Dwindling in numbers

We do not seem to be getting many new Malaysian players on the international rating list that is maintained every six months by the World Chess Federation. On the contrary, we are slowing losing our numbers.

In the latest list released by FIDE last month, we lost Jimmy Liew, Christi Hon, Francis Chin and V Gregory due to their inactivity. I really cannot remember the last time that these four players had played in an internationally-rateble tournament.

It must be due to the pressures of working life. International tournaments can stretch over two weeks so it is simply not possible for a responsible breadwinner or family person to spend too much time away from work or their family.

But at least where Liew is concerned, we do see him occasionally in local tournaments where he is still a force to be reckoned with. But the others, where are they?

A second reason must be that of opportunity. Although there are many foreign tournaments, not many foreign organisers will think about inviting us as we do not have players of high calibre.

Our players cannot achieve higher ratings because they do not get much exposure. It is clearly a catch-22 situation which the Malaysian Chess Federation must rectify. It is good that a lot of encouragement is given to school children but it is equally good if some thought is given to the senior players.

If we do not provide the seniors with opportunities, sooner or later they will end up in the same company as Liew, Hon, Chin and the rest. It is possible to organise some serious internationally-rateable tournaments in the country with shorter periods of play to keep our players active but the seniors must play their part too.

Unfortunately, most of them tend to give MCF tournaments, including the national closed championship, a wide berth which is most regretable as this is a key tournament where the MCF is concerned. From this event, players are chosen to represent the country in events like the Chess Olympiad, the Asian team chess championship or the zonal tournaments. These events provide the best possible chances for our players to remain active in FIDE's eyes.

Consequently, we end up with senior players who are internationally rated but because they do not play further in FIDE events and are inactive, FIDE remove them from the rating list eventually.

As a result, the MCF is forced to depend on the new junior players to make their mark in the Chess Olympiad or Asian team championship.

Coming back to the latest FIDE list, Peter Long continues to be our top- placed player with an unchanged rating of 2350 while a newcomer to the list is Mas Hafizulhelmi who is rated at 2275.

Players with unchanged ratings are Eric Cheah (2255), Mok Tze Meng (2240), Goh Yoon Wah (2230), Collin Madhaven (2220), Mohd Kamal Abdullah (2210), Ng Ek Teong (2200), Mohd Sabar Hashim (2195), Ahmad Muzaffar (2185) and Thomas Lam (2105).

Apart from Mas, another new addition to the FIDE list is Mohd Fairin Zakaria who has a 2220 rating. Ooi Chern Ee is also rated 2220, an increase by 35 points over the January 1995 list. However, Yeoh Chin Seng's rating plunged from 2250 to 2195.

Among our women players, Audrey Wong is rated 2070 and Nurul Huda Wahiduddin is 2040.

TIME FOR ANOTHER AGM

The Malaysian Chess Federation annual general meeting scheduled on Aug 6 has been postponed due to lack of quorum.

The AGM has been fixed on Sept 1 (3pm) at the Wisma Belia in Kuala Lumpur. The federation can be assured of quorum this time as the AGM coincides with the Merdeka team chess championship in Kuala Lumpur.

The agenda of this year's AGM is rather straightforward: just a review of the previous year's programme and the adoption of the annual accounts. It is not an election year and there is no indication of any proposal to change the constitution.

Meanwhile, the 14th Merdeka team chess championship starts on next Friday and will continue until Sep 3. The Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia are the organisers and the three sections - state, youth (under-18) and open - will all be staged concurrently.

Entry fees are RM150 for teams taking part in the state and open sections, and RM80 in the youth section. Entries received after the closing date on Aug 31 will be charged an additional RM30 as late fees.

MERDEKA EVENTS

Here is a reminder to readers in Johor that the one-day Merdeka open tournament organised by the Johor Bahru District Chess Club will be played on Aug 31 at the Holiday Inn in Taman Century, Johor Bahru.

The open section features a top prize of RM300; the under-18 section has a first prize of RM100; and the winner of the under-12 section will get RM80.

Entry fees are RM15 for the open section, RM5 for the under-18 section and RM4 for the under-12 section. Those interested should register with the organisers by today since only the first 200 entries will be accepted. For details, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07-331-7604 or 07-333-8215).

In Perak, the state-level Merdeka celebrations committee will hold a similar tournament on Aug 31 at the Dewan Bandaran DBI in Ipoh. There will be 10 cash prizes, and the entry fee is RM8 per person.

This open event will double as a selection for players to represent the state at the Merdeka team championship in Kuala Lumpur. For details, contact Mrs Teh or Mr Chan of the organising committee during office hours (tel: 05-253-7924, 05-253-7926 or 05-253-7928) or Mohd Jamil Yahya in the evening (tel: 05-526-7091).

Meanwhile, the Perak Merdeka youth tournament in Ipoh on Aug 9 was won by Mohd Hussein Mohd Jamil. Second was Ooi Chong Chye, third was Hafizul Razali and fourth was Mohd Johan Mohd Jamil.

These four players will turn out for the Perak youth squad at the Merdeka team championship in Kuala Lumpur.

 

Local chess team fest

Two weeks to go before the 14th Merdeka team chess championship gets going again and as usual, this annual event will once again be organised by the Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia.

To be held at Wisma Belia in Kuala Lumpur from Sept 1-3, the three sections of the competition - state, youth (under-18) and open - will all be staged simultaneously.

The premier attraction is the state section where traditionally, all the state chess associations in the country will compete for the Deputy Prime Minister's trophy. Everyone now accepts this event as the national team chess ] championship.

For the youth section, the winner will be awarded the Merdeka Youth challenge trophy. Normally too, many of the state associations will field teams in this event but lately, the organisers have also been allowing other junior teams to participate.

Finally, there is the open section which has never failed to attract teams from near and far. Numerous teams from Singapore will again be expected.

Two rounds will be played on Sept 1, three on the second day and the remaining two games on the final day of competition.

The closing ceremony follows the last round and the various winners can expect to receive their prizes from Tourism Minister Dato Sabbaruddin Chik who is also president of the Malaysian Chess Federation.

Three prizes are on offer for the state section. Apart from the challenge trophy, the winning team will receive RM1,500. The second prize is RM1,200 and the third prize is RM1,000.

For the youth section, the winner will get RM600, the first runners-up RM400 and the second runners-up RM250.

The open section will feature five prizes as there are normally quite a lot of teams taking part. The winner's purse is RM1,200 and the other prizes are RM1,000, RM800, RM600 and RM400.

Apart from these, special prizes of RM200 each are given to the best government department team, the best women's team and the best school team.

Entry fees are RM150 for teams taking part in the state and open sections and RM80 for the youth section. Entries received after the official closing date on Aug 31 will be charged an additional RM30 as late fees.

MERDEKA TOURNAMENTS

The Johor Bahru District Chess Club will organise a one-day Merdeka open tournament on Aug 31 at the Holiday Inn in Taman Century, Johor Bahru.

There will be three categories. The first is an open section featuring a top prize of RM300 and six other prizes totalling RM475.

The second is the under-18 section which also offers seven prizes with RM100 going to the winner; and the third is the under-12 section with a RM80 first prize.

Entry fees are RM15 for the open section, RM5 for the under-18 section and RM4 for the under-12 section. Readers interested in play in this tournament should register with the organisers before Aug 25 because only the first 200 entries will be accepted.

For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07-331-7604 or 07-333-8215).

In Perak, the state-level Merdeka celebrations committee will hold a similar tournament on Aug 31 at the Dewan Bandaran DBI in Ipoh. This open event will double as a selection for players to represent the state at the Merdeka team championship in Kuala Lumpur.

For more information, contact Mrs Teh or Mr Chan of the organising committee (tel: 05-253-7924) or alternatively, contact Mohd Jamil b Yahya (tel: 05-526-7091).

FAST GAME BY YOUNGSTERS

There were 38 participants in Total Chess' one-day open quickplay tournament which was organised in Petaling Jaya earlier this month.

Although the more established senior players in the Klang Valley were absent, the tournament was well represented by a flock of fast improving youngsters.

The event was won by 14-year-old Lim Yee Weng who scored 5 1/2 points from six games. In joint second to fifth places were Michael Adrian Wind, Mustafa Kamal Zamhuri, Wong Zi Jing and Htay Win who each obtained five points.

The prizes for the best under-16, under-14, under-12 and under-10 players went to Lee Wei Kwang, Ng Kian Seng, Haniza bt Che Hashim and Jonathan Chuah respectively. Aaron Yee Keng Yew was the best Total Chess player.

Total Chess is an outfit in Petaling Jaya which specialises in providing training and organising events for chess enthusiasts in Petaling Jaya. Its next programme is a holiday camp for children up to 16 years of age during next week's school holidays.

The camp begins Monday and will go on until Wednesday from 10am to 6pm daily, and the fees are RM60 per person. For more details, contact Joseph Toh (tel: 03-757-4606).

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Games from the recent Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland.

Lucas Brunner - Jan Timman
--------------------------
1. Nf3 Nf6, 2. c4 c5, 3. Nc3 Nc6, 4. e3 e6, 5. d4 d5, 6. cxd5 exd5, 7. Be2 cxd4, 8. Nxd4 Bd6, 9. O-O O-O, 10. b3 Re8, 11. Bb2 Nxd4, 12. Qxd4 Be5, 13. Qd2 Bg4, 14. Bxg4 Nxg4, 15. h3 Nf6, 16. Rfd1 Rc8, 17. Rac1 Rc6, 18. Nb5 Ne4, 19. Qe2 Bb8, 20. Rxc6 bxc6, 21. Qg4 g6, 22. Nd4 Qf6, 23. Qe2 Qd6, 24. Nf3 Ng5, 25. Kf1 f6, 26. Nxg5 fxg5, 27. Qg4 h6, 28. Rc1 c5, 29. Ba3 Qa6+ 0-1

Alexei Shirov - Jan Timman
--------------------------
1. e4 e5, 2. Nf3 Nc6, 3. Bc4 Bc5, 4. b4 Bxb4, 5. c3 Be7, 6. d4 Na5, 7. Be2 exd4, 8. Qxd4 d6, 9. Qxg7 Bf6, 10. Qg3 Qe7, 11. O-O Bd7, 12. Nd4 O-O-O, 13. Nd2 Nc6, 14. Qe3 h5, 15. Rb1 Nh6, 16. Qd3 b6, 17. a4 Kb8, 18. a5 Nxa5, 19. Qa6 Ka8, 20. e5 Qxe5, 21. Bf3+ d5, 22. Nc4 Bc8, 23. Qxa5 Qxd4, 24. Qa2 Qxc3, 25. Be3 Bb7, 26. Bxb6 cxb6, 27. Nxb6+ Kb8, 28. Nxd5 1-0

Alexei Shirov - Vadim Zvjaginsev
--------------------------------
1. e4 c5, 2. Nf3 e6, 3. d4 cxd4, 4. Nxd4 Nc6, 5. Nc3 Qc7, 6. Be2 Nf6, 7. Be3 b6, 8. g4 h6, 9. Qd2 Nxd4, 10. Bxd4 e5, 11. Nb5 Qb8, 12. Be3 Nxe4, 13. Qd3 a6, 14. Bf3 axb5, 15. Bxe4 Ra4, 16. Bd5 Bc5, 17. O-O-O O-O, 18. g5 hxg5, 19. Rhg1 g4, 20. b3 Rxa2, 21. Rxg4 Qd6, 22. Kb1 Ra6, 23. Rdg1 Qf6, 24. Bg5 Qxf2, 25. Bh6 e4, 26. Rxg7+ Kh8, 27. Qh3 1-0

Utut Adianto - Alexey Dreev
---------------------------
1. d4 d5, 2. c4 c6, 3. Nf3 Nf6, 4. Nc3 e6, 5. e3 Nbd7, 6. Bd3 dxc4, 7. Bxc4 b5, 8. Bd3 Bb7, 9. a3 b4, 10. Ne4 c5, 11. Nxc5 Nxc5, 12. dxc5 Bxc5, 13. Qa4+ Ke7, 14. axb4 Qxd3, 15. bxc5 Rhc8, 16. Bd2 a5, 17. Rd1 Ba6, 18. Nd4 Rd8, 19. Bb4 Qc4, 20. b3 Qxb4+, 21. Qxb4 axb4, 22. Nc6+ Ke8, 23. Nxd8 Rxd8, 24. Rd4 Nd5, 25. e4 Nf4, 26. Rxd8+ Kxd8, 27. Kd2 Nd3, 28. Ke3 Kc7, 29. Rd1 Ne5, 30. f4 Nc6, 31. Ra1 Bb7, 32. Kd3 e5, 33. g3 Bc8, 34. f5 Nd4, 35. Kc4 Bb7, 36. Ra2 Bxe4, 37. Kxb4 Nc6+, 38. Kc3 Bxf5, 39. b4 Be6, 40. Rb2 Nd4, 41. b5 Bd7, 42. b6+ Kb8, 43. g4 h6, 44. h3 Kb7, 45. Ra2 Nc6, 46. Rd2 Be6, 47. Rd1 g6, 48. Re1 Bd5, 49. Ra1 Be6, 50. Re1 h5, 51. gxh5 gxh5, 52. Rg1 Bxh3, 53. Rg7 Be6, 54. Rh7 Nb8, 55. Rxh5 Nd7, 56. Kb4 Kc6, 57. Rh1 e4, 58. Ra1 Ne5, 59. Kc3 e3, 60. Ra7 e2, 61. Rc7+ Kb5, 62. Kd2 Nc4+ 1/2-1/2

 

Swiss chess fest

The annual chess festival in Biel last month was again the highlight of the Swiss chess calendar. It is now in its 28th edition and as usual, the financial obligations for this year's festival were largely met by sponsorship from Credit Suisse, one of Switzerland's largest banks.

Several hundreds of players would normally take part in the festival's many attractions which range from the main billing, a Category 15 grandmaster tournament, to the side shows like blitz tournaments for officials and journalists.

Russia's Alexey Dreev won the premier grandmaster tournament by scoring nine points from 13 games. In the second place was Latvian Alexei Shirov who now plays under the Spanish flag. Shirov obtained eight points. Indonesia's Utut Adianto and Byelorus' Boris Gelfand each scored 7.5 points.

Some readers may remember Vladislav Tkachiev who played as the second reserve for the Kazakhstan team in the 1993 Asian team chess championship in Kuala Lumpur. He is now a strong grandmaster with a 2605 rating, and in Biel both he and Russia's Vadim Zvjaginsev each scored seven points.

Near the bottom of the table was Jan Timman. It was a most uncharacteristic position for a player who was once involved in a world championship title match. In Biel, he made gross oversights and lost quickly in several games.

In the Credit Suisse Masters open tournament, Germany's Igor Glek was the winner with 8.5 points from 11 Swiss rounds. He ended up in front of players like Sergey Smagin, Yuri Razuvaev, Vladimir Tukmakov and Boris Avrukh who each obtained eight points.

An interesting twist to this festival was a special tournament between two teams of 12 players - one representing Team Europe and the other Team Swiss/French. This event used the Scheveningen system which paired players from one team exclusively to players from the other team. Thus, players from the same team do not meet one another across the board.

Team Europe comprised a grandmaster, two women grandmasters and nine international masters while Team Switzerland/France had three Fide masters and nine untitled or unrated players.

Thus the Team Switzerland/France players, playing against the titled and rated players in Team Europe, would have real chances of picking up rating or title norms. Unfortunately, none qualified for any norm. The final scores were 91.5 points for Team Europe and 52.5 points for Team Switzerland/ France.

CHESS LEAGUE ENDS

In the final round of the Penang Bayview Chess League last Sunday, Chung Ling High School A completed their domination of the tournament when they beat the MSSPP Juniors by an emphatic 3.5 - 0.5 score. They ended the 11-week event undefeated and were deserving winners of the City Bayview challenge trophy.

There was a tense fight between Penang Free School A and the Old Frees Association. The schoolboys drew the match 2-2 to finish second in Division One.

In other first division matches, the Pessca team was also held to a 2-2 draw by Penang Free School B, while Universiti Sains Malaysia beat Penang Development Corporation by 3.5 - 0.5. Chung Ling high School B beat Hitachi Semiconductors 3-1.

In Division Two, Chung Ling High School swept the first two positions. Their C team beat Union High School 4-0 while their D team finished strongly with a 3-1 score against Penang Free School C.

Dynacraft beat the Penang Chinese Girls High School 3-1, while Bank Bumiputra and the MSSPP Girls were given walkovers on all four boards by their opponents, Mara Taiping and National Semiconductors respectively, which had withdrawn from the tournament.

Because of the withdrawals, all of Mara's and NS' scores against the other teams in the second division were excluded from the final tally of points.

According to the regulations, PDC and Hitachi will be relegated next year while their place will be taken by Hewlett-Packard and Bank Bumiputra which were third and fourth in their division.

This is because the rules of the competition disallow organisations from having more than two teams in each division. Thus, although the Chung Ling High School C and D teams came tops in the second division, they were unable to be promoted because the school already had their A and B teams in the first division.

The final standings:

Division One - CLHS A 32.5 points, PFS A 27.5 points, OFA 26.5 points, Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling 22.5 points, USM 22 points, Pessca 21.5 points, CLHS B 20.5 points, MSSPP Jrs 15 points, PFS B 13.5 points, PDC 11.5 points and Hitachi 7 points.

Division Two - CLHS C 28.5 points, CLHS D 20.5 points, HP 18 points, BBMB and MSSPP Girls 17 points each, PFS C 13 points, Dynacraft 12.5 points, Union 11.5 points and PCGHS 6 points.

BAYAN BARU OPEN

Readers who have submitted their entries for the Bayan Baru open tournament this Sunday are reminded that they have to be at the Residents' Association of Bayan Baru's clubhouse by 8.30am to confirm their participation.

A maximum of 64 players will be accepted for the tournament and I believe there may a few vacant places remaining. Anyone who have yet to register with the organisers may still have a chance to play if they turn up early at the tournament hall on Sunday.

This one-day tournament, now in its 10th year, is organised by the Residents' Association with technical assistance from the Penang Chess Association.

This is a seven-round event played along Rapid-30 chess rules and the winners will not receive cash but rather prizes in kind donated by various sponsors.

The entry fees are RM5 for members of either the Residents' Association or the Penang Chess Association. This rate also applies to players who are under the age of 18. All other participants will have to pay RM8.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

This week's games are taken from the Biel chess festival in Switzerland.

Alexei Shirov - Vladislav Tkachiev
----------------------------------
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Nf3 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Ne1 Nd7 10. Be3 f5 11. f3 f4 12. Bf2 g5 13. a4 a6 14. a5 Rf6 15. g4 fxg3 16. hxg3 h5 17. Ng2 Rh6 18. Ne3 Nf6 19. Kg2 Bd7 20. b4 Qe8 21. c5 Qg6 22. cxd6 cxd6 23. Nc4 g4 24. Nb6 gxf3+ 25. Bxf3 Rf8 26. Nxd7 Nxd7 27. Rh1 Nf6 28. Qe2 h4 29. Rh3 Rc8 30. Qd2 hxg3 0.5-0.5

Utut Adianto - Boris Gelfand
----------------------------
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. Nf3 d6 6. O-O Nc6 7. Nc3 a6 8. h3 Bd7 9. e4 e5 10. d5 Nd4 11. Nxd4 exd4 12. Qxd4 Qc8 13. h4 b5 14. cxb5 axb5 15. Qb4 Ng4 16. Bf4 Re8 17. Rac1 Qb8 18. Bh3 Qb6 19. Bxg4 Bxg4 20. Qxb5 Reb8 21. Qxb6 Rxb6 22. b3 c5 23. dxc6 Rxc6 24. Nd5 Rxc1 25. Rxc1 Rxa2 26. Kg2 Bd4 27. Be3 Bxe3 28. Nxe3 Be6 29. Rb1 Bd7 30. g4 Bb5 31. Kg3 Bd3 32. Rd1 Bxe4 33. Rxd6 Rb2 34. Rb6 Kg7 35. g5 h6 36. b4 hxg5 37. hxg5 Kf8 38. f3 Bd3 39. Kf4 Ke8 40. Ke5 Re2 41. Kd4 Bb1 42. b5 Rf2 43. Rb8+ Kd7 44. Rb7+ Ke6 45. Rb6+ Kd7 46. Rf6 Rd2+ 47. Kc5 Ba2 48. Nc4 Rg2 49. Rxf7+ Ke6 50. Rf4 Rxg5+ 51. Kc6 Bb3 52. Re4+ Kf6 53. Ne3 Be6 54. b6 Bc8 55. Nd5+ Kg7 56. Nb4 Rg1 57. Rc4 Re1 58. Kc7 Re8 59. Re4 Rf8 60. Nc6 Ba6 61. Re3 Kh6 62. Ra3 Rf7+ 63. Kd6 Rf6+ 64. Ke7 Rxc6 65. Rxa6 Kh7 66. Kd8 Kh6 67. Ke7 Kh7 68. Kd7 Rf6 69. b7 Rxa6 70. b8=Q Ra5 71. Ke6 Rf5 72. Qg3 Kg7 73. Qg4 Rf6+ 74. Ke5 Rf7 75. Ke4 Kh7 76. Qc8 Kg7 77. Ke3 Rf8 78. Qc3+ Kh7 79. Kf2 Rf5 80. Kg3 Rg5+ 81. Kf4 Rf5+ 82. Kg4 Rf7 83. Qe5 1-0

 

Chung Ling School certain to win

With only one round remaining in the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League, Chung Ling High School have all but been officially declared winners in both divisions of the competition.

In the 10th round last Sunday, Chung Ling High School A dismissed the challenge from their closest rivals, Penang Free School A, by winning with a big 3-1 score.

CLHS A's lead of 3.5 points is almost unsurmountable considering that they are playing the MSSPP Juniors in the final round while PFS A will face the daunting task of meeting the Old Frees Association.

In the other Division One games, OFA squeezed a 2.5-1.5 win from Pessca, MSSPP Juniors beat Hitachi Semiconductors 3-1, Penang Development Corporation beat Penang Free School B 3-1, while Universiti Sains Malaysia and Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling played to a 2-2 draw.

Likewise in the second division, Chung Ling High School C are the clear winners. On Sunday, they beat Bank Bumiputra 4-0 to pull further ahead of the rest of the field. Hewlett-Packard could only draw 2-2 with Chung Ling High School D, while Union High School beat Penang Free School C 3-1.

Meanwhile, National Semiconductors and Mara Taiping have been removed from the tournament as the two teams failed to turn up for the last two rounds, and their results against the other teams will be cancelled.

Current standings after 10 rounds:

Division One - CLHS A 29 points, PFS A 25.5 points, OFA 24.5 points, PACL 22.5 points, Pessca 19.5 points, USM 18.5 points, CLHS B 17.5 points, MSSPP Jrs 14.5 points, PFS B 11.5 points, PDC 11 points and Hitachi 6 points.

Division Two - CLHS C 24.5 points, HP 18 points, CLHS D 17.5 points, BBMB and MSSPP Girls 17 points, PFS C 12 points, Union 11.5 points, Dynacraft 9.5 points and PCGHS 5 points.

The Penang Bayview Chess League is an annual tournament sponsored by The City Bayview Hotel since 1991. The final round this Sunday will be played at the hotel's Sri Mas Room at 2.30pm and this will be followed by the closing ceremony at 7pm during which the RM6,000 City Bayview challenge trophy will be presented to the winner of Division One.

MERDEKA MEETS

Two tournaments at separate ends of the peninsula will be held later this month to celebrate Merdeka.

In Johor, the Johor Bahru District Chess Club will organise a one-day tournament on Aug 31 at the Holiday Inn Johor Bahru.

There will be three categories in this tournament. The first, an open section, features a top prize of RM300 and six other prizes totalling RM475. The under-18 section also offers seven prizes with RM100 going to the winner; and the third is the under-12 section with a RM80 first prize.

Entry fees are RM15 for the open section, RM5 for the under-18 section and RM4 for the under-12 section. Those interested should register with the organisers before Aug 25 because only the first 200 entries will be accepted. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07-331-7604 or 07-333-8215).

In Perak, the state-level Merdeka celebrations committee will hold a similar tournament on Aug 31 at the Dewan Bandaran DBI in Ipoh. This open event will double as a selection for players to represent the state at the Merdeka team championship in Kuala Lumpur beginning Sept 1.

On Aug 9, the committee will also organise a one-day youth tournament at the Taman DR Seenivasagam in Ipoh. In both events, there is a cap on a maximum of 80 players for each event. The entry fees are RM8 for the open event and RM5 for the youth event. Cash prizes have been promised to the winners.

For information, contact Mrs Teh or Mr Chan of the organising committee (tel: 05-253-7924) or Mohd Jamil Yahya (tel: 05-526-7091).

BAYAN BARU OPEN

The Residents' Association of Bayan Baru, Penang, will hold its 10th annual open chess championship on Aug 13 at the association's clubhouse.

Entry fees for the one-day tournament are RM5 for players under the age of 18 and members of either the Residents' Association or the Penang Chess Association and $8 for all other participants.

Entry forms are available daily from The Times Bookshop at the Penang Plaza, Burmah Road, Penang. They are also available Mondays to Fridays from the association's clubhouse in Jalan Nibong, Bayan Baru (7pm-9pm).

As in previous years, cash prizes are not offered. Instead, winners will be given prizes in kind donated by various parties. Entries will close on Aug 6. Those interested in taking part can also submit them to the Penang Chess Association at The City Bayview Hotel this Sunday.

MERDEKA TEAM

The Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia, organisers of this year's Merdeka team championship, have pointed out to me that the dates for this event are from Sept 1-3 and not as reported earlier. The venue for the competition remains unchanged, that is, the Wisma Belia in Kuala Lumpur.

The premier attraction is the competition for the Deputy Prime Minister's trophy in the state section. For the junior section, the winner will be awarded the Merdeka Youth challenge trophy. Finally, there is the open section of the championship which normally attracts teams from far and near, including Singapore.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Vladimir Kramnik scored an impressive victory in the 10-player Category 17 Dortmund international tournament in Germany last month. He was pressed hard all the way by Anatoly Karpov but still managed to finish half a point ahead of the FIDE champion.

Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Leko both finished tied for third and fourth, but Leko made a very solid impression by losing only in the final round. Ivanchuk's play was sort of lacklustre and he never really got going after his loss in the first round of the tournament.

Here are a few games from the event.

White: Vladimir Kramnik
Black: Vassily Ivanchuk
-----------------------
1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 e6 3. c4 dxc4 4. Qa4+ Nc6 5. Qxc4 Nf6 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bxf6 Qxf6 8. Nc3 Bd6 9. g3 O-O 10. Bg2 Bd7 11. O-O Rfd8 12. Rac1 Qe7 13. Ne4 Be8 14. e3 Rac8 15. Rfd1 a6 16. Nc5 Bxc5 17. Qxc5 Qxc5 18. Rxc5 Ne7 19. Ne5 Nd5 20. a3 f6 21. Bh3 fxe5 22. Bxe6+ Bf7 23. Bxc8 Rxc8 24. dxe5 Nb6 25. Rd4 Be6 26. f4 Kf7 27. e4 g6 28. Kf2 Ke7 29. Rc1 a5 30. Rc5 a4 31. Rb4 Bd7 32. Rc1 Bc6 33. Ke3 Nd7 34. Rbc4 Rb8 35. h4 h5 36. Rg1 Rh8 37. Rc2 Ke6 38. Rgc1 Nb8 39. Rc5 Ke7 40. R1c2 Nd7 41. Rxc6 bxc6 42. Rxc6 Rb8 43. Rxg6 Rxb2 44. f5 Rb3+ 45. Kf4 Rxa3 46. Rg7+ Ke8 47. e6 Nf6 48. g4 Ra1 49. e5 Nd5+ 50. Ke4 1-0

White: Peter Leko
Black: Eric Lobron
------------------
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nf3 d6 4. c3 Nf6 5. Bd3 O-O 6. O-O Nc6 7. h3 e5 8. Re1 h6 9. Na3 Nd7 10. Bb5 Ne7 11. Nc2 a6 12. Bf1 b6 13. a4 Bb7 14. dxe5 dxe5 15. b3 Nc8 16. Ba3 Nd6 17. Nd2 c5 18. g3 Qc7 19. Bg2 Nf6 20. c4 Rad8 21. Qe2 a5 22. Bb2 Rfe8 23. Na3 h5 24. Rad1 Nh7 25. Nab1 Nf8 26. Nc3 Qb8 27. Nd5 Bc6 28. Nf3 f6 29. Nh4 Nf7 30. Rd3 Bxd5 31. cxd5 Nd6 32. Bc1 Qc8 33. Rc3 Qd7 34. Nf3 Qf7 35. h4 Kh7 36. Qe3 Nd7 37. Bh3 Qf8 38. Qe2 Bh6 39. Bxh6 Qxh6 40. Nd2 f5 41. exf5 Nxf5 42. Ne4 Kh8 43. Ng5 Re7 44. d6 Rg7 45. Qd2 1-0

White: Evgeny Bareev
Black: Anatoly Karpov
---------------------
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3 6. Qxc3 b6 7. g3 Bb7 8. Bg2 c5 9. b4 d6 10. O-O Nbd7 11. Bb2 Qc7 12. d3 Rfc8 13. Rac1 a6 14. Qd2 Bc6 15. Rfe1 Qb7 16. d4 Qb8 17. Bh3 Ne4 18. Qe3 d5 19. cxd5 Bxd5 20. dxc5 bxc5 21. Nd2 Nd6 22. Qc3 Ne8 23. e4 Bb7 24. Nb3 Ndf6 25. Bg2 cxb4 26. Qxb4 Rxc1 27. Bxc1 Bc6 28. Qc3 Qc8 29. Bf4 Bb5 30. Qb2 Qd8 31. Nc5 Rc8 32. Qb4 Qb6 33. Rc1 Qa7 34. h3 h6 35. Rc3 Qa8 36. a4 Bc6 37. Qb6 Nd7 38. Nxd7 Bxd7 39. Rxc8 Qxc8 40. a5 Bb5 41. Bf1 Bxf1 42. Kxf1 Qc4+ 43. Kg1 Nf6 44. f3 Nh5 45. Bb8 Qc3 46. g4 Nf6 47. Qd8+ Kh7 48. Kg2 Qb2+ 49. Kg1 Qe2 0-1

White: Vladimir Kramnik
Black: Alexander Beliavsky
--------------------------
1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Qc2 O-O 6. Bg5 Nbd7 7. Rd1 dxc4 8. e4 Nb6 9. h4 Nfd7 10. Be2 Re8 11. Be3 c6 12. e5 Nf8 13. Ne4 Bd7 14. O-O f5 15. exf6 gxf6 16. Bh6 Ng6 17. Nc5 Qc7 18. Bxc4 Nxc4 19. Qxc4 Bf8 20. Bxf8 Nxf8 21. Rfe1 Re7 22. Qc3 Rae8 23. Ne4 Rf7 24. d5 e5 25. dxc6 Qxc6 26. Nd6 Qxc3 27. bxc3 Re6 28. Nxf7 Kxf7 29. Nd2 Ra6 30. Ne4 Bc6 31. Rd6 Nd7 32. Red1 Ke7 33. R6d2 Ra3 34. f3 Ba4 35. Rc1 Bc6 36. Nd6 Nc5 37. Nc4 Ra4 38. Ne3 Ne6 39. Rcd1 Kf7 40. Nf5 Nc5 41. Rd8 Rxa2 42. h5 Ne6 43. Rh8 Ng5 44. Rc8 Rxg2+ 45. Kf1 1-0

White: Alexander Beliavsky
Black: Vassily Ivanchuk
--------------------------
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bb5+ Bd7 8. Be2 c5 9. Nf3 cxd4 10. cxd4 Bc6 11. Qd3 O-O 12. O-O e6 13. Bf4 Nd7 14. Rac1 Nf6 15. Nd2 Qe7 16. Qe3 Rfd8 17. Be5 Bf8 18. Nb3 Nd7 19. Bf4 Qa3 20. Rfd1 Re8 21. Rc2 e5 22. dxe5 Nxe5 23. f3 f5 24. Qc3 Bg7 25. Bc1 Qe7 26. f4 Bxe4 27. fxe5 Bxc2 28. Qxc2 Rac8 29. Bc4+ Kh8 30. Rd5 Qh4 31. Nd2 Rxe5 32. g3 Qe7 0-1

 

Chung Ling High School in the lead

With only two rounds remaining in the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League, the domination of Chung Ling High School in both divisions of the competition seems complete.

After nine rounds of the competition, Chung Ling High School A continues to lead in Division One by beating Pessca 3-1. Penang Free School A continued to provide a strong challenge to CLHS A but despite winning 4-0 against Hitachi Semiconductors, they still trailed the leaders by 1.5 points.

In other Division One matches, Old Frees Association beat Penang Development Corporation 4-0, Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling beat Penang Free School B 3-1 and the MSSPP Juniors drew 2-2 with Chung Ling High School B.

In the second division, Chung Ling High School C beat the MSSPP Girls 3-1 to retain their lead while Hewlett-Packard scored a 3.5-0.5 result against Union High School.

In other matches, Bank Bumiputra beat Penang Free School C 3-1, DCI beat National Semiconductors 4-0 and Penang Chinese Girls High School beat Mara Taiping 4-0.

Current standings after nine rounds:

Division One - CLHS A 26 points, PFS A 24.5 points, OFA 22 points, PACL 20.5 points, Pessca 18 points, CLHS B 17.5 points, USM 16.5 points, MSSPP Jrs 11.5 points, PFS B 10.5 points, PDC 8 points and Hitachi 5 points.

Division Two - CLHS C 27.5 points, CLHS D 23.5 points, HP 19.5 points, BBMB 19 points, PFS C 17.5 points, MSSPP Girls 17 points, DCI 16.5 points, Union 14 points, PCGHS 9 points, NS 8 points and Mara Taiping 5.5 points.

The Penang Bayview Chess League is annually sponsored by The City Bayview Hotel and the 10th round will be played this Sunday morning at the hotel's Revolving Restaurant. The final round will be on Aug 6.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Bayan Baru Open
---------------
The Residents' Association of Bayan Baru, Penang, will hold its ninth annual open chess championship on Aug 13 at the association's clubhouse.

Entry fees for the one-day tournament are RM5 for players under the age of 18 and members of either the Residents' Association or the Penang Chess Association, and RM8 for all other participants.

Entry forms are available daily from The Times Bookshop at the Penang Plaza, Burmah Road, Penang. They will also be available Mondays to Fridays from the association's clubhouse in Jalan Nibong, Bayan Baru (7pm-9pm).

As in previous years, cash prizes are not offered. Instead, winners will be given prizes in kind donated by various parties. Entries will close on Aug 6.

Merdeka Team Championship

-------------------------

This yearly event will once again be organised by the Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia at the Wisma Belia in Kuala Lumpur from Sept 2-4. As usual, this event will be separated into three sections all running at the same time.

The premier attraction is the competition for the Deputy Prime Minister's trophy in the state section. Traditionally, all the various state chess associations in the country make it a point to play, and this event is widely viewed as the national team championship.

For the junior section of the championship, the winner will be awarded the Merdeka Youth challenge trophy. Normally too, many of the state associations will send their teams to play here but the organisers have also been allowing other junior teams to participate.

In recent years though, the popularity of the junior section has diminished a little. This could be attributed to the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Malaysia's own national junior championships which are held during the mid- semester break.

Finally, there is the open section of the championship which has never failed to attract teams from near and afar, including a number from Singapore.

More information on this event will be announced later.

Total Chess
-----------
Total Chess, a commercially-run chess club in Petaling Jaya, will be holding two local rating tournaments on August 6 and 13.

On August 6, an open category tournament will be played at the Total Chess premises in the New Town Centre, Petaling Jaya, and 10 cash prizes totalling RM300 will be at stake. There are also prizes for the best under-10, under- 12, under-14 and under-16 players.

A week later, a special tournament for under-12 players will be held. Here, 10 prizes comprising medals, chess books and magazines will be offered.

Both tournaments are six-round events using a time control of 25 minutes per player for each game. The entry fees are RM15 for Total Chess members and RM20 for non-members in the open category event, and RM10 and RM15 respectively for the under-12 event.

For further details, call Joseph Toh (tel: 03-757-4606).

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Joop van Oosterom is a familiar figure in Europe. Noted as an ardent supporter of chess, he is credited with having introduced many new ideas in promoting the game.

A notable example is the Melody Amber blindfold/rapidplay tournament which is an annual event that involves top chess players. Participants are required to engage their opponents in two games, one of which is played without sight of the chess board.

Recently, he sponsored the Polka women versus veterans tournament in Prague. This was a Scheveningen style of tournament in which five top women players were pitted in a double-round contest against five veteran players.

Despite a spirited fightback from the veteran players in the final rounds, the women won this event comfortably with a final score of 26.5-23.5.

Playing for the women's side were world champion Xie Jun (China), Pia Cramling (Sweden), Nana Ioseliani (Georgia) and two of the Polgar sisters from Hungary, Judit and Zsuzsa.

On the veteran's side were Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland), Vlastimil Hort (Germany), Lajos Portisch (Hungary) and former world champions Vassily Smyslov (Russia) and Boris Spassky (France).

The joint winners of the tournament were Cramling and Judit Polgar who each scored 6.5 points. Third was Korchnoi with 5.5 points, while three players - Xie, Smyslov and Spassky - obtained five points each.

Zsuzsa Polgar and Hort scored 4.5 points each, while Ioseliani had four points and Portisch 3.5.

Here are a few interesting games from the tournament.

Vlastimil Hort - Pia Cramling
-----------------------------
1. c4 g6, 2. d4 Bg7, 3. Nc3 Nf6, 4. e4 d6, 5. Be2 O-O, 6. Bg5 Na6, 7. Bf3 c6, 8. Qd2 e5, 9. Nge2 Qe8, 10. O-O h5, 11. d5 cxd5, 12. Bxf6 Bxf6, 13. Nxd5 Bg7, 14. Nec3 Bd7, 15. Rfd1 Rd8, 16. b4 Be6, 17. Qe3 b6, 18. a4 Rb8, 19. Be2 Bc8, 20. Nb5 Qd7, 21. a5 bxa5, 22. Rxa5 Bb7, 23. Rda1 Bxd5, 24. Rxa6 Bc6, 25. Rxa7 Qd8, 26. Rd1 Bxb5, 27. cxb5 Bf6, 28. Bc4 Kg7, 29. Ra6 Be7, 30. Qa7 Qc8, 31. Rc6 Qg4, 32. Re1 Qg5, 33. Qe3 Qxe3, 34. Rxe3 Bd8, 35. Rd3 Bb6, 36. Rdxd6 Bd4, 37. b6 Ra8, 38. g3 Ra1+, 39. Kg2 Rb1, 40. b5 Rb2, 41. Rf6 Rb4, 42. b7 Ba7, 43. Rfd6 1-0

Xie Jun - Boris Spassky
-----------------------
1. e4 c5, 2. Nf3 Nc6, 3. d4 cxd4, 4. Nxd4 Nf6, 5. Nc3 d6, 6. Be2 g6, 7. Nb3 Bg7, 8. O-O a6, 9. Re1 b5, 10. Bf1 O-O, 11. a4 b4, 12. Nd5 e6, 13. Nxf6+ Bxf6, 14. a5 Bg7, 15. Ra2 Qe7, 16. Be3 Bb7, 17. Qd2 Rfc8, 18. f4 e5, 19. f5 gxf5, 20. exf5 Kh8, 21. Raa1 d5, 22. Bc5 Qf6, 23. Bb6 Ne7, 24. Nc5 Bc6, 25. Nxa6 d4, 26. Nxb4 Bh6, 27. Qd3 Nxf5, 28. Nxc6 Rxc6, 29. Qe4 Be3+, 30. Rxe3 Nxe3, 31. Bd3 Kg7, 32. b4 Rg8, 33. Bc5 Rxc5, 34. bxc5 Kf8, 35. a6 1-0

 

Vietnamese challenge at Sutra Beach

It is not often that the state chess associations outside the Klang Valley manage to attract foreign players but the Terengganu Chess Association managed to get Vietnamese international master Nguyen Anh Dung to play in the Sutra Beach Resort open tournament.

Of course, the fact that the Vietnamese player happened to stay behind in the country after the zonal championship at Genting Highlands helped considerably. It did not take much to persuade Nguyen to try his luck for the first prize of RM1,000.

So Nguyen turned up in Kuala Terengganu very much the pre-tournament favourite. He reeled off four wins in a row, including a third round victory against the national champion, Mas Hafizulhelmi.

Unfortunately, the Vietnamese lost his touch in the fifth round and the local crowd was especially estatic when their homegrown player, lawyer Ghalam Sani, produced an inspired game to take a point off Nguyen.

Ghalam was in a good form. A round earlier, he had despatched off former national champion Mok Tze Meng and before that, former national schoolboy champion Ahmad Maliki. A draw against Mas Hafizulhelmi in the final round was sufficient for Ghalam to win the tournament.

After his loss to Ghalam, Nguyen was no longer in the running for the top prize despite winning in the sixth round against Maliki. He drew against Mok in the final round to place joint second/third with Mas Hafizulhelmi.

The three-day tournament was played at the Sutra Beach Resort in Kuala Terengganu. Sponsored by the hotel, the event attracted 40 participants including seven current or former national players. The local field was limited to only six players with the rest, excluding Nguyen, coming from various parts of the country.

The prize winners: Ghalam Sani 6 points, IM Nguyen Anh Dung and Mas Hafizulhelmi 5.5 points each, Ahmad Maliki, Mok Tze Meng, Rosli Mohd Nor and Agus Salim 5 points each, John Chay, Mohd Fadli Zakaria and Ismail Ahmad 4.5 points each.

THE BAYVIEW UPDATE

With eight rounds completed in the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League, Chung Ling High School A is in the lead in Division One after a 4-0 win over Penang Development Corporation.

Penang Free School A suffered a slight setback when they lost to Chung Ling High School B by a 1.5-2.5 score. Old Frees Association beat Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling 3-1, while Universiti Sains Malaysia scored a 3-1 win against Penang Free School B and Pessca beat Hitachi Semiconductors 4-0.

In Division Two, Chung Ling High School C beat Penang Chinese Girls High Schol 4-0, while their D team won 3-1 against Union High School. Penang Free School C beat the MSSPP Girls 3-1 and Bank Bumiputra beat Hewlett-Packard 2.5-1.5. DCI beat Mara Taiping 3-0.

The current standings after eight rounds:

Division One - CLHS A 23 points, PFS A 20.5 points, OFA 18 points, PACL 17.5 points, Pessca 17 points, USM 16.5 points, CLHS B 15.5 points, MSSPP Jrs and PFS B 9.5 points, PDC 8 points, and Hitachi 5 points.

Division Two - CLHS C 24.5 points, CLHS D 23.5 points, PFS C 16.5 points, MSSPP Girls, HP and BBMB 16 points, Union 13.5 points, DCI 12.5 points, NS 8 points, Mara Taiping 5.5 points and PCGHS 5 points.

The Penang Bayview Chess League is annually sponsored by The City Bayview Hotel. The ninth round will be played this Sunday morning at the hotel's Revolving Restaurant.

TWO TOTAL TOURNAMENTS

Total Chess, a commercially-run chess club in Petaling Jaya, will stage two local rating tournaments on Aug 6 and 13.

On Aug 6, an open category tournament will be played at the Total Chess premises in the New Town Centre, Petaling Jaya; 10 cash prizes totalling RM300 will be at stake. There are also prizes for the best under-10, under- 12, under-14 and under-16 players.

On Aug 13, a special tournament for under-12 players will be held.

Both tournaments are six-round events using a time control of 25 minutes per player for each game. The entry fees are RM15 for Total Chess members and RM20 for non-members in the open category event, and RM10 and RM15 respectively for the under-12 event. For further enquiries or registration, call Joseph Toh (tel: 03-757-4606).

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Here are two games from the local chess circuit this week. The first was played at the Terengganu Sutra Beach Resort championship in Kuala Terengganu and features Nguyen Anh Dung's loss to Ghalam Sani, while the second game is from the Penang Bayview Chess League.

White: Ghalam Sani

Black: Nguyen Anh Dung

----------------------

1. e4 c5, 2. Nc3 Nc6, 3. g3 g6, 4. Bg2 Bg7, 5. d3 e6, 6. f4 Nge7, 7. Nf3 d5, 8. 0-0 0-0, 9. h3 Rb8, 10. a4 dxe4, 11. dxe4 b6, 12. Qe2 Nd4, 13. Nxd4 cxd4, 14. Rd1 Qc7, 15. Nb5 Ba6, 16. Nxc7 Bxe2, 17. Rd2 Bc4, 18. e5 Nf5, 19. g4 Ne3, 20. Be4 f5, 21. Rxd4 Rbc8, 22. Bxe3 Rxc7, 23. gxf5 gxf5, 24. Bf3 Ba6, 25. c3 Bb7, 26. Bxb7 Rxb7, 27. Rad1 Rff7, 28.Rd6 Rfe7, 29. c4 Bf8, 30. Rd8 Kf7, 31. Kf2 Rec7, 32. b3 Be7, 33. R8d3 Ke8, 34. Rg1 Kf7, 35. Ke2 Rc8, 36. Bd2 a6, 37. Be1 b5, 38. axb5 axb5, 39. cxb5 Rxb5, 40. Bd2 Rc2, 41. Rc1 Rbc5, 42. Rxc2 Rxc2, 43. Kd1 Ra2, 44. Kc1 Ba3+, 45. Kb1 Rb2+, 46. Ka1 Rc2, 47. b4 Bc1, 48. Bxc1 Rxc1+, 49. Kb2 Rc4, 50. Kb3 Rxf4, 51. b5 Rf1, 52. Kc4 Re1, 53. b6 Rxe5, 54.Rb3 1-0

White: Tan Eng Seong

Black: Ooi Chern Ee

--------------------

1. e4 c5, 2. Nc3 Nc6, 3. d3 g6, 4. Be3 d6, 5. f4 Bg7, 6. Nf3 Nd4, 7. Be2 b5, 8. Qd2 b4, 9.Nd1 Nxe2, 10. Qxe2 Nf6, 11. h3 a5, 12. 0-0 0-0, 13. c4 bxc3, 14. bxc3 Ba6, 15. Qc2 Qd7, 16. Rb1 Bb5, 17. c4 Ba4, 18. Qd2 Qc6, 19. Nc3 Rfb8, 20. e5 Ne8, 21. Nd5 Rb7, 22. exd6 exd6, 23. f5 Nf6, 24. Bh6 Bh8, 25. Qg5 Nxd5, 26. fxg6 fxg6, 27. cxd5 Qd7, 28. Rxb7 Qxb7, 29. Qf4 Qb4, 30. Qxd6 Re8, 31. Kh1 Bb5, 32. Ng5 c4, 33.Rf8+ 1-0

 

Change of venue

 

Utut wins the day

Indonesian grandmaster Utut Adianto played to form and justified his seeding when he won the men's East Asian/Oceanic zonal championship at the Genting Highlands last month.

He finished the tournament with nine points, ahead of grandmaster Rogelio Antonio from the Philippines who obtained 7.5 points.

In joint third-fifth places were Vietnamese international master Nguyen Anh Dung, Indonesian international master Nasib Ginting and untitled Filipino player Fernie Donguines. The three players scored seven points each.

Edhi Handoko, another Indonesian grandmaster, was a disappointment as the second seed could only manage to score 6.5 points and tie for the sixth to ninth placings with Indonesian Irwanto, Filipino Barlo Nadera and Hiroyuki Nishimura from Japan.

Four Malaysians were among the field of 28 players. Mas Hafizulhelmi, the current national champion, was the best local player with a score of 5.5 points which automatically qualified him for a FIDE Master title. Darren Yong and Mohd Saprin Sabri obtained 4.5 points each, while Mohd Kamal Abdullah scored 3.5 points.

The other players who also automatically qualified as FIDE Masters were Aung Thant Zin (Myanmar), Donguines, Chito Garma (Philippines), Irwanto, Nadera, Nishimura and Terry Toh (Singapore). Nishimura, Garma and FM Anthony Ker (New Zealand) obtained international master norms.

The women's zonal championship was held at the same time. Australian international master Irina Berezina-Feldman won the event with a score of 8.5 points. Half a point behind her was Vietnamese international master Hoang Thanh Trang.

Third was another Vietnamese player, unheralded Nguyen Thi Tuong Van, who obtained 7.5 points. Three players - Tamin Upi Darmayana (Indonesia), Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky (Australia) and Mai Thi Thanh Houng (Vietnam) - tied for the fourth-sixth places with seven points each.

The three Malaysian players fared poorly. The best resistance was put up by Ong Hwa Lu who scored four points, while Eliza Hanum Ibrahim and Samantha Lee each obtained 2.5 points.

Nguyen Thi Tuong Van was automatically conferred the international master title by virtue of her 66.7 per cent score in the tournament, while Veronica Klimenko (Australia), Mai Thi Thanh Houng and Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky were made FIDE Masters.

The zonal tournaments were hosted by the Malaysian Chess Federation and played at the Genting Highlands. Adianto, Berezina-Feldman and Hoang qualified for the Interzonal which is the next stage of the World Chess Federation's current world chess championship cycle.

BAYVIEW CHESS UPDATE

Two rounds were played at the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League last Sunday after the tournament was opened officially by State Executive Councillor Dr Sak Cheng Lum.

In the morning, Penang Free School A whitewashed Penang Development Corporation 4-0 while Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling beat MSSPP Juniors by a narrow 2.5-1.5 score.

Old Frees Association fell to a shock 1-3 defeat at the hands of Chung Ling High School A, while the other results in Division One were Penang Free School B beating Hitachi Semiconductor 3-1, and Chung Ling High School B winning 3-1 against Universiti Sains Malaysia.

In Division Two, National Semiconductor beat Hewlett-Packard 3-1, while Chung Ling High School D beat DCI 2.5-1.5. Penang Free School C scored their first points by beating Mara Taiping 2.5-1.5, Union High School beat Penang Chinese Girls High School 2.5-1.5, and Bank Bumiputra beat MSSPP Girls 2.5-1.5.

In the afternoon session, Chung Ling High School A beat Penang Free School B 3-1, Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling beat Chung Ling High School B 3-1, and Penang Free School A beat Pessca 3-1. Two other matches were drawn 2-2: Universiti Sains Malaysia against Hitachi Semiconductor, and Penang Development Corporation against MSSPP Juniors.

Among the Division Two teams, Penang Free School C continued their winning streak by beating National Semiconductor 4-0, while MSSPP Girls beat Union High School 3-1 and Chung Ling High School D beat Penang Chinese Girls High School 3-1. DCI beat Hewlett-Packard 3-1, and Chung Ling High School beat Mara Taiping by a similar score.

The current standings after five rounds: Division One - PFS A 15 points, CLHSA 13.5 points, CLOBA 11.5 points, OFA and USM 10 points, CLHS B 8.5 points,Pessca, MSSPP Jrs and PFS B 8 points, PDC 4 points, and Hitachi 3.5 points.

Division Two - CLHS D 15 points, CLHS C 12.5 points, MSSPP Girls 11.5 points, Union and BBMB 10 points, HP and DCI 9.5 points, PFS C 6.5 points, NS 6 points, Mara Taiping 5.5 points, and PCGHS 4 points.

The Penang Bayview Chess League is annually sponsored by The City Bayview Hotel. The sixth and seventh rounds will be played tomorrow at the hotel's Sri Mas Room.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

In New York last month where the American leg of the Intel Rapidplay Grand Prix was held under the auspices of the Professional Chess Association, Gary Kasparov took the first prize with a 2-0 score over Vassily Ivanchuk in the final.

Earlier during the semi-finals, Ivanchuk had eliminated Alexander Morozevich (Russia) with a 2-0 result, while Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) played to a 1.5-1.5 draw. The blitz tie-break game was also drawn but Kasparov advanced to the final by invoking the draw odds rule.

[Event "Intel Rapidplay Grand Prix"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date ""]
[Round ""]
[White "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Black "Kasparov, Gary"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Bc4 O-O 9. O-O Be6 10. Bb3 Nc6 11. Bg5 Na5 12. Bxf6 Bxf6 13. Nd5 Nxb3 14. axb3 Bg5 15. Qd3 Bh6 16. Rad1 Rc8 17. Nd2 b5 18. c3 Kh8 19. b4 Ra8 20. Nb3 f5 21. Na5 Rc8 22. Qh3 Rf7 23. Rfe1 Qe8 24. Qh4 Qf8 25. exf5 Bxf5 26. f3 Bc2 27. Ra1 Bf5 28. h3 Qe8 29. Qf2 Qe6 30. Rad1 Qg6 31. Kh1 Rcf8 32. h4 Bc2 33. Rd2 Bxd2 34. Qxd2 Qg3 35. Nb7 Rxb7 0-1

[Event "Intel Rapidplay Grand Prix"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date ""]
[Round ""]
[White "Kasparov, Gary"]
[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. cxd5 Qxd5 4. e3 e5 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd2 Bxc3 7. bxc3 Qd6 8. Bd3 Nf6 9. f3 O-O 10. Ne2 Be6 11. O-O Rad8 12. Qc1 Nd7 13. Be1 Qe7 14. Qb1 Nb6 15. Bxh7+ Kh8 16. Bd3 Na5 17. e4 Nac4 18. f4 f6 19. f5 Bf7 20. Rf3 Kg8 21. Rh3 exd4 22. cxd4 c5 23. d5 Ne5 24. Bc2 Nbc4 25. Nf4 b5 26. Qb3 Ng4 27. Qg3 Nce5 28. Bd1 1-0

[Event "Intel Rapidplay Grand Prix"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date ""]
[Round ""]
[White "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Black "Morozevich, Alexander"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 dxc4 4. d5 Ne5 5. f4 Nd7 6. e4 Nb6 7. a4 a5 8. Be3 e6 9. Bxb6 cxb6 10. Bxc4 Bb4 11. Nf3 Nf6 12. O-O O-O 13. dxe6 Bxe6 14. Bxe6 fxe6 15. Qb3 Kh8 16. Ng5 Ng4 17. Nxe6 Qh4 18. h3 Rae8 19. Ne2 Rxe6 20. Qxe6 Bc5+ 21. Kh1 h5 22. Rad1 Rd8, 23. Rxd8+ Qxd8 24. Qd5 Qh4 25. Qg5 Nf2+ 26. Rxf2 Qxg5 27. fxg5 Bxf2 28. g6 Kg8 29. g4 hxg4 30. hxg4 Kf8 31. Kg2 Bc5 32. e5 Ke7 33. Kf3 Kd7 34. Ke4 Kc6 35. Nd4+ Bxd4 36. Kxd4 Kd7 37. Kd5 Ke7 38. e6 Ke8 39. Kd6 Kd8 40. b3 Ke8 41. e7 1-0

 

Kasparov holds on tight

 

Pitting skills against a machine

Computer chess is so much in the news these days. Regular readers of this column would have read about the world computer chess championship played in Hongkong recently.

You will remember that the Fritz3 chess programme running on an Intel Pentium 90mhz chip won the championship, humbling Deep Blue in the final round.

Recently too, the Penang Chess Association organised the Penang Vision 2020 tournament and it was an opportunity to test whether Fritz2, the predecessor to Fritz3, could stand up against the local challenge.

A decision was made to enter Fritz2 as a participant in this tournament but, failing to find a Pentium90, the PCA had to settle for a "humble" Intel 486SX machine instead.

The results were nothing less than spectacular. In the first round, Fritz2 beat K Nanis after getting the better of the position in the opening and in the second round, the chess programme beat Teoh Giap Seng.

Before the midday break, Fritz2 had chalked up a third win against up-and- coming junior player Ronnie Lim.

The results after the break were not any different despite Fritz2 being pitted against stronger opposition. In round four, Teng Wei Ping was worn down in a delicate ending and in the fifth round, Ooi Chern Ee fell to the machine.

Wong Kam Loong handled Fritz2 poorly in round six, and the tournament wrapped up with Fritz2 completing a rout of the field by beating Teng Wei Hong.

Oh, before I get too carried away with the success of the Fritz2 programme, here are the results of the Penang Vision 2020 tournament which was sponsored jointly by BHL Bank and the Mar Vista Resort.

The five prizes in the "2100 and above" rating group were won by Ooi Chern Ee 6 points, Teng Wei Ping and Ronnie Lim 5 points each, Wong Kam Loong 4.5 points and Colin Chong 4 points. It had been decided earlier that Fritz2 would not be eligible for any prize.

For the "2000 to 2099" rating group, the winners were Tan Kwang Yi 5.5 points, and Teng Wei Hong and Choo Tze Siang who each obtained five points. In the "1950 to 1999" rating group, the prizes went to Lim Kwang Seng 4 points, and Jonathan Chuah and Teoh Kok Liang who scored 3.5 points each.

The remaining two prizes went to the group of unrated players and those rated below 1950, and these were won by Dr Lim Boon Liang and Tan Fee Meng who obtained four points each.

BAYVIEW NEWS

In the second round of the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League last Sunday, Chung Ling High School A forged ahead in Division One with a 3.5-0.5 win over Hitachi Semiconductor.

Penang Free School A scored a 3-1 win over Universiti Sains Malaysia, while Old Frees Association beat Chung Ling High School B and Pessca beat Chung Ling Old Boys Association by similar 2.5-1.5 margins. The MSSPP Juniors- Penang Free School B match was drawn 2-2.

In Division Two, Chung Ling High School D blanketed Mara Taiping 4-0 and the MSSPP Girls beat Penang Chinese Girls High School by a similar score. Chung Ling High School C beat Hewlett Packard, Union High School beat National Semiconductor, and Bank Bumiputra beat DCI by 3-1 scores.

The standings are as follows: Division One - CLHS A 7.5 points, PFS A 6 points, OFA 5 points, USM and CLOBA 4 points, Pessca and MSSPP Jrs 3.5 points, PFS B 3 points, CLHS B and Penang Development Corporation 1.5 points, and Hitachi 0.5 point; Division Two - MSSPP Girls 7 points, CLHS C, CLHS D and Union 5.5 points, HP and BBMB 5 points, NS 3 points, DCI 2 points,Mara 1.5 points, Penang Free School C and PCGHS zero point.

The Penang Bayview Chess League, sponsored annually by The City Bayview Hotel, is played on a weekly basis and the third round at the hotel's Revolving Restaurant is scheduled for this Sunday at 10am.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

A total of 44 players are taking part in the East Asian/Oceanic zonal tournament organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation at Genting Highlands.

In the men's section, grandmasters Utut Adianto (Indonesia) and Rogelio Antonio (Philippines) and untitled players Barlo Nadera and Chito Garma (both from the Philippines) were leading with four points each after five rounds of play.

Among the four Malaysian players, Mohd Kamal Abdullah, Mas Hafizul Helmi and Darren Yong have 2.5 points each while Mohd Saprin Sabri has two points.

Leading the women's section after five rounds were WIM Hoang Thanh Trang (Vietnam) and WIM Irena Berezina-Feldman (Australia) with four points each.

Among the Malaysians, Ong Hwa Lu and Samantha Lee scored two points each, and Eliza Hanum Ibrahim has obtained one point.

The tournament ends on Monday. Until then, readers visiting Genting Highlands can catch the tournament at the Resort Hotel.

Here are two games from the event.

[Event "East Asian/Oceanic Zonal Tournament"]

[Site "Genting Highland, Malaysia"]

[Date ""]

[Round ""]

[White "Mohd Saprin Sabri"]

[Black "Irwanto"]

[Result "1-0"]

1. Nf3 Nf6, 2. c4 e6, 3. g3 d5, 4. Bg2 Be7, 5. 0-0 0-0, 6. d4 Nbd7, 7. Nbd2 b6, 8. b3 Bb7, 9. Bb2 c5, 10. e3 Qc7, 11. Rc1 Rad8, 12. Rc2 Qb8, 13. Qa1 Rfe8, 14.cxd5 Bxd5, 15. Nc4 Qa8, 16. Qd1 cxd4, 17. Bxd4 Be4, 18. Rc1 e5, 19. Ba1 Nc5, 20.Ncd2 Rxd2, 21. Qxd2 Bxf3, 22. Bxf3 Qxf3, 23. Bxe5 Nce4, 24. Qd1 Ng4 1-0

[Event "East Asian/Oceanic Zonal Tournament"]

[Site "Genting Highland, Malaysia"]

[Date ""]

[Round ""]

[White "Antonio, Rogelio"]

[Black "Nguyen Anh Dung"]

[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5, 2. Nf3 d6, 3. Bb5+ Nd7, 4. 0-0 Ngf6, 5. Re1 e6, 6. d4 cxd4, 7. Qxd4 Be7, 8. Bg5 0-0, 9. Nc3 Qc7, 10. Rad1 Rd8, 11. Bxd7 Bxd7, 12. Bxf6 gxf6, 13. Qe3 Kh8, 14. Nd4 Qc5, 15. Rd3 Rac8, 16. Qd2 b5, 17. a3 Rg8, 18. g3 b4, 19. axb4 Qxb4, 20. Nb3 Rc7, 21. Ra1 Rgc8, 22. Ra5 Rg8, 23. Rd4 Qb6, 24. Qd3 Rg5, 25. Ra6 Qb7, 26. h4 Rg8, 27. Raxd6 Bxd6, 28. Rxd6 Be8, 29. Qf3 Kg7, 30. Qf4 Qb4, 31. Nd4 Kf8, 32. e5 Qc4, 33. Qh6+ 1-0

 

Bayview meet begins

The fifth Penang Bayview Chess League squared off last Sunday at The City Bayview Hotel.

Twenty-two teams are taking part in this year's league and they will be locked in an 11-round contest which shall be played on Sundays until Aug 2. The City Bayview Hotel is the sponsor for the event.

A continuing feature of this year's event is the splitting of the league into two divisions. Play in each division is on a round-robin basis and cash prizes total RM2,200 for Division One and RM1,100 for Division Two. Depending on their performances, teams will be promoted or relegated at the end of the tournament.

In the first round last Sunday, Chung Ling High School A is leading in Division One after drubbing their B team 4-0. Penang Free School A and Universiti Sains Malaysia have three points each after beating Penang Free School B and Pessca respectively. Old Frees Association beat the MSSPP Juniors and Chung Ling Old Boys Association beat Penang Development Corporation by similar 2.5-1.5 scores.

In Division Two, Hewlett Packard is in the lead with a 4-0 score against Penang Free School C. The MSSPP Girls beat DCI 3-1, while Chung Ling High School C beat Chung Ling High School "D" 2.5-1.5. Union High School beat Mara Taiping by a similar scoreline, while Bank Bumiputra and National Semiconductor fought to a 2-2 draw.

The second round will be played this Sunday morning beginning 10am at the hotel's Revolving Restaurant.

ASIAN ZONAL MEET BEGINS

The East Asian/Oceanic zonal championship, organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation, began last Tuesday at Genting Highlands. The 11-round competition will be played daily until June 26, except for three free days.

The response from the various countries making up the East Asian/Oceanic zone has been good, gauging from the number of participants at this event.

China, which traditionally had been part of this zone, now constitutes a zone by itself and so they are not represented here. Without the Chinese, a little shine may have been removed from the championship but the result is that competition will become much keener.

There are two qualifying places at stake in the men's section and the qualifiers are likely to come from either Utut Adianto (Indonesia), Edhi Handoko (Indonesia) or Antonio Rogelio (Philippines). All three are very experienced grandmasters.

But they will surely not find the tournament a bed of roses. Already, a host of capable international masters are patiently stalking the trio and ready to pounce on their slightest mistakes.

The group of international masters include Alex Wohl (Australia), Mariano Nelson (Philippines), Hsu Li-Yang (Singapore), Nguyen Anh Dong and Tu Hoang Thong (both Vietnam) and Malaysia's own Jimmy Liew.

In the women's section, the favourites for the qualifying spot are Australia's Irena Berezina-Feldman, Maria Lucia Ratne, Tamin Upi Darmay Ana and Lisa Lumongdong (all Indonesians) and Hoang Thanh Tranh (Vietnam).

Playing in this tournament are participants from Australia, Brunei, Fiji, Hongkong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

GAME OF THE WEEK

In Novgorod, Russia, another top class tournament in the Professional Chess Association calendar has just ended. The second PCA Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament was won by Gary Kasparov with a score of 6.5 points from 10 games.

He started impressively with a score of 4.5 points from five games and then wound down with a row of four drawn games.

In the last round, Vassily Ivanchuk had the best opportunity to catch up with Kasparov but he blew his chance by wrecking a nice position.

The last of the PCA classic tournaments of the year will be played at the Credit Swiss Masters tournament in Zurich this October.

Final standings in Novgorod: Kasparov 6* points; Jaan Ehlvest, Ivanchuk, Nigel Short, Veselin Topalov 5* points each; Vladimir Kramnik 5 points; Jan Timman 4 points; Boris Gulko 3 points; Artur Yusupov 2* points; and Rafael Vaganian 2 points.

Here is a selection of games from this event.

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Topalov,Veselin"]

[Black "Yusupov,Artur"]

[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. c3 Bd7 6. d4 Nge7 7. Be3 Ng6 8. h4 h5 9. g3 Be7 10. d5 Nb8 11. Bxd7+ Nxd7 12. Nfd2 Nf6 13. f3 O-O 14. c4 c5 15. Nc3 Qd7 16. a4 a5 17. Qe2 Kh7 18. O-O-O Rh8 19. Nf1 Kg8 20. Bd2 Ne8 21. Ne3 Nf8 22. b3 g6 23. f4 Bf6 24. Rdf1 Qe7 25. f5 Ng7 26. Nb5 b6 27. fxg6 fxg6 28. g4 Bxh4 29. Nxd6 Qxd6 30. Rxh4 Nd7 31. gxh5 Rxh5 32. Rxh5 Nxh5 33. Nf5 1-0

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Kramnik,Vladimir"]

[Black "Timman,Nigel"]

[Result "1-0"]

1. Nf3 g6 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 c5 8. Rb1 O-O 9. Be2 cxd4 10. cxd4 Qa5+ 11. Bd2 Qxa2 12. O-O Bg4 13. Bg5 h6 14. Be3 Nc6 15. d5 Na5 16. Bc5 Bf6 17. e5 Bxe5 18. Rb4 Bxf3 19. Bxf3 Bf6 20. Ra4 Qb3 21. Rxa5 Qxd1 22. Rxd1 b6 23. d6 Rac8 24. d7 Rcd8 25. Bxe7 Bxe7 26. Rxa7 Rb8 27. Re1 Bd8 28. Re8 b5 29. Ra8 Rxa8 30. Bxa8 b4 31. Bd5 Kg7 32. Kf1 1-0

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Gulko,Boris"]

[Black "Kramnik,Vladimir"]

[Result "0-1"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 g6 5. d4 exd4 6. Nxd4 Bg7 7. Nxc6 dxc6 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. e4 Bg4 10. Be2 Bxe2 11. Kxe2 Re8 12. f3 Nd7 13. Bg5+ Kc8 14. Rac1 a5 15. Rhd1 a4 16. Rd2 Nf8 17. Be3 Ra5 18. a3 Ne6 19. Kf2 g5 20. Rcd1 f5 21. exf5 Bxc3 22. bxc3 Rxf5 23. Rd7 h5 24. Rh7 g4 25. f4 Ng5 26. Rg7 Ne4+ 27. Kf1 Nd6 28. Bb6 Rf7 29. Rxf7 Nxf7 30. Bd4 Nd6 31. c5 Nc4 32. Kf2 b5 33. cxb6 cxb6 34. Bf6 b5 35. Rd4 Nxa3 36. Rd6 Kc7 37. Be5 Nc4 38. Re6+ Kd7 0-1

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Yusupov,Artur"]

[Black "Kasparov,Gary"]

[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bg5 Bg7 4. c3 c5 5. e3 Qb6 6. Qb3 O-O 7. Nbd2 d6 8. Qxb6 axb6 9. Nc4 Nbd7 10. Be2 d5 11. Nce5 h6 12. Bf4 c4 13. h4 b5 14. g4 Nb6 15. g5 hxg5 16. hxg5 Ne4 17. Nd2 Bf5 18. Bg4 Na4 19. Nxe4 dxe4 20. Bxf5 gxf5 21. Rb1 b4 22. cxb4 Nb6 23. a3 Rfc8 24. g6 Bxe5 25. gxf7+ Kxf7 26. Bxe5 Nd5 27. Kd2 c3+ 28. Kc2 cxb2+ 29. Kxb2 Rc3 30. Ra1 b5 31. Rhc1 Rd3 32. Rc5 Nb6 33. Rxb5 Nc4+ 34. Kc1 Rg8 35. Bg3 f4 36. Rf5+ Kg6 37. Rxf4 Rc8 38. Rg4+ Kh5 39. Rh4+ Kg6 40. Rg4+ Kh5 41. Rh4+ Kg5 42. f4+ Kg6 43. f5+ Kg5 0-1

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round ""]

[White "Topalov,Veselin"]

[Black "Kasparov,Gary"]

[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. f3 Be7 8. Qd2 O-O 9. g4 a6 10. O-O-O Nxd4 11. Bxd4 b5 12. Kb1 Bb7 13. h4 Rc8 14. g5 Nd7 15. a3 Ne5 16. Qe3 Nc4 17. Bxc4 Rxc4 18. Rhg1 b4 19. axb4 Rxb4 20. Rg2 Ba8 21. b3 a5 22. h5 Qc7 23. Bf6 Rfb8 24. Bxe7 Qxe7 25. Rd4 e5 26. Rxb4 axb4 27. Na2 Qc7 28. Qd3 Kf8 29. g6 fxg6 30. hxg6 h6 31. f4 exf4 32. Rf2 Kg8 33. Rxf4 Qc5 34. Rf1 Qb5 35. Rc1 Qe5 36. Qc4+ Kh8 37. Rh1 Bxe4 38. Qc7 Rf8 39. Rxh6+ Kg8 40. Nc1 Bxc2+ 0-1

[Event "Classic Lord Novgorod The Great tournament"]

[Site "Novgorod RUS"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round "Kasparov,Gary"]

[White "Vaganian,Rafael"]

[Black ""]

[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 e6 2. c4 d5 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 c5 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. Qc2 Nc6 9. a3 Qa5 10. O-O-O Be7 11. h4 dxc4 12. Bxc4 b6 13. Ng5 Ba6 14. Nce4 g6 15. Nxf6+ Bxf6 16. Ne4 Be7 17. Bxa6 Qxa6 18. Kb1 Qb7 19. h5 Rac8 20. hxg6 Nb4 21. gxh7+ Kh8 22. Be5+ f6 23. Nxf6 Bxf6 24. Bxf6+ 1-0

 

Tournament results

Late last month, the national age-group chess championships were held at the Wisma MPSA in Shah Alam.

This event, organised jointly by the Malaysian Chess Federation and the Persatuan Catur Melayu Malaysia with cooperation from the Majlis Perbandaran Shah Alam and the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Malaysia, was again sponsored by the Asia Insurance Co Ltd and the Asia Life Assurance Society Ltd.

The boys' under-18 event which attracted 33 players was won by Ooi Chern Ee who scored six points from seven games. Joint second were Teng Wei Ping and Liong Ing Kiat who obtained 5.5 points each.

Joint fourth were Tan Wei Sin, Ahmad Nazri Muhamad and Chow Shye Ma with five points each, while Eric Ooi Boon Kheng, Lau Kar Wooi and Shahrizal Sharil had 4.5 points each.

The boys' under-16 event had 64 participants. Teng Wei Hong won this section with maximum points while last year's winner Peter Lim Kam Cheen was second with six points.

Joint third were Mak Weng Yee and Lim Cheng Teik who each collected 5.5 points and among those with five points were Mas Harithulfadh, Ian Lee Wen Chun, Saiful Naim Kamsah, Tor Wee Liam and Mohd Salahuddin Mohd Salleh.

Among the 46 participants in the boys' under-14 event, Mas Hafizul Hilmi, Ng Ee Vern, Wong Zi Jing, Abdul Haq Mohamad and Darryl Koh were the top scorers with 5.5 points each. Tied for the sixth to 10th places with five points each were Lim Yee Weng, Eoh Thean Keat, Mohd Azan Savanoh, Ahmad Fakruden Mamat and Ng Kian Seng.

Out of the 44 participants in the boys' under-12 event, Lim Chuin Hoong was the winner with six points while Lim Yew San, Teh Tze Wey, Liong Wei Li and Khor Shihong were joint second with 5.5 points each. On five points were Seto Tien Hoi, Kamarul Ariffin and Raymond Ng.

In the newly created boys' under-10 event, the top three winners were Ali Ajemi, Hisyam Ismail and Jonathan Chuah.

In the girls' section, there were only eight players in the under-18 event. Eliza Hanum Ibrahim and Norfatitah Saranon were the winners, scoring 6.5 points each. Third was Eliza Hanim Ibrahim with 4.5 points and fourth Zuraihan Zakaria with four points. Soo Ai Leen was fifth with three points.

There were 11 players in the girls' under-16 event and 16 in the under-14 event. The under-16 event was won by Nainee Azimi with six points, joint second were Roslina Marmono and Chai Hwei Meen with five points each and joint fourth were Zeti Ajemi and Surehna Devi.

In the under-14 event, Lee Heng Jun was the winner with 6.5 points while Mardiana Marmono was second with 5.5 points. Joint third were Izlawati Kamsah and Zeni Ajemi with 4.5 points each.

Lim Jeannie won the girls' under-12 event with seven points, while Nor Idani was second with 5.5 points and Lee Su Ann third with five points. For the new under-10 event, Norsyafawati Ishak was the winner with 6.5 points and second was Nur Ashikin Mansoor with six points.

PUBLIC VS PRIVATE SECTOR MATCH

In conjunction with the seventh anniversary celebrations of the City of Ipoh, a public versus private sector chess match will be staged in the Perak capital for the second time.

This event will be held at the Town Hall, Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang Wahab, Ipoh on June 24 afternoon. Participation is free but by invitation only.

An additional blitz tournament will also be held in the morning but participants will have to pay RM5.

FIFTH PENANG BAYVIEW LEAGUE

Twenty-two teams will be taking part in the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League starting this Sunday morning at The City Bayview Hotel.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Here is the sensational win scored by Fritz3 over the IBM Deep Blue programme in the eighth world computer chess championship which was reported in this column last week.

[Event "8th World Computer Chess Championship"]

[Site "Hongkong HKG"]

[Date "1995"]

[Round "5"]

[White "Deep Blue"]

[Black "Fritz3"]

[Result "0-1"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 f5 11. Bd3 Be6 12. Qh5 f4 13. O-O Rg8 14. Kh1 Rg6 15.Qd1 Rc8 16. c4 Qh4 17. g3 Qh3 18. Qd2 f3 19. Rg1 Rh6 20. Qxh6 Qxh6 21. cxb5 Bxd5 22. exd5 Nb4 23. Bf5 Rc5 24. bxa6 Nxa6 25. Nc2 Qd2 26. Ne1 Rxd5 27. Nxf3 Qxf2 28. Be4 Ra5 29. Rg2 Qe3 30. Re1 Qh6 31. Bc6+ Kd8 32. a3 f5 33. Rc2 Rc5 34. Rxc5 Nxc5 35. Rf1 Be7 36. a4 f4 37. gxf4 Qxf4 38. Rg1 Nxa4 39. b4 Qxb4 {Theory gives 13. O-O as bad for White since Black's attack becomes very dangerous after that. It was not a good choice to have Deep Blue play an opening as complicated a line as the Sveshnikov without book-knowledge. Possibly, Deep Blue was already out of theory when it played 13 O-O.} 0-1

 

When computers play chess

There was sensation at the International Computer Chess Association's computer chess world championships over the last weekend at the Chinese University of Hongkong.

Fritz 3, the Dutch chess-playing program running on an Intel Pentium 90MHz personal computer, trounced defending champion Deep Blue in the final round of the tournament to propel itself as the new computer chess champion.

Every three years, the ICCA organises the computer chess world championships and the 24 participants in Hongkong this year included some of the world's strongest chess playing computers.

Chess Genius, a British program which created worldwide interest by defeating Kasparov in a two-game contest last year, was also participating. Incidentally, Kasparov had his revenge two weeks ago when he beat the program 1.5-0.5 in a two-game rematch.

All eyes, however, were on IBM's Deep Blue. This program, universally regarded as THE chess program to beat, was also the winner of the ACM international championship in 1994.

Deep Blue was, however, not physically present in Hongkong. Throughout the championship, it was running on an IBM RS/6000 workstation with 14 slave processors back in the United States and its moves were relayed to the Chinese University of Hongkong via the Internet.

Four other programs were also connected to Hongkong in similar style from their home locations in Europe or North America.

Also from the United States, Star Socrates was running on a 1824 node Intel Paragon supercomputer while Hitech was on a Sun 4 workstation with dedicated chess hardware. Frenchess was running on a Cray T3D supercomputer back in France and Zugzwang was using a system with 1023 T800 transputers from Germany.

But the rest of the programs were there in Hongkong using real chessboards and clocks. Three of them - Ulysses (Germany), SOS (Germany) and Cheiron (Germany) - were running on Sun Microsystems Sparc 20 workstations; the Sun Phoenix (Canada) program was on a Sparc 2000 20cpu system; and Dark Thought (Germany) was on a DEC Alphaserver 2100.

The remaining programs - Fritz 3, WChess (USA), Junior (Israel), Rebel (USA), Zeus 3 (Spain), Virtua Chess (France), Schach 3 (Germany), Chess Genius, Pandix (Hungary), Nightmare (Germany), Ferret (USA), LChess (Netherlands), Gandalf (Denmark) and Woodpusher (UK) - were using 90MHz Pentium systems.

The ICCA world championships was primarily sponsored by IBM but the other major sponsors included Sun Microsystems, Compunetics, the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery), Saitek, Varitronix, the Hongkong Chess Federation and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

PENANG CHESS LEAGUE BEGINS NEXT SUNDAY

Teams intending to play in the fifth Penang Bayview Chess League are reminded that tomorrow is the closing date for the submission of entries. This tournament, the premier event of the Penang Chess Association, starts on June 11 at The City Bayview Hotel.

The hotel is the sponsor for the annual team event. Two years ago, it donated an 45-cm pewter challenge trophy worth RM6,000 towards the championship and at a cheque presentation ceremony earlier this week, the hotel's general manager, Nasihin Ali, reaffirmed the hotel's continued sponsorship. It will also remain the venue for the Chess League.

Only teams legitimately representing the public and business sectors, factories, universities, schools, colleges and registered associations, societies and clubs are allowed to play in the Chess League which will be played over several weekends. Each team is allowed one guest player.

Provision is made for about 24 teams to take part, and each team is allowed to register up to eight players. However, only four players from each team will be playing in every round.

Entry fee is RM150 and attractive cash prizes are guaranteed for the top five teams in each division. Division One will consist of the top teams in the state, including two teams promoted from last year's Division Two.

Teams entering for the first time will be placed in Division Two and their prospects for promotion to the premier division will depend on their performance in the league this year.

For more information, contact Alan Phang or Goh Yoon Wah in the evenings. With the closing date being tomorrow, a meeting of all team managers will be held at the hotel on June 7 at 8pm.

 

On the local front

Finally, here is a chance for me to catch up with the results of some recent tournaments here.

In Kuala Terengganu, the 17th Terengganu closed championship was won by lawyer Ghalam Sani Abdul Rashid who finished the event with six points out of seven games. His only drawn games were with second-placed Mohd Fairin Zakaria and third-placed Nur Ilhamuddin Shaikh Ali who each scored 5.5 points.

This was the fourth time that Ghalam Sani had won the Terengganu closed title; his previous successes were in 1981, 1990 and 1993.

Fourth in the competition was Abdul Rahim Ramli who obtained five points, while those who scored 4.5 points each were Fairul Yusoff, Mohd Sallahuddin Salleh, Chok Kong Wai, Muhammad Arshad and Senu Mohd Nor. Adnan Salleh, last year's champion, was in 10th place. A total of 32 players took part in the three-day tournament which was held at the Astaka MPKT.

According to the Terngganu Chess Association, Ghalam Sani, Mohd Fairin, Nur Ilhamuddin and Abdul Rahim qualified for the state team which shall be playing in this year's Merdeka team championship in Kuala Lumpur in September.

The association's novice tournament attracted 75 players and it was won by Wan Md Zainuddin Abdul Majid. On five points were Nik Rosli Nik Lah, Shahril Anuar Zainuddin, Loo Soon Khai, Tg Norazlan Tg Sulaiman, Razali Yunus and Wan Mohd Fuad Wan Sulaiman.

The under-12 tournament with 60 players was won by Mohd Salami Ibrahim with five points from six games. In joint second place were Ahmad Fasidi and Azan Abu Bakar with 4.5 points each.

ARAB-MALAYSIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

In Kuala Lumpur, the Petronas chess team won RM1,500 at the first Arab- Malaysian Labour Day chess championship held earlier this month at the Menara Tan & Tan. Petronas scored 20.5 points from the seven-round event.

In second place was the Arab-Malaysian team whose 18 points earned them RM1,000 while Public Bank and Mainstech Knights - joint third prize winners with 16.5 points each - received RM375. EPF and BPM Patriot each scored 16 points and won RM75.

Arab-Malaysian Merchant Bank Berhad was the main sponsor for this event while Tan & Tan Development Berhad sponsored the venue.

VISION 2020 MEET

Here are some updates on the Penang Vision 2020 tournament, jointly sponsored by BHL Bank and Mar Vista Resort, which the Penang Chess Association will be organising next Wednesday.

The tournament will now be held at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Westlands, Jalan Padang Victoria (formerly Victoria Green Road).

Entry fees for the tournament will be RM8 for members of the PCA and RM15 for non-members. Readers interested in taking part can contact Quah Seng Sun or Goh Yoon Wah after 9pm.

Registration of players at the Pusat Kecermelangan Sukan Westlands hall on May 31 will be between 8am and 8.30am, and only the first 100 entries will be accepted.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Gary Kasparov had one of his worst tournament performance when he lost to Dutchman Jeroen Piket in the final round of the double round-robin VSB Euwe Memorial tournament in Amsterdam.

This loss, coupled with an earlier defeat at the hands of Frenchman Joel Lautier, pushed Kasparov to second place with 3.5 points in the tournament. Lautier, the winner, was undefeated with four points.

Piket's win was compensation for the loss which he suffered to Kasparov in the second round. Nevertheless, it was insufficient to lift him from the bottom rung of the four-man event. In third place was Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov.

[Event "VSB Euwe Memorial"]

[Site "Amsterdam NED"]

[Date "1995.05.16"]

[Round "4"]

[White "Kasparov, Gary"]

[Black "Lautier, Joel"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "B48"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 7. Bd3 Nf6 8. O-O Ne5 9. h3 Bc5 10. Kh1 d6 11. f4 Ned7 12. a3 b5 13. Bxb5 axb5 14. Ndxb5 Qb6 15. Bxc5 dxc5 16. Nd6+ Ke7 17. Nxc8+ Rhxc8 18. e5 Ne8 19. Qh5 h6 20. Rae1 f5 21. Rf3 c4 22. g4 fxg4 23. Qxg4 Ra5 24. Ne4 Qc6 25. Nd6 Nxd6 26. exd6+ Kf8 27. Rg1 g5 28. Rg3 Rf5 29. Qh5 Nf6 30. Qxh6+ Kf7 31. Kg1 Rg8 0-1

[Event "VSB Euwe Memorial"]

[Site "Amsterdam NED"]

[Date "1995.05.18"]

[Round "6"]

[White "Piket, Jeroen"]

[Black "Kasparov, Gary"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "D97"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Qb3 dxc4 6. Qxc4 O-O 7. e4 Na6 8. Be2 c5 9. d5 e6 10. O-O exd5 11. exd5 Re8 12. Rd1 Bf5 13. d6 h6 14. Bf4 Nd7 15. Rd2 Nb4 16. Qb3 Be6 17. Bc4 Nb6 18. Bxe6 Rxe6 19. Na4 Re4 20. Bg3 Nc4 21. Nxc5 Nxd2 22. Nxd2 Re2 23. Qxb4 a5 24. Qxb7 Rxd2 25. d7 Rxb2 26. Qd5 Rb5 27. Rd1 Bf8 28. Bd6 Bxd6 29. Qxd6 Rab8 30. h3 Rb1 31. Rxb1 Rxb1+ 32. Kh2 Rb6 33. Qe5 Kf8 34. Qh8+ Ke7 35. Qe5+ Kf8 36. f4 h5 37. Qd5 h4 38. Qe5 g5 39. Qh8+ Ke7 40. Qe5+ Kf8 41. fxg5 1-0