Yet another body set up by Kasparov

Well, I told you last week that there would be an announcement by Gary Kasparov before the start of the Linares super-grandmaster tournament.

Yes, he did make an announcement but I could not help laughing when I learnt what it was all it. Do you what Kasparov did? He announced the formation of yet another chess organisation - the World Chess Council!

I suppose I should not have been surprised, but I was caught unawares. Clearly, I am amazed by this man's gall. How many so-called organisations has he created or helped to create in the last 12 years to promote his own ends? And how many chess professionals will fall for it again just like the way they fell for his past endeavours?

There was the Professional Chess Association and before it, the Grandmaster Association. All had the Kasparov touch in their formation, and all suffered the same Kasparov touch when they went into oblivion.

Let me go back in time. During the Dubai Chess Olympiad in 1986, Kasparov, who was already the world champion, played a big part in drumming up support for forming the Grandmaster Association.

One of its aims was to work with the World Chess Federation (Fide), but a more important objective was to provide reasonable income for the top grandmasters through the organising of a Chess World Cup grand prix.

The idea worked for several years until Kasparov had a fallout with the Grandmaster Association's president, Bessel Kok, who was at that time the chief executive of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Telecommunication (SWIFT).

Kok had his principles. He wanted everything run in a very disciplined manner diametrically opposite to Kasparov's style. With Kok's departure, the association quickly lost its standing in the chess world and it died a quiet death.

Fast forwarding to 1993: Nigel Short had some disagreements with Fide on holding the world championship match between himself and Kasparov.

Kasparov seized the opportunity to convince Short that the time was ripe for them to play their match outside Fide's jurisdiction. To give their match some credence, Kasparov formed the Professional Chess Association.

Although the Professional Chess Association did try to hold qualifying events for their version of the world championship, there were accusations that the organisation was only looking after the interests of a few elite players.

In reality, the Professional Chess Association served only the interest of Gary Kasparov. This organisation only lasted until 1995 when Kasparov played a match against Viswanathan Anand, after which it drifted into a long hibernation.

There were no more qualifying tournaments, no more so-called Professional Chess Association's version of the world chess championship matches. No wonder some people referred to Kasparov as the person who nominated himself Champion.

So there is every reason to be skeptical about Kasparov's latest project, the new World Chess Council. Will it last or suffer the same fate as its two predecessors?

At the opening ceremony of the Linares tournament, he announced that the main purpose of this new body, whose president is Luis Rentero, would be to organise a match in Seville and Linares sometime no later than October this year, when Kasparov would defend his "title".

However, at present nobody has the details on the match and how it will materialise. There is no information on Kasparov's probable opponent or how he will be chosen, although there are rumours that Vladimir Kramnik and Anand will be playing a match soon and the winner will play Kasparov.

It will be interesting to see how this alliance between Kasparov and the volatile and controversial Rentero will work out. Rentero, the owner of a supermarket chain in Spain, has been associated with the Linares super-grandmaster tournament since its inception.

He is certainly no fool when it comes to finance and business. For him to agree to be the president of Kasparov's World Chess Council, he must have seen some possible short-term benefits in it.

Anyway, back to this year's Linares tournament. This is a double round-robin event where the rate of play is two hours for the first 40 moves, then one hour for the next 20 moves, and finally 30 minutes for play-to-the-finish.

In the first round on Sunday, Vassily Ivanchuk, who was playing the black pieces against Kramnik, countered the latter's favourite Queen's Pawn Opening with the Chigorin Defence.

The game followed the opening theory for a while but after some complications provoked by Ivanchuk, Kramnik obtained a favourable ending due to a superior pawn structure and the position of his king.

However, the Ukrainian grandmaster defended very resourcefully and managed to draw a very instructive rook endgame.

Alexei Shirov, who was up against Anand, played badly in a Caro-Kann Defence and quickly obtained an inferior position. Anand was able to isolate his opponent's pawns which condemned the latter to a passive game.

Once Anand traded his queen for Shirov's two rooks, it became clear that the Indian grandmaster would soon pocket the full point. The exchange allowed Anand to capture all of Shirov's vulnerable pawns one after the other.

And in the third game of the first round, between Peter Svidler and Kasparov, the Scheveningen variation of the Sicilian Defence was played.

Kasparov's treatment of the opening was especially interesting. He avoided the usual moves ...Bf8 and ...g6, so as not to weaken his kingside too early. After that, the position appeared to be level for the remainder of the game.

Tebrau open

Players in the south of the peninsula can take part in the 10th Tebrau open chess tournament. Organised by the Rukun Tetangga Taman Sri Tebrau with assistance from the Johor Bahru Chess Club, the event will be held on Mar 22 at the Sek Men Sri Tebrau in Johor Bahru.

There are three sections in this tournament and the entry fees are RM10 for the open section, RM6 for the under-16 section and RM5 for the under-12 section. Entries close on Mar 20, and only the first 200 entries will be accepted.

For more details, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07-333-8215).

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Readers with Internet access can connect to the tournament web site at http://www.elpais.es/p/d/ajedrez3/1998/english.htm

Vladimir Kramnik - Vassily Ivanchuk

1. Nf3 Nc6 2. d4 d5 3. Bf4 Bg4 4. e3 e6 5. c4 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 Nf6 (Also playable is 6...Nge7 from which it can later go ...Ng6 and ...Nh4) 7. Rc1 O-O 8. h3 8...Bxf3 (A common theme in this opening: Black gives up the two bishops so as to free his position with ...e5) 9. Qxf3 Qe7 10. Bg5 (The only way to prevent the opening of the centre) 10... Bxc3+ 11. Rxc3 Qb4 12. Bxf6 (Otherwise Black would play 12...Ne4) 12... Qxb2 13. Rb3 Qc1+ 14. Qd1 Qxd1+ 15. Kxd1 dxc4 16. Rxb7 gxf6 17. Kd2 Rab8 18. Rxc7 Na5 19. Kc2 (19. Kc3 would probably have been countered by 19... Rb1, leaving the rook on h1 out of play) 19... Rb4 20. Rxa7 Ra4 21. Rxa5 (A necessary sacrifice) 21... Rxa5 22. Bxc4 h5 23. h4 Rc8 24. Kd3 Rxc4 (An interesting decision. As he has no chance of winning this position, Ivanchuk decides to return the exchange so as to reach a rook ending where he has a pawn less but is compensated with a tenable position) 25. Kxc4 Rxa2 26. Rf1 f5 (White's pawns are paralysed and his rook on f1 passively guards the second rank) 27. d5 Kf8 28. dxe6 fxe6 29. Kd4 Ke7 30. Ke5 Ra4 31. f3 Ra5+ (Not 31... Rxh4 which is answered by 32. Ra1, and followed by Ra7+ and Rxe6) 32. Kf4 Ra2 33. Rb1 Kf6 (If 33... Rxg2, then 34. Ke5) 34. Kg3 Re2 35. Rb3 e5 36. Rb6+ Kg7 37. Rb3 Kf6 38. Ra3 Kg6 39. Kh3 Kf6 40. g4 hxg4+ 41. fxg4 fxg4+ 42. Kxg4 Kg6 43. h5+ Kh6 44. Ra6+ Kh7 45. Ra3 Kh6 46. Kf5 e4 47. Kxe4 Kxh5 48. Kf5 Rf2+ 49. Ke6 Re2 (Holding the pawn from behind and forcing White to retrace his steps) 50. Kf5 Rf2+ 51. Ke5 Kg6 52. e4 Rb2 53. Ra7 Rb5+ 54. Ke6 Rb6+ 55. Ke7 Rb5 56. Ra6+ Kg5 57. Re6 Kf4 58. Kf6 Rh5 (58... Rh5 59. Re8 Rh6+ 60. Kg7 Rh5) 1/2-1/2

Alexei Shirov - Viswanathan Anand

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6. Be3 cxd4 7. Nxd4 Ne7 8. c4 (This variation became popular after Boris Gelfand's victory over Anatoly Karpov in 1995) 8... Nbc6 9. Nc3 Nxd4 10. Bxd4 dxc4 11. Bxc4 (This is a novelty, instead of 11.Qa4+, played in Xie Jun-Chiburdanidze, Groningen 1997, and continuing 11... Nc6 12. Rd1 Bd3 13. Bxd3 cxd3 14. Be3 Bb4 15. O-O Bxc3 16. bxc3 Qd5 17. Bd4 O-O) 11... Nc6 12. Bb5 Be7 13. O-O O-O (Black's position is already very comfortable. His minor pieces are occupying good squares) 14. Bxc6 bxc6 15. Ne2 c5 16. Bc3 Qb6 17. Ng3 Bg6 18. Qg4 Rad8 19. h4 h6 20. h5 Bh7 21. f4 c4+ 22. Kh2 Bb4 23. f5 exf5 24. Nxf5 Bxf5 25. Rxf5 Bxc3 26. bxc3 Qe6 (White's pawns on c3, e5 and h5 are all isolated and vulnerable) 27. Raf1 Rfe8 28. R1f4 Rd5 29. Re4 Re7 (White is completely tied up) 30. Qf4 Rc7 31. Rxc4 Qxf5 (Exchanging the queen for the two rooks) 32. Qxf5 Rxc4 (Black now plans to double the rooks against the isolated pawns and capture them one by one) 33. Qb1 Rd8 34. Qb7 Rxc3 35. Qxa7 Rcc8 36. a4 Ra8 37. Qc7 Rdc8 38. Qb7 Re8 39. Qc6 Rac8 40. Qd7 Rcd8 41. Qc7 Rd5 42. a5 Rdxe5 43. a6 R5e7 44. Qc6 Rf8 45. Kh3 Ra7 46. g4 Rfa8 47. Kh4 Rxa6 48. Qb7 Ra5 49. Qc6 Rf8 50. Qb6 Rg5 51. Qb3 Kh8 52. Qb4 Re8 53. Qa4 Rd8 54. Qe4 f5 55. gxf5 Rf8 0-1 (White will lose all his remaining pawns)

Karpov barred from Linares tournament

When the organisers of the annual Linares Super-grandmaster tournament were finalising their list of invited players last year, Anatoly Karpov ran into a storm when he declined to take part in it.

Karpov's reason was simple: he was busy campaigning for a seat in the Russian parliament.

But this did not go down well with the volatile Luis Rentero who, for many years, had been involved with the Linares tournament in many capacity but notably as its main sponsor.

He charged that Karpov had known of the dates for the Linares tournament as far back as the middle of 1996, and despite several reminders in January 1997, Karpov did not have the courtesy to inform the organisers of his plans.

Obviously, the organisers have not forgotten this incident for when they were preparing for this year's Linares tournament, Karpov was not given an invitation to play.

The ones who will be playing, however, are Peter Svidler (Russia), Alexei Shirov (Spain), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Viswanathan Anand (India), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Gary Kasparov (Russia).

They are currently seven of the world's strongest players, and they will play in the double round-robin tournament, a Category 21 event with an average rating of 2752, which starts tomorrow and will go on until Mar 10.

Speaking of Kasparov, we know the man is today the strongest player in the world. He has, by far, the highest rating in the latest international rating list released by the World Chess Federation (Fide) recently.

But would you consider Kasparov the world champion, or the Anatoly Karpov who won the Fide world chess championship in Lausanne last month?

Kasparov, in my opinion, can no longer call himself the world champion. Remember that it was Kasparov who in 1993 created turmoil by refusing to defend his world champion's title under the auspices of the World Chess Federation.

Remember too that it was Kasparov who was instrumental to founding the Professional Chess Association to serve his own interest by organising a rival match with Nigel Short in 1993 and Viswanathan Anand in 1995, and then let the association fade into obscurity.

The World Chess Federation is today still the only legitimate world chess body with an active chess programme, despite its own shortcomings. And Karpov, although only the sixth-ranked player in the world today, must still be regarded as the winner of the federation's world championship cycle.

Kasparov was interviewed last month by Sport Express, a Moscow magazine.

In the magazine article, Kasparov was asked when his own "world championship match" would take place. Some people, according to the interviewer, Y Vasiliev, were already call Kasparov the person who nominated himself Champion.

Kasparov was asked when he would agree to play a match against his strongest challengers. It seemed that there have been some interest shown by sponsors to finance a match between Anand and Kramnik, and the winner would be playing against Kasparov.

Kasparov's reply was non-committal other than to say that he planned to play such a match in October this year, but the announcements would only be made before the start of the Linares tournament. Well, the Linares tournament will start tomorrow, and I am sure we shall have the details in these pages next week.

There is another interesting development concerning Kasparov. It has just been announced that Kasparov and Topalov will play a highly unusual six-game match in Leon, Spain, from June 9 to 13.

What is so unusual about this match is that both the players will have access to a computer each. Both computers will be identical in their hardware configuration, but the players will load in their private database of chess games.

Very few sports in this world can claim to have such a close affinity with computers. Chess is one of them. Personal computers have become a boon for chessplayers. There are many chess database programmes, and the top players such as Kasparov and Topalov keep detail databases of games played by their comtemporaries.

The Internet has also given chess a boost in a way that would be almost inconcievable five years ago. Today, chess events are relayed through the Internet almost as soon as they happen and the obscure chess game can also very quickly gain the attention of the top players.

So, what will happen in this highly unusual chess match between Kasparov and Topalov is that both players will be using their private databases where they keep their secret research and analyses.

They will be helped by an analytic programme which will be like a tactical mistakes detector.

However, the six games will be played using a time control of one hour per player for each game. With only this limited time allotted for each player, they will have to judge how much time they can afford to spend in consulting their computers.

Although this match will be highly unusual, it is not surprising seeing that Kasparov is heavily involved with it. Soon after he lost the second match to Deep Blue last May, he had been going round with this suggestion that players should be allowed to consult chess computers during games.

There is even a name given to this form of chess. The organisers of the match have called it Advanced Chess, in which humans and computers join forces and compete as a team against each other.

They claim that Advanced Chess represents a very high-tech approach to the game and it increases the level of play to heights never before achieved. It would also give the viewing public a unique insight into the thought processes of chessplayers and computers.

Computers calculate at prodigious speeds. On a fast computer, the strongest chess programs generate and evaluate about 150,000 positions per second. In tactically complex positions they are superior to any human player.

In the opening, computers can access unlimited knowledge from their database of chess games - literally millions of tried and tested moves. In the endgame, the computers use hash tables to search very deeply, and in certain restricted endings (for instance, with just five pieces on the board) computers do play absolutely perfect chess.

Human chessplayers, on the other hand, look at only a very limited number of positions. However, they are able to sort out the relevant from the irrelevant, and look at meaningful moves instead of every nonsensical variation.

Humans are able to judge the quality of a move in the very long-term, and formulate plans that go a long way beyond the horizons of even the fastest computers. If a human chess master can survive the tactical onslaught of the machine, his strategical superiority will triumph.  

In Advanced Chess, claimed the organisers, there is symbiosis between man and machine. Each human player is equipped with a personal computer which he can consult at will during the game.

The human player enters moves for the computer to analyse, and spends time pondering the position himself while the computer checks the crucial variations. The human player is always in charge and has the final decision on which move to make.

Does all these seem interesting? I rather think so and I just can't wait for June to come around.

A case of brawns over brains

It would have been easy to overlook that short but significant sentence in the sports pages of the Sunday Star five days ago. There, tucked away in a corner of the newspaper, was a small mention that chess would be out of this year's Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) calendar.

For those who missed the news item, it was reported that the Education Ministry had slashed their budget for the MSSM, forcing three sports to be dropped from the schools calendar this year.

The report quoted the MSSM secretary general, Abdul Aziz Mohamed, as saying the MSSM would only receive RM550,000 from the Education Ministry.

"The amount is half of what we (normally) received. Under the circumstances, we don't have any alternative but to reduce the number of sports for this year," he said.

Apart from chess, the other two sports dropped by the MSSM are handball and softball.

My first reaction was one of outrage. There we are, having made so much progress locally during the last few years and having the results to show for it, and here we have a decision which in a stroke cancels almost everything chess officials in the country have worked for.

I would like to know from the MSSM authorities whether they had considered the alternative of a uniform reduction in the allocation of funds for all the sports.

Instead of removing certain games from the calendar, why can't the MSSM uniformly scale down the size of all the sports? I would think that it would be more important to retain continuity for all the games, such as by organising them on a smaller scale, than to sacrifice the three affected sports altogether.

The cut is especially hard to accept when you realise that chess is the only game in the MSSM calendar that deals with the mental development of the players. By taking away chess, the MSSM has effectively removed the only opportunity for school children to compete in mental sports.

I would think that mental prowess goes hand-in-hand with physical prowess. Even Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Council, acknowledged as recently as last month that chess players have to be physically fit in order to play chess.

So do the authorities in the MSSM have differing views? Are they trying to signal that nothing, not even mental activity, can be as important as physical activity? Is brawn better than brains? I hope to be proven wrong, but these recent developments seem to point in this direction.

As long ago as the beginning of last year, even before the economic crisis hit Malaysia, there were already rumours that the MSSM might be trying to do away with chess in their calendar.

I may be wrong again, but the rumour mill also suggested that some quarters were uncomfortable that chess, in the last few years, was threatening to overshadow a few sports that have greater mass appeal. Ooi Chern Ee surprised many people by coming third in the 1995 MSSM Sportsboy ceremony. Then, in a milestone development, Mas Hafizulhelmi finally bagged the Sportsboy award in the 1996 ceremony.

Whatever the real reason may be, I can only hope that common sense can prevail in the end and chess can be reinstated immediately. Why take away a sport which has featured regularly in the MSSM calendar for the past 25 years?

Does it really cost that much amount of money to run an MSSM chess tournament? If so, I will be the first outsider to support any move to reduce the number of different categories of chess events, just as long that the game can be retained in the MSSM calendar.

For example, instead of holding separate individual and team events for two or three different age-groups, the organisers can hold just one team event for the most senior age-group and award the MSSM chess champion's title to the best Board One performer among the teams.

This is just one suggestion. If the MSSM would care to contact the Malaysian Chess Federation (try telephoning MCF secretary Hamid Majid at 03-421-9576, for instance) and discuss strategy together, I am sure other viable alternatives can be considered too.

In the meantime, if readers have any strong opinion about chess and its exclusion from the MSSM calendar, you can write to me through The Star or e-mail me at ssquah@schach.pc.my .

PERAK CHESS

The Perak International Chess Association will organise a one-day open competition this Sunday at the Taman DR Seenivasagam in Ipoh. This is a six-round event with a time control of 25 minutes per player for each game.

Registration for the event will start at 8.30am on the day of the competition, and the first round is expected to begin by 9.10am. Entry fees are RM8 for members of PICA and RM10 for non-members.

Prizes will include trophies with cash given to the best eight players. The best under-12, under-16 and woman players will also receive prizes. For more enquiries, call Wong (tel: 05-3661692).

UNION CHESS

The Union High School, Penang, will organise its first Union open tournament this Sunday. This will be played over seven rounds.

The entry fee for the one-day tournament is RM7 per player, and participants are required to register themselves at the school hall at 7.30am on the day of the event.

Six cash prizes ranging from RM150 to RM20 will be offered. Trophies will also be given to the best under-12, under-18, women's and Union High School players.

For more details, contact Lim Chu Ai (tel: 04-226-7067), Lim Swee TIn (tel: 04-262-9824) or Wong Wai Quan (e-mail: waiquan@tm.net.my).

 

The making of a grandmaster

So, what did you do during the long holiday break last week? Were you playing chess? Not me, anyway. Rather, I found the long festive break just perfect for some indulgence in other activities.

I'll tell you what I did. Apart from the normal obligatory visits to relatives and friends to redistribute my income, I decided to become a couch potato.

I think during the seven days away from the office, I watched more shows on television than I had ever done in the past two years. Honest!

I caught up with several old movies which I said that I wanted to watch but could not find the time. You may be interested to know that among some of the movies I saw were Black Rain, Gremlins, Dumb and Dumber, Mission Impossible and ... Innocent Moves.

Innocent Moves. I am sure some of you readers will recognise this movie. It is the story of American international master Josh Waitzkin as a seven-year-old child, adapted from the book, Searching For Bobby Fischer, written by his father, Fred Waitzkin.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. For once, here was a movie all about chess and chessplayers, and with a very believable storyline.

It opened with Josh Waitzkin celebrating his seventh birthday in Washington Park where he chanced upon a group of chess hustlers. From there, his interest in the game grew.

After moving through various sub-plots, the movie culminated with Josh playing in and winning the United States' national scholastic championship.

I found the most interesting parts of the movie to be the historical footage showing Bobby Fischer arriving in Reykjavik to play his world chess championship match with Boris Spassky in 1972, how he won the title and the general euphoria and adoration in the United States that followed Fischer after his win.

In another historical scene, there was a young Fischer, 14-years-old at that time, giving a simultaneous chess display to a group of adults in the Manhattan Chess Club.

The most amusing scene in Innocent Moves occurred during Josh Waitzkin's first-ever junior tournament. Before the tournament started, the organiser was lecturing not the children, but their parents!

"You are expected to conduct yourselves as adults. You can stand behind your children, but there must be no throat noises, no comments and no eye contact," the organiser said, glaring at the parents.

Yet despite the warning, some of the parents still managed to get themselves too involved with their children's games. There was a scene showing two fathers arguing and shoving one another.

Can this actually be happening in the United States? Parents fighting and quarrelling over their children's games? Really, I can't see this ever happening in Malaysian chess and I hope it will not happen.

The organiser's solution was simple. Before the next round began, he locked up all the parents in a room away from the tournament hall.

When the story first unfolded in Washington Park, I was surprised to see one man who looked very familiar to me. There was no mistaking his features.

The man was Kamran Shirazi who had escaped from the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Iran in 1979. What was interesting about Shirazi, now a naturalised American, was that he had played in Malaysia before. I knew him in 1976 when the Penang Chess Association organised the first leg of the inaugural Asian grandmaster chess circuit.

Shirazi was not the only chess player who appeared in the movie. American grandmasters Joel Benjamin and Roman Dzhindzhihashvili also made brief appearances as themselves.

I think one aspect of the movie which was not very apparent was that it was not only about Josh Waitzkin. The show was essentially about Bruce Pandolfini too. Pandolfini is an author of many chess books but it is clear from this movie that he also teaches chess in the United States.

In Innocent Moves, Pandolfini was played by Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley (for his role in Gandhi). His character came across as a man wrought by conflicting emotions. On one hand, he seemed disillusioned about teaching chess but on the other hand, he was very concerned about Josh Waitzkin's progress as a chess player.

Was Kingsley's portrayal of Pandolfini correct? Well, I think we have to ask Pandolfini himself one day. After all, Pandolfini was mentioned in the movie credits as the technical advisor.

The highlight of the movie was, of course, the showdown at the national scholastic championship where Josh Waitzkin found himself playing Jonathan Poe in the final round.

In Searching For Bobby Fischer, Poe was actually a talented junior player named Jeff Sarwar. I suppose legal issues prevented Sarwar's name to be used in the movie, thereby forcing the producers to use a fictional character like Jonathan Poe.

Poe was a dark brooding kid who, at the critical point of the game, turned down an offer to share the championship title with Josh. Somehow, the movie managed successfully to capture the tension of a chess game and the build-up came when the opposing pawns raced down the edges of the chessboard.

Poe queened his pawn first, only to see Josh queening his and skewering Poe's king in the middle of the board.

All in, Innocent Moves is a fascinating movie. I had seen it three or four years ago, but seeing it again after all these years simply renewed my interest in the game.

Union chess

The Union High School, Penang, will organise their first Union open tournament on Feb 15. This will be played over seven rounds.

The entry fee for the one-day tournament is RM7 per player, and participants are required to register themselves at the school hall at 7.30am on the day of the event.

Six cash prizes ranging from RM150 to RM20 will be offered. In addition, trophies will be given to the best under-12, under-18, women's and Union High School players.

For more details, contact Lim Chu Ai (tel: 04-226-7067), Lim Swee TIn (tel: 04-262-9824) or Wong Wai Quan (e-mail: waiquan@tm.net.my).

No champ to Anand

"I might have lost the match," said Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, "but I don't recognise Anatoly Karpov as the world champion. The title of World Champion is vacant."

This comment by Anand came in the wake of his loss at the hands of Karpov in the finals of the world chess championship which took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, earlier this month. Clearly, Anand believed that having come out tops in the elimination contests in the Groningen, Netherlands, half of the championship, he had won one of the strongest events in chess history.

Anand said his match against Karpov was conducted under strongly unfavourable conditions (he played 31 elimination games in Groningen in order to qualify for a shot against Karpov) and so, the result of that final match could not be taken seriously.

Although generally he praised the knockout system in Groningen, Anand condemned Karpov's advantage of being seeded directly to the final. He was justifiably proud of his victory in Groningen but he pointed to the 31 games he played compared to Karpov's eight.

The world chess championship had begun in Groningen on Dec 8 and it ended in Lausanne on Jan 9. It was organised by the World Chess Federation and during the championship, International Olympic Council president Juan Antonio Samaranch was a special guest of the Fide president, Kirsan Iljumzhinov.

At the closing ceremony, Samaranch said the way was clear for chess to appear in the Olympics provided there was unity. This remark was clearly aimed at the non-participation of Gary Kasparov in the championship. Kasparov had refused to take part because he wanted to know the source of funds for the prize monies, which Fide felt was not their obligation to reveal to him.

Samaranch congratulated Karpov on winning the world title but, turning to Anand and speaking in Spanish, the IOC president also said: "Anand, I know you speak Spanish very well. You will be a future world champion."

Earlier, Samaranch was interviewed by Chess Planet which owns and operates the very popular Chess Planet website (http://www.chessweb.com). Part of the interview is reproduced here with permission.

Chess Planet: The world championship is running in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and you recently said Fide has been recognised by the IOC. What more should be done to see chess fully accepted as a sport?

Samaranch: As I said during the opening ceremony, the IOC recognises Fide but it is much different with the Olympic program. We have Olympic committees in 200 countries, but half of them recognise chess as a sport and the other half as a cultural activity. To solve this problem, one should be precise about what is a sport. Chess definitely fulfills the purpose of the IOC on a competition point of view, but sport also demands physical activity and this is not blatant in chess. However it is clear that chess players have to be fit to play at the highest level.

CP: Why is the final of the world chess championship taking place in the Olympic Museum of Lausanne?

Samaranch: I have a great respect for chess, and one should not forget that the Fide headquarters is in Lausanne. We are very happy to welcome Fide here, in the Olympic Museum.

CP: What do you think about the final between Karpov and Anand ?

Samaranch: It is a fascinating final, and a balanced one up to now. This shows that Fide did the right choice when changing the championship's formula. The fact that the matches do not last as long as before is a path in the right direction for chess to be recognised as an Olympic sport."

RATING LIST FOR 1998

The World Chess Federation (FIDE) has finally released its January 1998 international rating list. According to sources, the release of the list was delayed to enable some national chess federations to pay FIDE their overdue annual fees.

Again, the top player among the Malaysians is FIDE master Mas Hafizulhelmi who has a rating of 2375. Ooi Chern Ee is rated at 2340, while international master Jimmy Liew is third in the rating standings at 2330.

Lim Chuin Hoong is a newcomer to the latest list and he is rated at 2275. Next in line are Mok Tze-Meng at 2260, Zakaria Fadli at 2250, Mohd Irman Ibrahim at 2220, Mohd Saprin Sabri at 2210, Ng Ee-Vern at 2210, Mohd Kamal Abdullah at 2205, Yeoh Chin-Seng at 2195, Mohd Fairin Zakaria at 2185, Tan Hong Ghee at 2150, Lim Yee-Weng at 2130, Julian Navaratnam at 2120, and Azahari Md Nor at 2115.

Also new to the rating list is Lim Kian Hwa at 2110. The remaining rated Malaysian players are Thomas Lam 2105, Wong Zi-Jing 2090, Lim Tse-Pin 2070, Tan Wei Sin 2070, Pang Siew Chong 2065, Roslina Marmono 2065, Ismail Ahmad 2055, Nurul Huda Wahiduddin 2040, Mohan Raj 2025, Soh Zee Wee 2025, Eliza Hanim Ibrahim 2015, Eliza Hanum Ibrahim 2015, and Khairunnisa Wahiduddin 2005.

UNION MEET

The Union High School in Penang will organise their first Union open tournament next month. This will be played over seven rounds.

The entry fee for the one-day tournament is RM7 per player, and participants are required to register themselves at the school hall at 7.30am on Feb 15. Six cash prizes ranging from RM150 to RM20 will be offered. In addition, trophies will be given to the best under-12, under-18, women's and Union High School players.

For more details, contact Lim Chu Ai (tel: 04-226-7067), Lim Swee TIn (tel: 04-262-9824) or Wong Wai Quan (e-mail: waiquan@tm.net.my).

CHESS CLASSES

The Royal Selangor Club will hold chess classes for beginners every Sunday morning in the Card Room. Readers interested in attending the classes can contact Dr Wahid Karim (tel: 03-251-2961) or drop by the club on Sundays to register.

 

Karpov retains crown

India's Viswanathan Anand came within a hare's whisker of wresting the world chess championship crown from title holder Anatoly Karpov at the finals of the World Chess Championship in Lausanne, Switzerland, last week.

In my column last week, I wrote that at the halfway point of the six-game match between Karpov and Anand, both players were tied with 1.5 points each. Karpov had won the first game but Anand equalised the score with a win in the second game. The third game was drawn.

Continuing from where I left off, the fourth game between the two players was won by Karpov after Anand had played badly. After 12 h4, Karpov thought for about half an hour before he played a novelty move, 12...Nf5. Anand thought for some time and rejected Bxf5 which could have given him a small advantage.

Soon afterwards, Anand found a bad plan which wrecked his pawn structure and left himself with weak pawns and a bad bishop. At first, Karpov failed to capitalise on this advantage. However, as the game was heading towards a draw, Anand again chose a wrong plan in the opposite-colour bishop ending. This time, Karpov successfully seized on Anand's mistake and he went on to realise the full point.

Karpov took a step closer towards retaining his title when he and Anand drew the fifth game. Anand's 16...exd4 was a controversial decision which led to Karpov obtaining a small but clear edge. Anand then played the sharp 19...g5, forcing Karpov to trade off the queens. Anand defended accurately in the ensuing endgame to earn the draw.

By this time, almost everybody was ready to write off the Indian player. However, Anand's faith in himself never wavered. In the sixth game, he uncorked a marvelous opening idea which rattled Karpov enough to force the match into a play-off.

Anand essayed the rarely-played Trompovsky Opening which lead to a complex position. Karpov appeared very nervous during the game and his 28...Qd8 was the losing move. Better was 28...Rxg6 29. Rf8+ Rxf8 30. Qxf8+ Nc8 when the position was probably level or at most, a little better for Karpov.

When the resignation came on the 42nd move, Karpov left the playing hall almost instantly, leaving his entourage to try and catch him up.

With the result tied 3-3 at the end of the six-game match, the world championship now moved into extra time with a series of play-off games planned for the two players. These games would be played using Active Chess time control, that is, 25 minutes per player for each game.

At this stage, public opinion was running high that the chess world could soon have a new world champion as it was generally held that Anand was a better speed player than Karpov. Only the most optimistic bystander would dare give Karpov, at 46 years old, any chance of beating his 28-year-old opponent in the play-offs.

But Karpov proved everyone wrong. He showed the crowd why he was still one of the greatest sportsmen in chess history. In the first game of the play-off, Karpov, playing white, chose a closed opening system so that he could avoid having to think long and hard in the limited time alloted to each game.

However, he did not obtain his goal. As expected, Anand played extremely fast and well. Karpov could not follow that pace and he soon was left with only 10 minutes until the end of the game.

The turning point in the game came on Anand's 40th move. Karpov had about two minutes remaining on his clock and grandmaster Mikhail Gurevich, commenting on the game to spectators, said: "Anand has an overwhelming advantage, but he shouldn't move 40...a4 because he'll be lost."

But by some weird reason, or maybe it was just fatigue, Anand made the most terrible mistake in his career. After 40...a4, Karpov brilliantly smashed up his opponent. He exchanged the queens from the board and emded up with a huge advantage which he converted to a full point.

Ubilava, Anand's trainer, tried to revive his pupil's spirit during the break but it was already too late. Anand's resistance was broken and it showed in his down-heartened approach to the second game. In this game, the Indian grandmaster could only put in a poor resemblance of his usual self and he was wiped out by Karpov.

After the match, Anand said: "I had the first game almost won, but I suddenly felt panic. Don't ask me why, I don't know."

PENANG GRAND PRIX EVENT

Members of the Penang Chess Association can look forward to play in a one-day tournament at the Residents Association of Bayan Baru clubhouse on Sunday.

This event is the fourth and final leg of the Penang grand prix chess circuit. Each leg consists of a six-round event played to Active-30 rules, and the prizes include RM200 for the winner, RM150 for the runner-up, RM100 for third and five other minor cash prizes. Entry fee is RM20 per player.

Readers wishing to take part in the tournament can contact Goh Yoon Wah (tel: 04-644-5687 in the evenings) or Ooi Kiem Boo (tel: 04-657-4596 during office hours).

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Viswanathan Anand - Anatoly Karpov, Game 4

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nf3 Be7 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Bd3 Nc6 9. O-O O-O 10. Re1 Bf6 11. Be4 Nce7 12. h4 Nf5 13. Qd3 Nxc3 14. bxc3 h6 15. h5 Nd6 16. Ne5 Nxe4 17. Qxe4 Bxe5 18. dxe5 f5 19. Qe2 Bd7 20. Rd1 Bb5 21. Qf3 Qe8 22. Bf4 Rc8 23. Rd4 Rc4 24. Rad1 Qf7 25. Rxc4 Bxc4 26. a3 Rc8 27. Rd4 Kh7 28. Bd2 Bd5 29. Qh3 b5 30. a4 bxa4 31. Rxa4 Rc4 32. Rxc4 Bxc4 33. Qh4 Bb5 34. c4 Be8 35. c5 Qd7 36. Bc3 Qd3 37. Qd4 Qxd4 38. Bxd4 a5 39. c6 Bxc6 40. f3 f4 41. Bb2 Be8 42. Bc1 a4 43. Bxf4 a3 44. Be3 Bxh5 45. Kf2 Be8 46. Bd4 Bc6 47. Bc3 a2 48. g3 h5 49. g4 h4 0-1

Anatoly Karpov - Viswanathan Anand, Game 5

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Nf3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O dxc4 9. Bxc4 a6 10. Rd1 b5 11. Be2 Qc7 12. Ne4 Nxe4 13. Qxe4 e5 14. Qh4 Re8 15. Bd3 h6 16. Bc2 exd4 17. Qxd4 Bf8 18. b3 Nf6 19. Qh4 g5 20. Qg3 Qxg3 21. hxg3 c5 22. Bb2 Bg7 23. Rd6 Be6 24. Rad1 Rec8 25. Bxf6 Bxf6 26. Be4 Ra7 27. Bd5 Bxd5 28. R1xd5 Kg7 29. Rd2 Be7 30. Rb6 Bd8 31. Rbd6 Be7 32. R6d5 a5 33. Kf1 a4 34. Ke2 axb3 35. axb3 Ra3 36. b4 Rc3 37. bxc5 R3xc5 38. Rxc5 Rxc5 39. Nd4 Bf6 40. g4 b4 41. Rb2 Rc4 42. Kd3 Rc3+ 43. Kd2 Bxd4 44. exd4 Rc4 45. Kd3 Rc3+ 46. Kd2 Rc4 47. Kd3 Rc3+ 48. Ke4 b3 49. f3 Kf6 50. d5 Rc4+ 51. Kd3 Rf4 52. Rxb3 Ke5 53. Rb6 Kxd5 54. Rxh6 Ke5 55. Ke3 Ra4 1/2-1/2

Viswanathan Anand - Anatoly Karpov, Game 6

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 e6 3. e4 h6 4. Bxf6 Qxf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Qd2 g5 7. Bc4 Nc6 8. Nge2 Bg7 9. Rd1 Bd7 10. O-O O-O-O 11. Nb5 a6 12. Na3 g4 13. f4 gxf3 14. Rxf3 Qe7 15. c3 h5 16. Rdf1 Rdf8 17. b4 Na7 18. Nc2 Bh6 19. Qe1 Kb8 20. Bd3 Bc6 21. Nf4 Rfg8 22. d5 Be8 23. Qf2 Bg7 24. Nd4 Bd7 25. dxe6 Bxd4 26. cxd4 fxe6 27. e5 Bc6 28. Ng6 Qd8 29. Nxh8 Bxf3 30. Nf7 Qh4 31. Qxf3 Qxd4+ 32. Kh1 d5 33. Rd1 Qxb4 34. Rb1 Qa4 35. Qxh5 Nc6 36. Qe2 Ka7 37. Qf2+ b6 38. Rc1 Kb7 39. h3 Rc8 40. Qf6 Nd4 41. Nd8+ Kb8 42. Nxe6 1-0

Anatoly Karpov - Viswanathan Anand, Play-off Game 1

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 c6 4. O-O Bg4 5. d3 Nbd7 6. Nbd2 e6 7. e4 Be7 8. Qe2 O-O 9. h3 Bh5 10. Re1 dxe4 11. dxe4 e5 12. b3 Qc7 13. Bb2 Rfe8 14. Qf1 Rad8 15. a3 b5 16. Bc3 Bf8 17. Nh4 Nc5 18. Bf3 Bg6 19. Nxg6 hxg6 20. Bg2 a6 21. Qe2 Ne6 22. Nf3 Nd7 23. a4 b4 24. Bb2 a5 25. c3 bxc3 26. Bxc3 Rb8 27. Rab1 Bb4 28. Rec1 Bxc3 29. Rxc3 c5 30. Qe3 Qd6 31. h4 Nd4 32. Bh3 Nb6 33. Rbc1 c4 34. bxc4 Nxa4 35. c5 Qe7 36. Ra3 Nxc5 37. Rac3 Ncb3 38. Rc7 Qf6 39. R1c3 Nxf3+ 40. Qxf3 a4 41. Qxf6 gxf6 42. Bd7 Nd4 43. Bxe8 Ne2+ 44. Kg2 Nxc3 45. Bxf7+ Kf8 46. Bxg6 Nb5 47. Rf7+ Kg8 48. Rxf6 Ra8 49. h5 a3 50. h6 a2 51. Bf7+ Kh7 52. Bxa2 Rxa2 53. g4 Nc3 54. g5 Nxe4 55. Rf7+ Kg6 56. Rg7+ Kf5 57. h7 Rxf2+ 58. Kg1 Kg4 59. h8=Q Kg3 60. Re7 Rg2+ 61. Kf1 Nd2+ 62. Ke1 1-0

Viswanathan Anand - Anatoly Karpov, Play-off Game 2

1. d4 d5 2. Bg5 h6 3. Bh4 c6 4. Nf3 Qb6 5. b3 Bf5 6. e3 Nd7 7. Bd3 Bxd3 8. Qxd3 e6 9. c4 Ne7 10. c5 Qa5+ 11. Nc3 b6 12. b4 Qxb4 13. O-O Nf5 14. Rfc1 bxc5 15. Rab1 c4 16. Qc2 Qa5 17. Rb7 Qa6 18. Rcb1 Bd6 19. e4 Nxh4 20. Nxh4 Rb8 21. Rxb8+ Bxb8 22. exd5 cxd5 23. Ng6 fxg6 24. Qxg6+ Kd8 25. Qxg7 Re8 26. Qxh6 Qa5 27. Qg5+ Kc8 28. Qg6 Rf8 29. Rc1 Qb6 30. Ne2 e5 31. Qh5 Qf6 32. Rf1 Rh8 0-1

 

Focus on world chess meet

On the international front, one recent chess event that has been in the news recently was the FIDE world chess championships that begun in Groningen, Netherlands, on Dec 8 last year and which will end today in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The first part of the championships in Groningen involved 96 players meeting in seven rounds of elimination matches with the winner qualifying to play Anatoly Karpov in a six-game match in Lausanne.

For only the first time since the World Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded in 1924, the knockout formula was employed to settle the world championship title. The main reason for this decision was the decline of interest among sponsors to foot the bills for the old match format after Gary Kasparov started to organise his own world championship events.

Although most of the world's best players took part, the two most notable absentees were Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. Kasparov poured scorn on the championships, saying that FIDE "totally ignored the fact that I have held this title continuously since 1985." However, Kasparov himself conveniently forgot to add that he had given up his claim on the title when he chose to play Nigel Short in a match outside FIDE's jurisdiction in 1991.

On the other hand, Kramnik had opted out from the championships because the seeding of Karpov directly to the final was unacceptable to him.

But even if the world championships were without the presence of Kasparov and Kramnik, it was not any less competitive or without any tension. Amidst all the competition, eyes were now focussed on India's Viswanathan Anand who was suddenly propelled as the new top seed after Kramnik's withdrawal.

The first elimination round weeded out a lot of the no-hoper players who had qualified from the various zonal tournaments around the world last year. However, there were also a number of well-known casualties such as Peter Leko, Miguel Illescas, Alex Yermolinsky, Joel Benjamin.

The second round saw the elimination of two of the most highly regarded players in the event: Vasily Ivanchuk lost to Yasser Seirawan while Veselin Topalov was shocked by Jeroen Piket. Among the other players to be eliminated were Predrag Nikolic, Utut Adianto, Ivan Sokolov, Ulf Andersson, Viktor Korchnoi and Jaan Ehlvest.

The high point of the third round was the match between Alexander Khalifman and Anand. Khalifman dominated the whole match only to see the Indian seizing his one and only chance to go through to the next round. Seirawan missed many chances and was eliminated by Zvjaginsev.

The battle between the two Dutchmen, Loek Van Wely and Jeroen Piket, was messy but Van Wely made it through to the fourth round. Nigel Short made short work of Andre Sokolov while his compatriot, Michael Adams, also won impressively against Sergei Tiviakov.

The field was effectively whittled down to only 16 players for the fourth round. Anand was one of the earliest qualifiers for the fifth round when he beat Zoltan Almasi. Van Wely also moved through easily with a win against Kiril Georgiev.

The most interesting match of this round was that between Short and Alexander Beliavsky, in which the Englishman advanced to the next stage of the championships after a play-off. In other matches, Adams won against Peter Svidler, Mikhail Krasenkow went through after a struggle against Zurab Azmaiparashvili, Zvjaginsev was outlasted by Dreev, and Tkachiev fell to Boris Gelfand.

In the quarter-final fifth round, Anand stamped his authority by eliminating Alexei Shirov in a short match. Short also advanced to the sixth round when he grounded down Krasenkow in their match.

The other two matches went to playoffs. Van Wely against Adams was one of the most hard fought matches in Groningen with the latter eventually emerging as the winner when Van Wely lost one of his games on time. Gelfand dominated Dreev in the playoff to qualify.

In the sixth round elimination matches, Anand began to look like justifying his seeding when he eliminated Gelfand from the contest. Short and Adams were tied after their two normal time control games and this was followed by four fluctuating draws in the play-off games. Adams then won the first sudden death game to go through to a meeting with Anand.

The seventh round was the highlight in Groningen and it featured an interesting match between Adams and Anand. The four normal regulation games were drawn, but then Adams suddenly cracked in the play-off to put Anand through to challenge Karpov.

A day's respite for travelling was all that Anand received after going through the gruelling eight qualifying rounds in Groningen. On Jan 2, the eighth round began in Laussane. Effectively, this was to be the world championship finals between a tired Anand and a fresh Karpov who did not have to endure the pressure of the Groningen rounds.

The first game between the two players ended badly for Anand. Karpov and his team found a powerful knight sacrifice on the 17th move which Anand found difficult to handle. The key moment was Anand's 19...Qd6 which brought about a long forcing line in which Anand probably overlooked 31. Qxg7. The ending was slightly tricky but winning, and Karpov took 108 moves to convert the double rook versus queen ending into the full point.

In the second game, Karpov tried to surprise Anand by adopting the 5...Bc5 line in an open Spanish game. Anand played a novelty with his 14 Qe2. 18 d4 introduced complications and Karpov answered with 19...Rxf3, giving up the exchange. Anand looked in a better position but then he seemed to lose the thread of the game.

In mutual time trouble, Karpov missed a chance to effectively finish off Anand in the six-game match. His 34. ...h6?? was a mistake as 34. ...Ne2+ 35. Kf1 Qe8 was winning. As it turned out, Karpov was forced to resign some time later.

Karpov sprang a novelty (14 Bb2) in the third game but then he went into a 35-minute think before playing his next move. It was probable that Karpov had discovered something wrong with his intended continuation and after that, he steered the game firmly to a draw.

The conclusion of the world chess championship will be covered next week. In the meantime, readers with Internet access may want to check out the world championship web page at http://www.chessweb.com for more information.

PENANG EVENTS

Members of the Penang Chess Association can look forward to play in a one-day tournament at the Residents Association of Bayan Baru clubhouse on Jan 18.

This event is the fourth and final leg of the Penang grand prix chess circuit. Each leg consists of a six-round event played to Active-30 rules, and the prizes include RM200 for the winner, RM150 for the runner-up, RM100 for third and five other minor cash prizes. Entry fee is RM20 per player.

Readers wishing to take part in the tournament can contact Goh Yoon Wah (tel: 04-644-5687 in the evenings) or Ooi Kiem Boo (tel: 04-657-4596 during office hours).

Meanwhile, the Universiti Sains Malaysia's Bridge and Chess Club will hold their annual USM open team tournament this weekend at their Lecture Hall "U". Entry fees are RM40 for school and university teams, and RM60 for others.

For more details, contact the Bridge and Chess Club, Pusat Mahasiswa, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Glugor, Penang (tel: 04-657-7888 ext 3491, 3497 or 3499).

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Anatoly Karpov - Viswanathan Anand, Game 1

1. d4 d5, 2. c4 c6, 3. Nc3 Nf6, 4. e3 e6, 5. Nf3 Nbd7, 6. Bd3 dxc4, 7. Bxc4 b5, 8. Bd3 Bb7, 9. O-O a6, 10. e4 c5, 11. d5 Qc7, 12. dxe6 fxe6, 13. Bc2 c4, 14. Qe2 Bd6, 15. Nd4 Nc5, 16. f4 e5, 17. Ndxb5 axb5, 18. Nxb5 Qb6, 19. Nxd6+ Qxd6, 20. fxe5 Qxe5, 21. Rf5 Qe7, 22. Qxc4 Rc8, 23. Qb5+ Ncd7, 24. Qxb7 Rxc2, 25. Bg5 Qd6, 26. Qa8+ Kf7, 27. Qxh8 Qd4+, 28. Kh1 Qxe4, 29. Rf3 Rxg2, 30. Kxg2 Ne5, 31. Qxg7+ Kxg7, 32. Bxf6+ Kg6, 33. Bxe5 Qxe5, 34. Rg1 h5, 35. b3 Qe2+, 36. Rf2 Qe4+, 37. Kf1+ Kh6, 38. Rg3 Qb1+, 39. Kg2 Qe4+, 40. Rgf3 Qg6+, 41. Kf1 Qb1+, 42. Kg2 Qg6+, 43. Kh1 Qb1+, 44. Rf1 Qxa2, 45. Rf6+ Kg7, 46. Rf7+ Kh8, 47. Rf8+ Kg7, 48. R8f7+ Kg8, 49. R7f3 Kg7, 50. h3 Qc2, 51. R1f2 Qe4, 52. Kg2 Qb4, 53. Re2 Qd4, 54. Re7+ Kg6, 55. Re6+ Kg7, 56. Rg3+ Kf7, 57. Rge3 Qd5+, 58. Kg3 Qg5+, 59. Kf2 Qh4+, 60. Ke2 Qd4, 61. R6e4 Qa1, 62. Kd3 Kf6, 63. Re6+ Kf5, 64. b4 Qc1, 65. Kd4 Qc8, 66. b5 Qd8+, 67. Kc5 Qc7+, 68. Kb4 Qf4+, 69. Kb3 Qc7, 70. b6 Qd7, 71. R3e5+ Kf4, 72. Re4+ Kg3, 73. Re3+ Kh2, 74. Kc4 h4, 75. Kc5 Qc8+, 76. Kd5 Qd8+, 77. Ke4 Qd7, 78. Kf5 Kg2, 79. Kg5 Qg7+, 80. Kxh4 Kf2, 81. R3e5 Qh8+, 82. Kg4 Qg7+, 83. Kf5 Qh7+, 84. Kf6 Qh4+, 85. Kf7 Qh7+, 86. Ke8 Qb7, 87. h4 Qb8+, 88. Kf7 Qb7+, 89. Kg6 Qb8, 90. h5 Qg8+, 91. Kf5 Qh7+, 92. Kf6 Kf3, 93. Re3+ Kf2, 94. Re2+ Kf3, 95. R2e3+ Kf2, 96. Kg5 Qg8+, 97. Kh4 Qd8+, 98. Kh3 Qd1, 99. Re2+ Kf3, 100. Kh2 Qd8, 101. R6e3+ Kf4, 102. b7 Qb6, 103. Re4+ Kf3, 104. R2e3+ Kf2, 105. Re7 Qd6+, 106. Kh3 Qb8, 107. R3e5 Kg1, 108. Rg7+ 1-0

Viswanathan Anand - Anatoly Karpov, Game 2

1. e4 e5, 2. Nf3 Nc6, 3. Bb5 a6, 4. Ba4 Nf6, 5. O-O Bc5, 6. c3 b5, 7. Bb3 d6, 8. a4 Bg4, 9. d3 O-O, 10. h3 Bxf3, 11. Qxf3 Na5, 12. Bc2 b4, 13. Nd2 Rb8, 14. Qe2 Re8, 15. Nf3 bxc3, 16. bxc3 Nb3, 17. Bxb3 Rxb3, 18. d4 exd4, 19. cxd4 Rxf3, 20. Qxf3 Bxd4, 21. Ra2 Nxe4, 22. Qd3 c5, 23. Qxa6 d5, 24. a5 c4, 25. Be3 Be5, 26. Bb6 Qd7, 27. Qa7 Qc6, 28. Bd4 Bc7, 29. Rb2 c3, 30. Rb7 Rc8, 31. Bb6 Be5, 32. Rxf7 c2, 33. Rc1 Nc3, 34. Rf3 h6, 35. Qf7+ Kh8, 36. Re3 d4, 37. Rxe5 d3, 38. Bd4 Rg8, 39. Re6 d2, 40. Rxc6 dxc1=Q+, 41. Kh2 Qd2, 42. Rc8 1-0

Anatoly Karpov - Viswanathan Anand, Game 3

1. d4 d5, 2. c4 c6, 3. Nc3 Nf6, 4. e3 e6, 5. Nf3 Nbd7, 6. Bd3 dxc4, 7. Bxc4 b5, 8. Bd3 Bb7, 9. a3 b4, 10. Ne4 Nxe4, 11. Bxe4 bxa3, 12. bxa3 Bd6, 13. O-O O-O, 14. Bb2 Rb8, 15. Qc2 c5, 16. Bxb7 Rxb7, 17. dxc5 Bxc5, 18. Rfd1 Qe7, 19. a4 1/2-1/2

 

One step closer to international master

There was confusion during the past two weeks over whether Mas Hafizulhelmi achieved his second international master norm from the December edition of the First Saturday tournament in Budapest, Hungary.

Initially, there were unconfirmed reports that Mas Hafizulhelmi had missed out on the norm. Although he was leading the tournament until almost the end of the event, a loss in the final round had seen him finishing with only 7.5 points from 11 games, which was a half-point less than the stipulated eight points required for the IM norm.

The only person in Malaysia who could confirm the norm happened to be in Cannes, France, at the world age-group tournament and could not be reached.

But I had my suspicion that the initial reports could be wrong. A telephone call to Singapore raised hope that a relatively recent ruling by the Qualification Commission of the World Chess Federation could mean a world of a difference for Mas Hafizulhelmi.

In the meantime, I was also awaiting a reply from the tournament organiser about Mas Hafizulhelmi's results. When I finally received the message, it confirmed that our player in Hungary had indeed obtained his second international master norm.

According to Laszlo Nagy, Mas Hafizulhelmi obtained his norm from what he called a "part-time" norm. This may not be the best description of Mas Hafizulhelmi's achievement but what Nagy meant was that our player had already qualified for his second IM norm even before the end of the tournament.

One of the Qualification Commission's regulations stated that a player who had achieved a title result before the final round could ignore all his games played subsequently. The chief arbiter of the tournament could certify the player's result as a valid title result.

Where Mas Hafizulhelmi was concerned, the 7.5 points which he scored from his first 10 games were enough for the norm and the result of his last game in this tournament was rather academic.

Of course, it would have been nice if Mas Hafizulhelmi had drawn or won this game because it would have made him at least a co-winner of the event. As it turned out, Finland's Antti Pihlajasalo managed to finish on top of the standings with half a point more than Mas Hafizulhelmi.

Congratulations to Mas Hafizulhelmi on this achievement. He is one step nearer his goal but he will still need to try for a third norm or even a fourth one before the World Chess Federation can give him this title. The Qualification Commission requires at least 30 games to be played and so far, Mas Hafizulhelmi has managed his two IM Norms over only 19 games.

As I reported two weeks ago, Mas Hafizulhelmi left Hungary at the end of the First Saturday event for the Netherlands where he has been participating in the Groningen open grandmaster tournament. This tournament was part of the World Chess Championship festival.

Mas Hafizulhelmi's performance in Groningen - where many grandmasters and international masters are among the 200-plus players - seemed rather jaded but our player had, by the 10th round, amassed six points in the 11-round Swiss event. Unfortunately, this score would not be enough to gain him any norm.

In the final round, he was due to meet England's grandmaster Stuart Conquest but I have been told that the Malaysian Chess Federation had advised Mas Hafizulhelmi to leave Groningen without playing this game. Any failure to catch his flight would mean that he would not be able to return home until one week later.

PCA CANGGIH RESULTS

Mok Tze Meng outpaced a field of 71 players to win the first prize of RM3,000 at the PCA Canggih international open chess championship in Penang last week.

He shrugged off an early second-round loss to score 7.5 points from nine games. In second place was Agus Salim who obtained seven points and won RM2,000.

Five players finished the tournament with 6.5 points each: Lim Chuin Hoong winning RM1,000, Wong Ji Zing RM800, international master Jimmy Liew RM600, Mak Weng Yee RM400 and Ismail Ahmad RM300. The eighth prize of RM200 went to Julian Navaratnam who was the best scorer among a group of players with six points.

The prizes for the five best Penang players went to Tan Eng Seong, Wong Chee Chung, Chuah Heng Meng, Khor Shihong and Khor Bean Hwa.

Woman Fide master Angela Khegay of Uzbekistan and Lim Jean Nie won the prizes for the two best woman players, while the under-18 prizes went to Lim Yee Weng and Ng Tze Han. Teng Wei Khoon and Deon Moh won the under-15 prizes.

Among the 71 participants were three players from Indonesia, two from Brunei, and one each from Uzbekistan, the Netherlands, India and the Philippines.

The prizes were given away by Penang state executive councillor Dr Toh Kin Woon who is also the president of the Penang Chess Association, Dr Choong Sim Poey who is a former president of the association and Puan Rohani Ismail, the business manager of sponsor KUB Tekstils Sdn Bhd.

KUB Tekstils, manufacturer of the Canggih brand of garment wear that includes tracksuits and a complete range of school uniforms and accessories, had sponsored RM20,000 towards the running of the four-day event which was held at the MarVista Resort in Batu Ferringhi, Penang from Dec 25 to 28.

The other sponsors of the event were DMV Sdn Bhd, WWT Communications Sdn Bhd and Star Publications (M) Bhd.

JOHOR CLOSED

The Johor Chess Association will hold their Johor closed chess championship at the Pelangi Leisure Mall in Taman Pelangi, Johor Baru, starting today until Sunday.

This is a seven-round event using a one-hour time control per person for each game. Only residents of Johor are eligible to take part, and the number of players will be limited to 64.

Two rounds will be played today, three rounds tomorrow and the final three rounds on Sunday. The winners will be selected to represent the state at next year's Merdeka team championship and the national closed championship.

Entry fee is RM15 per player except for women and students who need to pay only RM8. Anyone still hoping to enter for this event should contact Sumati (07-332-4366), Wong (07-333-0931) or Cheong (016-720-2272) immediately.

MORE PENANG EVENTS

Members of the Penang Chess Association can look forward to the final leg of the Penang grand prix chess circuit which will be played at the Residents Association of Bayan Baru clubhouse on Jan 18.

Readers wishing to take part in the tournament can contact Goh Yoon Wah (tel: 04-644-5687 in the evenings) or Ooi Kiem Boo (tel: 04-657-4596 during office hours).

Prizes include RM200 for the winner, RM150 for the runners-up and RM100 for the third-placed. There are five other minor cash prizes and also prizes for the best junior and woman players. Entry fee is RM20 per player.

Meanwhile, Universiti Sains Malaysia will hold its annual national open individual chess tournament this weekend, and will follow up with their annual open team tournament on Jan 10 and 11. The two events, to be run by the university's Bridge and Chess Club, will be played at Lecture Hall "U".

Entry fees for the team event are RM40 for school and university teams, and RM60 for others. For the individual event, players will have to pay RM25 and RM30 respectively.

For more details, contact the Bridge and Chess Club, Pusat Mahasiswa, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Glugor, Penang (tel: 04-6577888 ext 3491, 3497 or 3499).

 

Malaysians abroad

Right at this moment, there are eight Malaysian chess players who have just finished taking part in two tournaments in Europe. Six of them were playing in the World Age-group chess championship in Cannes, France, while the other two were in Budapest, Hungary for the First Saturday tournament.

In Cannes, the age-group event was played in six categories and we had Lim Chuin Hoong taking part in the boys' under-14 section, Lim Jean Nie in the girls' under-14 section, Hazril Husain and Gerald Soh in the boys' under-12 section, Wong Zi Chuang in the boys' under-10 section and Hazuin Husain in the girls' under-10 section.

After the sixth round of this event earlier this week, Chuin Hoong has scored 3.5 points, Jean Nie two points, Hazril two points, Gerald 1.5 points, Zi Chuang three points and Hazuin two points in their respective sections.

The boys' under-14 section is the most interesting, for there are no less than 43 internationally-rated players in the 104-player field. So far, Chuin Hoong, who is still unrated, has managed to play rated opponents in all his games.

He won against Almas Ermekov (rated 2170) of Kazakhstan in the first round, lost to Dimitrios Mastrovasilis (2215) of Greece in the second round, beat Peter de Bortoli (2085) of Italy in the third round, drew with Vlad Jianu (2155) of Romania in the fourth round, lost to Baadur Jobava (2190) of Georgia) in the fifth round and won against Nikola Sedlak (2150) of Yugoslavia in the sixth round.

The boys' under-12 section is also closely watched and there are 18 rated players among the 93 participants. Hazril's fortune until the sixth round consisted of losses in the first two rounds and followed by four consecutive draws. His losses were to Pieter van der Merwe of South Africa and Alejandro Moreno Trujillo of Spain, while his draws were with Rui Seca of Portugal, Jonathan Blackburn of Wales, Vinicius Valois of Brazil and Harlen Otero of Venezuela.

Gerald, who is also playing in the same section as Hazril, lost to Ivan Tomba of Italy, Aleksander Nadj of Slovenia, Elshan Moradi Abadi of Iran and Tian Kuan-Kuan of Australia. Gerald won a game against Jean-Paul Lamatus of Puerto Rico and drew with Filippes Kouvatsos of Greece.

Zi Chuang has a relatively good run in the boys' under-10 section, with wins against Valentin Jotov of Bulgaria and Christopher Page of Australia, draws with Mukhtar Kakenov of Kazakhstan and Armen Antinian of Armenia, and losses to Alexandru Garban of Romania and Marvin Lepan of France.

In the girls' under-14 section, Jean Nie's losses were to Iriga Charkhalashvili (2080) of Georgia, Stefanie Chu (2095) of Canada and Elena Chorvatova of Slovakia. Jean Nie drew with Maria Berg of Sweden and Marany Meyer of South Africa, and won against Danai Nikolopoulou of Greece.

Hazuin, playing in the girls' under-10 section, has managed two wins and four losses. Her wins were against Andrea Sagi of Croatia and Onorjargal of Mongolia, while she lost to Fidan Shiraliyeva of Azerbaijan, Katharina Svoboda of Austria, Cecilie van der Merwe of South Africa and Melanie Verot of France.

In the First Saturday tournaments in Budapest, Mas Hafizulhelmi has returned to his old happy hunting ground where he was again burning the tracks in his search for a second international master norm.

There were a number of separate events going on at the same time in this tournament, but what we are really interested in are the IM-A and IM-B tournaments where Mohd Nor Azahari and Mas Haizul were playing.

In the IM-B tournament, a Category Two event, Mas Hafizul was leading the field of 12 players with 5.5 points from seven games. At this point of writing, he would need another 2.5 points from his remaining four games to secure his second IM norm.

I would be bold enough to say that this should be a realistic target for him, but I shall have to wait until next Friday to announce whether he has achieved his norm or not.

In his games until the seventh round, Mas Hafizul had beaten FM William Paschall (United States), IM Sandor Farago (Hungary), IM Evarth Kahn (Hungary), Le Thi Phuong Lien (Vietnam) and Adam Szeberenyi (Hungary). However, he had also drawn with IM Laszlo Eperjesi (Hungary) and lost to Endre Francsics (Hungary).

Mas Hafizul's companion in Budapest was Mohd Nor Azahari. Mohd Nor was playing in the Category Three IM-A event where there were also 12 players. After seven rounds, he had scored 2.5 points and this included wins against WIM Nguyen Thi Tuong Van (Vietnam) and FM Wolfgang Vandrey (Germany), and a draw with FM Alexander Colovic. His losses have been to IM Peter Varga (Hungary), David Karatorossian (Armenia), Imre Hera (Hungary) and Karmi Zalkind (Israel).

Our two players will not be returning home yet, for I understand that Mohd Nor will accompany Mas Hafizul to the Netherlands where the latter will be playing in a minor tournament in Groningen as part of the World Chess Championship festival.

By the way, there will be some news from the world chess championship in Groningen next week and also some coverage of the national closed championship which concluded in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. I hear Lim Yee Weng very easily retained his title while the runner-up was Ng Tze Han.

Towards nation building

KUB Tekstils Sdn Bhd's sponsorship of RM20,000 for the PCA Canggih international open chess championship was just a small way for the company to contribute towards nation building, said KUB Tekstils' executive director, Mohd Ramdan Yusof, at a cheque presentation ceremony last week.

He said that KUB Tekstils, as an advocate of the new information technology, Multimedia Super Corridor era, would continue to play its part in developing the nation's youths who would be the leaders of the future.

He added that his company intended to achieve this goal by introducing the Canggih brand of locally-made garment wear that included tracksuits and a complete range of school uniforms and accessories.

Mohd Ramdan was presenting the cheque to Dr Toh Kin Woon, Penang state executive councillor and president of the Penang Chess Association (PCA), at the latter's office in Komtar last week. .

Meanwhile, if you have not entered for the tournament yet, the entry form can still be found in today's edition of The Star. Members of the PCA need only pay RM50 but non-members will be charged RM70. Internationally titled players are given free entry.

The tournament will be played at the MarVista Resort in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, from Dec 25 to 28.

Prizes range from RM3,000 for the winner and RM2,000 for the runner-up down to an eighth prize of RM200. Five prizes are also being offered for the best Penang players in the tournament. In addition, there are prizes for the best two under-18, under-15 and women players.

Apart from KUB Tekstils Sdn Bhd, the other sponsors are DMV Sdn Bhd, WWT Communications Sdn Bhd and Star Publications (M) Bhd.

Johor closed

The Johor Chess Association will hold their Johor closed chess championship at the Pelangi Leisure Mall in Taman Pelangi, Johor Baru, from Jan 2-4 next year.

This is a seven-round event using a one-hour time control per person for each game. Only residents of Johor are eligible to take part, and the number of players will be limited to 64. Two rounds will be played on Jan 2, three rounds on Jan 3 and the final three rounds on Jan 4. The winners will be selected to represent the state at next year's Merdeka team championship and the national closed championship.

Entry fee is RM15 per player except for women and students who need to pay only RM8. The closing date for entries is Dec 28.

For more information, contact Sumati (07-332-4366), Wong (07-333-0931) or Cheong (016-720-2272).

A grand challenge, PCA Canggih open meet

 

Cannes date for young players

 

State sanction required

 

A show of tantrums

 

From tournament to tournament

 

More sophisticated chess to savour

 

Encounters in Tilburg

 

A Russian clean sweep

 

So near yet so far

 

IBM rapped for scrapping Deep Blue

 

25 years of MSSM action

 

Fun time at MarVista tourney

 

The match that never was

 

New chess horizons on the Net

 

Indons steal the limelight

 

Merdeka championship on

 

Merdeka championship next week

 

Thrilling end in store

 

Five-day Merdeka tournament