Quah Seng Sun on CHESS

27 November 2009

20 November 2009

13 November 2009

06 November 2009

Breathing chess again

The friendly match between the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre and the
Neo Manhattan Chess Centre (picture by Hairul Hamid)

THE FINAL four months of any year is usually the slowest period for chess in Malaysia. In case you haven’t noticed, usually from September onwards, chess activities would suddenly ground down almost to a snail’s pace. It’s that dreaded end-of-year syndrome that I always hate.

After the hustle and bustle of August, it would become so quiet on the chess front. It is as if people have switched off and gone into hibernation mode. A long time ago, I used to refer to it as that strange sensation of falling off a cliff, not that I’ve actually experienced it.

In part, it’s due to chess fatigue. A nice fatigue that comes after a high. August is always the peak season for the game in Malaysia. Chess players from around the world had converged in Kuala Lumpur, and local players also took it as an opportunity to renew their friendship and acquaintance. So, after spending all the energy, what else was left except to glow and lie low?

In part too, chess activities ground to a near halt because many of our players, being school children, are caught up with their end-of-year examinations. A good proportion of our chess players are adults, but the youth remain the engine of growth for chess in this country and many of our local tournaments simply revolve around them.

In a way, it is rather unfair to the adult chess population here that they are at times penalized by the slowdown in chess activities. But then too, considering that adults also have a life outside chess, issues such as careers, families and other recreational activities are just as important, if not MORE important than just playing chess. There’s more to life than just hanging out with the chess cronies, right?

Wrong! There’s nothing more important that your chess buddies. And because there’s nothing more important than that, that’s why the chess doldrums are almost at an end. This month, we are going to see a revival in activities, starting with the second DATCC team open chess league on Tuesday.

The first time I heard about this new event, I was wondering: eh? Didn’t the DATCC team open chess league end in mid-August? It’s hardly three months and here it is again. I gave the DATCC office a tinkle and was told that the adult chess players in the Klang Valley were clamouring for more long games. Seems that after having taken a bite at the cherry, they wanted more.

So the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre agreed to organize a second such team event for them. This time around, though, instead of playing on Wednesdays, the weekly matches will be played mostly on Tuesdays from Nov 10 to Dec 15, followed by the last three rounds on the Dec 19-20 weekend.

The tournament won’t drag on for as long as the first series and will be limited to only nine rounds. However, it will still be played to a long time control of 90 minutes and 30-second increment per move. The organizers told me that apart from cash prizes for the winning teams, there’ll be dinner vouchers and free room nights from the CHM Hotel Chain.

The other main activity for this month will be the first DATCC Fide-rated open tournament for individuals, a nine-round Swiss event over two weekends. The first four rounds will be played on Nov 14-15, and the final five rounds will be on Nov 20-22. Same time control as the team event, and similar prizes are offered too.

For more information on the two events, contact Abdul Hamid Majid (019.3158098, 03.40219576, aham@pc.jaring.my)

Meanwhile two weeks ago, the DATCC hosted the Neo Manhattan Chess Centre (NMCC) to a friendly match that ended with a victory to the visitors. The NMCC is actually a local chess outfit with its premises at Taman Tun Dr Ismail in Kuala Lumpur. Set up in the early days of this year, the chess centre was quite active initially with varied activities such as talks and seminars, monthly blitz events and thematic tournaments but somehow, their activities slowed down considerably after May.

Nevertheless, the NMCC is still around and last Oct 25, a few of their players visited the DATCC in the Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur for the low-key match over two rounds and on six boards.

The NMCC won the match but victory did not come without some drama on the chess board. The first leg of the battle went the way of DATCC with a narrow victory margin but any chance of the DATCC repeating the feat in the return leg was completely dashed when the NMCC struck back emphatically. The match ended with a flattering 7½-4½ score line to the NMCC.

UP NEXT

Malaysia inter-state chess

The Sarawak Chess Association and the Lanang Chess Association will jointly organize the Malaysia inter-state chess championship at the Catholic High School stadium in Sibu on Dec 25-27. This is a two-in-one tournament comprising both an individual event and a team event.

Each state is invited to send four players for the individual event and their accumulated scores will also be counted for the team results. Apart from these four official entries per state, other players – except those that played in the last Chess Olympiad in Dresden – are also eligible to take part in the individual tournament.

The championship will be a Fide-rated event of seven rounds. Entry fee is RM50 per player, and registrations must reach the organizers before Nov 15. For details, contact Lim Kian Hwa (082.203202, 082.427772 or 016.8603180, email: lkhwa@tm.net.my) or Joseph Ting (084.330087, 019.8597778 or 016.8893185).

30 October 2009

Powerful lessons

23 October 2009

Conditional title

16 October 2009

Beating the giants

09 October 2009

Experience matters

Mok Tze Meng (centre) lending his opinion as Lim Yee Weng (left) and
Edward Lee discusses one of their games (Photo by Hairul Abdul Hamid)

IT IS time to wrap up the coverage of the first round of knock-out matches in the Malaysian Masters tournament. Last month, we witnessed an interesting struggle between two of our former national champions, Lim Yee Weng and Edward Lee.

Lim was the national champion for two years, in 1996 and 1997, while Lee was last year’s champion. It is interesting to note that like many of our former national champions, both of them were only in their mid-teens when they won their titles. For instance, Lim was 14 years old in 1996 while Lee was not much older at 15 years when he won it last year.

I do remember that Lim first won the title under my watch. I was the chief arbiter of the national championship at that time and I saw a very confident Lim patiently ground down all the opposition, including his closest rivals, while having a school text book with him between rounds.

Of course, a lot has happened in the last 13 years. Lim had gone on to represent the country in so many international-level chess competitions that he is one of our most experienced players. In fact, he is just short of raising his international rating to above 2400 before being awarded the international master title but unfortunately, it is a barrier that he hasn’t overcome.

By comparison to Lim, Lee is still a greenhorn at the game. The only opportunity he had to play for the country was at last year’s Chess Olympiad in Dresden. He is now studying in Singapore, so I reckon that it doesn’t given him many chances to play competitively at a higher level. Still, he was game enough to return to Kuala Lumpur in order to play this match with Lim.

Accordingly, what we have here was another contest of contrasting experience. Also, there were about 300 rating points separating them.

Right from the start, it looked like a shoo-in for Lim in this short, four-game match. However, it turned out that Lee had more wits about him than generally accepted. He took the fight to Lim in the first game which turned out to be a very interesting tussle. To the two players’ credit, they fought it out to a draw.

More excitement was expected of them in the second game but surprisingly, they agreed to a quick draw. Thus, at the end of the first day’s play, the match was squared at 1-1. It was the first time at the Malaysian Masters that points had been shared.

Lim Yee Weng - Edward Lee, Game 1

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 a6 3. g3 b5 4. Bg2 Bb7 5. d3 e6 6. f4 d5 7. Qe2 d4 8. Nd1 Nf6 9. Nf3 Nc6 10. O-O Be7 11. Nf2 Qb6 12. Bd2 Nd7 13. Rfc1 O-O 14. e5 Rac8 15. Ne4 c4 16. Be1 Nc5 17. Nxc5 Bxc5 18. Ng5 Be7 19. Ne4 Nb4 20. Nf6+ (see Diagram 1) 20….gxf6 21. exf6 Bxf6 22. Bxb4 Rfe8 23. Bxb7 Qxb7 24. Bd6 Qd5 25. Be5 Bxe5 26. fxe5 Rc5 27. Re1 Rec8 28.Qg4+ Kf8 29.Qf4 cxd3 30.cxd3 Rc2 31.Re4 Rxb2 32. Rf1 Rc7 33. Qf6 Ke8 34. Qh8+ Kd7 35. Qb8 f5 36. exf6 Rcc2 37. Qa7+ ½-½

Edward Lee - Lim Yee Weng, Game 2

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. e5 f6 5. Nf3 Bb4 6. a3 Bxc3+ 7. bxc3 Qe7 8. Bb5 Bd7 9. Qe2 Qf7 10. O-O Nge7 11. a4 Ng6 12. Ba3 a6 13. Bd3 Nf4 14. Qe3 Nxd3 15. cxd3 f5 16. c4 h6 ½-½

However, Lee’s dream run in the match effectively ended on the second day. The third game proved to be another very interesting encounter. Much of the game centred around Black’s dangerous pawns on the queenside but once all of them were neutralized and eliminated, the point was soon in Lim’s pocket:

Lim Yee Weng - Edward Lee, Game 3

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bg5 Nbd7 4. f3 h6 5. Bf4 a6 6. e4 dxe4 7. fxe4 e6 8. Nf3 Bb4 9. e5 Nd5 10. Bd2 Nxc3 11. bxc3 Be7 12. Bd3 b5 13. a4 bxa4 14. c4 Bb7 15. O-O c5 16. d5 exd5 17. e6 (see Diagram 2) 17….Nf6 18. Ne5 dxc4 19. exf7+ Kf8 20. Ng6+ Kxf7 21. Nxh8+ Kg8 22. Bxc4+ Kxh8 23. Bc3 Qxd1 24. Rfxd1 Bc6 25. Re1 Bd8 26. Bd3 c4 27. Bf5 Bb6+ 28. Kh1 Nd5 29. Re6 Nxc3 30. Rxc6 Bd4 31. Rxc4 Bf6 32. Rc8+ Rxc8 33. Bxc8 a5 34. Bd7 Nd5 35. Ra2 Nb4 36. Rxa4 Nxc2 37. Rxa5 Nd4 38. Be8 Kg8 39. Bg6 Kf8 40. Ra7 Nc6 41. Rc7 Ne7 42. Be4 Kf7 43. g3 Ke6 44. Kg2 Kd6 45. Ra7 Nc8 46. Ra6+ Ke7 47. Kf3 Nd6 48. Bd5 Nb5 49. Bc4 Nc7 50. Ra7 Kd6 51. Ke4 Bc3 52. Ra3 Bf6 53. Kf5 Bb2 54. Rd3+ Ke7 55. Kg6 Ba1 56. Re3+ Kd6 57. Bf7 Bb2 58. Rf3 Ba1 59. Bb3 Ne8 60. Rf7 Be5 61. Ba4 Nf6 62. Rxg7 Ng4 63. Rd7+ Ke6 64. Rd2 1-0

The fourth game proved to be a non-event. Lee had to win this game at any cost to remain in contention for qualification to the semi-finals of the Malaysian Masters but inexplicably, he agreed to a very short draw with Lim. It was a decision that left many spectators non-plussed and questions were raised why he did exactly that.

Edward Lee - Lim Yee Weng, Game 4

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Qd2 Nxd4 10.Bxd4 Bxd4 11.Qxd4 Qb6 ½-½

Nevertheless, it was a very exciting match that saw Lim ease into the semi-finals of the Malaysian Masters where he is slated to meet Nicholas Chan. Chan had earlier disposed of this year’s national champion, Evan Timothy Capel.

The other semi-final match will be a real clash of Malaysian titans as Mas Hafizulhelmi and Mok Tze Meng will face off with one another. And there can be only one survivor. Mas Hafizul had earlier knocked off Muhammad Tariq Amru while Mok showed off his mettle by out-performing Ooi Chern Ee.

So far, the organizers of the Malaysian Masters have yet to finalise the schedule of the two semi-final matches. Until then, we can only wait and see.

UP NEXT

IIUM open

The International Islamic University Malaysia will hold their second IIUM chess tournament at their Gombak campus on Oct 17-18. Entry fees are RM30 for the open category and RM20 for all players under 21 years old. Entries will be accepted on a “first come” basis. For details, contact Norsharmila Zabani (03.61965393), Ahmad Fadzil Nayan (013.9531278) or Nurul Azlina Bakrin (017.4625224).

Jalan Davidson chess open

The SJK (C) Jalan Davidson will organize their first-ever chess open tournament at the school on Oct 25. Entry fees are RM10 for players from the school and RM12 for all others. For more information, call Collin (016.2123578) or Bob Yap (012.2878378).