Topalov reigns

 

Back in action

 

Strain of the game

 

New hero

 

Muhibbah spirit in chess

 

Eight more days

 

Grand festival

 

Mind gymnastics

 

Mobile phones in tournaments

 

They were the champions

 

Unbeaten champ

 

Worthy champions

THE NATIONAL closed chess championship which starts at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur in eight days’ time has a long history that stretches back to 1974, the year that the Malaysian Chess Federation was founded. 

The first time that the national closed was played, there were only four chess state associations – Penang, Selangor, Penang and Johor – and 18 players were basically playing a small six-round event at the old FAS building in Kuala Lumpur. Choo Min Wang won this inaugural event, with Dr Foo Lum Choon finishing as the runners-up.

But from that modest start, the national closed championship has grown to the stage where it is today: a very competitive event with representations from almost all parts of the country, including Sarawak and Sabah.

Unfortunately, the national closed championship suffers from one drawback: the prize money is really nothing to shout about. The winner gets only a small token sum. If you are not from the Klang Valley, the sum may come useful for your lodging needs but that will be the extent of its usefulness.

Yet, players come from near and far to play in this tournament. It is not so much about the prize but the opportunity to win the title and call himself the national champion with a national master title thrown in as a reward.

In addition, the winner will normally get the opportunity to be called up by the Malaysian Chess Federation to play in selected overseas team tournaments such as the Chess Olympads.

So who are our national champions? Apart from Choo, we have 21 other players who have won this title in the 30 years of the national closed chess championship. Some, obviously, have won the title more than once.

A common thread that runs through this championship series is that the average winner has always been young. There have been players winning this event when they are in their 30s, but by and large, our champions tend to be young, not more than 25 years old. This is perhaps a reflection of the continuing popularity of the game among school-age children. 

In all the years of the national closed championship, there do exist a handful of occasions when ranked outsiders suddenly overcame the odds to become the champions. But apart from these odd occasions, each of the other winners has certainly left their mark permanently on Malaysian chess. By acquitting themselves when playing on the world stage, they have shown themselves to be worthy holders of the title.

This year, the national closed chess championship will be played from May 28 to Jun 1.  The state chess associations are eligible to enter four men and four women players officially to the championships.

Other players are also able to take part but they shall need to pay RM50 to the Malaysian Chess Federation if they have a Fide rating or RM150 if they are not rated. For more information, contact Hamid Majid (tel: 019.3158098).

UP NEXT

Tebrau open

The Johor Bahru District Chess Association will hold their 16th Tebrau open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru this Sunday. The event will be held in three sections: the open, under-16 and under-12 with 10 prizes on offer in each section. 

Entry fees are RM20 for the open section, RM8 for the under-16 and RM6 for the under-12. Closing date is today. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07.3338215, email: naraa@tm.net.my.  

CAS second quarter allegro 

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organise their second quarter allegro chess competition at The Chess Network, Wilayah Complex, in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. 

This one-day event is limited to 70 players in two categories. The first category is open to chess players with a national rating of 1400 and above, as well as non-rated adult players. Under-18 players and players with a national rating of below 1400 may join the second category event. 

Entry fees for the first category event are RM15 for CAS members and RM25 for non-members. For the second category event, the entry fees are RM10 for CAS members and RM20 for non-members. To register, email your particulars and choice of category to chessmate@cas.com.kg 

Sri Aman junior chess

The Sek Keb Sri Aman in Penang will hold a junior open tournament at their school on May 30. The seven-round event will constitute the second leg of Penang’s junior chess circuit for this year.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM10 for under-16 players and RM8 for under-10 players. Non-members are required to pay RM15 and RM13 respectively. According to the organisers, this event will have five age-group categories: under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8.

For inquiries, contact Eoh Hook Kim (tel: 04.8260196) or Eoh Thean Keat (tel: 016.4540070).

Chess workshop

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize a one-day workshop at the PCA clubhouse in Bayan Baru on Jun 12 for boys under the age of 12 and girls below 15 years old. 

There will be three local instructors to cater to players of different levels: the starters, beginners and intermediate players.  Fees are RM30 for PCA members and RM40 for non-members, with discounts of RM5 for groups of five children who register together.

For more details or to register, contact Tan Eng Seong (tel: 012.4299517 email: estan64@streamyx.com), Marcus Yeoh (tel: 012.4723873, email: marcusypl@yahoo.com), Khor Bean Hwa (tel: 016.4281096, email: beanhwak@yahoo.co.uk) or Lim Poay Sim (tel: 012.4901822, email: pslim159@hotmail.com). 

Wrong penalty

A FEW days ago, I received a telephone call from a Mr Tony Tan in Ipoh who was pouring out his woes to me regarding one local event that he had played in. 

Apparently, what had happened was that in the second round of this tournament, both he and his opponent had played with the wrong colours on the board. Tan was supposed to have played Black but when he saw his opponent seated on the black side of the chessboard, he did not give it much thought and started playing with the while pieces. 

After the game was over and the results reported to the organizers, he suddenly found himself penalized with a loss while his opponent, who had lost the game, was awarded the win. 

I can imagine his consternation and indignation over this turn of events because he said that the organizers did not display the pairings for the second round and had instead, just shouted out the pairings above the din of the playing hall.

Now, what would you do if you were in the shoes of these organizers? Would you agree with them and reverse the results to favour the player that had lost the game, or would you have some other alternative solution?

To be sure, I am not saying that the organizers’ technical decision was wrong but it was clearly a little overly harsh and inflexible. 

They could have been more Solomon-like and allowed the result to stay. Deducting a point from any player is very serious; organizers would need to be very certain that a gross misconduct, like an intentional breaking of the chess rules, had occurred. Even then, the recommended course of action would be simply to give the players a warning. 

If an infraction occurs again, there are still other lesser penalties, such as deducting one or two minutes from a player’s clock or adding this extra time to his opponent. 

I would not go so far as to penalize the player with a loss immediately. Though not entirely blameless - the player has to bear his part of the blame in not determining the exact colour he was to use - the organizers were also equally at fault, especially since the pairings were not displayed publicly in the first place.

The most acceptable course would have been to leave the result alone. The organizer is well within his power to just switch the affected players’ colours around in the computer program. Even if the pairings had been made manually, changing the colours would not affect the running of the tournament in any great way.

There is another reason why I would discourage this practice: I do not like organizers to suddenly adopt this as a precedence. It should not be the case or else in the future, you will begin seeing players who will deliberately try to abuse this ruling to their advantage.

UP NEXT

PCA AGM

The Penang Chess Association will hold its annual general meeting at the clubhouse of the Residents' Association of Bayan Baru, Penang, this Sunday at 1pm. The meeting will be preceded by a blitz tournament starting at 10am.

Selangor closed

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) is organizing a one-day tournament at the Sunway College in Bandar Sunway this Sunday. The event will be played in two categories, with the second category limited to players with a national rating below 1400 and under-18 players without a rating.

Entry fees for the first category event are RM15 for CAS members and RM25 for non-members. For the second category event, CAS members are charged RM10, while it will be RM20 for non-members.

According to the CAS, four men and four women will be picked to represent the state at this year’s national closed championship at the end of the month. To register for this event, contact Shafruddin Arshad (tel: 012.3852420), Lim Tse Pin (tel: 012.2984922, email: chessmate@cas.com.kg) or Balendran (tel: 012.3547011).

Perak event

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organize an open chess event at the Tun Razak Library in Ipoh on May 15. For inquiries on registration or entry fees, contact Pn Hamisah (tel: 012.4313326).

Tebrau open

The Johor Bahru District Chess Association will hold their 16th Tebrau open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru on May 22. The event will be held in three sections: the open, under-16 and under-12 with 10 prizes on offer in each section. 

Entry fees are RM20 for the open section, RM8 for the under-16 and RM6 for the under-12. Closing date is May 20.

For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07.3338215, email: naraa@tm.net.my.  

CAS second quarter allegro 

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organise their second quarter allegro chess competition at The Chess Network, Wilayah Complex, in Kuala Lumpur on May 22. 

This one-day event is limited to 70 players in two categories. The first category is open to chess players with a national rating of 1400 and above, as well as non-rated adult players. Under-18 players and players with a national rating of below 1400 may join the second category event. 

Entry fees for the first category event are RM15 for CAS members and RM25 for non-members. For the second category event, the entry fees are RM10 for CAS members and RM20 for non-members. To register, email your particulars and choice of category to chessmate@cas.com.kg 

National closed championships

The Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) shall organize this year’s national closed and national women’s closed championships at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur from May 28 to Jun 1.The state chess associations are eligible to enter eight players officially to the championships: four men and four women.

Other players are also able to take part but they shall need to pay RM50 if they have a Fide rating or RM150 if they are not rated. For more information, contact Hamid Majid (tel: 019.3158098).

Sri Aman junior chess

The Sek Keb Sri Aman in Penang will hold a junior open tournament at their school on May 30. The seven-round event will constitute the second leg of Penang’s junior chess circuit for this year.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM10 for under-16 players and RM8 for under-10 players. Non-members are required to pay RM15 and RM13 respectively. According to the organisers, this event will have five age-group categories: under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8.

For inquiries, contact Eoh Hook Kim (tel: 04.8260196) or Eoh Thean Keat (tel: 016.4540070).

Royal Selangor open

I HAVE been reading a number of postings recently on the chess-malaysia mailing group on the history of the Royal Selangor open chess tournament that starts next Wednesday at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur.

This is certainly the longest running chess tournament in the local chess calendar. It has been held without a break since 1974, which makes it the 32nd edition of a long glorious run that has found its way into the Malaysian Book of Records. That’s persistence and commitment from the Chess Association of Selangor (CAS).

Almost everyone who has played in or been associated with this tournament will have some sort of personal story to tell. I am no different, although there will be some readers among you who will be curious at my association with this event.

It is true. If there are records still maintained by the CAS today, it will show me as a member of the association in 1974, though my membership has certainly lapsed. A lapsed founder member, perhaps. 

But more interestingly, I was playing in its inaugural Selangor open at the Royal Selangor Club in 1974. And it was my first opportunity to meet the illustrious players of yesteryear from the Klang Valley – people like Dr Foo Lum Choon and Chan Mun Fye, among others.

Anyway, it was my first competitive chess event for many years. Out of school and without any tournament to play in during those years in Penang, the Selangor open was a welcome distraction to my studies.

My first game of substance was, I believe, in the second round when I met Husin Sida. But I was totally rusty and made a slip-up as early as the sixth move when I blundered away a piece.

I felt like sinking into the ground then, as I could not believe what I had done. Should I resign the game and go off and lick my wounds? I was about to do so but suddenly froze when I saw an all too familiar figure in Fang Ewe Churh walking about. The first Penang Chess Association president was wandering around to take a look at the Selangor open.

I couldn’t resign, not with Fang around. In those days, Fang was the Mr Chess Authority in Penang. What impression would I convey if I had lost quickly? What stories would he bring back to Penang?

So, I had no choice but to continue playing. Luckily, my opponent was rather amenable to my resolve, though I doubt he had any idea at all about what I was planning to do.

The game quickly became complicated despite me being a piece down, and in the complications, another piece was sacrificed. I was faced with an impending checkmate when suddenly, check, check, check, and Husin instead found himself at the receiving end of a draw through repetition of position.

I made many new chess friends in those days. It was a time of mutual discovery. I uncovered a whole new world of chess players in Selangor and in return, the chess players there learnt that chess was very much alive outside the boundary of Selangor. 

A few months later, following the chess groundswell in Selangor, Penang and other parts of the country, the newly founded Malaysian Chess Federation organised its first national closed chess championship, and the rest is very much history. 

I will not bore you further about my chess adventures in Selangor during the mid-1970s but it was also a time when through chess, I discovered a close relative among my chess-playing friends. But this will be another story.

For now, I can only offer the Chess Association of Selangor my best wishes ahead of their 32nd Royal Selangor open. P.S. Can I get my founder member status back??

UP NEXT

Klang Parade chess

The Malaysian Chess Federation and Klang Parade will jointly organize this year’s Klang Parade chess tournament in Klang this weekend. 

Tomorrow, the Klang Parade age-group chess tournament for under-12 and under-18 categories will be organized, while on Sunday, the Klang Parade open tournament will be held.

Total cash prize is RM1500, and entry fees are RM15 for the open event and RM10 for under-12 players. Entry forms are available from the Klang Parade information counter or downloaded from http://tcn.sf.net/downloads/klangp05.doc

For inquiries or registration, contact Greg Lau (tel: 012.9020123).

Royal Selangor open

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organize its 32nd edition of the Royal Selangor open chess tournament at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur from Apr 28 to May 2. 

This year’s tournament will be played in three sections: a nine-round Fide-rated open category starting Apr 28, and the under-12 and under-18 seven-round non-Fide-rated events on May 1-2. 

Entry fees for the open event are RM35 for CAS members and Fide-rated players, and RM60 for others. For the two junior events, entry fees are RM15 for CAS members and RM20 for non-members.

For inquiries, call Shafruddin Arshad (tel: 012.3852420), Lim Tse Pin (tel: 012.2984922) or S Balendran (tel: 012.3547011) or email chessmate@cas.com.kg.

Perak tournament

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organize an open chess event at the Tun Razak Library in Ipoh this Sunday. For inquiries on registration or entry fees, contact Yunus Sharif (05.5458453 or 013.3908129).

The anti-hero

IT HAS been two weeks since the release of Bobby Fischer from a Japanese detention centre. 

The former world champion is now ensconced in Reykjavik, safe from the United States’ attempt to bring him back to New York to face federal charges of violating sanctions against Yugoslavia in 1992.

For the present, Fischer is out of bounds to the United States. The respite is temporary. But whether or not it will become permanent is unclear. The United States is still pursuing Fischer, this time for tax evasion, and the long arms of the American law may yet entangle him once again.

The United States and Iceland have an extradition treaty, meaning that one country may request the other country to arrest and deliver a person who is wanted for certain crimes. Already, Interpol is reported to have asked the Icelandic authorities to inform the United States of Fischer’s movements, especially if he should leave Iceland.

But according to the same news report, Iceland will choose to ignore Interpol’s request. As an Icelandic citizen, Fischer enjoys certain privileges or immunities and one of them is that Iceland is not bound to hand over one of their own citizens.

A senior Icelandic government source told Reuters it was "unthinkable" that Reykjavik would agree to the tip-off request. Iceland does not monitor its citizens, the source said.

Foreign Minister David Oddsson said Fischer would not be extradited. "We have always maintained that the decision to grant him Icelandic citizenship is based on humanitarian concerns," he told 

So as long as Fischer leaves out the rest of his days among his Icelandic neighbours, it will truly be a stalemate between him and the United States authorities.

Most Icelanders were rather happy to accept Fischer as their newest citizen although some did express concern about Fischer's continuing sharp barbs thrown at the U.S. government.

"I think he's a little bit crazy," said Runar Berg, an investment banker and recreational chess player. "Everyone has a right to his own opinion but sometimes it's better to say nothing than to say rubbish."

In the week that followed his release, Fischer told reporters that he was finished with a chess world that he regarded as corrupt. 

For a very long time, he has been alleging that the results of many top-level chess games and matches are decided in advance. Because of this, he said that the Icelanders’ enthusiasm for chess "was misplaced, because people don't know how utterly corrupt it is, and has been for many years."

"Just like when you go to watch a wrestling match, right? They are very good wrestlers but anybody with half a brain knows it's almost all prearranged."

"I don't play the old chess anymore," he said. "But obviously if I did, I would still be the best."

He said that he planned to concentrate on perfecting his concept of random chess, in which pieces along the back rank are shuffled at the beginning of each game in a bid to reinvigorate the game.

Fischer is credited with helping to fuel a passion for chess in Iceland through his historic match for the world chess title in 1972. Though Iceland has a population of less than 300,000 people, it has one of the highest per-capita rates of chess playing in the world.

UP NEXT

Klang Parade chess

The Malaysian Chess Federation and Klang Parade will jointly organize this year’s Klang Parade chess tournament in Klang at the end of this month. 

On Apr 23, the Klang Parade age-group chess tournament for under-12 and under-18 categories will be organized, while on Apr 24, the Klang Parade open tournament will be held.

Total cash prize is RM1500, and entry fees are RM15 for the open event and RM10 for under-12 players. Entry forms are available from the Kalng Parade information counter or downloaded from http://tcn.sf.net/downloads/klangp05.doc

For inquiries or registration, contact Greg Lau (tel: 012.9020123).

Royal Selangor open

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organize its 32nd edition of the Royal Selangor open chess tournament at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur from Apr 28 to Jun 2. 

This year’s tournament will be played in three sections: a nine-round Fide-rated open category starting Apr 28, and the under-12 and under-18 seven-round non-Fide-rated events on Jun 1-2. 

Entry fees for the open event are RM35 for CAS members and Fide-rated players, and RM60 for others. For the two junior events, entry fees are RM15 for CAS members and RM20 for non-members.

For inquiries, call Shafruddin Arshad (tel: 012.3852420), Lim Tse Pin (tel: 012.2984922) or S Balendran (tel: 012.3547011) or email chessmate@cas.com.kg.

The Royal Selangor open is the longest running local chess tournament in Malaysia.

Perak tournament

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organize an open chess event at the Tun Razak Library in Ipoh on Apr 24.

For inquiries on registration or entry fees, contact Yunus Sharif (05.5458453 or 013.3908129).

Fischer freed!

FORMER WORLD chess champion Bobby Fischer was finally released from a Japanese detention camp yesterday. He had been detained there for nine months by Japanese immigration officials after the United States had revoked his original American passport.

But while Fischer was bundled into jail as a United States citizen, he claimed his freedom as a citizen of Iceland, the country that granted him citizenship in recognition of his role in putting the Nordic country on the world map 33 years ago.

Twelve minutes were all it took for the Icelandic Althingi, the world’s oldest existing democratic parliament, to approve a special legislation to grant Fischer full Icelandic citizenship.

The legislation, passed on Monday with 40 Icelandic law makers voting in favour with two abstentions, became law immediately.

Fischer’s freedom was met with rejoice from his fans worldwide who had campaigned hard for his release. He had been incarcerated since July last year, awaiting deportation to the United States to face federal charges of violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia when he chose to play a chess match there with Boris Spassky in 1992.

During his nine months in jail, Fischer had mounted successful short-term challenges to the Japanese legal system in order to delay deportation.

However, all these legal battles still could not win him his freedom. According to the Japanese Immigration Bureau, the Japanese government would only consider releasing the former world champion if a country grants him full citizenship.

Thus, even the special foreigner’s passport that Iceland issued Fischer, which would have allowed him to leave Japan and travel freely in most parts of Europe, was not enough to convince the Japanese government to let him go.

Worse, it soon became known that the United States was preparing a more serious charge against Fischer. 

Earlier this month, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service asked a U.S. federal grand jury in Washington to investigate possible tax evasion charges involving Fischer who was reported to have received US$3.5 million (RM13.3 million) from his 1992 chess match with Spassky.

To Fischer’s worldwide supporters, the reluctance of the Japanese government to release him was seen as a delaying tactic to detain Fischer until the American grand jury had made a decision in early April. If Fischer could not be deported on a sanctions-busting charge which was not a crime in Japan, certainly the Japanese was obliged to deport him on tax evasion charges.

But while the United States considers Fischer as a fugitive from justice, Iceland looks at him as a hero because of his celebrated first chess match against Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972. It was at the height of the Cold War and Fischer’s victory symbolized the triumph of democracy over communism.

It is partly for that reason that Iceland made its latest move to make Fischer an Icelandic citizen. 

Last Friday week, an Icelandic parliamentary committee recommended that Fischer be granted citizenship and this was followed on Monday by the Althingi voting in favour of the committee’s recommendation.

Another delegation is due to leave Reykjavik for Tokyo soon to bring home Iceland’s latest grandmaster.

UP NEXT

Union open

The Union High School Chess Club will organise an eight-round open tournament at their school hall this Sunday. Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM15 for adults, RM10 for under-18 players and RM7 for under-12 players. For non-members, the entry fees are RM20, RM15 and RM10 respectively.

For more details or to register, contact Beh Sze Ping (tel: 04.2290595), Lee Kar Kheng (tel: 04.2282761) or Lim Jiin Ying (tel: 04.6569478).

PCMM tournament

The Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia (PCMM) will hold a six-round open tournament at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Setapak in Kuala Lumpur this Sunday. Entry fees for PCMM members are RM11 for under-12 players and RM16 for others. For non-members, the entry fees are RM15 and RM25 respectively.

For inquiries, contact Mohd Suhairi (tel: 012.3631591), Haslindah (tel: 019.2069605) or Najib (email: alinashab@scicom.com.my). 

Terengganu tournament

The Terengganu Chess Association (TCA) will organize their President’s Trophy chess tournament at the Dewan Jabatan Laut in Kuala Terengganu on Apr 1-2.

This seven-round event is open to TCA members only and will be played in the open and under-12 categories. Fees are RM5 for under-12 players, RM10 for secondary school students and RM15 for others. For details or to register, contact Adnan (tel: 012.9375722, email: ad6sal@gmail.com) 

Selangor junior grand prix

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will hold the third leg of their Royal Selangor junior grand prix tournament on Apr 2-3 at the Sunway College. 

Entry fees are RM15 for CAS members and RM25 for non-members. For inquiries or reservations, contact Lim Tse Pin (tel: 012.2984922) or email chessmate@cas.com.kg. 

 Grand Prix points won from this event will be accumulated with points from the first and second legs and at the end of this junior grand prix, the top 40 players will qualify for the Final on Apr 23-24.

According to the CAS, the top 10 players from the Final will be eligible to take part in the association’s annual chess camp which, this year, will be conducted by Australian grandmaster Ian Rogers in May. This chess camp is also open to chess players born in or after 1987 with a national rating of less than 1600 points or without a national rating.

Floored by an egg

IF YOU do not believe how much trouble a single hard-boiled egg can cause, you just need to ask the former world chess champion, Bobby Fischer, about it. That is, if you can ever get to meet this chess hero in person.

Fischer, however, is still languishing in a Japanese jail, awaiting deportation to the United States where he faces federal charges of violating sanctions against the former Yugoslavia when he chose to play a chess match there with Boris Spassky in 1992.

He was nabbed eight months ago by Japanese immigration officials when he was leaving Japan and his American passport was seized and revoked by the American embassy in Japan.

But Fischer proved to be a tougher nut than the Americans or the Japanese could reckon. 

Firstly, he promptly renounced his American citizenship in an effort to delay the deportation. Secondly, Fischer had the unwavering support of his fiancée Miyoko Watai who had stood steadfastly by him during these eight months. 

And thirdly, his loyal legion of fans worldwide launched a campaign to have him freed. After all, they argued, what could the American government hope to achieve by arresting the apparently harmless but eccentric Fischer?

Fischer certainly had friends in high places around the world and Iceland was one such country that rallied to Fischer’s aid. To the Icelandic people, Fischer was their hero because of his celebrated chess match against Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972. 

But short of offering him Icelandic citizenship, the Icelandic government approved a special foreigner’s passport for Fischer which would have allowed him to leave Japan and travel around freely in most parts of Europe. Iceland even sent two groups of official representatives to escort Fischer out of Japan.

It would have been a satisfying end to this saga but for the fact that the Japanese government still refused to let Fischer go. Instead, he ended up being placed in solitary confinement for four days, all because of a single hard-boiled egg.

Apparently, Fischer had not been given an egg for his breakfast. He grabbed a guard by his shirt to ask him, but the garment ripped.

A group of about 14 or 15 guards then came into Fischer's cell to drag him away. When he resisted their efforts, the guards slapped handcuffs on him with his hands behind his back, holding him that way for two hours.

A middle-aged guard approached Fischer, told him he had to behave himself, then started to free him from his bindings. When the handcuffs were released, another scuffle broke out and a guard was hit in the face, breaking his nose. Fischer was then promptly placed in solitary confinement.

Fischer would have been 62 years’ old two days ago. His supporters had hoped that he would be freed before then, but at this point of writing, it looked very unlikely. 

Rather, it has become clearer that if Fischer is not freed by today, he has instructed his supporters and lawyers to sue the Japanese Ministry of Justice and Immigration Bureau.

According to his lead lawyer, Masako Suzuki, there are no legal grounds to detain Fischer further. However, the Japanese immigration has refused to say anything and their only argument was that Iceland’s invitation to Fischer was irrelevant to his case.

"The attorney for the Ministry of Justice says only that and then she looks down at the table. That's all. They cannot find any justifiable reason to detain him right now, especially with a country that is now willing to accept him. There is no legal ground for the Japanese government to hold him," Suzuki said.

UP NEXT

National age-group 

This year’s national age-group chess championship starts tomorrow at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur. 

Organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF), this three-day championship will see some of the best junior players in the country competing in 12 separate age-group events for boys and girls, namely, the under-20, under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8. 

According to the MCF, the winners of the various events will be considered for selection to the Asean and Asian-levels age-group chess events, subject to MCF regulations. 

Sri Aman junior chess

The Sek Keb Sri Aman in Penang will hold a junior open tournament at their school on Mar 19. The seven-round event will constitute the first leg of Penang’s junior chess circuit for this year.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM10 for under-16 players and RM8 for under-12 players. Non-members are required to pay RM15 and RM13 respectively. According to the organisers, this event will have five age-group categories: under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8.

For inquiries, contact Eoh Hook Kim (tel: 04.8260196) or Eoh Thean Keat (tel: 016.4540070).

Seremban Parade chess

The Malaysian Chess Federation and Seremban Parade will jointly organize this year’s Seremban Parade age-group tournament for under-18 and under-12 categories on Mar 19 and the Seremban Parade open tournament on Mar 20. 

For the age-group event, entry fees are RM15 for under-18 and RM10 for under-12. For the open event, all players are charged RM15 except for under-12 players who need to pay only RM10. Only the first 100 players will be accepted in either event.

For inquiries or registration, contact Amy Yap of Seremban Parade (tel: 06.7648282, fax: 06.7619177) or Greg Lau (tel: 012.9020123).

Selangor junior grand prix

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organize the second leg of their Royal Selangor junior grand prix tournament on Mar 19-20 at the Sunway College. 

Grand Prix points won from this event will be accumulated with points from the first and third legs (to be played on Apr 2-3) and at the end of this junior grand prix, the top 40 players will qualify for the Final on Apr 23-24.

According to the CAS, the top 10 players from the Final will be eligible to take part in the association’s annual chess camp which, this year, will be conducted by Australian grandmaster Ian Rogers in May. This chess camp is also open to chess players born in or after 1987 with a national rating of less than 1600 points or without a national rating.

Entry fees are RM15 for CAS members and RM25 for non-members. For inquiries or reservations in this event and the chess camp, contact Lim Tse Pin (tel: 012.2984922) or email chessmate@cas.com.kg. 

Union open

The Union High School Chess Club in Penang will organise an eight-round open tournament at their school hall on Mar 27. There are eight cash prizes with a first prize of RM200.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM15 for adults, RM10 for under-18 players and RM7 for under-12 players. For non-members, the entry fees are RM20, RM15 and RM10 respectively.

For more details or to register, contact Beh Sze Ping (tel: 04.2290595), Lee Kar Kheng (tel: 04.2282761) or Lim Jiin Ying (tel: 04.6569478).

Chess etiquette

AS CHESS players, we are generally expected to know the basics of chess etiquette whenever we take part in a chess tournament or even as a spectator at a chess event. But do we? When we go to a chess tournament, how are we expected to behave? 

The first thing to remember is that, with the exception of top-level chess events, most chess activities are held in confined spaces where many times, one player’s elbows may be practically touching his two immediate neighbours. 

This week, I shall cover some of the common inter-related chess etiquette which chess players and spectators are expected to know and follow.

First, it is very important, when watching a game of chess, to keep the noise down. Background ambient noise do add to the tension of a game and there are players who concentrate so much until they actually sweat and come away from the table mentally exhausted. 

The last thing they want is someone in the crowd to make audible comments on their games and disturb their concentration. Whispers should be discreet and out of earshot of players. 

Next, chess clocks are expensive and fragile equipment, and must be handled with care. More so, they are difficult to source locally. If a clock is spoilt, it is usually impossible to repair them. There is one less clock available for use and two less places available to chess players at tournaments. 

So spare a thought for the owners of the clocks who are gracious enough to pool their clocks together for use at chess tournaments. 

Third, time trouble may be exciting for spectators but as a player, you should give consideration to your fellow players who are concentrating and struggling under the weight of the flag falling. 

In the rules of the game for most local chess competitions, it is the responsibility of the players themselves to call a flag fall. It is all part of the game. So, under no circumstances should anyone call out to him that the flag has fallen.

Fourth, at a chess tournament, you would want to know where all the best action is going to be taking place. As the event progresses, all the best action is going to be focused on the top few boards. 

The action is the most tense at the top boards as these are players who are chasing for top honours. As these games will eventually gather the majority of the crowd, you may soon have problems in getting close enough to watch them play. Paradoxically, the noise level around these boards is usually lower than the rest of the tournament room despite all the people crowding around the action.

Fifth, photography – especially flash photography – is discouraged once a round has already gotten under way. Organisers normally close an eye if you take photographs within the first 10 to 15 minutes of every round but generally, you will be disturbing and distracting the players if you release the occasional flashes in the room once the games have proceeded in earnest.

Sixth, after a game finishes, some players may sometimes remain behind to analyse critical positions in their game together, or they may go to another room to do this. 

There are always points in a game where a player has to make a choice between two moves of equal outcome in their eyes. It is these key moments that live large in a player's mind as the board develops around them. So chess players quite often will go over this even with the person they have just beaten or lost to. 

For the spectator, it is a great time to stand back and watch the analysis. It is possible to learn a lot from it.

Olimpbase website

It was just my luck that when I was writing about the Olimpbase website two weeks ago, the website’s server struck a technical problem and visitors to it were diverted to a different destination.

However, I am glad to say here that normal service has resumed. The Olimpbase website at http://www.olimpbase.org is now available once more to visitors.

For those readers who do not know what I am referring to, this Olimpbase website is the only website I know that contains all the history on the men’s Chess Olympiads since its inception in 1924. Information on the women’s Chess Olympiads, I hear, will be added much later on.

UP NEXT

National age-group championship

The Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) will organise this year’s national age-group chess championship at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 12-14. 

This competition, open to all junior chess players in the country, will be played in separate age-group events for boys and girls, namely, the under-20, under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8 categories. 

Entry fees are RM20 for the under-20, under-16 and under-14 events and RM15 for the under-12, under-10 and under-8 events. Anyone registering with the organisers after Mar 11 will need to pay double the normal entry fees.

According to the MCF, the winners of the various categories will be considered for selection to the Asean and Asian-levels age-group chess events, subject to MCF regulations. 

For inquiries about entries, contact Gregory Lau (tel: 012.9020123 email: all4chess@hotmail.com) or Hamid Majid (tel: 019.3158098 email: aham@pc.jaring.my). 

Chess Network February allegro

The Chess Network at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur is holding a one-day tournament of its own this Sunday beginning 8am. There is a prize fund of RM850 which will be increased to RM1000 if the number of entries exceed 100.

Entry fees for the six-round event are RM25 and RM15 for the open and under-12 sections. Cash prizes are offered to the top six players in the open section and the top four under-12 players. 

For inquiries and registration, contact Gregory Lau (012.9020123) or Hamid Majid (tel: 019.3158098 email: aham@pc.jaring.my).

Perak age-group

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organise a seven-round age-group event at the Cosmopoint, Metro Campus Ipoh this Sunday. This event will have separate categories for under-10, under-12, under-14 and under16 players. 

Entry fee is RM3 per player. For more details or to register, contact Yunus Sharif (tel: 05.5458453 or 013.3908129) or Norli of Cosmopoint (tel: 05.2411515).

According to PICA, the winners of the four categories will represent Perak at the national age-group championships.

PICA/YMCA open

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and the YMCA are jointly organising an open chess event at the YMCA hall in Ipoh on Mar 6. This six-round event begins at 10am.

Entry fees are RM10 for PICA and YMCA members, ladies and players under 16 years old, and RM15 for all others. For inquiries, contact Yunus Sharif (05.5458453 or 013.3908129) or Margaret of YMCA Ipoh (tel: 05.2540809).

Meanwhile, the PICA has announced that it will hold its annual general meeting at the YMCA on the same day. The AGM will start at 9am.

Sri Aman junior chess

The Sek Keb Sri Aman in Penang will hold a junior open tournament at their school on Mar 19. This seven-round event will constitute the first leg of Penang’s junior chess circuit.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM10 for under-16 players and RM8 for under-12 players. Non-members are required to pay RM15 and RM13 respectively. According to the organisers, this event will have five age-group categories.

For inquiries, contact Eoh Hook Kim (tel: 04.8260196) or Eoh Thean Keat (tel: 016.4540070).

Chess goldmine

ONCE IN a while, an interesting chess website would pop up momentarily on the Internet and come to my notice. It had been far inbetween since I have been so taken in by a chess website, but I must say that the Olimpbase website, while it was still accessible at www.olimpbase.org, held great promise.

It was the only website I know that contained all the history on the men’s Chess Olympiads since its inception in 1924. Although there was no information on the women’s Chess Olympiads, this website was still a goldmine of information.

For example, we all know that the Soviet Union/Russia are the all-time most successful country in chess but would you know that in all the Chess Olympiads they had taken part in since 1952, they have never settled for less than a second position? 

It has been a series of firsts all the way, interrupted only in 1978 when the Soviet Union finished second behind Hungary and in 2004 when Ukraine finished above Russia.

Another way of looking at it, the Soviet Union had played in the Chess Olympiad 19 times, achieved 981 points from 1300 games and finished with a 76.2% score. Russia, after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, played seven times in the Chess Olympiad and scored 263½ points from 388 games with a 67.9% success.

The dominance of the Soviet Union and Russian chess machinery meant that very few living chess players today remembers that there was a time when the United States of America were once the power in the chess world. 

In the early years of this biennial chess event, the American chess team had won the event four times in a row from 1931 to 1937.  

The Americans won the title a fifth time – in 1976 – but this was because the Soviets refused to play the Chess Olympiad in Israel. Incidentally too, this Chess Olympiad in Haifa was the same reason that prevented Malaysia from participating in that year too.

Although the Malaysian Chess Federation was only founded in 1974, Malaysia had begun taking part in the Chess Olympiad two years earlier in Skopje, Yugoslavia. Our pioneering and experimental Chess Olympians were Chan Mun Fye, Dr Foo Lum Choon, Loh Chee Hoong, Kao Yin Keat, A Ariff and Fang Ewe Churh. In 1972, the team had finished in 59th position out of 62 teams.

Last year marked the 16th time that Malaysia have been represented at a Chess Olympiad. Again, from the Olimpbase website, there were some remarkable statistics.

For instance, from our 16 Chess Olympiads, we have played against 103 countries. Against some of them, we have played several times. The Faroe Islands featured eight times and interestingly, we have played seven times time against Hongkong, Singapore and Belgium.

Our scores against our southern neighbours have never been encouraging. Out of these seven encounters, we have only managed a 37.5% success against them, or 10½ points from 28 games. We have never beaten them, and the best we have achieved are two drawn matches.

Since 1972, we have had 57 players who have represented the country. The list reads like a Who’s Who of Malaysian chess and among them, Jimmy Liew has played in six Chess Olympiads for Malaysia – an unbroken string from 1978 to 1986, and then in 1996, for a total of 76 games and a 57.2% score.

Mok Tze Meng and Christi Hon have appeared five times at the Chess Olympiad. Mok has played 52 games and Hon 59 games, with a score of 49% and 48.3% respectively. Dr Foo, one of the pioneers of Malaysian chess played in four Chess Olympiads between 1972 and 1980, with 58 games played.

Those who have turned out three times for the country are Mas Hafizulhelmi, Ng Ek Teong, Eric Cheah, Lim Yee Weng, Wong Zi Jing, Mohd Kamal Abdullah and Ismail Ahmad. The players who have played twice in the Chess Olympiad are Ooi Chern Ee, Goh Yoon Wah, Jonathan Chuah, Francis Chin, Chan Mun Fye, Azahari Md Nor, Peter Long and Fang Ewe Churh.

Finally, the Malaysians who have represented Malaysia, although in only one Chess Olympiad, are Ng Tze Han, Choong Yit Chuan, Ng Ee Vern, Fairin Zakaria, Leong Mun Wan, Tan Wei Sin, AM Mustapha, Mohd Nor Norazmi, Choo Min Wang, Wahid Karim, Yahya Mohd Salleh, Chang Hing Wah, Gregory Vijendran, Mohd Noor Yahaya, Nicholas Chan, Tan Bian Huat, Ignatius Si, Loh Chee Hoong, Hafiz Shafruddin, Zarul Shazwan Zulkafli, Lau Beng Hock, Lee Soi Hock, Jamaluddin, Abdul Rahman Ahmad, Bernard Ng, Yeoh Chin Seng, Woo Beng Keong, Ng Ek Leong, Kao Yin Keat, Kamal Ariffin Wahiduddin, Quah Seng Sun, Tan Vooi Giap, Sabar Md Hashim, Laurence How, Hamid Majid, Chew Soon Keong, A Ariff and Anuar Zainal Abidin.

One of the most appealing features of this site was the ability to call up the individual performances of each player. It was also possible to list all their games at the Chess Olympiad and play through them interactively. There was also a link for you to download all the Chess Olympiad games to your desktop. 

All these, unfortunately, had disappeared from the Internet. We can only hope that the server hosting this site would be active again soon.

UP NEXT

UM 9th college open

The Tun Syed Zahiruddin residential college (ninth college) of University of Malaya will hold an open team chess competition at the college hall on Feb 19. The event is held over six rounds and each team can comprise only four players. Entry fee is RM60 per team, and the first prize is RM800.

For inquiries, contact Pang Yew Tom (tel: 016.6249018) or Geetha (tel: 016.7388557). Closing date for entries is Feb 12.

Penang Free School open

The Penang Free School Chess Club in Penang will organise an eight-round open tournament at their school hall on Feb 20. There are 12 cash prizes with a first prize of RM200.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM15 for adults, ladies and veteran players, RM10 for under-18 players and RM7 for under-12 players. For non-members, the entry fees are RM20, RM15 and RM10 respectively.

For more details or to register, contact Jonathan Choo (tel: 016.4012748), Chan Kim Kooi (tel: 016.4384890) or Koay Zi Hao (tel: 04.8264241).

Top chess nations

ACCORDING TO to the World Chess Federation (Fide), Russia is the strongest chess-playing nation in the world today. Actually, we do not need Fide to tell us this, because all of us do know for a fact that Russia is untouchable as a chess-playing nation.

But how strong is Russia? And how do we measure the comparative chess strengths among countries? According to Fide (again), their definition of a country’s chess strength is the average rating of the country’s top 10 active Fide-rated players.

In this respect, Russia is way, way ahead of all the other countries. Their top 10 players have an average chess rating of 2717. This comes as no surprise as Gary Kasparov himself is already rated at 2804 while Vladimir Kramnik comes next at 2754. The other players in the Russian Top 10 are Alexander Morozevich 2741, Peter Svidler 2735, Alexander Grischuk 2710, Evgeny Bareev 2709, Alexey Dreev 2704, Konstantin Sakaev 2677, Anatoly Karpov 2674 and Alexander Motylev 2665.

Ukraine lies in an undisputed second place with an average rating of 2639 for their top 10 players. Vassily Ivanchuk at 2711 remains as Ukraine’s top player. Their other top 10 players are Ruslan Ponomariov 2700, Andrei Volokitin 2685, Alexander Moiseenko 2669, Pavel Eljanov 2643, Evgenij Miroshnichenko 2620, Zahar Efimenko 2601, Sergey Karjakin 2599, Vladislav Borovikov 2595 and Vereslav Eingorn 2587.

But after Russia and Ukraine, the chess strengths of the other Top 10 countries become rather debatable as their average ratings are often separated by only a mere point. 

For instance, third-placed Hungary has an average rating of 2618 while France has an average rating of 2617 and the United States, an average rating of 2614. The distinction between countries is equally blur as Armenia has an average rating of 2612, Israel 2608, Germany 2607 and England 2602.

Interestingly, there is a huge gap between ninth-placed England and the 10th-placed country, China.

Yes, despite having an average rating of 2589, China is regarded as the 10th strongest chess-playing country today. This makes them, of course, the strongest chess country in Asia, far ahead of the next chess-playing nation, India, which is in 14th place.

China owes its strong position to Ye Jiangchuan 2648, Ni Hua 2625, Bu Xiangzhi 2607, Xu Jun 2596, Zhang Zhong 2591, Peng Xiaomin 2590, Yin Hao 2583, Xie Jun 2573, Zhang Pengxiang 2560 and Wang Yue 2549.

By comparison, India is propped up by Viswanathan Anand who has a tremendously high rating of 2786, way ahead of their other players Krishnan Sasikiran 2657, P Harikrishna 2632, Surya Shekhar Ganguly 2585, Abhijit Kunte 2568, Chanda Sandipan 2554, Dibyendu Barua 2520, Humpy Koneru 2512, Praveen Thipsay 2488 and Tejas Bakre 2484.

Other Asian countries that feature in Fide’s Top 50 list include Kazakhstan in 23rd position with an average rating of 2542, Myanmar in 28th position with a 2523 average rating, Uzbekistan in 30th position with a 2521 average, the Philippines in 40th position with an average of 2489, Vietnam in 46th position with a 2476 average and Indonesia in 49th position with a 2456 average.

Malaysia lies in 82nd position among 143 chess-playing countries. Our average rating of 2302 comes from our Top 10 active players Mas Hafizulhelmi 2413, Lim Yee Weng 2354, Wong Zi Jing 2348, Mok Tze Meng 2337, Jimmy Liew 2320, Nicholas Chan 2313, Ahmad Maliki 2244, Lim Chuin Hoong 2239, Leong Mun Wan 2237 and Christi Hon 2236.

Fide does not consider inactive players in their calculations or otherwise, we could have included players like Peter Long 2350, Ooi Chern Ee 2325. Ng Tze Han 2283 and Francis Chin 2275 within our Top 10.

The total number of Malaysians, including the inactive ones, who have achieved rating points from Fide has now arisen to 111.

UP NEXT

Southern City chess

The Johor Bahru District Chess Association will hold their fifth Southern City Chess Tournament at the XTRA Hypermarket in Johor Bahru this Sunday. This is a six-round event with a 30-minute time control.

Entry fees are RM20 for the open section, RM8 for the under-16 section and RM6 for the under-12 section. There are 10 cash prizes for each section. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07-3338215, email: naraa@tm.net.my

Chung Ling open

The Chung Ling High School Chess Club in Penang will organise an eight-round open tournament at their school hall this Sunday. First prize is RM300.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM15 for adults, ladies and veteran players, RM10 for under-18 players and RM7 for under-12 players. For non-members, the entry fees are RM20, RM15 and RM10 respectively.

For more details or to register, contact Tan Eng Seong (tel: 012.4299517, email: estan64@streamyx.com), Koay Wen Hoong (tel: 04.2826840, email: kwh1989@gmail.com) or Lim Wei Yang (tel: 04.6598199, email: wylim1990@yahoo.com).

Tsunami open 

The St Michael's Institution and the Jalan Pasir Putih school are jointly organising the Tsunami open team chess tournament at the St Michael’s school hall in Ipoh this Sunday. The aim of this tournament is to collect funds for the local victims of the tsunami. 

Entry fees are RM30 for a team of four players. To register or for inquiries, contact Gary Tan Kah Meng (tel: 016.5688745) or Andy Yeoh Aun Phin (tel: 019.5609221).

CAS first quarter allegro 

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organise their first quarter allegro chess competition at The Chess Network, Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 6. 

This one-day event is played in two categories of 50 players each. The first category, with a top prize of RM250, is open to chess players with a national rating of 1400 and above, as well as non-rated adult players. Under-18 players and players with a national rating of below 1400 may join the second category event. 

Entry fees for the first category event are RM15 for CAS members and RM25 for non-members. For the second category event, the entry fees are RM10 for CAS members and RM20 for non-members.

To register, email your particulars and choice of category to chessmate@cas.com.kg 

Malay open

The Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia (PCMM) will kick off its activities for this year with the PCMM Malay open 2005 at The Chess Network, Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 10-12. This seven-round event is open to only Malay chess players.

Prize fund is RM2,200 with RM700 going to the winner. Entry fee is RM25 for PCMM members whilst non-members will be charged an extra RM13 as PCMM membership. For inquiries, contact Haslindah Ruslan (tel: 019-2069605) or Najib Wahab (email: alinashab@scicom.com.my). 

UM 9th college open

The Tun Syed Zahiruddin residential college (ninth college) of University of Malaya will hold an open team chess competition at the college hall on Feb 19. The event is held over six rounds and each team can comprise only four players. Entry fee is RM60 per team, and the first prize is RM800.

For inquiries, contact Pang Yew Tom (tel: 016.6249018) or Geetha (tel: 016.7388557). Closing date for entries is Feb 12.

Malaysian chess calendar

IT IS a brand new year and with it, comes a brand new chess calendar from the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF).

But firstly, I have to caution you that the events in the chess calendar are all subject to change and it is best left to the organisers to confirm during the course of the year of whether there would be changes to their events or not.

Secondly, if readers are still looking forward to the resumption of a national allegro chess circuit this year, you will remain disappointed because there is no company to fill the void left by Bank Rakyat after the previous MCF president, Dato Rosli, had retired from the bank.

First up on the MCF calendar is the national age-group chess championship which is scheduled for Mar 12-15. This event takes advantage of the schools’ mid-semester break. 

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will then organise its annual Royal Selangor open chess tournament from Apr 28 to May 2. As usual, this event – the 32nd in a long unbroken series – will be sponsored by Royal Selangor.

Then, as the schools take a semester break towards the middle of the year, the MCF comes back with the national closed chess championship for men and women from May 28 until Jun 1. The CAS will hold their Selangor juniors open tournaments over two weekends on Jul 16-17 and Jul 23-24.

In August, we shall see the MCF organise the second Dato Arthur Tan memorial Malaysia open chess tournament. This tournament, with a huge prize fund that is set to lure many strong foreign chess masters to our shores, will be played from Aug 20 to 26. Immediately after its conclusion, the MCF will hold the Merdeka team chess championship on Aug 27-31.

If you are a university student, the tournament that should interest you greatly is the annual GACC inter-university tournament, organised by the Second College of Universiti Malaya. Normally, you will find foreign university teams playing too, with many titled players in their midst. This event will be held in October.

And December shall see the return of the annual Malaysia-Singapore chess match but this time, it will be hosted in Singapore by the Singapore Chess Federation. The dates are Dec 24-26.

In the meantime, the Penang Chess Association has also released its calendar of activities for the year. First off the block is the Chung Ling open chess tournament at the Chung Ling High School on Jan 30, and this will be followed by the Sri Aman junior (age-group) open tournament on Feb 20. 

A week later on Feb 27, the Penang Free School open chess tournament will be played. The Penang Free School will also organise the MSSPP chess championship on Apr 5-7 and Apr 12-14.

In May, there will be two tournaments organised by the Penang Chinese Girls’ High School and the Union High School. However, dates have not been fixed yet.

Further down the road, the PCA will hold its annual Penang Chess League at the Kolej Damansara Utama premises spanning July and August, and thereafter, there will be a long interlude until November when it is the turn of the Union Primary School to hold their Union Primary age-group chess tournament.

And finally, chess players will be interested in the PCA’s plans to organise their Penang open chess tournament in December. The dates are not confirmed but most probably it will straddle the end of the SEA Games and the start of the Malaysia-Singapore match.

Readers should note that these are plans by the MCF, CAS and PCA. The other main chess bodies in the country, such as the Perak International Chess Association, Terengganu Chess Association, Johor Bahru District Chess Club and Sarawak Chess Association, will also be announcing events during the course of this year and you should check this column regularly for announcements and updates.

UP NEXT

Brunei open

The Brunei open chess tournament starts today and will continue until Jan 20. According to the Brunei Chess Federation, the total cash prizes stands at more than US$5000. More information is available from the BCF website at http://www.bruneichess.org.bn. 

Southern City chess

The Johor Bahru District Chess Association will hold their fifth Southern City Chess Tournament at the XTRA Hypermarket in Johor Bahru on Jan 30. This is a six-round event with a 30-minute time control.

Entry fees are RM20 for the open section, RM8 for the under-16 section and RM6 for the under-12 section. There are 10 cash prizes for each section. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07-3338215, email: naraa@tm.net.my

Chung Ling open

The Chung Ling High School Chess Club in Penang will organise an eight-round open tournament at their school hall on Jan 30. First prize is RM300.

Entry fees for members of the Penang Chess Association are RM15 for adults, ladies and veteran players, RM10 for under-18 players and RM7 for under-12 players. For non-members, the entry fees are RM20, RM15 and RM10 respectively.

For more details or to register, contact Tan Eng Seong (tel: 012.4299517, email: estan64@streamyx.com), Koay Wen Hoong (tel: 04.2826840, email: kwh1989@gmail.com) or Lim Wei Yang (tel: 04.6598199, email: wylim1990@yahoo.com).

No answers

WHEN I was down in Kuala Lumpur last weekend for this year’s annual Malaysia-Singapore chess challenge, I was reminded of a book that I read in the late 1970s. 

It was a relatively thin book by William Hartston, one of Britain’s celebrated international masters. But unlike most of his other chess books, this one, with a tongue-in-cheek title of How to Cheat at Chess, took a light-hearted and irreverent look at this ageless game.

For example, the fourth chapter of this 95-page book was the shortest you would ever find written: just a page long. And its contents were even shorter. This chapter was called Friendly Games, and its single paragraph – single sentence, actually – simply read: There is no such thing as a friendly game of chess.

How apt a description for the chess match between South-east Asia’s two closest neighbours! Though both sides went to great pains to emphasise on this friendly tradition and de-emphasise the results, what went on on the chess board was anything but friendly.

Everybody knew that the Singaporean players were here for our blood. Though Malaysia held a comfortable 9-to-6 lead going into this year’s match, the Malaysian grip had been loosening in the past three years. 

There was a time when the Malaysian youngsters, boys and girls, were consistently far ahead of their Singaporean counterparts in all the age groups contested in the annual matches. We could depend on our youths to score the points and bring home the bacon for Malaysia. But we became complacent in the process. 

In those few short years, what did Singapore do? They knew that if they needed to improve on the results, not only in this annual match but also when their players play on the regional and world stage, they had to begin a coaching programme to train their players from young.

Bringing in the foreign masters and grandmasters and having a structured training programme in place were, however, only part of their game plan. The other game plan which was not so obvious was a decision to commercialise the training and coaching, which had to be self-sustaining to succeed in the medium term. 

Of course, commercialisation can only be successful if there is enough buying power and parents are ready to pay for their children’s training. But as we have seen thus far from the Singapore experience, parents there are willing to fork out princely sums to ensure their kids would get the best training. (I am sure Malaysian parents will also do the same.)

Put this down to their perceived kiasu attitude if you like, but it is very clear that they are reaping good dividends. Singapore’s young players are now generally out-performing Malaysians on the regional stage at youth tournaments. Both our countries have our young stars but when it comes to the ability to draw on a wider talent pool of resources, this is where we have fallen behind.

As far as I can see, only the Klang Valley has a sustained annual programme to nurture players from young. Penang used to be successful in this several years ago, but I do not see new emerging talents that are impressionable enough. Perak are starting to create more playing opportunities for their youths, which is good for the long term, but I do not hear of any similar programme elsewhere in the country.

The other day, right after the end of the first day’s play which saw Singapore winning the 70-board match by a lop-sided 42-28 margin (note: the Singaporeans also won the second day’s match by this same score), the Malaysian officials were already openly in post-mortem mode, talking about how to arrest this slide.

Despite all the “what if’s” and “what should be done”, we are unfortunately no closer to an answer.

Should we also emulate Singapore and bring in foreign coaches? Would they be effective? What if they do not perform and are here only to enjoy themselves? And the most ludicrous question of all: would they not threaten the livelihood of our own local coaches? Questions were obviously aplenty.

In the midst of the impromptu post-mortem, unfortunately, we tend to forget that the Malaysian Chess Federation has a development sub-committee that can play a big role here. This sub-committee is supposed to draw up development plans but to be honest, I do not know absolutely what is developing or at what stage their proposals may have reached.

But what I do know is that we cannot afford to wait for long. I started this week’s column with a quotation from a book. Let me end with another quotation, this time from one of my favourite authors, Professor C Northcote Parkinson. 

I will not bore you with the details but he suggested with remarkable accuracy in one of his books that: Delay is the deadliest form of denial.

What this simply means is that the more we delay in doing anything, be it starting a project or making a decision, it is as good as denying the opportunity to do it at all.

UP NEXT

Brunei open

The Brunei Chess Federation (BCF) will be organising an open chess tournament on Jan 14-20. According to the federation, the total cash prizes have been increased to more than US$5000. 

In addition, the first 10 grandmasters or woman grandmasters to register before the end of this year will be provided with full board and lodging. The first 10 international master or woman international master will be given twin room sharing and breakfast.

More information is available from the BCF website at http://www.bruneichess.org.bn. 

Annual match to cement ties

COME NEXT week, the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) will host the annual Malaysian versus Singapore chess match which will close all of this year’s activities in our local chess calendar.

This match for the Dato Tan Kim Yeow challenge trophy, which is the 16th in a long series that alternates yearly between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, will be played at the Stanford Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 25 and 26.

Malaysia had won nine times in this match previously but Singapore with their six victories, are fast catching up. 

They have always proven to be traditionally stronger in the men’s senior section but lately, in the past four or five years, their junior players through a concerted coaching effort involving imported coaches of grandmaster and international master caliber are starting to exert themselves over our more naturally-talented youngsters.

But the results of this friendly rivalry between the two countries are always secondary. Throughout the years, the annual chess match is always an occasion for the players from both countries and the officials from the MCF and the Singapore Chess Federation to cement their close bonds and friendship.

This year, the match will be played over 70 boards simultaneously on each of the two days. The highlight will be the contest between the two countries’ national teams comprising six men and four women.

In addition, there will be games between four veteran players from both sides, and four games each between their boys and girls in the under-20, under-18, under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8 age-groups.

According the MCF, for the junior boards, the top four from the national age-group chess championships earlier this year have been called to play in the match.

UP NEXT

Clearwater Sanctuary chess

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organise the Clearwater Sanctuary international chess tournament at the Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort this Sunday.

Entry fees are RM10 for PICA members, ladies and under-12 players, and RM15 for all others. For enquiries, contact Yunus Sharif (05-545 8453 or 013-390-8129) or Abu Bakar Martin (019-512 1888).

CAS 4th quarter chess

The Chess Association of Selangor will hold their last event of the year, the CAS fourth quarter open, at The Chess Network, Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 19.

Due to space constraints, only the first 50 entries will be accepted. Players with a national rating of 1400 and above, as well as adult players without national ratings, will participate in a Category One event. Those rated below 1400 as well as under-18 players will play in a Category Two event.

Entry fees for the Category One event are RM15 for CAS members and RM25 for non-members. For the second event, the entry fees are RM10 for CAS members and RM20 for others.

To register, send your email to chessmate@cas.com.kg.. 

Brunei open

The Brunei Chess Federation (BCF) will be organising an open chess tournament on Jan 14-20. According to the federation, the total cash prizes have been increased to more than US$5000. 

In addition, the first 10 grandmasters or woman grandmasters to register before the end of this year will be provided with full board and lodging. The first 10 international master or woman international master will be given twin room sharing and breakfast.

More information is available from the BCF website at http://www.bruneichess.org.bn. 

Congratulations, Siti Zulaikha!

IN CASE you have not heard, Malaysia have just gained our latest Woman International Master, but there is no prize in guessing correctly that the new holder of this title is none other than our six-time women’s national champion, Siti Zulaikha Foudzi.

She accomplished this feat at the World girls’ chess championships which has just ended in Cochin, India. Siti Zulaikha, participating in this event, finished with 7½ points from 13 games.

However, long before the tournament had ended – in fact, it was just after nine games – that Siti Zulaikha had earned her third and final woman international master norm.

According to the tournament’s website, Siti Zulaikha drew her ninth game with the white pieces against India’s Raghavi in just five moves.

“It is a special day for me. I messaged my father, a doctor in Kuala Lumpur (to tell him the good news),” Siti told the website, adding that her objective now was to become a woman grandmaster.

She started the event as the 18th seed and had expressed the hope to finish among the top 15. Her wish was answered because Siti Zulaikha eventually finished in joint ninth to 12th places.

The top placings among the girls were winner WGM Ekaterina Korbut (Russia) 10½ points; WGM Elisabeth Paehtz (Germany) and WIM Eesha Karavade (India) 9½ points each; Kruttika Nadig (India) 8½ points; WGM Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), WFM Vinuthma (India), WIM Marlies Bensdorp (Netherlands) and Sivasankari (India) 8 points each; and Zhang Jilin (China), WFM Siti Zulaikha, WIM Tania Sachdev (India) and Ramya Krishna (India) 7½ points each.

Malaysia had another player in Cochin, Soon Wai Cheong, who obtained 4½ points playing in the World junior chess championship. 

It was only last October in Calvia, Spain, that Siti Zulaikha had obtained her second WIM norm at the women’s chess Olympiad. Riding on that crest of success, Siti Zulaikha’s search for their third norm was achieved in Cochin. However, I had to go further back to year 2000 to dig up her first WIM title norm, which she obtained in Mumbai at the Commonwealth chess championship.

Incidentally, Siti Zulaikha’s achievement makes her only the second woman international master in Malaysia. Our first WIM was Audrey Wong, but she has long retired from the game.

But Siti Zulaikha is now our latest flag bearer and our ladies chessplayers – and also her male counterparts – must look to her success as an encouragement to work even harder to gain more titled players for this country. 

A miserable collection of two international masters, two woman international masters, seven Fide masters and two woman Fide masters from the last 30 years of chess does not reflect very well on the state of Malaysian chess.

It was only about two weeks ago that Jimmy Liew, our first international master whose time is now firmly divided between his family and work as a programmer, had lamented in the chess-malaysia mailing list that the chess world is moving forward and yet we are still stuck in the 1980s.

During the Chess Olympiad in Calvia, he had been scanning through the daily pairings from the Olympiad website when he noticed several familiar names from the 1980s, a period when Liew was still very active in chess and had represented Malaysia at several Olympiads.

“Players from countries that I have met are, to my surprise, now grandmasters! They were just beginners when I played with them. Malaysia used to relish meeting these countries and we used to beat them 4-0 or 3½-½,” Liew wrote, adding: “What has happened 20 years later? We are getting beaten by them! They are strutting their GMs on first board while we only have an FM.”

“Who is to blame?” asked Liew. “The players or the officials or the education system? It is time for everyone to sit up and take notice and do something. It is so embarrassing!”

UP NEXT

Perak tournaments

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will hold two events this weekend together with the state’s Youth & Sports Department and Perak Gerakan Youth. The Perak closed chess tournament will be run on two consecutive days on Dec 4-5 while on Dec 5, the Anak Malaysia chess tournament will be organised.

Entry fees for the Perak closed are RM15 for PICA members and under-16 players, while non-members will be charged RM20. For the Anak Malaysia event, the fees are RM5 and RM10 respectively. Entries received after Nov 30 will be surcharged an additional RM5. For details or registration, contact Yunus (013-3908129) or Martin Abu Bakar (019-5121888).

PCA grand prix, 4th leg

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will hold the fourth leg of their annual PCA Grand Prix at the clubhouse of the Residents’ Association of Bayan Baru (RABB) this Sunday. Only the first 100 entries will be accepted. 

Entry fees for PCA members are RM15 (adults), RM10 (under-18 players) and RM7 (under-13 players) while non-PCA members are required to pay RM20 (adults), RM15 (under-18) and RM10 (under-13). Entries submitted after Nov 28 are subjected to a surcharge of RM5. For more information, contact Marcus Yeoh (012-472 3873, marcusypl@yahoo.com) or Tan Eng Seong (012-429 9517, estan64@streamyx.com). 

USM team open

The Universiti Sains Malaysia will organise their 11th USM team open tournament at the university grounds on Dec 11-12. Entry fees are RM60 for schools and institutes of higher learning, and RM100 for all other teams. Closing date for entries is tomorrow. 

For more details, contact Choo Chee Wai (012-6127712) or Tan Chooi Nee (012-4344339) or email the Kelab Bridge& Catur USM (usm_chess_club@yahoo.com). Members of the chess-malaysia mailing list can download the entry form from http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-malaysia/files/. 

Clearwater Sanctuary chess

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organise the Clearwater Sanctuary international chess tournament at the Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort on Dec 19.

Entry fees are RM10 for PICA members, ladies and under-12 players, and RM15 for all others. For enquiries, contact Yunus Sharif (05-545 8453 or 013-390-8129) or Abu Bakar Martin (019-512 1888).

Spanish adventure

THE BIGGEST responsibility that can be given to any of our national players when taking part in an international team chess competition such as the Chess Olympiad is the honour of playing on the first board for the team.

In Calvia, Spain, this honour fell on Mok Tze Meng and Siti Zulaikha. They will be the first to tell you that this is a heavy responsibility. Not only are they going to meet the strongest opposition, they have the enviable task of trying to hold their own against them. 

It is not easy to face grandmasters or international masters across the board when you know that the odds are stacked against you, that these titled players are just waiting for the slightest mistakes from you before they pounce. 

But I am glad to mention here that both Mok and Siti played exemplarily well in the Chess Olympiad and they should be proud of their achievements. 

Siti had an impressive start to the tournament with five points from her first nine games but unfortunately, her performance in subsequent rounds were more difficult and she could only collect a further 1½ points from her next five games. Nevertheless, she came back with a woman international master (WIM) norm. She is not a WIM yet, but this norm is definitely her first step towards getting the title. 

As an indication of the tough opposition that she faced, Siti’s opponents included IM Lilit Mkrtchian (Armenia), WGM Eva Repkova (Slovakia), WIM Cecile van der Merwe (South Africa), WIM Vlasta Macek (Croatia), WIM Sarai Sanchez Castillo (Venezuela), WIM Anna Muzychuk (Slovenia), WIM Niina Sammalvuo (Finland), WIM Olga Sabirova (Uzbekistan) and WIM Knarik Mouradian (Libya).

Mok’s opponents were equally daunting. Already in the first round, he was facing veteran GM Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland) and in the second round, it was IM Oscar de la Riva Aguado (Andorra). His other titled opponents included IM Kivanc Haznedaroglu (Turkey), IM Danilo Canda (Nicaragua), GM Evgeni Ermenkov (Palestine), IM Bernardo Roselli Mailhe (Uruguay) and IM Kevin Denny (Barbados). 

But it was a pity that despite his good efforts in Calvia, Mok still missed out on his IM norm. Nevertheless, his 8½ points from 14 games was still a massive contribution which saw the men’s team finish with 28 points in 70th position, 24 places ahead of their pre-tournament seeding. 

Lim Yee Weng on second board, scored seven points which included a draw with GM Joseph Gallagher (Switzerland). Leong Mun Wan obtained six points, Hafiz Shafruddin contributed 3½ points and Zarul Shazwan Zullkafli collected three points.

Our women’s team finished in 40th position, which was not only 16 places better than their pre-tournament seeding but possibly the best result ever achieved by our women’s team at the Chess Olympiad. Apart from Siti’s 6½ points, Nur Shazwani Zullkafli scored 7½ points, Roslina Marmono achieved three points and Wan Khye Theng 4½ points.

UP NEXT

Busy calendar ahead

With the school holidays now upon us, the chess associations around the country are beginning to be active again and over the next three weeks or so, there are tournaments lined up in Penang, Perak, Johor and Sarawak. Happy playing!

Johor Bahru open

Entries close today for the Johor Bahru District Chess Association’s 10th Johor  Bahru open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru this Sunday. Entry fees are RM30 for the open category, RM8 for the under-16 category and RM6 for the under-12 category. For details, contact Narayanan Krishnan (07-333 8215, naraa@tm.net.my).

Union age-group

There will be an age-group chess tournament for under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8 players at the Union Primary School in Jalan Burma, Penang this Sunday. Entry fees for Penang Chess Association (PCA) members are RM10 for players under 16 years old and RM8 for those who are below 10 years old. Non-PCA members are required to pay an additional RM2. Fees paid after today will be subjected to a surcharge of RM5. To register, contact Loo Swee Leong (016-423 1168, leoloo168@yahoo.com) or Lim Poay Sim (012-490 1822, pslim159@hotmail.com).

Sarawak open

The Sarawak Chess Association (SCA), Kelab Shell Lutong and the Miri Chess Association will jointly organise this year’s Sarawak chess open tournament at the Machinda Hall, Kelab Shell Lutong in Miri on Dec 3-5. This is a nine-round event with a one-hour time control. Entry fees are RM5 for ladies and under-18 players, and RM10 for all other participants. Entries close on Nov 25. 

For more details, contact Lim Kian Hwa (013-8165163, lkhwa@tm.net.my) or James Brodie (082-616177 (office), 082-451973 (residence)) in Kuching, Mathew Lutu (019-8554705, mathew.lutu@shell.com), Bujang Poli (019-8147018, bujang.poli@shell.com) or Jim (ksl_ltg@streamyx.com) in Miri, Marzuki Hussain (019-8144369, marzuki_hussain@petronas.com.my) in Bintulu, Yii Hee Tiong (016-8916621) in Sibu or Wong Toh Hua (013-8040809) in Sarikei.

Perak tournaments

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will hold two events in early December in association with the state’s Youth & Sports Department and Perak Gerakan Youth. The Perak closed chess tournament will be run on two consecutive days on Dec 4-5 while on Dec 5, the Anak Malaysia chess tournament will be organised.

Entry fees for the Perak closed are RM15 for PICA members and under-16 players, while non-members will be charged RM20. For the Anak Malaysia event, the fees are RM5 and RM10 respectively. Entries received after Nov 30 will be surcharged an additional RM5. For details or registration, contact Yunus (013-3908129) or Martin Abu Bakar (019-5121888).

PICA is also holding regular chess sessions every first and third Saturdays of the month at the YMCA Ipoh from 2pm to 4pm. For more information, contact PICA treasurer Chan Swee Loon (019-5563027).

PCA grand prix, 4th leg

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will hold the fourth leg of their annual PCA Grand Prix at the clubhouse of the Residents’ Association of Bayan Baru (RABB) on Dec 5. Only the first 100 entries will be accepted. 

Entry fees for PCA members are RM15 (adults), RM10 (under-18 players) and RM7 (under-13 players) while non-PCA members are required to pay RM20 (adults), RM15 (under-18) and RM10 (under-13). Fees must be paid by Nov 28 or otherwise, there is a surcharge of RM5 for registration on the day of the tournament. For more information, contact Marcus Yeoh (012-472 3873, marcusypl@yahoo.com) or Tan Eng Seong (012-429 9517, estan64@streamyx.com). 

USM team open

The Universiti Sains Malaysia will organise their 11th USM team open tournament at the university grounds on Dec 11-12. Entry fees are RM60 for schools and institutes of higher learning, and RM100 for all other teams. Closing date for entries is Dec 4. For more details, contact Choo Chee Wai (012-6127712) or Tan Chooi Nee (012-4344339) or email the Kelab Bridge& Catur USM (usm_chess_club@yahoo.com). Members of the chess-malaysia mailing list can download the entry form from http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-malaysia/files/. 

Violent turn

 

Champion of champions

 

Losing shine

 

Snapshots of Merdeka

 

Popular event

 

Merdeka fever

 

Momentous Open