Young warriors

It is common knowledge that schools are the breeding ground for budding chess players, where chess receives the greatest support. Take for example, the SRK Sri Aman in Kampung Melayu, Penang. A visitor to the school would soon learn that chess playing is a very popular pastime among the school children.

Where else would you meet children who, before lessons begin in the morning, gather around chess boards in the school canteen? At the ring of the bell, they exchange their chess sets for their text books but invariably, the sets reappear during recess.

Thanks to this obsession with the game, Sri Aman has produced chess players successfully for the MSSPP chess team every year.

The school has also produced state champions in the boys' and girls' under-12 sections. Players like Kelvin Khoo, Eoh Thean Keat, Linda Low, Rubaizah Basir and Ching Ai Hooi have all gone on to encourage chess during their secondary school years.

According to the Sri Aman chess teacher, Eoh Hook Kim, chess playing is encouraged for the main reason that chess instills discipline of the mind. This, he said, is a quality which is worth emulating everywhere.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

October and November are two of the quietest months for local chess players. Organisers are quite loathe to hold any tournament during this period because of the end-of-year school examinations.

Action will resume, so to speak, only at the end of next month.

National Closed

For seven days beginning Nov 27, the Malaysian Chess Federation will stage its annual national closed championships for men and women.

Like in previous years, the Kuala Lumpur Parkroyal is expected to be the sponsor for this event which shall be a nine-round Swiss. The various chess associations which are affiliates of the MCF will be eligible to send six players - four men and two women - each for the championship.

Previous national champions and certain selected players like the MSSM winners are likely to be granted automatic entry into the championship and if past precedences are anything to go by, the MCF will even allow wild card entries by players who directly write to the federation.

Although the monetary rewards for this event are modest, the intangible rewards such as the national master title and the chance for the top players to be selected for international events have been alluring.

USM Open

This year, however, at almost the same time as the national closed championship, the Universiti Sains Malaysia's Bridge and Chess Club will be organising its second USM national open tournament in Penang from Dec 1.

This is a three-day event. Ten prizes totalling RM3,250 are lined up for the participants and the winner will receive RM1,000. Second prize is RM750, third is RM500, fourth RM300 and fifth RM200. The sixth to 10th prizes will be RM100 each.

Entry fees are RM20 for students and RM30 for the public. To register, contact Ms Chew Siew Imm (04-657-7253) after 8pm. Closing date for entries has been extended to Nov 25 so readers interested in playing in this event can still register with the organisers without having to pay any late fees.

Asian team meet

From Dec 12 to 23, the Asian team championship will be played in Singapore.

As usual, selection of players to international events is the sole prerogative of the Malaysian Chess Federation and it is expected that the selection will be announced at the end of the national closed championship.

The last Asian team championship was held at Universiti Malaya two years ago and at that time, the entry of teams from the central Asian countries into the championship gave the event a new perspective.

It remains to be seen whether countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan will still dominate this time or whether the East Asian countries like China, Philippines and Indonesia can regain their past grandeur.

Malaysia-Singapore

Finally, one other event planned for this year is the second leg of the annual Malaysia-Singapore match.

The first leg was played in Kuala Lumpur in July and the second leg will be in Singapore. The dates are Dec 29 and 30.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

The final two games of the Professional Chess Association World Championship match between Gary Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand in New York.

Anand - Kasparov, Game 17

1.e4 c5, 2.Nf3 d6, 3.d4 cxd4, 4.Nxd4 Nf6, 5.Nc3 g6, 6.Be3 Bg7, 7.f3 0-0, 8.Qd2 Nc6, 9.Bc4 Bd7, 10.h4 h5, 11.Bb3 Rc8, 12.0-0-0 Ne5, 13.Bg5 (This is the most aggressive plan in this line of the Sicilian Dragon) 13...Rc5, 14.Kb1 Re8, 15.Rhe1! Qa5, 16.a3 (More usually played at this point is 16 f4) 16...b5, 17.Bxf6 exf6, 18.Nde2 Rc6, 19.Nd5 Qxd2, 20.Rxd2 Nc4, 21.Bxc4 bxc4, 22.Red1 f5 23.exf5 (Black has no worries after 23 Nb4 Rb6 24 Rxd6 Rxd6 25 Rxd6 fxe4 26 fxe4 Bg4, etc) 23...Bxf5, 24.Nd4 Bxd4, 25.Rxd4 Re2, 26.R4d2 Rxd2, 27.Rxd2 Kf8, 28.Kc1? (28 Nb4! Rb6 29 Rd5 Bc8 30 Ra5 a6 31 Kc1 Rb5 32 Rxb5 axb5 33 Kd2 Ke7 34 Ke3 Ke6 35 Kd4 would have given White some winning chances) 28...Be6, 29.Rd4 Bxd5, 30.Rxd5 Ke7, 31.Rb5 Ke6, 32.Rb7 Rc5? (Instead of this move, Black should have played 32...a6 33 Kd2 c3+ 34.bxc3 Rd5+ followed by ...Rc5-a5 when the position is about equal) 33.Rxa7 g5, 34.Ra8 gxh4, 35.Re8+ Kd7, 36.Re4! (From this square, the rook is well placed to go to either side of the ! board) 36...c3 (The only move whi h allows Black to trade off a weakness. White will win after 36...Rg5 37 Rxc4 Rxg2 38 Rxh4, etc) 37.Rxh4? (Winning is 37 b4 Rg5 38 Rxh4 Rxg2 39 Kb1 when the connected passed pawns decide) 37...cxb2+, 38.Kxb2 Rg5, 39.a4 f5, 40.a5 (Preferred is 40 Kb3) 40...f4!,41.a6 Kc7,42.Rxf4 Rxg2,43.Rf7+ Kb8!, 44.Kc3 h4,45.Kd3 Rf2,46.c4 (This move was widely criticised by the grandmasters watching the match. Better was 46.c3 or 46.Ke4) 46...Ra2 47.Ke4 Rxa6 (The removal of this pawn means that the Black НКking can crawl back along the eighth rank to stop the f3-pawn.) 48.Rh7 Ra5, 49.f4 Kc8, 50.f5 Kd8, 51.Kf4 Rc5, 52.Kg5 Rxc4, 53.Kg6 Rg4+, 54.Kf7 d5, 55.f6 Kd7, 56.Kf8+ Ke6, 57.f7 Rf4, 58.Kg8 d4, 59.f8=Q Rxf8+, 60.Kxf8 Ke5, 61.Rxh4 d3, 62.Rh3 Ke4, 63.Rxd3 1/2-1/2 (This was a tough game for Kasparov. It was the longest game in the match and the draw did not come easy. But when it came, it enabled Kasparov to reach 10 points and retain his title.)

Kasparov - Anand, Game 18

1.e4 c5, 2.Nf3 d6, 3.d4 cxd4, 4.Nxd4 Nf6, 5.Nc3 a6, 6.Be2 e6, 7.O-O Be7, 8.a4 Nc6, 9.Be3 O-O, 10.f4 Qc7, 11.Kh1 Re8, 12.Bf3 1/2\1/2 (A very anti-climatic end to an engrossing match. For Kasparov, it meant winning the lion's share of the prize money, US$1 million (RM2.5 million), and for Anand, US$500,000 (RM1.25 million) has made him a very rich man in India.)

 

A move up for chess

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GENERAL MEETING

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

GAMES OF THE WEEK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"]

[Site "Moscow RUS"]

[Date "1995.04.29"]

[Round "2.1"]

[White "Morozevich, Alexander"]

[Black "Anand, Viswanathan"]

[Result "1-0"]

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

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

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

[Event "Intel PCA Rapid Chess Grand Prix"]

[Site "Moscow RUS"]

[Date "1995.05.01"]

[Round "final"]

[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]

[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]

[Result "0-1"]

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