue the game and maybe, the pressure of trying to find the best alternative plans may force him into errors.

We all saw that happen in the 12th game. At one stage, the two players could have played their queen and bishop up and down the board and repeat the position three times but Topalov baulked at that. Drawing that game would mean extending the match into the tie-break which Topalov didn’t want, so he tried something else and he allowed Anand to break open the centre and train his guns on him.

The rest, as they say, is history. Anand carried out an irresistible attack and Topalov had to recapitulate at the end. Final result: 6½ points to world champion Anand and 5½ points to vanquished challenger Topalov.

Here are three more games from the match:

Veselin Topalov – Viswanathan Anand, Game 6

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 a6 6. Ne5 c5 7. Na3 cxd4 8. Naxc4 Bc5 9. O-O O-O 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bxf6 Qxf6 12. Nd3 Ba7 13. Qa4 Nc6 14. Rac1 e5 15. Bxc6 b5 16. Qc2 Qxc6 17. Ncxe5 Qe4 18. Qc6 Bb7 19. Qxe4 Bxe4 20. Rc2 Rfe8 21. Rfc1 f6 22. Nd7 Bf5 23. N7c5 Bb6 24. Nb7 Bd7 25. Nf4 Rab8 26. Nd6 Re5 27. Nc8 Ba5 28. Nd3 Re8 29. Na7 Bb6 30. Nc6 Rb7 31. Ncb4 a5 32. Nd5 a4 33. Nxb6 Rxb6 34. Nc5 Bf5 35. Rd2 Rc6 36. b4 axb3 37. axb3 b4 38. Rxd4 Rxe2 39. Rxb4 Bh3 40. Rbc4 Rd6 41. Re4 Rb2 42. Ree1 Rdd2 43. Ne4 Rd4 44. Nc5 Rdd2 45. Ne4 Rd3 46. Rb1 Rdxb3 47. Nd2 Rb4 48. f3 g5 49. Rxb2 Rxb2 50. Rd1 Kf7 51. Kf2 h5 52. Ke3 Rc2 53. Ra1 Kg6 54. Ra6 Bf5 55. Rd6 Rc3+ 56. Kf2 Rc2 57. Ke3 Rc3+ 58. Kf2 Rc2 ½-½ 

Viswanathan Anand – Veselin Topalov, Game 7

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. Bf4 dxc4 9. Ne5 b5 10. Nxc6 Nxc6 11. Bxc6 Bd7 12. Bxa8 Qxa8 13. f3 Nd5 14. Bd2 e5 15. e4 Bh3 16. exd5 Bxf1 17. Qxf1 exd4 18. a4 Qxd5 19. axb5 Qxb5 20. Rxa7 Re8 21. Kh1 Bf8 22. Rc7 d3 23. Bc3 Bd6 24. Ra7 h6 25. Nd2 Bb4 26. Ra1 Bxc3 27. bxc3 Re2 28. Rd1 Qa4 29. Ne4 Qc2 30. Rc1 Rxh2+ 31. Kg1 Rg2+ 32. Qxg2 Qxc1+ 33. Qf1 Qe3+ 34. Qf2 Qc1+ 35. Qf1 Qe3+ 36. Kg2 f5 37. Nf2 Kh7 38. Qb1 Qe6 39. Qb5 g5 40. g4 fxg4 41. fxg4 Kg6 42. Qb7 d2 43. Qb1+ Kg7 44. Kf1 Qe7 45. Kg2 Qe6 46. Qd1 Qe3 47. Qf3 Qe6 48. Qb7+ Kg6 49. Qb1+ Kg7 50. Qd1 Qe3 51. Qc2 Qe2 52. Qa4 Kg8 53. Qd7 Kf8 54. Qd5 Kg7 55. Kg3 Qe3+ 56. Qf3 Qe5+ 57. Kg2 Qe6 58. Qd1 ½-½

Veselin Topalov – Viswanathan Anand, Game 8

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. f3 c5 8. e4 Bg6 9. Be3 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd4 11. Bxd4 Nfd7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bxc4 Rc8 14. Bb5 a6 15. Bxd7+ Kxd7 16. Ke2 f6 17. Rhd1 Ke8 18. a5 Be7 19. Bb6 Rf8 20. Rac1 f5 21. e5 Bg5 22. Be3 f4 23. Ne4 Rxc1 24. Nd6+ Kd7 25. Bxc1 Kc6 26. Bd2 Be7 27. Rc1+ Kd7 28. Bc3 Bxd6 29. Rd1 Bf5 30. h4 g6 31. Rxd6+ Kc8 32. Bd2 Rd8 33. Bxf4 Rxd6 34. exd6 Kd7 35. Ke3 Bc2 36. Kd4 Ke8 37. Ke5 Kf7 38. Be3 Ba4 39. Kf4 Bb5 40. Bc5 Kf6 41. Bd4+ Kf7 42. Kg5 Bc6 43. Kh6 Kg8 44. h5 Be8 45. Kg5 Kf7 46. Kh6 Kg8 47. Bc5 gxh5 48. Kg5 Kg7 49. Bd4+ Kf7 50. Be5 h4 51. Kxh4 Kg6 52. Kg4 Bb5 53. Kf4 Kf7 54. Kg5 Bc6 55. Kh6 Kg8 56. g4 1-0

Up next  

Perak grand prix

The Manjung leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, postponed from last week due to the unavailability of the venue, is now confirmed as scheduled for this Sunday at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Methodist (ACS) in Sitiawan. 

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. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Hamisah (012.5008723). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

Chess workshops

With the school holidays just around the corner, Polgar Chess Asia is organizing several holiday chess workshops at Desa Sri Hartamas in Kuala Lumpur. Complete beginners with very little idea about playing chess can attend the beginners-level workshops on Jun 7-10 or Jun 14-15. Fees are RM280 per student.

For slightly more advanced players, there are workshops on learning strategies of attack and endgame fundamentals. The “strategies of attack” workshop is on Jun 7-8 while the “endgame fundamentals” workshop is on Jun 9-10. Fees are RM300 per student.

For more information, contact Louisa Yip of Polgar Chess Asia (03.23001680 or 019.2586355).

MBS chess

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur will hold the 5th MBSSKL chess open tournament at the school premises on July 24. There will be three categories of events: under-20, under-17 and under-14 for boys and girls. Entry fees are RM5 for MBS students and RM15 for non-MBS students. More details are available from Mr NK Chin or Mdm LY Yong at the school (03.20782293)

 

Still champ

Finally, the world chess championship match in Sofia, Bulgaria is over. India’s Viswanathan Anand is still the world champion and Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov is left regretting what could have been.

What a match. Right from the very first move in the first game until the very last move in the 12th game, the match had bedazzled me all the way. Topalov, as I had mentioned so many times in the past, showed an uncompromising fighting spirit and took the game to Anand but Anand proved to be a more capable and complete player than Topalov. 

When the Bulgarian challenger won the eighth game to level the match at four-all, I had never thought that this match would not go the full distance. For sure, it would then be decided by the tie-break games. 

The next two games – the ninth and the 10th – were drawn. In the 11th game, it was Anand’s last chance to win with the white pieces but a very confident Topalov held out comfortably to force a draw.

The 12th game would then become the most critical. Topalov would have the white pieces in this final game and hence, the initiative of playing the first move. Would he make something out of this initiative? Would he be able to press Anand into submission?

In this game of death, a win would secure either player the title of world champion; a draw would lead to the tie-break games. However, it was not to be. After a great deal of manoeuvring by both players, Anand took a bold step to pry open the centre with a pawn push.

Topalov was reckless enough to go along with the plan. He captured the pawn and suddenly, Anand’s attack appeared from nowhere. Checkmate was expected but at a critical stage, Anand did not play the best move and Topalov almost came back to hold the game. 

But the tension finally took its toll on the Bulgarian. After a series of exchanges, it was clear that his remaining pieces (a rook and a knight) were very uncoordinated on the chess board and Anand’s sole queen had no problem to wrap up the game.

The final score of the match was 6½-5½. Anand had won the second, fourth and 12th games while Topalov took the first and eighth games. The rest of the games were drawn.

Here is the final game of the match:

Viswanathan Anand-Veselin Topalov, Game 12

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 0-0 7.e3 Ne4 8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Rc1 c6 10.Be2 Nxc3 11.Rxc3 dxc4 12.Bxc4 Nd7 13.0-0 b6 14.Bd3 c5 15.Be4 Rb8 16.Qc2 Nf6 17.dxc5 Nxe4 18.Qxe4 bxc5 19.Qc2N Bb7 20.Nd2 Rfd8 21.f3 Ba6 22.Rf2 Rd7 23.g3 Rbd8 24.Kg2 Bd3 25.Qc1 Ba6 26.Ra3 Bb7 27.Nb3 Rc7 28.Na5 Ba8 29.Nc4 e5 30.e4 f5 31.exf5 e4 32.fxe4 (It was at this point that Topalov lost his nerve) 32...Qxe4+ 33.Kh3 Rd4 34.Ne3 Qe8 35.g4 h5 36.Kh4 g5+ 37.fxg6 Qxg6 38.Qf1 Rxg4+ 39.Kh3 Re7 40.Rf8+ Kg7 41.Nf5+ Kh7 42.Rg3 Rxg3+ 43.hxg3 Qg4+ 44.Kh2 Re2+ 45.Kg1 Rg2+ 46.Qxg2 Bxg2 47.Kxg2 Qe2+ 48.Kh3 c4 49.a4 a5 50.Rf6 Kg8 51.Nh6+ Kg7 52.Rb6 Qe4 53.Kh2 Kh7 4.Rd6 Qe5 55.Nf7 Qxb2+ 56.Kh3 Qg7 0-1

And here are some of the earlier games of this match.

Veselin Topalov-Viswanathan Anand, Game 3

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. f3 c5 8. e4 Bg6 9. Be3 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd4 11. Bxd4 Nfd7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bxc4 a6 14. Rc1 Rg8 15. h4 h6 16. Ke2 Bd6 17. h5 Bh7 18. a5 Ke7 19. Na4 f6 20. b4 Rgc8 21. Bc5 Bxc5 22. bxc5 Rc7 23. Nb6 Rd8 24. Nxd7 Rdxd7 25. Bd3 Bg8 26. c6 Rd6 27. cxb7 Rxb7 28. Rc3 Bf7 29. Ke3 Be8 30. g4 e5 31. Rhc1 Bd7 32. Rc5 Bb5 33. Bxb5 axb5 34. Rb1 b4 35. Rb3 Ra6 36. Kd3 Rba7 37. Rxb4 Rxa5 38. Rxa5 Rxa5 39. Rb7+ Kf8 40. Ke2 Ra2+ 41. Ke3 Ra3+ 42. Kf2 Ra2+ 43. Ke3 Ra3+ 44. Kf2 Ra2+ 45. Ke3 Ra3+ 46. Kf2 ½-½ 

Viswanathan Anand-Veselin Topalov, Game 4

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 a5 7. Qc2 Bxd2+ 8. Qxd2 c6 9. a4 b5 10. Na3 Bd7 11. Ne5 Nd5 12. e4 Nb4 13. O-O O-O 14. Rfd1 Be8 15. d5 Qd6 16. Ng4 Qc5 17. Ne3 N8a6 18. dxc6 bxa4 19. Naxc4 Bxc6 20. Rac1 h6 21. Nd6 Qa7 22. Ng4 Rad8 23. Nxh6+ gxh6 24. Qxh6 f6 25. e5 Bxg2 26. exf6 Rxd6 27. Rxd6 Be4 28. Rxe6 Nd3 29. Rc2 Qh7 30. f7+ Qxf7 31. Rxe4 Qf5 32. Re7 1-0

Veselin Topalov-Viswanathan Anand, Game 5

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. f3 c5 8. e4 Bg6 9. Be3 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd4 11. Bxd4 Nfd7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bxc4 a6 14. Rc1 Rg8 15. h4 h5 16. Ne2 Bd6 17. Be3 Ne5 18. Nf4 Rc8 19. Bb3 Rxc1+ 20. Bxc1 Ke7 21. Ke2 Rc8 22. Bd2 f6 23. Nxg6+ Nxg6 24. g3 Ne5 25. f4 Nc6 26. Bc3 Bb4 27. Bxb4+ Nxb4 28. Rd1 Nc6 29. Rd2 g5 30. Kf2 g4 31. Rc2 Rd8 32. Ke3 Rd6 33. Rc5 Nb4 34. Rc7+ Kd8 35. Rc3 Ke7 36. e5 Rd7 37. exf6+ Kxf6 38. Ke2 Nc6 39. Ke1 Nd4 40. Bd1 a5 41. Rc5 Nf5 42. Rc3 Nd4 43. Rc5 Nf5 44. Rc3 ½-½

Up next  

De Laguna Park open

The Cerdik Catur Enterprise and Restoran Selera Nelayan are jointly organizing the Stonemaster De Laguna Park open tournament at the Laguna Park Pulau Indah in Port Klang tomorrow.

Entry fees are RM15 for players below 18 years old and RM25 for others. To register, contact Mohd Fadli Zakaria (014.2312370, seme_event@yahoo.com). Places are available to the first 150 players only. More information available from http://www.stonemaster.info or http://cerdikcatur.blogspot.com 

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 tomorrow and on Sunday. 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/)

Perak grand prix

The Manjung leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Methodist (ACS) in Sitiawan this Sunday. 

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. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Hamisah (012.5008723). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

PCA AGM

The Penang Chess Association will hold its annual general meeting at the Residents’ Association of Bayan Baru in Jalan Nibong, Bandar Bayan Baru, Penang this Sunday at 11am. Preceding the meeting will be a blitz tournament starting at 9.30am.

CAS closed and AGM

The Chess Association of Selangor will hold the CAS closed tournament in the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on May 23 afternoon. Only members of the association can take part and therefore, you’ll need to join as a member before you can play. The entry fee is RM20 per player if registered before May 20 and RM30 per player after this date. For more information, contact Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922) or Mat Zaki (017.2032051). 

Meanwhile, the 33rd annual general meeting of the CAS will be held on May 23 at 11am. The venue of the meeting will also be the Wilayah Complex.

 

Punch and counter-punch

It’s been a week since the start of the world chess championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and his challenger, Veselin Topalov. After all the drama of Anand’s overland journey from Frankfurt to Sofia, the match was put off for a day and it kicked off last Saturday instead of Friday.

I was a little miffed to learn that the Bulgarian Chess Federation and the match organizers had refused to meet Anand half-way. A lot of reasons were given but I think they were only trying to make it difficult for the world champion. Initially, Anand had requested for a three-day postponement but a one-day postponement would have been reasonable enough.

In the end, it was left to the World Chess Federation (Fide) to find an amicable solution and they decided that the first game would start on Saturday. However, it doesn’t seem to be the end of the story because the latest word from Sofia is that Silvio Danailov, who is Topalov’s manager, is contemplating to sue Fide for the late start.

Of course, he is well within his rights to seek legal redress but I think it also paints him in very bad light. After all, it was no fault of anybody that the volcano in Iceland erupted and caused air traffic chaos in Europe. 

Everybody knows that this is a very high-stake match in Bulgaria. All the more reason that if Danailov really wants Topalov to win the world championship title, let him win it fair and square from Anand over the board. 

By the way, I’m writing this story during the first lull in the match. As I write this on Monday, only the first two games have been completed. And you know what? I’m already having withdrawal symptoms! When you are eagerly looking forward to following every game of this world chess championship match, all you want to do is to sit down at the computer every night at 8pm to follow the games live.

Unfortunately, the match rules stipulate that there should be a rest day after every two games. As the schedule would have it, Monday was a rest day. The players are resting or preparing themselves for more battles ahead, but we chess followers and spectators can only wait impatiently for the next day to come.

The only consolation is that the two games have been very exciting and decisive. At the opening ceremony three days earlier, Topalov drew the white envelope, meaning that he would play the first game of this match with the white pieces. That was the first stir of excitement. With the white pieces, we can expect the Bulgarian grandmaster to kick of the match in his aggressive style.

True enough, Topalov was first off the block. He came out fighting and slugging. Remarkably, Anand tried to match him blow for blow. When I was following this game live through the Internet, my first thought was whether both players were playing blitz chess or world championship chess.

For this particular match, they had agreed on a time control of 40 moves in two hours, followed by 20 moves in one hour, and then a final 15 minutes for a play-to-death session. There’s lots of time to think and yet, Topalov and Anand sailed through their first 18 moves in barely 10 minutes. 

It was only on the 19th move that Topalov paused long enough to think. Here was where the real battle began. Unfortunately, the game ended early, after another 11 moves. You see, Anand made an uncharacteristic blunder in the game. His position was already difficult but he made it more difficult for himself by walking into a piece sacrifice. This is the game:

Veselin Topalov – Viswanathan Anand, Game 1

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 c5 8. Ne2 Nc6 9. Be3 O-O 10. O-O Na5 11. Bd3 b6 12. Qd2 e5 13. Bh6 cxd4 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. cxd4 exd4 16. Rac1 Qd6 17. f4 f6 18. f5 Qe5 19. Nf4 g5 20. Nh5+ Kg8 21. h4 h6 22. hxg5 hxg5 23. Rf3 Kf7? (See diagram. Black needs to tread carefully in this position. His knight and one of the rooks are terribly out of play on the queenside and his king is rather exposed. On the other hand, White has good chances on the kingside and there’s always a danger of him infiltrating through the c-file. Black’s 23rd move is a blunder and allows a decisive stroke from White. The best resistance may be 23…Bd7.) 24. Nxf6 (After this sac, which White played almost immediately, Black’s position is untenable.) 24….Kxf6 25. Rh3 Rg8 26. Rh6+ Kf7 27. Rh7+ Ke8 28. Rcc7 Kd8 29. Bb5 Qxe4 30. Rxc8+ 1-0 

People like me watching from afar was shell-shocked. Why was it so easy for Topalov to dismantle Anand’s game? Has Topalov’s preparation been so superior that Anand had no answer? Or, was the Indian grandmaster still suffering from his overland drive? These are questions without immediate answers. 

It was also almost impossible to gauge Anand’s frame of mind after this loss. Would he brush it aside as an aberration? Certainly, it came as a shock to his system and to his world-wide fan base (and I know that he has a big fan base in Asia). Most people would be demoralized to have lost in only 30 moves. However, Anand is made of sterner stuff and he came back with a firm resolve on the next day. In the second game, he gave Topalov no opportunity at all for open tactical play and scored a fine win to level the match at 1-all. Here it is:

 

Viswanathan Anand – Veselin Topalov, Game 2

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 a6 6. Ne5 c5 7. Na3 cxd4 8. Naxc4 Bc5 9. O-O O-O 10. Bd2 Nd5 11. Rc1 Nd7 12. Nd3 Ba7 13. Ba5 Qe7 14. Qb3 Rb8 15. Qa3 Qxa3 16. bxa3 (Shades of Bobby Fischer. Inspirational. I still remember one of Fischer’s games with Spassky in 1972 when he willingly saddled himself with a doubled pawn on the h-file. Likewise in this game, Anand accepted the doubled pawns on the a-file. However, in return, he keeps up the pressure on the queenside.) 16….N7f6 17. Nce5 Re8 18. Rc2 b6 19. Bd2 Bb7 20. Rfc1 Rbd8 21. f4 Bb8 22. a4 a5 23. Nc6 Bxc6 24. Rxc6 h5 25. R1c4 Ne3? (This move is considered a mistake. Black showed impatience with the position.) 26. Bxe3 dxe3 27. Bf3 g6 28. Rxb6 Ba7 29. Rb3 Rd4 30. Rc7 Bb8 31. Rc5 Bd6 32. Rxa5 Rc8 33. Kg2 Rc2 34. a3 (At this stage, Black is probably already lost. This unassuming pawn will ultimately decide the game.) 34….Ra2 35. Nb4 Bxb4 36. axb4 Nd5 37. b5 Raxa4 38. Rxa4 Rxa4 39. Bxd5 exd5 40. b6 Ra8 41. b7 (I hope you remember that this was the pawn that was originally on the a2 square) 41….Rb8 42. Kf3 d4 43. Ke4 1-0

Up next  

Selangor open

The nation’s longest-running chess tournament, the 37th Selangor open chess tournament, started yesterday at the Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur and will continue daily until May 2. Do drop by to have a look at this tournament even if you are not playing.

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/)

Perak grand prix

The Manjung leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Methodist (ACS) in Sitiawan on May 16. 

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. Entries will close on May 13. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Hamisah (012.5008723). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

 

Summit uncertainty

As typical with all high-stake chess events, especially the world chess championship matches, the pre-match mind games usually start well before the first move is played.

This year’s world championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and challenger Veselin Topalov is no different. The mind games actually started months ago when both parties were negotiating the terms for this match. It was to be expected that both sides would want the best conditions for their players without acceding any concession to their rival. Nevertheless at the end of the day, they would have to agree on a common ground for the match to proceed.

That, of course, would have been settled a long time ago. Today, we are scheduled to see the start of the first game of the match in Sofia, Bulgaria but will we? As I write this story earlier this week, there is a big question mark over this happening.

You see, even the best man-made plans can be torn asunder by the unpredictability of Mother Nature and as we all know, for much of the past 10 days or so, Europe has been affected by an event happening on the fringe of that continent.

Who would have expected that a volcanic eruption on Iceland could have affected air travel everywhere on the globe? Although travel within Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas are generally unaffected, tens of thousands of flights within, in and out of Europe have been cancelled. Air passengers are stranded everywhere and even the alternative land travel is pretty much choked up. 

It’s a chaotic situation that is even affecting chess. Anand, who is based in Spain, has suddenly discovered that Mother Nature, aided unwittingly by the European Union, has no respect for world champions. His flight from Madrid took him to Frankfurt but on landing there, his contingent was told that the airport was closing and the connecting flight to Sofia had been cancelled. Stranded!

This is not the best news for anyone who is directly involved in the high-stake world championship match. At the every worst, it will throw the player’s psychological preparation totally out of whack. We shall not know how much Anand has been affected until he sits down to face Topalov. 

I’m sure that to a lesser degree Topalov is also affected. However he is already comfortably settled into Sofia for several weeks now and his preparations continue uninterrupted. I’m pretty sure too that he cannot give a darn about Anand’s present predicament. Whatever happens to the weather, every free day in Sofia is an opportunity for him to rest and psyche himself up properly for the match.

So the pressure is mostly on Anand himself. When I wrote this story earlier this week, I understood that the world champion had already finalized plans to travel overland into Bulgaria. Maybe, he would have had arrived in Sofia by Wednesday and wrecked by travel fatigue. His preparations are totally disrupted. Would one or two days be enough for him to recover his frame of mind?

In this regard, both Anand and the All India Chess Federation have made statements and requests to both the World Chess Federation and the match organizers from the Bulgarian Chess Federation to delay the start of the match for three days. This was while Anand was still stuck at Frankfurt.

To the vast majority of chess players worldwide, it was a request made not totally unreasonably. Although chess players are waiting for the match to start, they would only want to see both players come to the both fully prepared physically, technically and psychologically. 

However, the match organizers saw it differently. They said that they could not agree to the postponement of the opening ceremony two days ago because they had contractual agreements with many third parties. Nevertheless, the organizers said they were still open to the postponing of the first game from today to tomorrow but this would still have to be discussed internally. Let’s see how this turns out.

In the meantime, I am priming myself up to watch the match over the Internet. There’ll be a maximum of 12 games, all playing with classical time control, and they all start at 8pm, local time here in Malaysia. 

Unless there are changes to the schedule, there will be a rest day after every two days of play with an additional rest day thrown in on May 9 before the 12th game. If the score reaches 6-all, the players will break the tie with a series of faster games on May 12.

The official world chess championship website is at http://www.anand-topalov.com/ but there is a host of other high profile chess websites and blogs covering the event too. Fully recommended are Chessdom.com (http://www.chessdom.com), Chessbase.com (http://www.chessbase.com) and Susan Polgar’s web-blog (http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com).

On paper, Topalov, who is presently ranked second in the world at 2805, must be considered a slight favourite over Anand, who is ranked fourth at 2787. But external influences aside, one can imagine almost anything to happen in this match.

I’ve mentioned often enough that Topalov is an enterprising player that creates energy on the chessboard. He sees resources where others may well get bogged down in complications. His games are stuff to excite any onlooker. 

On the other hand, Anand is more experienced in match play and his game is more sound and filled with better judgment. This shorter match of 12 games is supposed to favour the older Anand (he’s 40 years old, five years older than Topalov) who is likelier to get tired over a longer match. The Indian grandmaster is also believed to play better if it ever comes to the faster tiebreak games.

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 at the Sek Men Teknik Kerian in Jalan Siakap, Bagan Serai 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. Entries will close on Apr 22. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Mas’ud Hamzah (012.4681665).

Stonemaster chess

The one-day second Stonemaster amateur chess tournament for 2010, organized by Cerdik Catur Enterprise will be held at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Kuala Lumpur on Apr 25. Only players without a national rating or a national rating of below 1650 are allowed to play. Entry fees are RM30 for adults and RM20 for school children. Closing date for entries is Apr 23. For details, contact Mohd Fadli Zakaria (014.2312370, seme_event@yahoo.com) or Cikgu Farah (017.9100836). 

 

Selangor open

The nation’s longest-running chess tournament is back! The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will hold their 37th Selangor open chess tournament at the Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur from Apr 29 to May 2.

This nine-round, Fide-rated event will have 10 main prizes totalling RM6,000 with the winner getting RM2,200. There will also be various minor category prizes. Entry fees are RM80 for CAS members with Fide ratings, RM90 for CAS members without Fide ratings, RM90 for non-CAS members with Fide ratings and RM100 for non-CAS members without Fide ratings. Entries received after Apr 25 will be charged an extra RM20.

For enquiries, contact Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922) or Mat Zaki Yeop (017.2032051).

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/)

 

Still the king

 

Kramnik claws back

 

Crash and burn

 

Class of its own

 

Title challenge

 

Anand trumps Kramnik

 

Asians gain the upper hand

WHO would have thought that it would take more than 600 years before chess is championed by Asians? It has finally happened, through the efforts of India's Viswanathan Anand and China's Xie Jun at the world chess championships that were held in New Delhi and Teheran late last month.

For the first time in the long history of the ancient game, both the men's and women's chess crowns are held simultaneously by Asian chess players. And from the way that they achieved these successes, you would have believed that it had come so easy to them.

In fact, the way I see it, it was way too easy for the top seeds in their respective championships. For most of the earlier rounds, Anand and Xie had marched through their opponents like a knife cutting through butter.

Anand's first real test came in the quarter-final stage where he disposed off the defending world champion, Alexander Khalifman. This was an exciting match. The first and second games were drawn and so, the match headed into the play-offs.

The first two games of the play-offs were also drawn, then Anand struck in the third game. In the fourth play-off game, Khalifman held a very slight edge in the position but it was not enough to win. With this game drawn, Anand advanced to the semi-finals where he was to play Michael Adams.

The first game between Anand and Adams was drawn, but the Indian outplayed the Englishman in the second game. Two more draws followed and suddenly, Anand found himself in the final. For the final match between Anand and Alexei Shirov, the venue shifted from New Delhi to Teheran.

The organisers had expected this match to go the full distance of six games but to everyone's surprise, all it took to decide the new men's world champion were four thrilling games! Viewers following the games through the Internet were kept enthralled throughout the short battle.

The first game was a draw but then, Shirov decided that if he wanted to win the match, he would have to take a lot of chances and risks. So, in the second game, despite playing with the black pieces, Shirov served up a most complicated game. However, Anand kept his cool and adroitly converted the endgame into a full point.

Disaster again struck for Shirov in the third game. He gave up one of his rooks to wreck the position around Anand's king, but this enterprising sacrifice was not enough to force a win. Through accurate play, Anand managed to cover his weaknesses and then, after having done so, he used his material advantage to force a resignation from Shirov.

The fourth game saw Shirov throwing caution to the wind as it would be a make-or-break game for him. With all his guns blazing, Shirov launched into a kamikaze attack.

Anand declined to castle and Shirov responded by ripping open the centre. A terrific attack followed during which Shirov's mass of centre pawns threatened to weave a mating net around Anand's king. But suddenly, the queens were off the board. Without the queens, Shirov's initiative petered out and Anand had no trouble realising his material advantage.

Xie also had no problem in winning the final match against her compatriot, Qin Kanying, but there was one difference. Xie was already the defending champion and she fully justified her top ranking by breaking through the dense rows of European players to reach the final. With Xie in such intimidating form, it would have been very naive to expect Qin to perform miracles in this match.

In the first game, Xie played an interesting novelty and won. It took only one mistake on Qin's part and her position became practically hopeless. Xie edged closer to victory by drawing the second game.

Qin managed to strike up a fight but nothing came out of it. The final position in this game was so sterile. Similarly in the third game, Qin tried her best but could only reach an equal rook endgame.

The fourth game presented Qin with the final chance to draw level in the match. However, she failed to put her plans into practice and simply flowed with the tide. Her only salvation was that Xie only needed to draw the game and once she saw a perpetual check, she was no longer interested to find a simple way to win.

So, after a gruelling month of chess in India and Iran, the 2000 edition of the world chess championship came to a close.

With the start of the new millennium, Asia suddenly finds itself with two worthy chess champions. Will this herald a new age for chess in Asia, or will we find that Anand's win is only a slight aberration in the world chess order? Only time will tell.

Perak chess calendar

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) has released its calendar of activities for this year and between now and July, chess players in the state can expect to play in five local chess tournaments.

The most immediate activity takes place this weekend at the Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman library in Ipoh. There is a two-day Category A event starting tomorrow at 2pm for Perak players with internal ratings of at least 1,700 points. This tournament is played over six rounds with a time control of one hour on each player's clock for each game.

On Sunday, a six-round Category B tournament with a 30-minute time control will also be organised from 8.30am. To play in this tournament, players must have no internal Perak rating or have a rating of more than 1,699 points.

Three other similar events will be held on the weekends of March 10 and 11, May 12 and 13, and July 7 and 8. According to the PICA, players who perform well in the Category A tournaments will be short-listed for the Perak team which will be sent to this year's Merdeka team championship in Kuala Lumpur at the end of August.

The other main tournament that the association will be holding will be the second Kellie's Castle open tournament in Batu Gajah on April 21 and 22. The PICA is also holding its annual general meeting in Ipoh on March 11.

Readers interested in taking part in these tournaments should call W.K. Wong ( 05-366 1692).

CAS clarification

Last month, the Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) organised the Metro Hundred Chess Carnival at the Mines exhibition hall in Seri Kembangan on behalf of Metro Hundred Sdn Bhd. Apparently, the winners of the tournament have not received their prizes.

In a short statement released earlier this week, CAS said that the event was not funded by them. However, according to CAS, the prize money for the winners would be paid by Metro Hundred on Feb 15.

Chess at the Olympics

SO, HOW many of you remembered to log on to http://sydney.fide.com on the Internet on Sept 24 to watch the two games between Viswanathan Anand and Alexei Shirov at the Sydney Olympics?

By all accounts, it was a historic event as it marked the first time that a chessboard was officially recognised in the Olympic games village.

Although there were no medals at stake and the games were simply an exhibition, the two rapid-play games were hard fought and played till there was no life left in the positions.

The first game was a fashionable line of the Najdorf variation that will come under close scrutiny for its theoretical value. Anand, known for his speed of play, seemed to obtain an advantage on the board and the clock, but Shirov defended under pressure to reach an ending where Anand's extra bishop had no effect on the result of the game.

In the second game, Shirov played the French. Anand sacrificed a pawn but Shirov repulsed the initiative and was a full pawn to the good. In mutual time trouble, Anand won back his pawn and both players agreed to a second draw.

According to reports from Sydney, Shirov had problems coping with a 39-hour journey from Poland. He missed a connecting flight and arrived just six hours before the match. He was very jet-lagged and had trouble waking up in time for the event.

There was speculation that if chess makes it as an Olympiad event it would most likely be in the Winter Games. Salt Lake City in the United States, two years from now, would be the earliest available opportunity.

Whether it becomes a reality or not will depend on the success of negotiations between the World Chess Federation, the International Olympic Committee and the Winter Games organisers.

In the meantime, here are the two absorbing games that were played in Sydney.

Shirov vs Anand (Game 1)

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5 8. g4 h6 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. O-O-O Bb7 11. h4 b4 12. Na4 Qa5 13. b3 Nc5 14. a3 Nxa4 15. axb4 Qc7 16. bxa4 d5 17. e5 Nd7 18. f4 Nb6 19. f5! (This variation is named after the Russian international master, Alexander Grischuk, who was the first to play this attacking move.) 19. ... Nxa4 20. fxe6 Nc3 21. exf7+ Kxf7 22. Bd3 Bxb4 23. Rdf1+ Kg8 24. Qf2 Ba3+ 25. Kd2 Ne4+ 26. Bxe4 dxe4 27. g5 (About two weeks earlier, Anand, himself using the white pieces against Boris Gelfand in the Chess World Cup tournament in Shenyang, played 27.Qf5 but could not avoid a draw after 27. ... Bb4+ 28.Kd1 Qc4 29.Ne6 Qd5+ 30.Ke2 Qc4+ 31.Kd1 Qd5+. Shirov tries a different tack.) 27. ... Bd5 28. gxh6 Bb2 29. Rb1 (After 29.Kd1 Qa5 30.Qf4 Rxh6 31.Nf5 Rh5 32.Rfg1 Kh8 33.Rg5 Rh7 34.Rxg7!, White has a crushing attack.) 29. ... Bc3+ 30. Kc1 Bxd4 31. Bxd4 e3 32. Qxe3 Bxh1 33. Rb6 Rc8? (Although Black has an extra rook, the win is not automatic. Possibly better is 33. ... Bd5, eg 34.Rg6 Rh7 35.e6 Rc8 36.c3 Qa5 37.Qg3 Qa1+ 38.Kd2 Qb2+ 39.Ke1 Qc1+ 40.Kf2 Qd2+ 41.Kg1 Qc1+ 42.Kf2 Rf8+ 43.Bf6 Rxf6+ 44.Rxf6 Rxh6 and White is losing.) 34. Qb3+ Qc4 35. hxg7 Rxh4 36. Rb8! Qxb3 37. Rxc8+ Kxg7 38. cxb3 Rxd4 39. Rc7+ 1/2-1/2 (Black's bishop cannot control the a1 promotion square, thus White ensures a draw in this position.)

Anand vs Shirov (Game 2)

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxe4 5. Nxe4 Be7 6. Bxf6 Bxf6 7. Nf3 O-O 8. Bc4 Nc6 9. c3 e5 10. d5 Ne7 11. Nxf6+ gxf6 12. Qd2 Kh8 13. O-O-O Bg4 14. Be2 Qd6 15. Nh4 Rg8 16. g3 Rad8 17. Bxg4 Rxg4 18. Qe2 Ra4 19. Kb1 Nxd5 20. Nf5 Qe6 21. Ne3 Rd6 22. Nxd5 Rxd5 23. a3 Raa5 24. c4 Rd4 25. Rxd4 exd4 26. Qd3 Rc5 27. Qxd4 Rxc4 28. Qd8+ Kg7 29. Rd1 Qf5+ 30. Qd3 Qxd3+ 31. Rxd3 f5 32. Rd8 a5 33. Rd5 a4 1/2-1/2

UP NEXT

Allegro finals

THE Malaysian Chess Federation will hold the finals of this year's second Bank Pertanian Malaysia allegro Grand Prix at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur this weekend.

Unlike the earlier legs which were held in the State capitals throughout the year, this final tournament will be played over two days starting tomorrow at 2pm. Players are required to register at the playing venue between 10am and noon.

The winners of the various State legs will get free and automatic entry into the finals but all other participants will be charged entry fees which are RM10 for players under 12 years old, RM15 for women, players under 18 years old and staff of Bank Pertanian, and RM20 for all others.

The event will consist of nine rounds. Four will be played tomorrow and the remaining rounds on Sunday. The prize money totals RM2,600 and the winner will get RM500. The second to 10th prizes range from RM300 to RM80. There are minor cash prizes for the best veteran, woman, Bank Pertanian staff, under-16 and under-12 players.

Entry forms are available from the Riverside Restaurant, at the PWTC, Bank Pertanian headquarters building in Jalan Lebuh Pasar, Kuala Lumpur. For more information or to register, call Ibrahim Bakar ( 03-5519 8451), Ibrahim Yaacob ( 03-636 3082) or Hamid Majid ( 03-4021 9576).

Good prizes for Taiping

The UMNO Youth movements of Salak Baru and Bukit Gantang in Perak will jointly host an open chess tournament at Sekolah Menengah Tengku Menteri Changkat Jering in Taiping on Oct 15 beginning 8am.

This event, for the Dato' Panglima Bukit Gantang Wahab trophy, will be played over seven Swiss rounds and run by the Perak International Chess Association (PICA).

The prizes are very attractive for a one-day event. The first prize is RM1,000; the second, RM800; the third, RM700; the fourth, RM600; the fifth, RM500; the sixth RM400; the seventh, RM300; the eighth, RM200; the ninth, RM100 and the 10th, RM50.

There are also trophies for the best veteran, woman, under-16 and under-12 players. The five best Umno players will also be given trophies.

Entry fees are RM10 for children under 12, RM15 for women and members of Umno or Pica, and RM20 for other participants.

For details call Mohd Rodi Nordin ( 05-241 1861, 019-570 8083), Fadil Salaudin ( 05-854 4502) or W.K. Wong ( 05-366 1692).

Deadline over for world title

INDIA'S Viswanathan Anand was true to form when he decided to let pass a deadline to respond to a proposal that he play a US$3mil (RM11.4mil) match with Gary Kasparov.

Two weeks ago, I reported that a match between the two highest rated players in the world may be a possibility this October. Gary Kasparov agreed to play this match while Viswanathan was given a deadline to respond. According to the match rules, the winner would get two-thirds of the prize fund.

The match was backed by well-known chess mentors like Bessel Kok (chairman of the now defunct Grandmasters Association) and grandmaster Fridrik Olaksson (a former president of the World Chess Federation).

Kasparov had agreed to put his personal version of the world championship title at stake, meaning that if Viswanathan wins, he could call himself a world champion. Anand had once before refused to be a part of Kasparov's plans.

The Indian newspaper, Indian Express, reported after the deadline that the Indian grandmaster is still considering whether or not to play this match with Kasparov. Viswanathan said his tight schedule for the rest of the year is a deciding factor. When asked again about the match, he said: "Maybe towards the end of the year."

Now Kok has to decide whether to extend the offer.

More tournament results

THE Penang Chess Association (PCA), just like many other chess organisations, is finding it difficult to raise funds for its projects. As such, the association has to use its own resources to keep some of its projects going, said Penang state executive councillor and PCA president Dr Toh Kin Woon.

Toh appealed to corporations not to withhold their sponsorship programmes altogether as this would stifle the development of healthy games like chess in the state.

He was speaking at the close of the sixth leg of the national allegro chess circuit which was played at the Kolej Damansara Utama campus in Penang. The tournament which attracted 87 participants, including many from outstation, was won by Lim Chuin Hoong who obtained 5 1/2 points.

Tied with second-placed Chuah Heng Meng on five points were Lim Cheng Teik, Khor Shihong and Ng Tze Han. The other main prize winners were Teng Wei Hong, Beh Chong Chin, Ahmad Iskandar, Eoh Thean Keat and Fikrul Saifuddin.

The prizes were sponsored by Bank Pertanian Malaysia while Kolej Damansara Utama allowed its premises to be used for the tournament.

Early last month, University Multimedia Telekom's (UMT) chess club organised the Rakan Muda Unitele Chess Extreme in conjunction with the Rakan Muda programme. Eleven university teams and 21 teams from Malacca secondary schools played in the four-day event.

The tournament was played under three categories. In the university men's category, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was the winner of the round-robin contest, scoring 15 points. The UTM team comprised Mak Weng Yee, Teng Wei Hong, Wong Kim Kuan, Toh Chin Kok and Lau Kar Hoe. Second was UMT "A" which obtained 13 points, and third was Universiti Islam Antarabangsa with 12 points.

In the women's category, the winner was UMT "A" with 11 points. In second place was Universiti Islam Antarabangsa with nine points, while UTM was third with five points. The UMT team comprised Roslina Marmono, Eliza Hanim Ibrahim and Adiratna.

UMT, which collected a total of 24 points from both the men's and women's categories, was awarded a challenge trophy for being the best university contingent in the tournament.

At the secondary school level, sharing the lead at the end of the tournament were the Sek Men Kebangsaan Gajah Berang "A" and "C" teams which collected 14 1/2 points each. However, the "C" team was adjudged the winner on a better tie-break. Third was the Malacca High School "A" team with 14 points. SMK Gajah Berang showed its chess prowess with its "D" team finishing fourth and its "B" team fifth.

In Kuala Kangsar last month, the Kelab Catur PHS held a six-round tournament at the Perak Hanjoong Simen premises. The event, which attracted 88 participants from Perak schools, was won by Muhamad Ridzuan Kamarudin who scored six points. Among the five pointers were Mohd Izzuddin Mohd Zawawi who was second followed by Fahimy Kamaruddin, Ammar Zakaria, Mohd Razief Hakim, Ansar Masuri, Mohd Mazran Ibrahim, Mior Mohd Hilmi, Al-Farabi Marasid and Lee Choon Haur.

Endah Parade challenge

THE four-day Endah Parade Chess Challenge, jointly organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation and Endah Parade, starts next weekend in Bandar Baru Sri Petaling.

On May 15, the 11-round Endah Parade blitz tournament begins at 2pm. The registration of players will start one hour earlier. There will be five cash prizes with the champion receiving RM200 and a trophy. Entry fee is RM10.

The next day, the six-round Endah Parade junior (under-20) open tournament will start at 9am. The winner will receive RM150 and a trophy, first runner-up RM100 and second runner-up RM80. There are seven other main cash prizes and also special prizes for the best girl, under-12, under-14 and under-16 players. Entry fee is RM10.

On May 22, the Chess Challenge continues with the Endah Parade under-12 and under-16 tournaments beginning at 9am. There are six cash prizes for each age group, inclusive of one for the best girl player. The winners of the two categories will each receive RM150 and a trophy. Entry fee is RM10.

The last event will be the Endah Parade open tournament on May 23. The winner will receive RM250 and a trophy. The second prize is RM200 and a medal, the third RM150 and a medal, the fourth and fifth RM100 each, and the sixth to 10th prizes are worth RM50 each.

In addition, RM50 prizes await the best under-16, under-14, under-12 and girl players. Entry fee for this final event is RM15 except for under-12 players who need only pay RM10.

All games will be played in the concourse area on the ground floor of Endah Parade. Cash prizes totalling RM3,250, hampers, trophies and other prizes in kind will be given to the winners.

According to the organisers, only a maximum of 100 players will be accepted for each event. For registration or more information, call Zac, Yvonne or Soo Kee at 03-583 0100 or fax: 03-583 0300.

Up Next

THE seventh leg of the Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit will be held this Sunday at Sunway College in Petaling Jaya. There will be six rounds with a total cash prize of RM1,500. The bulk of this prize fund goes to the main winners.

Entry fees are RM10 for members of the Chess Association of Selangor, Bank Pertanian employees, women, under-12 and veteran players, and RM15 for all other participants. For details, call Jackie Wong at 03-703 8237 or Lim Tse Pin at 03-733 0927.

In Penang, the Penang Chess Association will hold its annual general meeting at the Bayan Baru Residents Association's clubhouse in Bandar Bayan Baru this Sunday at 5.30pm. As usual, there will be a special social tournament for members before the AGM which begins at 4pm.

Meanwhile, the annual national age-group chess championship will be played at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur from May 28 to 30. The event will be hosted by Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia on behalf of the Malaysian Chess Federation.

The winners of the boys and girls under-18, under-16, under-14, under-12 and under-10 categories will stand a chance to be picked for the world age-group event later in the year.