Asia's new chess queen

 

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.

Xie Jun defends title

NOT so very long ago, the world chess championships were made up of two- or three-year cycles that would almost invariably be decided by long matches between the defending champion and challenger. Then, about two years ago, the World Chess Federation radically changed the championship format to an annual knockout contest.

Since the end of last month, the chess world's attention has been focused mainly on the US$3mil (RM11.4mil) world championship taking place at the Caesar's Palace hotel in Las Vegas. From a field of 100 players, the participants have now been reduced to two and, since last Sunday, Alexander Khalifman and Vladimir Akopian have been engaged in a six-game match to decide the next world chess champion.

However, for much of the last fortnight, a lot of talk had centred on whether this knockout format was achieving its desired result. The quarter-finals was a crucial stage for the championship but at its end, the top players who had been booted out included Vladimir Kramnik (world No.3), Alexei Shirov (world No.5), Vassily Ivanchuk (No.8), Veselin Topalov (No.12), Alexey Dreev (No.15), Nigel Short (No.17), Judit Polgar (No.19) and Zoltan Almasi (No.20).

Left in the contest were Michael Adams (world No.7), Vladimir Akopian (No.36), Alexander Khalifman (No.45) and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (No.136). Adams (Britain) was expected to beat Akopian (Armenia) in the semi-finals but to everyone's surprise, Adams too was shown the door when Akopian prevailed by a 2.5-1.5 score.

The Romanian grandmaster Nisipeanu, aged 23, with a rating of only 2,584, was the surprise of the event. His passage through the championship was not easy but his victims had been Yugoslav GM Stefan Djuric, Georgian GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili (10th highest rated player in the event), Brazilian GM Fafael Leitao and Ivanchuk and Shirov. His luck was expected to run out against Khalifman who, despite his placing as 45th in the world, is actually a very seasoned player.

Yet, Nisipeanu almost upset the form book again. Khalifman won the third game of the semi-final match but Nisipeanu struck back with a fourth-game win to take the match to extra time. It was only in the play-off that Khalifman managed to send off his opponent.

The final of the world championship thus pitted two non-favourites against each other. This is already a surprise, but one can guess how much bigger the surprise would have been if this had been Akopian playing not Khalifman but Nisipeanu for the world chess championship title!

Throughout the past month, Gary Kasparov, despite his non-involvement with this event, has been making general observations and comments on the games through his Club Kasparov chess site on the Internet. In one of his comments, Kasparov described Akopian, Sergei Movsesian and Nisipeanu as tourists, meaning that he considered them lightweights who would surely be eliminated by the heavyweights in the event.

As the unfolding events have shown, it is actually the lightweights that have displaced the heavyweights.

An indignant Nisipeanu pointed out that Kasparov "doesn't even know me," but he was quick to add: "Okay, next to Kasparov, I am a tourist."

Akopian was more critical. He said about playing Kasparov: "Once, I had a completely winning position, but his luck saved him. It was a team match and I gave him a draw because my team had already won. In the other game, he was White. He immediately began trading all the pieces and he made a draw against me. So he was White and I could not prevent him from doing this. But for me, for sure Kasparov is the tourist."

Although readers can follow the progress of the world chess championship from the official web site at (http://www.worldfide.com/), there are other chess sites on the Internet which provide comprehensive coverage. Among them are the Inside Chess Online homepage at (http://www.insidechess.com/) and the Club Kasparov homepage at (http://www.clubkasparov.ru).

Xie Jun wins women's crown again

At about the same time that the world chess championship was starting in Las Vegas, the lesser-known match between Xie Jun of China and Alisa Galliamova of Russia for the women's world chess title was also being contested almost half a world away.

This championship match, which was also a World Chess Federation event, had been split between two venues with the Russian town of Kazan hosting the first half of the match and Shenyang in China hosting the second.

The Kazan half of the match had ended in a 4-4 tie between the two players but Xie quickly seized control of the match once the venue shifted to Shenyang. Xie went into a two-point lead, then saw it reduced to only one point before she fought her way back to take the match with a 8.5-6.5 score.

By winning this encounter against Galliamova, Xie has reclaimed her women's world championship crown which she lost to Zsuzsa Polgar in 1996. When it came to Polgar's turn to defend her title against Xie who had qualified as the challenger, she refused, citing many non-reasons such as having a baby, her doctor's advice not to travel within six months of her delivery, and a US alert to its residents against travelling to China.

(At that time, diplomatic relations between the United States and China were at an ebb following the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy building in Belgrade at the height of the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia.)

The World Chess Federation then said that Polgar had defaulted on the match, and decided that Xie and Galliamova would instead battle it out for the women's chess title. At first, Galliamova refused to play this match, saying it was unfair that the full match would be held in China. After much wrangling by both parties, the Chinese agreed that the first half of the match would be played in Kazan.

The match began with Xie drawing first blood with a win in the second game. However, Galliamova struck back immediately in the third game. Xie then went ahead by winning the fifth game but again, Galliamova equalised by taking the sixth game.

Xie began the Shenyang half of the match with a win in the ninth game. After a drawn 10th game, Xie went further ahead by winning the 11th game. Galliamova managed to reduce the margin by winning the 12th game but after Xie won the 14th game, Galliamova's title hopes evaporated. The draw in the 15th game gave Xie the women's crown.

UP NEXT

Merdeka Team Championship

THE 18th Merdeka team chess championship starts on Sunday at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur. Like in previous years, the three-day championship is divided into three categories: state, youth and open.

The state category of the championship has always elicited the best performances from the state chess associations which view the competition as the de facto national team tournament. Prizes for the state category are RM2,000, RM1,500 and RM1,000. The winner will also receive custody of the Deputy Prime Minister's challenge trophy.

The youth category normally also gets a good response from chess players. The five prizes in this category are RM1,000, RM750, RM500, RM300 and RM150. The Merdeka youth challenge trophy will also go to the winner.

The other main feature of the championship is the open category in which the winning team will receive RM2,000 and the runner-up RM1,500. The other prizes are RM1,000, RM800, RM600, RM400 and RM200. In addition, there are special prizes for the best government department, women's, school, and family teams.

For a list of the teams that have signed up for the championship, visit my website at (http://www5.mol.com.my/qss/Library/index.html).

Registration for the teams will start at 8.30am on Aug 29. The first round will commence at 1pm and the second, at 4.30pm. On the second day, the rounds begin at 9am, 1pm and 4.30pm, and on the last day of the competition, the final two rounds are at 9am and 1.30pm.

According to the Malaysian Chess Federation, the outstation state and youth teams will be put up at KL's Dynasty Hotel, the official hotel for the event.

Johor Baru Open

THE Johor Baru District Chess Club will hold its ninth Johor Baru open chess tournament at the Dewan Menara Komtar, Johor Baru, on Sunday in conjunction with National Day celebrations.

This event, which is jointly organised with Johor Land Berhad, will be divided into open, under-16 and under-12 sections. There will be 10 cash prizes in each section, with prizes of RM300, RM100 and RM80 going to the respective winners.

The entry fee for the open section is RM15 while players entering the under-16 and under-12 events will be charged RM7 and RM5 respectively. The games start at 8.30am on Aug 29, and only the first 300 entries will be accepted.

For more information about the tournament, contact Narayanan Krishnan ( 07-333 8215 or e-mail naraa@tm.net.my). Entries will close today.

 

Queen of the board

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                         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 

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Zsuzsa Polgar (Hungary)  0 = = 1 1 = 1 1 = = 1 0 1  8 1/2

Xie Jun       (China)    1 = = 0 0 = 0 0 = = 0 1 0  4 1/2

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There is a new queen of the chessboard, and her name is Zsuzsa Polgar. Last month, 26-year-old Polgar toppled Xie Jun in an embarassing one-sided match for the women's world chess championship crown which was played in the Spanish town of Jaen.

The match was scheduled for a maximum 16 games but the Hungarian required only 13 games to gain the 8 1/2 points needed for wresting the title from the Chinese player.

The match had begun on a positive footing for Xie who won the first game quite easily but after two short draws, everything went downhill for the Chinese grandmaster.

Xie could only score half a point from the next five games. In this crucial stage of the match, Polgar equalised by winning the fourth game, then took over the lead when she also won the fifth game. From then on, there was little that Xie could do to stop Polgar. There were two more wins for the Hungarian grandmaster in the seventh and eighth games. Then, after two more draws, Polgar won again.

For the demoralised Xie, winning the 12th game was perhaps her last-gasp attempt to claw her way back into the match but the 13th game, played immediately after the Chinese New Year break, went horribly wrong for her.

Seeing that she had lost a piece without compensation, Xie promptly resigned the game and with it, relinquished her title.

Zsuzsa Polgar is the eldest of the three Polgar sisters, the other two being Sofia and Judit. In the late 80s, she was already making a name for herself when she began competing exclusively and successfully in open competitions against male chess players.

The Polgar sisters hardly bothered to play against other women players in tournaments, and were not keen on the women's world championship cycles. The only exception was in 1988 when they led the Hungarian women's team to the gold medals at the biennial Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki.

During the 90s, however, Zsuzsa Polgar seemed to have a change of heart and she turned her attention to the women's world championship title. In her first attempt at the title in the 1991-93 cycle, she advanced to the Candidate finals but she failed to qualify as the challenger when she lost to Nana Ioseliani.

But in the 1993-95 cycle, Polgar confidently swept aside all her rivals, including Maya Chiburdanidze last year, to become the challenger to Xie.

Xie won the title in 1991 when she dethroned Chiburdanidze from the champion's pedestal. Her first defence of the title was in 1993 against Ioseliani in Monaco and this match against Polgar in Jaen was only her second defence.

The site of the match was the Parador de Turismo de Santa Catalina which is next to the fortress of Fernando III near the summit of the Santa Catalina mountain in the Andalucian province of Jaen. Linares, a town well-known to chess players, is some 50km away.

For this match, Spanish businessman Luis Rentero had been appointed as its technical director on the basis of his past contributions to the annual Linares super-grandmaster tournaments.

Rentero, unfortunately, has his own ideas on how a tournament or match should be played. After Xie and Polgar had quickly drawn the third game of the match, Rentero sent a letter to the players in which he reminded them that Andalucia had made great sacrifices to hold the match.

Stating that the games until that point in the match had been a disappointment, he then accused the players of giving the impression that they had come to visit Jaen as tourists rather than chess players.

As the technical director of the event and regardless of any match regulation, he would not stand for this, he said. He threatened a US$25,000 fine on each player if they continued playing quick and short draws.

Both players were reported to be extremely upset with this letter and they both spoke to Rentero personally about it.

Before the fourth game was played, Polgar issued a public rebuke in which she said she was extremely insulted at the accusation that she had come to Jaen merely as a tourist.

She reminded Rentero that this was an official Fide world championship match and not a private tournament, such as the Linares, where he could impose extra regulations according to his whims and fancy.

Her objective at Jaen, she said, was to win the world chess championship title.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Xie Jun - Zsuzsa Polgar, Game 6

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Ndb5 Bb4 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8. Nxc3 d5 9. exd5 exd5 10. Bd3 O-O 11. O-O d4 12. Ne4 Bf5 13. Bg5 Bxe4 14. Bxe4 h6 15. Bxf6 Qxf6 16. Qf3 Qxf3 17. Bxf3 Rac8 18. Rfe1 Rfd8 19. Rad1 Kf8 20. Kf1 Na5 21. Re2 Nc4 22. Re4 d3 23. cxd3 Nxb2 24. Rb1 Nxd3 25. Ra4 Nc5 26. Rxa7 Ra8 27. Rxa8 Rxa8 28. Bxb7 1/2-1/2

Zsuzsa Polgar - Xie Jun, Game 7

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nxc6 Qf6 6. Qd2 dxc6 7. Nc3 Be6 8. Na4 Bd6 9. Qe3 Nh6 10. h3 O-O 11. Be2 Rfe8 12. Nc3 Qe5 13. f4 Qa5 14. Bd2 Bb4 15. a3 Nf5 16. exf5 Bc4 17. Qd4 Bxc3 18. Bxc3 Rxe2+ 19. Kf1 Qxc3 20. bxc3 Re4+ 21. Kf2 Rxd4 22. cxd4 Rd8 23. Rhe1 Kf8 24. Re4 g6 25. f6 Rd6 26. Re7 Rxf6 27. Rxc7 Rxf4+ 28. Ke3 Rf6 29. Rxb7 a6 30. Re1 Bf1 31. g4 g5 32. Rb6 Bg2 33. Rg1 Bd5 34. Rg3 Bc4 35. d5 Bxd5 36. Rxa6 Kg7 37. Ra7 Rf4 38. a4 Kf6 39. Kd2 Rf2+ 40. Kc1 Ke5 41. a5 Kd4 42. Kb2 Kc4 43. Rb7 c5 44. Rb6 1-0

Xie Jun - Zsuzsa Polgar, Game 8

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Ndb5 Bb4 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8. Nxc3 d5 9. exd5 exd5 10. Bd3 O-O 11. O-O d4 12. Ne2 Qd5 13. Nf4 Qd6 14. Nh5 Nxh5 15. Qxh5 h6 16. Bd2 Bd7 17. Rae1 Rfe8 18. f4 Ne7 19. Re5 Bc6 20. Bb4 Qf6 21. Bc4 Bd7 22. Rg5 Be6 23. Bd3 Nc6 24. Bd2 hxg5 25. Qh7+ Kf8 26. fxg5 Qe5 27. Bf4 Qd5 28. Be4 Bf5 29. Bxf5 Re2 30. Bh3 d3 31. c3 Ne7 32. Qh8+ Ng8 33. g6 f6 34. b4 Qd8 35. Bg4 Re4 36. Qh5 Qe7 37. Bd2 Rd8 38. Bf3 Re5 39. Qg4 Qd7 40. Qc4 b5 41. Qb3 Qe6 42. Qxe6 Rxe6 43. h4 Ne7 44. h5 Nd5 45. Bg4 Re4 46. Bf3 Re5 47. h6 gxh6 48. Bxh6+ Ke7 49. Rc1 Ne3 50. Re1 Nc4 51. Rd1 Nb2 52. Rb1 Na4 53. Kf1 d2 54. Rd1 Rg5 55. Bxg5 fxg5 56. g7 Kf7 57. Kg1 Nxc3 58. Rf1 Kxg7 59. Bd1 Re8 60. Kf2 Rf8+ 0-1

Zsuzsa Polgar - Xie Jun, Game 9

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bd3 d5 8. exd5 cxd5 9. O-O O-O 10. Bg5 c6 11. Na4 Bd6 12. c4 h6 13. Bh4 Bg4 14. Qc2 Be6 15. Kh1 Rb8 16. Rad1 Re8 17. b3 Qe7 18. Rfe1 Rbd8 19. cxd5 cxd5 20. Qb2 g5 21. Bg3 Bb4 22. Re2 Ne4 23. Be5 Bg4 24. f3 Qxe5 25. Qxe5 Rxe5 26. fxg4 Rde8 27. Kg1 Nf6 28. Rxe5 Rxe5 29. h3 Be1 30. Kf1 Bh4 31. Nc3 d4 32. Ne2 Nd5 33. Rc1 Re3 34. Rd1 Kf8 35. Bc4 Rxe2 36. Kxe2 Nc3+ 37. Kd2 Nxd1 1/2-1/2

Xie Jun - Zsuzsa Polgar, Game 10

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Nbd2 Nc5 10. c3 Be7 11. Bc2 d4 12. Ne4 d3 13. Nxc5 dxc2 14. Qxd8+ Rxd8 15. Nxe6 fxe6 16. Be3 Rd5 17. Rac1 Nxe5 18. Nxe5 Rxe5 19. Rxc2 Kf7 20. c4 b4 21. Rd1 Rd8 22. Rxd8 Bxd8 23. Kf1 Bg5 24. Ba7 Rf5 25. Ke2 Ke8 26. Kd3 Kd7 27. f3 c5 28. Re2 Be7 29. Bb8 a5 30. Ke4 Kc6 31. Be5 g6 32. g4 Rf8 33. Rd2 a4 34. Bg3 h5 35. Rd3 hxg4 36. fxg4 Rf1 37. b3 a3 38. Rd2 g5 39. Rd3 Ra1 40. Rd2 Rb1 41. Ke5 Rb2 42. Be1 Bd8 43. Rd6+ Kc7 44. Rd2 Kc6 45. Rd6+ Kc7 46. Rd2 1/2-1/2

Zsuzsa Polgar - Xie Jun, Game 11

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. O-O Nb6 8. Nc3 Nc6 9. d5 Na5 10. Bf4 c6 11. dxc6 Nxc6 12. Qc1 Bg4 13. Rd1 Qc8 14. Bh6 Qf5 15. Bxg7 Kxg7 16. Nd4 Nxd4 17. Rxd4 e5 18. Rd1 Qc8 19. b3 Bh3 20. Bxh3 Qxh3 21. Qe3 Nd7 22. Ne4 b6 23. Rd6 Rac8 24. Rad1 Nb8 25. Qg5 Qf5 26. Qxf5 gxf5 27. Nf6 Nc6 28. Nh5+ Kg8 29. R1d5 Kh8 30. Rf6 Rc7 31. e3 Rg8 32. h4 a6 33. Kg2 Ne7 34. Rd2 Ng6 35. Kh2 f4 36. Rxb6 fxe3 37. fxe3 e4 38. Nf6 Ne5 39. Nxg8 Nf3+ 40. Kh3 Nxd2 41. Nf6 Rc3 42. Kg4 Kg7 43. Kf4 Rc1 44. Rxa6 Rf1+ 45. Ke5 Rf3 46. Nh5+ Kf8 47. Kd6 1-0

Xie Jun - Zsuzsa Polgar, Game 12

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. c3 Bd7 7. O-O g6 8. Nbd2 Bg7 9. Re1 O-O 10. Nf1 b5 11. Bc2 h6 12. Ne3 Re8 13. a4 Rb8 14. axb5 axb5 15. h3 Be6 16. d4 exd4 17. cxd4 Bc8 18. Nf1 Nb4 19. Bb1 c5 20. Bd2 Nc6 21. dxc5 dxc5 22. Qc1 Nd4 23. Nxd4 Qxd4 24. e5 Nh7 25. Be3 Qc4 26. f4 Qxc1 27. Rxc1 c4 28. Ba7 Rb7 29. Be4 Rbe7 30. Bc5 Re6 31. Bd5 Ra6 32. Rxa6 Bxa6 33. Ra1 Bxe5 34. Rxa6 Bxb2 35. Rxg6+ Kh8 36. Bxf7 Rc8 37. Be6 Ra8 38. Ne3 Bg7 39. Nf5 Nf8 40. Bxf8 Bxf8 41. Nxh6 Ra6 42. Nf7+ Kh7 43. Rg3 Bg7 44. Ng5+ Kh8 45. Rg4 1-0

Zsuzsa Polgar - Xie Jun, Game 13

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. O-O Nc6 8. e4 Nb6 9. d5 Na5 10. Qe1 Nac4 11. Nc3 e6 12. b3 Qf6 13. bxc4 Qxc3 14. Qxc3 Bxc3 15. Rb1 Bg7 16. Bf4 c6 17. dxc6 bxc6 18. Bd6 Re8 19. c5 Nc4 20. e5 Ba6 21. Rfc1 Rec8 22. Bf1 Nxe5 23. Nxe5 Bxf1 24. Kxf1 1-0

 

Xie takes on Polgar

The women's world chess championship match between defending champion Xie Jun of China and her Hungarian challenger, Zsuzsa Polgar, began last week in the Spanish town of Jaen.

This match, played under the auspices of the World Chess Federation, has real significance for the Chinese champion as it marks the first time in five years that she is playing a match with an opponent who is rated higher than her. For the record, Xie is rated at 2530 and Polgar at 2550.

To win the women's world champion's title, Polgar will have to gain 8 1/2 points from this match of only 16 games.

She may yet achieve this result. The 20-point difference in the two players' ratings suggests that the match will be very close and may go the full distance.

Statistically, this means that Polgar is expected to score 8.48 points against Xie's expected score of 7.52 points. This is close enough to the 8 1/2 points which Polgar will require.

But the defending champion is not without her practical advantages in this match. In the event of a tie at 8-8, Xie will keep her title. Besides, Xie also holds a psychological edge as Polgar will need to prove that she can actually outperform the champion.

In any case, the first four games of the match seems to give credence to the prospect of a close match. Xie went into the lead immediately by winning the first game. The next two games were drawn, and then Polgar equalised by winning the fourth game.

In Jaen, Xie has a formidable team of helpers who are hoping that their collective effort will more than offset Polgar's helpers who are her immediate family members. You should, however, take notice that her most illustrious sister/helper answers to the name of Judit!

Polgar had qualified for the world champiomship match by beating former women's world champion Maya Chiburdanidze in the Candidates finals match last year.

Readers with internet access may wish to connect to http://www.tasc.nl/wwc in the World-Wide Web where TASC, a Dutch chess software company, are covering the event on their www page.

KASPAROV TO PLAY DEEP BLUE TOMORROW

Years ago, Deep Thought was already the most powerful chess-playing computer in the world. The programmers of Deep Thought, then doing post-graduate studies at the Carnegie-Mellon University in the United States, were subsequently employed by IBM to continue work on enhancing their chess-playing machine.

Enter now Deep Blue, the successor to Deep Thought, which last year had finished second at the microcomputer chess championship in Hongkong. After that competition, the Deep Blue team entered into an agreement with Gary Kasparov to play him in a match of six games.

This match starts tomorrow and it will be played on Feb 10, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 17. Kasparov was reported to be preparing for this match by playing against various other top class computers.

For an on-the-spot coverage of this match, internet users should turn their web browsers to http://www.ibm.park.org/chess.html.

JOHOR OPEN RESULTS

Jimmy Liew, although still the best player that Malaysia has ever produced, had his domination of the local chess scene checked when he failed to add the 1996 Johor open title to his impressive list of achievements.

At this tournament in Johor Bahru last month, Liew was comfortably leading the pack of players until when going into the sixth and final round, he found himself paired against Malcolm Tan of Singapore.

His luck deserted him at this crucial moment and he found himself not only out of the running for the first prize but also cut off from the second to fifth prizes.

This tournament was marked by the presence of several top players from both sides of the causeway and elsewhere too. Apart from Liew, the notable local names included Mok Tze Meng and Ismail Ahmad.

Other than Tan, Osric Mooi and Michael Siong were among the Singaporeans taking part.

Final results: Malcolm Tan 5 1/2 points; Tony Dempsey (Scotland), Mok Tze Meng, Darren Yong, Kenneth Tan 5 points each; Jimmy Liew, Osric Mooi and Michael Siong 4 1/2 points each; ... 59 players.

PFS OPEN

The Penang Free School chess club is holding their sixth PFS open tournament on March 24. This will be played over seven rounds and cash prizes, including a RM200 first prize, will be given to the top 10 players. There will also be various category prizes.

Entry fees are RM4 for players under 20 years old and RM6 for others. The closing date is Mar 3.

To register for the event, contact Liong Ing Kiat or Lim Cheng Teik in the evenings. Alternatively, e-mail registrations can be sent to Ronnie Lau.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

The first three games from the women's world chess championship match.

Xie Jun - Zsuzsa Polgar

1. g3 g6 2. Bg2 Bg7 3. e4 e5 4. Ne2 Nc6 5. c3 Nge7 6. d4 exd4 7. cxd4 d5 8. e5 f6 9. f4 O-O 10. O-O Bg4 11. Nbc3 fxe5 12. fxe5 Rxf1+ 13. Qxf1 Qd7 14. h3 Rf8 15. Nf4 g5 16. hxg4 gxf4 17. gxf4 Qxg4 18. Qe2 Qg3 19. Qf2 Qxf2+ 20. Kxf2 Nxd4 21. Nxd5 Ng6 22. Nc3 c6 23. Be3 Bxe5 24. Rd1 Nxf4 25. Bxf4 Rxf4+ 26. Ke3 Nf5+ 27. Kd3 Rg4 28. Bh3 Rd4+ 29. Ke2 Rxd1 30. Nxd1 Nd6 31. b4 Kg7 32. a4 Kf6 33. Nf2 Bd4 34. Nd3 b6 35. Nf4 c5 36. Nd5+ Ke5 37. bxc5 bxc5 38. Ne7 a6 39. a5 Nc4 40. Nc6+ Kd6 41. Nb8 Kc7 42. Nxa6+ Kb7 43. Nxc5+ Bxc5 44. a6+ Kb6 45. Kd3 Nd6 46. Ke2 Kxa6 47. Kf3 Kb6 48. Be6 Kc7 49. Kg4 Kd8 50. Kh5 Be3 51. Bg8 h6 52. Bb3 Ke7 53. Kg6 Ne4 54. Bd1 Ke6 55. Bg4+ Ke5 56. Bd1 Bg5 57. Be2 Kf4 58. Bd1 Ng3 59. Ba4 h5 60. Bd7 h4 0-1

Zsuzsa Polgar - Xie Jun

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 Be7 8. O-O-O O-O 9. f4 h6 10. Bh4 e5 11. Nf5 Bxf5 12. exf5 Qa5 13. Kb1 Rfe8 14. Bb5 a6 15. Bxc6 bxc6 16. fxe5 Qxe5 17. Bg3 1/2-1/2

Xie Jun - Zsuzsa Polgar

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nxc6 Qf6 6. Qd2 dxc6 7. Nc3 Be6 8. Na4 Rd8 9. Bd3 Bd4 10. O-O Qh4 11. Qf4 Qh5 12. Qg3 Ne7 13. Be3 Bf6 14. h3 O-O 15. f4 Bh4 16. Qf3 Qxf3 17. Rxf3 f5 18. Nc5 fxe4 19. Bxe4 1/2-1/2

 

Philippines the champ, Teenage power

Well, I have just returned from my annual year-end holiday sojourn to Singapore and I must say that this year's trip had an added attraction.

The 11th Asian team chess championship was going on at the National University of Singapore and I had the opportunity to renew my acquaintances with some old chess friends and make new ones.

Let me tell you how thrilling this year's championship turned out to be. Kazakhstan, the defending champion, got off to a flying start and they led the field of 20 teams for the first five rounds.

The Kazakhs, however, allowed the Philippines to catch up with them in the sixth round and after that, well, the Kazakhstan challenge just fizzled out.

It was strange, but I believe the Kazakhs were playing more cohesively and steadily as a team when their number one player, grandmaster Vladislav Tkachiev, was not fielded.

Unlike two years ago in Kuala Lumpur when Tkachiev played round after round and doggedly scored point after point, here in Singapore he played only four games and could win only one. The other three games were drawn.

By the crucial seventh round, Kazakhstan had dissipated all their early advantages when they fell to Uzbekistan by a big margin. But the Filipinos also lost, to the Chinese, so the leaders after this round were: Uzbekistan 19 points, China 18 1/2 points, Indonesia 18 points and both Kazakhstan and Philippines 17 1/2 points each.

In the eighth round, Uzbekistan and Indonesia played to a draw while China, Kazakhstan and the Philippines all won their matches. The Filipinos had the biggest score, beating Iran 4-0, and so as the championship went into the final round, the Philippines found themselves leading for the very first time.

But it was a very slim lead. Both Uzbekistan and China were only a half point behind, with 21 points each, while Kazakhstan had 20 1/2 points and Indonesia 20 points. A tight finish was in store for the final round.

The Philippines were paired against the United Arab Emirates while Uzbekistan were to play New Zealand. Meanwhile, China faced the daunting task of facing Indonesia while Kazakhstan was paired with Singapore.

The UAE and the New Zealanders were not expected to provide much resistance, so the Filipinos and the Uzbeks were expected to score nothing less than 4-0 victories. If this had happened, the Philippines would be comfortable winners of the Tun Abdul Razak challenge trophy.

But it did not happen this way; both these teams conceded a drawn game each, so they were restricted to only 3 1/2-1/2 wins.

Normally, this would be sufficient for the Philippines to win the trophy but China confounded everybody by whitewashing the Indonesians in all their four games. So we had the Chinese team finishing the championship with the same points as the Philippines.

Who would be the new champion then: China or the Philippines? The tie-break would decide and as it turned out, it was the Kazakhstan match with Singapore that would provide the answer.

For China to be the champion, Kazakhstan would have to take at least three points from Singapore; otherwise, the Philippines would earn the trophy. When three games in the Kazakhstan-Singapore match ended, Kazakhstan had scored two wins to Singapore's one.

It was thus the crucial final game between Tkachiev and Singaporean international master Dr Wong Meng Kong that would decide the fate of the trophy. The Kazakh player tried his hardest to win but his opponent put up a dour defence to steer the game into a draw.

Thus, Kazakhstan could only win by 2 1/2 points and by virtue of this result, the Philippines became the new winner of the Asian team championship.

Kudos to the Philippines. In the 1970s, they were probably the strongest chess-playing country in east Asia but the last time that they won the trophy was in 1986. Thereafter, they were eclipsed first by China and later by Kazakhstan when the former Soviet republics joined the Asian chess fold.

In Singapore, the Filipinos were without their grandmaster Eugene Torre but another of their grandmasters, Rogelio Antonio, was a capable replacement on first board while international master Rogelio Barcenilla was deadly on third board. International masters Nelson Mariano and Ricky de Guzman played regularly on second and third boards, while Barlo Nadera and Ricardo Nolte propped up the team as reserve players.

Malaysia

The Malaysian team finished joint 12th to 15th in the championship. Ours was almost a totally teenaged team comprising national champion Mas Hafizulhelmi on first board, Ooi Chern Ee on second board, Tan Wei Sin on fourth board, Lim Yee Weng as first reserve and Abdul Haq Mohamad as second reserve. Our third board player, Julian Navaratnam, seemed oddly out of place among this array of Malaysian "power rangers".

Mas Hafizul was a little out of his depth playing on the first board. He had three consecutive losses followed by two draws before winning against Singapore's Dr Wong Meng Kong and then he lost a fourth time. On second board, Ooi fared better with five wins, two draws and two losses.

Julian scored a win, a draw and three losses; Tan had two wins, two draws and three losses; Lim obtained three wins and two losses; and Abdul Haq won one and lost two.

Women's game

For the first time since the inception of the Asian team championship in 1974, a women's section was introduced by the Singapore Chess Federation. It was very encouraging to see 12 teams taking part.

China was led by their women's world champion, Xie Jun, and it was a foregone conclusion that the Chinese team would be the first winner of the Far East challenge trophy.

They led from the word "go" and even a slight hiccup against Kazakhstan in the fourth round (the Kazakh women won 2-1) could not prevent Xie Jun and company from claiming that trophy.

Theirs was such a comfortable lead that against Indonesia, Malaysia and Iran in the middle stretch of the championship, they could afford to drop half points against these teams. But towards the end, the Chinese again turned on their full power to annihilate the opposition.

During the championship, there was a general feeling that Xie, a full-fledged grandmaster, was not playing to her full strength. Who knows, perhaps she was afraid to disclose her preparations for her forthcoming defence of the world championship title against Hungary's Zsuzsa Polgar.

She only played five games out of nine rounds but her contribution was four points towards the Chinese team's total of 23. But even without Xie, the other Chinese players, comprising two woman grandmasters and a woman international master, were formidable enough.

Again, Malaysia put up a women's team and the pleasant surprise was that we were not outclassed in this field. The Malaysians may have lost four matches but they also won four matches and drawing one.

Khairunissa Wahiduddin, the current national women's champion, was in good form to score five wins and two draws. She lost only one game. Eliza Hanum Ibrahim obtained four wins and four draws; Roslina Marmono had four wins, two draws and two losses, while Norfatitah Saranon lost all her three games.

Final standings (Men): Philippines, China 25 points; Uzbekistan 24 1/2; Kazakhstan 23; Mongolia 22; Vietnam 21; Indonesia 20; Iran 19 1/2; Singapore A, UAE 19; Singapore B 18; Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hongkong 16 1/2; Qatar 16; Sri Lanka 15; Asean 13 1/2; Macau 8; and Brunei 5 1/2.

(Women): China 23 points; Vietnam 19 1/2; Kazakhstan 18 1/2; Indonesia 18; Uzbekistan 17; Malaysia 15; Iran 13 1/2; Sri Lanka 11 1/2; UAE 8 1/2; Singapore A 7; Singapore B 4; and Singapore C 3 1/2.

JOHOR OPEN

The Johor Chess Club will organise the Johor open chess championship on Jan 21 at the Pelangi Leisure Mall in Jalan Serampang, Taman Pelangi, Johor Bahru.

This is a one-day Swiss event run according to the World Chess Federation's Rapid Chess rules.

There will be three sections - an open, an under-16 and an under-12 - and for the men's and women's sections, and separate prizes will be given to the men and women.

The men's open section offers a top prize of RM1,000 and for the runners-up, RM700. There are 13 other prizes in this section with a total prize fund of RM1,650. For the other sections in this tournament, the collective prize fund is RM1,495.

Entry fees for the open section are RM30 for the men and RM15 for the women. However, special discounts are given if you are among the first 50 players to register for the tournament. In this instance, the men need pay only RM20 and the women RM10.

Entry fees for the under-16 and under-12 sections are RM8 per player. There is also a discounted fee of RM5 for the first 50 players in each section.

Games start at 9am on Jan 21 but the organisers require the participants to report to the tournament hall by 8am.

Those interested should contact either Sumathy or Stephen Cheong for the entry forms.

Closing date for entries is Jan 16.

 

Spotlight on FIDE

It has been almost a year since the infamous Moscow Chess Congress. That meeting in Russia, coinciding with the hosting of the bienniAl Chess Olympiad, was in many ways a watershed for chess.

It surprised nobody that the Florencio Campomanes, the incumbent president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), had wanted to be reelected for another term, but were outraged over the way he went about to achieve it.

He succeeded in interpreting and altering the federation's constitutional rules to his favour, and he had helpers bully many delegates from member countries into voting for him.

Come next week on Nov 18, FIDE is set to hold its annual congress meeting in Paris. However, this meeting comes at a time when FIDE is living under the shadow of its rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association.

The PCA is enjoying unprecedented success in the wake of the immensely huge publicity and coverage of its recently concluded world title match between Gary Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand. Intel Corporation, the maker of the microchip which powers about 90 per cent of computers worldwide, sponsored the prize money to the tune of US$1.5 million (about RM3.8 million).

On the other hand, FIDE had been unable to find sponsors for its own world title match between Anatoly Karpov and Gata Kamsky. Even the women's world championship match between Xie Jun and Zsuzsa Polgar is suffering the same lack of sponsorship support.

Moreover, the Interzonal tournament, an integral part of any world championship cycle which qualifies people to the Candidates level, has been postponed to next year.

Another piece of bad news for FIDE is that its assets have been whittled down considerably. While not exactly living on a hand-to-mouth existence, FIDE is actually looking to the PCA to honour its pledge to make a financial contribution to FIDE as part of the FIDE-PCA deal to reunite the two titles.

These, then, are some of the major issues which the delegates attending the 66th Congress in Paris next week are expecting solutions from the FIDE president.

But these issues themselves actually pale when compared with the controversy of how Paris itself was chosen as the venue of this Congress.

In 1993, at the Curitiba Congress in South America, FIDE gave the option of hosting the 66th Congress jointly to the chess federations of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with the French Chess Federation given the second option should the Czech and Slovak chess federations withdraw.

At the Moscow Congress last year, it was confirmed that the 66th Congress would be jointly hosted in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but the option given to France was not mentioned.

Then, earlier this year when it became clear that the Czech and Slovak chess federations had withdrawn from organising the event, FIDE suddenly awarded the 66th Congress to the Qatar Chess Federation.

This decision did not go down well with the member national chess federations, least of all the French. They felt something was greatly amiss with FIDE for not abiding by its decision to give the option to France.

The French Chess Federation began a world-wide campaign to garner support from the other national chess federations and at the beginning of September, the French had obtained letters from at least 60 countries - more than a third of the FIDE membership - urging FIDE to convene an Extraordinary General Assembly in France on Nov 8 to discuss the question of the 66th Congress.

Initially, FIDE was quite adamant that the Congress would proceed in Doha, Qatar's capital. Campomanes said last year's Moscow Congress had not mentioned nor granted the option to France and in the absence of this option, he was exercising his prerogative to determine that Qatar would host the Congress.

Nevertheless, France declared to the chess world that it was ready to organise the Extraordinary General Assembly in Paris on Nov 8 whether FIDE agreed to it or not.

Then, in early October, FIDE issued a statement saying that the French had withdrawn its request for the extraordinary general assembly. At the same time too, Qatar withdrew its confirmed bid for the 66th Congress "in the principle of keeping FIDE united."

The statement said Campomanes had consulted with members of the FIDE presidential board on the next course of action and the board had decided on a new bidding process for the Congress which would be from Nov 18 to 25.

And finally, on receipt of the payment of the bidding fee from the French Chess Federation, FIDE awarded the organising of the Congress to France and it would be held in Paris.

NATIONAL CLOSED CHAMPIONSHIP

It's official! The Malaysian Chess Federation has announced that this year's national closed championship will be played from Nov 28 to Dec 3 at the Kuala Lumpur Parkroyal.

This will be a nine-round event with the men's champion receiving the Datuk Hussein Onn challenge trophy and the women's champion receiving the Dato Sabbaruddin Chik trophy.

In addition, KL Parkroyal - the sponsor - will give trophies for the most promising under-18 male and female players.

As before, each of the MCF-affiliated chess associations will be eligible to select a maximum of four official representatives for the men's section and two players for the women's section.

The national champions of the past 11 years, the current national schoolboy and schoolgirl champions as well as local players who are listed in the FIDE rating list are given direct entry into the competition.

Readers interested in this competition and who would like to be selected to play should contact their respective chess associations immediately since the MCF have fixed Nov 25 as the closing date of entries.

For more information, contact Abdul Hamid Majid (03-421-9576), Ibrahim Abu Bakar (03-5595442) or Ibrahim Yaacob (03-636-3082) after 6pm.

The results of the men's section are traditionally used as a criterion for choosing players for various international chess tournaments. The main event that comes to mind is the biennial Chess Olympiad which is scheduled for next year.

UKM TOURNAMENT

In conjunction with the 25th anniversary celebration of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, a three-day tournament will be held on campus from Nov 24.

The tournament will be separated into four categories: open, under-16, under-12 and veterans. Each section shall be played over seven rounds and each player shall use a one-hour time control per game.

Prizes for the open section are RM1,200 and a trophy for the winner, RM700 and a souvenir for the second-placed, and RM400 and a souvenir for the third-placed. There are altogether 10 prizes.

The two youth sections will also have 10 prizes each. For the under-16 section, the winner will receive RM400 and a trophy, second shall get RM250, and third RM200. The winner of the under-12 section will get RM350 and a trophy, second RM200 and third RM150.

For the veteran's open section, only players above the age of 40 can participate. The prizes range from RM200 for the winner to RM70 for the fifth-placed.

Entry fees are RM30 for the open and veteran's sections, and RM10 for the under-16 and under-12 sections. Outstation players can arrange for accommodation within the UKM campus at RM5 per day for a dormitory stay, or RM40 and RM70 for the single and double air-conditioned rooms.

For further details or registration, contact UKM's Rosli Mohd Ali or Hj Idris Fakih Mokhtar (03-829-2422, 03-829-2423) or Ibrahim Yaacob (03-636-3082).

FOUR-DAY CHESS FEST

A four-day chess fest will be held at the Tapak ASPO 95, Universiti Malaya from next Thursday. On the first day, a six-round Rapid-30 tournament shall be held for players under the age of 20. Twenty prizes are on offer: 10 for under-20 players and the remainder for those under 12 years old. The first prize for the two age-groups are RM150 and RM100 respectively. Entry fee is RM5 per person.

There is no event on Friday but on the following day, an open tournament will be arranged. This is again over six rounds with the best player set to receive RM250. There are nine other cash prizes and in addition, prizes will be given to the best under-16 and under-12 girl players. Entry fees are RM5 for under-16 participants and RM10 for all others. A similar tournament will be held on Nov 18.

 

Torre wins KL tourney

 

MCF invites local players

 

Women's world championship