Action ahead

 

Action aplenty

 

Poor showing

 

Missed chances

 

Olympiad begins

 

Still the king

 

Kramnik claws back

 

Crash and burn

 

Class of its own

 

Fide event

 

Title challenge

 

New queen

 

Ratings obsession

 

Time difference

 

At the crossroads

 

Chinese gold

 

Tense tourney

 

Curtain raiser

 

Up against Seirawan

 

Foreign challenge

 

The player to watch

 

Chess fests

 

Past greats

 

Chess gladiators

 

Clearing the air

 

Queen control

 

Hallmark of champs

 

Smooth transition

 

Change of guard

 

Family affair

 

Tourney back in KL

 

Back for more

 

Grand prix

 

Out of limbo

 

Keeping the trophy

 

Allure of Amber

 

Elite club

 

Reunion dinner

 

Smooth show

 

For the love of the game

 

Iconic player

 

Grand quest

 

Board meetings

 

Bright chess future

 

Incomplete calendar

 

Pieces come together

 

Embracing change

 

Chess coaches facing challenges

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, a 17th Century French classical author, once remarked that the only constant in life is change. Let me add here that change, too, affects chess.

Through chess history, we know how the face of chess has been changing. For instance, it evolved from a simple game enjoyed by the kings of India and Persia to the complex and demanding one that is played today throughout the world.

Likewise in chess coaching, change is inevitable. 

For far too long, chess coaching in Malaysia has been in the hands of a few independent local chess coaches, each with their different styles of coaching techniques. 

It is a very fragmented market but paradoxically, the fragmentation is the reason why many of the chess coaches continue to make a decent enough living. Somehow, because of the keen competition among themselves, they have managed to create a niche market for themselves.

All this is changing with the coming of a new player in the local coaching scene. The time-tested formula used in Singapore is now available in Malaysia under the guise of the Asean Chess Academy Malaysia.

This chess coaching organization will be duplicating the success of their Singapore counterpart by bringing in qualified foreign chess coaches for short stints here. 

If you have been reading this column for the past month or so, or following the discussions in the chess-malaysia mailing list, you may already released that a few of these foreign coaches had been conducting chess clinics around the Klang Valley and Penang.

Whether this entity will prove to be successful in the long term remains to be seen but from my discussions with various people, our local chess coaches are now threatened with marginalization. Unless they can evolve and change, organizations such as the Asean Chess Academy Malaysia are set to become the dominant player.

I’ll tell you why. 

Fide, the World Chess Federation, has been showing interest in the Asean Chess Academy in Singapore itself and a person no less than the Fide general secretary, Ignatius Leong, has been tasked to look into the possibility of duplicating the Academy’s set-up around the world. 

It’s no wonder then, that the Asean Chess Academy should be looking at its nearest neighbour, Malaysia, as the starting point.

When I spoke to Leong recently, he said that many top officials from Fide had visited the Academy in Singapore to study its organization structure and even a Russian visitor had remarked that Russia could now do no better. The old Soviet School of Chess is practically non-existent.

If the Asean Chess Academy can be duplicated around the world, the one group of people that will benefit most from this will be the qualified chess trainers and instructors who are recognized by Fide

In recent years, Fide had been quietly trying to get chess coaches and trainers to register themselves with the world body. Several designations or titles have been introduced. 

At the most basic level, the Developmental Instructor (DI) must know the rules of chess and have a Fide rating of at least 1400 points. Their scope is to provide simple instructions to beginners and people new to chess.

Then comes the National Instructor (NI) who is required to have a minimum two years of experience as a DI and a minimum Fide rating of 1600. The NI must also have finished within the top 10 in their national-level chess competitions. Nis are eligible to train players with Fide ratings of up to 1600.

The Fide Instructor (FI) title comes next and the person must have a minimum two years of experience as a NI and a minimum Fide rating of 1800. The are allowed to conduct courses for Dis and Nis, as well as train players with Fide ratings up to 1800.

Progressively, Fide has also the titles of Fide Trainer (FT) and Fide Senior Trainer (FST). Qualification to these titles are even more stringent and holders of these titles are required to know at least one Fide language.

So, this is the change that is coming. In the next few years, I foresee parents starting to ask whether the chess coaches will have the necessary qualifications. Playing experience will no longer be enough. There will be a lot of challenges facing the local coaches and they will lose out until they take the most obvious step to gain the proper credentials from Fide. 

UP NEXT

USM (Engineering Campus) open

The Universiti Sains Malaysia’s School of Engineering will organise their first chess tournament at their Engineering Campus in Nibong Tebal tomorrow.

The entry fees are: RM10 for members of the USM (engineering campus) chess club, RM15 for other USM students, RM10 for members of the Penang Chess Association (PCA) aged below 18. RM15 for adult PCA members and non-members below 18 and RM20 for others. 

With entries will close today, anyone interested should immediately contact Chin Chee Boon (tel: 017.4879028), Cheah Wee Keat (tel: 012.4124824), Ong Yee Chien (tel; 017.7521032) or Chan Chee Weng (tel: 012.3640978).

Clearwater Sanctuary open

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

Entry fees are RM10 for players under 12 years old, ladies and PICA members, and RM15 for all other players. For details, contact Yunus (tel: 013.3908129) or Hamisah (tel: 012.4313326).

Friendly games? Are you serious?

HALFWAY THROUGH the first round of the Malaysia-Singapore chess match in Kuala Lumpur two weeks ago, someone mentioned to me casually that we should not be taking the results of the match too seriously.

I could see what he meant. This wasn’t supposed to be a real serious match. Already, in his opening speech, Malaysian Chess Federation president Datuk Tan Chin Nam said he initiated the match 18 years ago to foster closer cooperation between the chess bodies of both countries.

So, the tone for this match has been set. Whatever the outcome, the real winner would be the continuing close ties between the MCF and its southern counterpart, the Singapore Chess Federation.

However, as you may already know, there is really no such thing as a friendly game, especially in chess.

With rivalry so keen, can you ever envision the Malaysians or the Singaporeans say to one another: let’s have a real friendly game of chess, let’s agree to a quick draw so that we can all go to celebrate our friendship with a drink somewhere.

Nooo … on the one hand, the MCF was trying to cling to its slim one-match lead over the SCF while on the other hand, the SCF was looking to level the overall score over 18 years.

Maybe by ‘friendly’, we mean that the players shouldn’t break out in fisticuffs. Okay, we are actually very civilized. We wouldn’t dream of inflicting any physical pain on our friends, would we? But we wouldn’t mind bleeding them mentally, testing them and torturing them. 

Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise that despite the warm words from the MCF president, the match turned into a determined battle of wits between the two countries. Witness for example, the second game between our Mas Hafizulhelmi and their Chan Peng Kong on the top board of the senior side.

In the morning, Mas Hafizul had scored a good win against his opponent. So, in the afternoon, I was not surprised to see that Chan was trying his utmost to even the score. But after about two hours of play, it was the Malaysian international master that was holding a tiny spatial advantage over the Singaporean international master.

Unfortunately, this space advantage was only illusory. It not enough to win. After four hours of mental torture on Chan, Mas Hafizul had to agree that there was nothing more he could do to win. But the fact that both players were willing to play until way past the pre-agreed time for the closing ceremony typically demonstrates how serious a friendly game of chess can turn out to be. 

For the record, the Singaporeans won yet again. The final score was 80.5 points to them and 59.5 points to us. They won and they tied the match at nine-all. Back to square one. Next year, we’ll be down in Singapore to start all over again.

Tomorrow, I shall be at the Penang International Sports Arena (PISA) to celebrate one of the state’s biggest sports event – Starwalk 2006. Though Starwalk itself will be held on Sunday, the actual festivities begin today with a charity concert.

Then, tomorrow will see the Penang Chess Association and Star Publications jointly organizing The Star international chess tournament, a one-day event that will be played over eight rounds. The registration for this event, I hear, has been very good but if you have been delaying entering yourself for it, I’m sorry to say that entries have now closed.

Nevertheless, you may still want to come down to the PISA to watch the event – there are other attractions in a Chinese chess competition, a futsal competition and a 3-on-3 basketball competition – and perhaps meet up with some old friends.

I’ll be seeing you!

UP NEXT

CAS fourth quarter tournament

The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will organise their fourth quarter allegro chess tournament at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 17. This event has two sections: Category One is meant for players with national ratings of above 1400 points while Category Two is for players with ratings below this level.

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

To register, write to selangorchess@gmail.com before Dec 14, stating your name and category. Registrations after this date will incur a late administration fee of RM5.

USM (Engineering Campus) open

The Universiti Sains Malaysia’s School of Engineering will organise their first chess tournament at their Engineering Campus in Nibong Tebal on Dec 23.

The entry fees are: RM10 for members of the USM (engineering campus) chess club, RM15 for other USM students, RM10 for members of the Penang Chess Association (PCA) aged below 18. RM15 for adult PCA members and non-members below 18 and RM20 for others. Entries will close on Dec 22.

For details, contact Chin Chee Boon (tel: 017.4879028), Cheah Wee Keat (tel: 012.4124824), Ong Yee Chien (tel; 017.7521032) or Chan Chee Weng (tel: 012.3640978).

Clearwater Sanctuary open

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organise the Clearwater Sanctuary chess tournament at the Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort in Batu Gajah, Perak on Dec 24.  

Entry fees are RM10 for players under 12 years old, ladies and PICA members, and RM15 for all other players. For details, contact Yunus (tel: 013.3908129) or Hamisah (tel: 012.4313326).

Crunch time

ALL RIGHT. It is crunch time this weekend at the Cititel MidValley in Kuala Lumpur. 

Tomorrow, we shall be having the valiant fighters from the Malaysian chess Federation (MCF) facing the might of the Singapore Chess Federation (SCF) at the annual Malaysia-Singapore chess match. This year, we are the hosts.

The Singaporeans have been winning by big margins in this encounter for the past few years but as I mentioned a fortnight ago, I hope we can really close the gap between the two countries.

It is not impossible because in the past, we have won this encounter several times before. There were good years in the 1990s when it was an embarrassment for the Singaporeans to play this match. Although times have changed in the intervening years, I’m sure our players can rise to the occasion again.

Unfortunately, we always go into the match with a handicap. The toughest games are between the two countries’ senior boards and this is always where our players find themselves running against a brick wall. 

It is very puzzling why our men players – who are not short on talent or imagination – have consistently underperformed in this section. It is a problem which I believe the MCF has yet to find a solution. 

Since it is not going to be much different this year (correct me if I’m wrong; I shall love to be wrong about this), the objective for them then, if not to beat the Singaporeans in the section, will be to minimise the damage as much as possible.

If the Malaysian senior players are able to do this, the results will boil down to the side that is able to perform better in the junior sections. At least, in this section, we have a reasonable chance to excel. Many of our junior players do not know anything about glass ceilings and that is good. 

Talent aside, all they need to do is to learn how to approach each game as a new game against a faceless opponent. Forget about reputations and past results or even the fact that they are foreigners. My advice to our junior players is to play the board and not the person sitting in front of them.

During those years when we consistently out-shone the Singaporeans, our junior players never had the opportunity to undergo serious training under qualified trainers. Oh yes, we saw the need for proper chess development but we never knew how or where to begin.  

So, our junior players grew up on natural talent alone. If anyone showed promise, the only support that the MCF could offer was to sign the registration papers for the players to play in some regional events. No fund raising. It all depended on whether their parents could pay for their children to play.

I suppose it was much the same in Singapore. Anyone wishing in play in regional chess events would have to go through the SCF for the registration. Like us too, the Singaporeans saw the need to improve through proper training. 

But unlike us, there were people in Singapore who saw opportunities and were able to turn them into business activities. They brought in experienced chess players from overseas who became coaches and parents had to pay commercial rates for the coaches to teach their children. 

We always snigger whenever we label the Singaporeans as kiasu but to me, parents are the same everywhere. If they can afford it, they will want the best for their children. When it comes to developing a child’s mind, parents will not mind paying for chess coaching the same way as they pay for tuition. 

But Singapore had some advantages. 

First, it is a small island state with a good public transport system. Commuting from one end of the island to the other end is not a big problem. Malaysia is too diversified even within the Klang Valley and you know how the traffic is when it rains. 

Second, the buying power of the Singapore dollar is so much more than the Ringgit. How many Malaysian parents are able to pay the equivalent of what a qualified chess coach will get in Singapore?

These advantages notwithstanding, I am glad to see some recent serious effort to bring organized chess coaching into the country. It is good that some enterprising people are starting to do this. There will be challenges but if this business endeavour can succeed, perhaps within the next three years we can proudly see the results of the annual Malaysia-Singapore match overturned.

UP NEXT

Penang chess camp

There will be a four-day, not-to-be-missed chess camp at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 27-30 and at the YMCA in Penang on Dec 4-7.

The organisers of this camp are bringing in some qualified Fide Trainers from the Asean Chess Academy in Singapore, led by Zimbabwean international master Robert Gwaze. These trainers will be conducting intensive chess courses over four days and participants will have a great opportunity to learn from the masters.

The camp concentrates on four levels of chess players from learners with an elementary understanding of the game to advanced players who wish to move themselves up to a new notch.

For details, contact to Gregory Lau in Kuala Lumpur (tel: 012.9020123 email: all4chess@hotmail.com) or Marcus Yeoh in Penang (tel: 012.4723873 email: marcusypl@yahoo.com).

11th GACC inter-varsity chess

The Tuanku Bahiyah Residential College (Second Residential College) of Universiti Malaya will organize the 11th edition of the Rakan Muda GACC world inter-varsity chess championship at the University on Dec 5-13.

This nine-round, Fide-rated annual event is open to all local and international universities, colleges and institutes of higher education. There will be both an individual and a team event. 

For inquiries, contact Jackson Toh (tel: 012.6702294 email: gacc11.director@gmail.com) or Belinda Lau (tel: 012.8812479 email: gacc11@yahoo.com), or you can visit http://www28.brinkster.com/gaccwivcc/

Sarawak open

The Sarawak Chess Association will hold their Sarawak open chess tournament at the Borneo Chess Academy premises in Jalan Song, Kuching, on Dec 8-11. This will be played over nine rounds.

Entry fees are RM10 for women and under-18 players and RM20 for others. A deposit of RM10 is required, which is refunded when you complete the tournament.

To register, contact Lim Kian Hwa (tel: 016.8603180, email: lkhwa@tm.net.my or limkh@sarawaknet.gov.my) before Dec 5