Long-running tourney

Earlier this month, I made an unplanned private day trip to Kuala Lumpur. One aspect of most of my unplanned trips is that one way or another, I find myself visiting the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC) at the Wilayah Complex along Jalan Dang Wangi. 

The place is such a magnet for me. It’s so conveniently located in KL that just about any chess player can visit it with ease. I was mildly surprised when I got there. The place had been expanded. Now occupying about twice the original floor space, the chess centre is now big enough to cater comfortably for any tournament with up to about 120 players.

As just my luck would have it too, the Selangor open chess tournament was going on that day when I visited the chess centre.

Good timing, I noted to myself, here was a perfect opportunity to see how the country’s longest-running chess tournament was being organized. Events may come and events may go but this one seems to go on forever. This tournament has been running non-stop without any interruption since 1974, the same year that the Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) was formed.

That’s an unbroken stretch of 37 years. It’s a local achievement and I think this is mentioned in the Malaysian Book Of Records too. I remember having played in the first two editions of the tournament way back in 1974 at the Royal Selangor Club and in 1975 at a school in Jalan Gasing, Petaling Jaya. That school would be used by the CAS for several more years.

But that was a very long time ago. Today, the organizers are using the DATCC in Kuala Lumpur. I gathered from the playing list that there were 71 participants at this year’s event. 

This was a reasonably big enough number for an event of this stature but I kept feeling that the organizers would have wanted to see more people taking part in their premier chess event. They didn’t have to tell me so but I have known them for so long that I knew that they would gladly accept better numbers.

Another thing that struck me about this tournament was that for the second year running, the Selangor open has been organized without any sponsorship deal. The prize moneys and the money for our expenses are being met mainly from the entry fees and partly from the association’s internal funds, I was told. 

Well, it is a shame that the country’s longest-running chess event hasn’t been able to obtain any sponsor again. The association’s long-term sponsor cried out last year, citing economic problem as the reason. But the tournament still had to go on, and the CAS decided on using its internal funds to carry on.

This year, the sponsor must have pulled out again and left the association carrying their baby for yet another year.

In my opinion, this can’t be continuing. It was quite understandable if the sponsor had been forced to pull out last year. After all, the global problems triggered by the sub-prime crisis in the United States last year had left many companies faced with economic difficulties. 

But if the same sponsor had pulled out again for a second year, my instinct would be to suggest to the CAS – or any other chess association for that matter – that they should come up with a Plan B and search for alternative sources of sponsorship. They shouldn’t allow this situation to spill into the third year.

Chess associations in Malaysia operate almost exclusively on sponsorship funds. Everybody works purely on a voluntary basis for the good of the game. As much as chess players owe it to the chess associations to uplift the level of chess in the community, chess associations also owe it to the chess players for the support. It’s the only survival technique the associations need or otherwise they become irrelevant.

Dependency on one another makes it a symbiotic relationship. One cannot do without the other. But the only way for chess players to support their associations is for the associations to organize quality events for players. No matter how hard a voluntary organization may work, it becomes impossible for it to continue working hard for long without external sponsorship funds coming in.

So definitely, a Plan B is in order for the CAS to move forward. I hope they are already doing this because I shall really be sad if Malaysia’s longest-running tournament gets affected again next year and in the years to come.

Oh, by the way, just for the record, Dr Nicholas Chan bounced back from his disappointing display at the Kuala Lumpur Masters event to bag the first prize at the Selangor open tournament. A convincing performance here which saw Chan finish half-a-point ahead of Jimmy Liew and Kamal Ariffin Wahiduddin who ended in joint second place.

However, the most impressive result was scored by 11-year-old Yeoh Li Tian who finished in joint fourth place with Loo Swee Leong, Muhd Syazwan Zulkifli and Tan Ken Wei.

Up next  

Chess workshops

With the school holidays just around the corner, Polgar Chess Asia is organizing several holiday chess workshops at Desa Sri Hartamas in Kuala Lumpur. Complete beginners with very little idea about playing chess can attend the beginners-level workshops on Jun 7-10 or Jun 14-15. Fees are RM280 per student.

For slightly more advanced players, there are workshops on learning strategies of attack and endgame fundamentals. The “strategies of attack” workshop is on Jun 7-8 while the “endgame fundamentals” workshop is on Jun 9-10. Fees are RM300 per student.

For more information, contact Louisa Yip of Polgar Chess Asia (03.23001680 or 019.2586355).

MBS chess

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur will hold the 5th MBSSKL chess open tournament at the school premises on July 24. There will be three categories of events: under-20, under-17 and under-14 for boys and girls. Entry fees are RM5 for MBS students and RM15 for non-MBS students. More details are available from Mr NK Chin or Mdm LY Yong at the school (03.20782293).

 

Fighting draws

One feature that anyone following the recent world chess championship match in Sofia, Bulgaria between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov could not fail to notice was the absence of short draws.

Yes, the two players did agree to draw seven of the 12 games but all of them were great fighting draws. The games were hard fought all the way and the players had to prove to one another that they’d only agree to split a point when there was no more possibility of squeezing a win from the position.

Great fighting chess. That was what we all wanted to see when those two players came together. Of course, we know that Topalov’s uncompromising style would guarantee excitement in every game. He wouldn’t take a draw if he could help it. It was just not his style. It was aggression all the way. Streetwise aggression.

However, Anand refused to let all that aggro affect him too much, if at all. He had such a universal style that he could absorb everything that his opponent threw at him and then he would throw everything back at the opponent.

The end result? Twelve games that made us worldwide spectators sit up enthralled from the first to the last move. Though I was only observing the games through the Internet, the feeling and excitement was exactly the same as the time I was watching Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman play onstage in Kuala Lumpur 20 years ago. You’d think you were watching only two persons on a huge but near empty stage but no, there was also all the tension that went with the game.

Same here, online. We marvelled at the resourcefulness of the players. We applauded when we saw the players go for each other’s throat and we groaned when we noticed their mistakes. They are undeniably humans first, prone to making mistakes and other inaccuracies, and only chess gods second. 

Of course, it helped that when we watched through the Internet, there’d be some chess grandmasters or international masters around to give their real-time opinions about the games. It helped create a better understanding of the games for all the spectators. The downside, of course, was having to put up with the incomprehensible comments of the kibitzers in the Internet chat room at the same time. That was the only compromise but if you can ignore them, the three or four hours that you spend online can be very beneficial to any learner of chess.

A lot of the fighting games in Sofia could be put down to a little-known chess rule that has become very popular lately at top-level chess events, but never employed before at the world chess championship level. It’s known as the Sofia Rule, not because it was used in this match but because it’s generally accepted that the it was first used in a top-level chess competition in the Bulgarian capital in 2005.

The Sofia Rule dictates that players could not draw their games by agreement. They could have technical draws through stalemate or threefold repetition of position or the 50-move rule or through insufficient material, but that was all. Other draws would only be allowed if the arbiter declared it as a drawn position.

The FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009 series of tournaments did not even allow players to offer a draw directly. The draw had to be claimed with the arbiter, who was assisted by an experienced grandmaster. 

At this world chess championship match, Topalov tried to impose the Sofia Rule on Anand during the pre-match negotiations. He would not talk to Anand over the board, he declared. He would also ignore any attempt by Anand to offer a draw by talking to him during a game. If there was any draw offer, he would make it through the arbiter.

This request was rejected by Anand because according to him, world championship chess should be played with world championship regulations, and the Sofia Rule had never been accepted in any world championship regulation before.

Of course, there could always be a first time but how could there be a first time when both players cannot agree to using the rule? Nevertheless despite Anand’s rejection of the rule, Topalov’s team insisted that they would use it unilaterally and effectively force Anand to recognize it.

I think Anand’s response to this Sofia Rule was masterful. It was okay with him if Topalov refused to offer draws or accept draws. Anand was prepared to fight it out with Topalov in each and every game, no matter how long they played, but even without talking to his opponent, Anand could still tacitly offer to repeat positions on the chessboard. He was confident that if Topalov refused to accept such offers, it would make him continue the game and maybe, the pressure of trying to find the best alternative plans may force him into errors.

We all saw that happen in the 12th game. At one stage, the two players could have played their queen and bishop up and down the board and repeat the position three times but Topalov baulked at that. Drawing that game would mean extending the match into the tie-break which Topalov didn’t want, so he tried something else and he allowed Anand to break open the centre and train his guns on him.

The rest, as they say, is history. Anand carried out an irresistible attack and Topalov had to recapitulate at the end. Final result: 6½ points to world champion Anand and 5½ points to vanquished challenger Topalov.

Here are three more games from the match:

Veselin Topalov – Viswanathan Anand, Game 6

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 a6 6. Ne5 c5 7. Na3 cxd4 8. Naxc4 Bc5 9. O-O O-O 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bxf6 Qxf6 12. Nd3 Ba7 13. Qa4 Nc6 14. Rac1 e5 15. Bxc6 b5 16. Qc2 Qxc6 17. Ncxe5 Qe4 18. Qc6 Bb7 19. Qxe4 Bxe4 20. Rc2 Rfe8 21. Rfc1 f6 22. Nd7 Bf5 23. N7c5 Bb6 24. Nb7 Bd7 25. Nf4 Rab8 26. Nd6 Re5 27. Nc8 Ba5 28. Nd3 Re8 29. Na7 Bb6 30. Nc6 Rb7 31. Ncb4 a5 32. Nd5 a4 33. Nxb6 Rxb6 34. Nc5 Bf5 35. Rd2 Rc6 36. b4 axb3 37. axb3 b4 38. Rxd4 Rxe2 39. Rxb4 Bh3 40. Rbc4 Rd6 41. Re4 Rb2 42. Ree1 Rdd2 43. Ne4 Rd4 44. Nc5 Rdd2 45. Ne4 Rd3 46. Rb1 Rdxb3 47. Nd2 Rb4 48. f3 g5 49. Rxb2 Rxb2 50. Rd1 Kf7 51. Kf2 h5 52. Ke3 Rc2 53. Ra1 Kg6 54. Ra6 Bf5 55. Rd6 Rc3+ 56. Kf2 Rc2 57. Ke3 Rc3+ 58. Kf2 Rc2 ½-½ 

Viswanathan Anand – Veselin Topalov, Game 7

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. Bf4 dxc4 9. Ne5 b5 10. Nxc6 Nxc6 11. Bxc6 Bd7 12. Bxa8 Qxa8 13. f3 Nd5 14. Bd2 e5 15. e4 Bh3 16. exd5 Bxf1 17. Qxf1 exd4 18. a4 Qxd5 19. axb5 Qxb5 20. Rxa7 Re8 21. Kh1 Bf8 22. Rc7 d3 23. Bc3 Bd6 24. Ra7 h6 25. Nd2 Bb4 26. Ra1 Bxc3 27. bxc3 Re2 28. Rd1 Qa4 29. Ne4 Qc2 30. Rc1 Rxh2+ 31. Kg1 Rg2+ 32. Qxg2 Qxc1+ 33. Qf1 Qe3+ 34. Qf2 Qc1+ 35. Qf1 Qe3+ 36. Kg2 f5 37. Nf2 Kh7 38. Qb1 Qe6 39. Qb5 g5 40. g4 fxg4 41. fxg4 Kg6 42. Qb7 d2 43. Qb1+ Kg7 44. Kf1 Qe7 45. Kg2 Qe6 46. Qd1 Qe3 47. Qf3 Qe6 48. Qb7+ Kg6 49. Qb1+ Kg7 50. Qd1 Qe3 51. Qc2 Qe2 52. Qa4 Kg8 53. Qd7 Kf8 54. Qd5 Kg7 55. Kg3 Qe3+ 56. Qf3 Qe5+ 57. Kg2 Qe6 58. Qd1 ½-½

Veselin Topalov – Viswanathan Anand, Game 8

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. f3 c5 8. e4 Bg6 9. Be3 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd4 11. Bxd4 Nfd7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bxc4 Rc8 14. Bb5 a6 15. Bxd7+ Kxd7 16. Ke2 f6 17. Rhd1 Ke8 18. a5 Be7 19. Bb6 Rf8 20. Rac1 f5 21. e5 Bg5 22. Be3 f4 23. Ne4 Rxc1 24. Nd6+ Kd7 25. Bxc1 Kc6 26. Bd2 Be7 27. Rc1+ Kd7 28. Bc3 Bxd6 29. Rd1 Bf5 30. h4 g6 31. Rxd6+ Kc8 32. Bd2 Rd8 33. Bxf4 Rxd6 34. exd6 Kd7 35. Ke3 Bc2 36. Kd4 Ke8 37. Ke5 Kf7 38. Be3 Ba4 39. Kf4 Bb5 40. Bc5 Kf6 41. Bd4+ Kf7 42. Kg5 Bc6 43. Kh6 Kg8 44. h5 Be8 45. Kg5 Kf7 46. Kh6 Kg8 47. Bc5 gxh5 48. Kg5 Kg7 49. Bd4+ Kf7 50. Be5 h4 51. Kxh4 Kg6 52. Kg4 Bb5 53. Kf4 Kf7 54. Kg5 Bc6 55. Kh6 Kg8 56. g4 1-0

Up next  

Perak grand prix

The Manjung leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, postponed from last week due to the unavailability of the venue, is now confirmed as scheduled for this Sunday at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Methodist (ACS) in Sitiawan. 

Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Hamisah (012.5008723). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

Chess workshops

With the school holidays just around the corner, Polgar Chess Asia is organizing several holiday chess workshops at Desa Sri Hartamas in Kuala Lumpur. Complete beginners with very little idea about playing chess can attend the beginners-level workshops on Jun 7-10 or Jun 14-15. Fees are RM280 per student.

For slightly more advanced players, there are workshops on learning strategies of attack and endgame fundamentals. The “strategies of attack” workshop is on Jun 7-8 while the “endgame fundamentals” workshop is on Jun 9-10. Fees are RM300 per student.

For more information, contact Louisa Yip of Polgar Chess Asia (03.23001680 or 019.2586355).

MBS chess

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur will hold the 5th MBSSKL chess open tournament at the school premises on July 24. There will be three categories of events: under-20, under-17 and under-14 for boys and girls. Entry fees are RM5 for MBS students and RM15 for non-MBS students. More details are available from Mr NK Chin or Mdm LY Yong at the school (03.20782293)

 

Still champ

Finally, the world chess championship match in Sofia, Bulgaria is over. India’s Viswanathan Anand is still the world champion and Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov is left regretting what could have been.

What a match. Right from the very first move in the first game until the very last move in the 12th game, the match had bedazzled me all the way. Topalov, as I had mentioned so many times in the past, showed an uncompromising fighting spirit and took the game to Anand but Anand proved to be a more capable and complete player than Topalov. 

When the Bulgarian challenger won the eighth game to level the match at four-all, I had never thought that this match would not go the full distance. For sure, it would then be decided by the tie-break games. 

The next two games – the ninth and the 10th – were drawn. In the 11th game, it was Anand’s last chance to win with the white pieces but a very confident Topalov held out comfortably to force a draw.

The 12th game would then become the most critical. Topalov would have the white pieces in this final game and hence, the initiative of playing the first move. Would he make something out of this initiative? Would he be able to press Anand into submission?

In this game of death, a win would secure either player the title of world champion; a draw would lead to the tie-break games. However, it was not to be. After a great deal of manoeuvring by both players, Anand took a bold step to pry open the centre with a pawn push.

Topalov was reckless enough to go along with the plan. He captured the pawn and suddenly, Anand’s attack appeared from nowhere. Checkmate was expected but at a critical stage, Anand did not play the best move and Topalov almost came back to hold the game. 

But the tension finally took its toll on the Bulgarian. After a series of exchanges, it was clear that his remaining pieces (a rook and a knight) were very uncoordinated on the chess board and Anand’s sole queen had no problem to wrap up the game.

The final score of the match was 6½-5½. Anand had won the second, fourth and 12th games while Topalov took the first and eighth games. The rest of the games were drawn.

Here is the final game of the match:

Viswanathan Anand-Veselin Topalov, Game 12

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 0-0 7.e3 Ne4 8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Rc1 c6 10.Be2 Nxc3 11.Rxc3 dxc4 12.Bxc4 Nd7 13.0-0 b6 14.Bd3 c5 15.Be4 Rb8 16.Qc2 Nf6 17.dxc5 Nxe4 18.Qxe4 bxc5 19.Qc2N Bb7 20.Nd2 Rfd8 21.f3 Ba6 22.Rf2 Rd7 23.g3 Rbd8 24.Kg2 Bd3 25.Qc1 Ba6 26.Ra3 Bb7 27.Nb3 Rc7 28.Na5 Ba8 29.Nc4 e5 30.e4 f5 31.exf5 e4 32.fxe4 (It was at this point that Topalov lost his nerve) 32...Qxe4+ 33.Kh3 Rd4 34.Ne3 Qe8 35.g4 h5 36.Kh4 g5+ 37.fxg6 Qxg6 38.Qf1 Rxg4+ 39.Kh3 Re7 40.Rf8+ Kg7 41.Nf5+ Kh7 42.Rg3 Rxg3+ 43.hxg3 Qg4+ 44.Kh2 Re2+ 45.Kg1 Rg2+ 46.Qxg2 Bxg2 47.Kxg2 Qe2+ 48.Kh3 c4 49.a4 a5 50.Rf6 Kg8 51.Nh6+ Kg7 52.Rb6 Qe4 53.Kh2 Kh7 4.Rd6 Qe5 55.Nf7 Qxb2+ 56.Kh3 Qg7 0-1

And here are some of the earlier games of this match.

Veselin Topalov-Viswanathan Anand, Game 3

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. f3 c5 8. e4 Bg6 9. Be3 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd4 11. Bxd4 Nfd7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bxc4 a6 14. Rc1 Rg8 15. h4 h6 16. Ke2 Bd6 17. h5 Bh7 18. a5 Ke7 19. Na4 f6 20. b4 Rgc8 21. Bc5 Bxc5 22. bxc5 Rc7 23. Nb6 Rd8 24. Nxd7 Rdxd7 25. Bd3 Bg8 26. c6 Rd6 27. cxb7 Rxb7 28. Rc3 Bf7 29. Ke3 Be8 30. g4 e5 31. Rhc1 Bd7 32. Rc5 Bb5 33. Bxb5 axb5 34. Rb1 b4 35. Rb3 Ra6 36. Kd3 Rba7 37. Rxb4 Rxa5 38. Rxa5 Rxa5 39. Rb7+ Kf8 40. Ke2 Ra2+ 41. Ke3 Ra3+ 42. Kf2 Ra2+ 43. Ke3 Ra3+ 44. Kf2 Ra2+ 45. Ke3 Ra3+ 46. Kf2 ½-½ 

Viswanathan Anand-Veselin Topalov, Game 4

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 a5 7. Qc2 Bxd2+ 8. Qxd2 c6 9. a4 b5 10. Na3 Bd7 11. Ne5 Nd5 12. e4 Nb4 13. O-O O-O 14. Rfd1 Be8 15. d5 Qd6 16. Ng4 Qc5 17. Ne3 N8a6 18. dxc6 bxa4 19. Naxc4 Bxc6 20. Rac1 h6 21. Nd6 Qa7 22. Ng4 Rad8 23. Nxh6+ gxh6 24. Qxh6 f6 25. e5 Bxg2 26. exf6 Rxd6 27. Rxd6 Be4 28. Rxe6 Nd3 29. Rc2 Qh7 30. f7+ Qxf7 31. Rxe4 Qf5 32. Re7 1-0

Veselin Topalov-Viswanathan Anand, Game 5

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 e6 7. f3 c5 8. e4 Bg6 9. Be3 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Qxd4 11. Bxd4 Nfd7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bxc4 a6 14. Rc1 Rg8 15. h4 h5 16. Ne2 Bd6 17. Be3 Ne5 18. Nf4 Rc8 19. Bb3 Rxc1+ 20. Bxc1 Ke7 21. Ke2 Rc8 22. Bd2 f6 23. Nxg6+ Nxg6 24. g3 Ne5 25. f4 Nc6 26. Bc3 Bb4 27. Bxb4+ Nxb4 28. Rd1 Nc6 29. Rd2 g5 30. Kf2 g4 31. Rc2 Rd8 32. Ke3 Rd6 33. Rc5 Nb4 34. Rc7+ Kd8 35. Rc3 Ke7 36. e5 Rd7 37. exf6+ Kxf6 38. Ke2 Nc6 39. Ke1 Nd4 40. Bd1 a5 41. Rc5 Nf5 42. Rc3 Nd4 43. Rc5 Nf5 44. Rc3 ½-½

Up next  

De Laguna Park open

The Cerdik Catur Enterprise and Restoran Selera Nelayan are jointly organizing the Stonemaster De Laguna Park open tournament at the Laguna Park Pulau Indah in Port Klang tomorrow.

Entry fees are RM15 for players below 18 years old and RM25 for others. To register, contact Mohd Fadli Zakaria (014.2312370, seme_event@yahoo.com). Places are available to the first 150 players only. More information available from http://www.stonemaster.info or http://cerdikcatur.blogspot.com 

KL rapid grand prix 

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize the fourth leg of the KL rapid grand prix tomorrow and on Sunday. Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the Royal Selangor Club (RSC) and RM20 for non-members. For the under-12 section, the entry fees are RM5 for children of KLCA and RSC members and RM10 for others. Venue is the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at the KLCA website, (http://www.klchess.com/)

Perak grand prix

The Manjung leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Methodist (ACS) in Sitiawan this Sunday. 

Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Hamisah (012.5008723). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

PCA AGM

The Penang Chess Association will hold its annual general meeting at the Residents’ Association of Bayan Baru in Jalan Nibong, Bandar Bayan Baru, Penang this Sunday at 11am. Preceding the meeting will be a blitz tournament starting at 9.30am.

CAS closed and AGM

The Chess Association of Selangor will hold the CAS closed tournament in the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on May 23 afternoon. Only members of the association can take part and therefore, you’ll need to join as a member before you can play. The entry fee is RM20 per player if registered before May 20 and RM30 per player after this date. For more information, contact Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922) or Mat Zaki (017.2032051). 

Meanwhile, the 33rd annual general meeting of the CAS will be held on May 23 at 11am. The venue of the meeting will also be the Wilayah Complex.

 

Passing of a legend

Florencio Campomanes touched different people in different ways. 

Among the Western nations, Campomanes was despised as a dictator who overstayed his tenure as the president of the World Chess Federation (Fide) and who played a very instrumental role in dividing the chess world.

Among the Third World countries however, Campomanes was seen mostly as a champion who succeeded to the world body’s highest position and who opened up chess to the world and brought the game to its greatest prominence.

Who was right and who was wrong? Without a doubt, both sides would have their grounds and justifications to cast Campomanes as their hero or villain. Personally, I don’t believe that he cared very much for the labels. Ultimately, he wanted only results, not how the job got done. But all that is now behind him.

Last Monday, Florencio Campomanes, more popularly known as Campo to his friends and enemies, died in his native Philippines. He was 83 years old.

I first got to know of Campo way back in 1974 when he was still only a deputy president of the World Chess Federation. Asia was his main playground then, and chess was just taking off in the continent. 

He came to Penang for the inaugural Asian team championship and at its conclusion, he received the challenge trophy from our second Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak. Campo was truly the public face of the Philippines’ chess team.

In 1978, he organized the acrimonious world chess championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio City and in 1982, achieved his ambition to become the Fide president. His election to the world body’s top position, on the promise of elevating chess to greater heights, created a buzz everywhere. I was there in Luzerne when it happened and the euphoria was simply incredible.

As the Fide president, he sowed the seeds that would eventually see Fide being accepted into the fold of the international Olympic movement. This wasn’t a short-term process; it actually took years before the walls could be broken down.

But his Fide presidency was also marred with controversy. By 1984, Garry Kasparov’s star was already in its ascendancy and he was knocking on Karpov’s door. But the 1984/85 world championship match was organized with rules different from today’s. It was a match where a player needed to score six decisive victories, draws not counting. 

Karpov was unable to deliver the final win and he enabled Kasparov to extend the match to 48 games. After five long months of play, Campo decided to abandon the match, citing players’ fatigue as the decision. There would be a rematch later in the year, limited to 24 games.

While this might have been seen as a logical decision – a tough decision actually – that any Fide president would have to make, it did not go down well at all with many chess federations in the West. They claimed that Campo’s decision was scandalous and unilaterally made to favour the tiring Karpov at a time when an invigorated Kasparov was starting to get stronger at the chessboard. They said there was no precedent to stop the match but precisely, it was Campo’s job to set a precedent if one was really required. 

Anyhow, Campomanes weathered all the criticisms and went on to achieve his second high point as the Fide president by bringing the biennial Chess Olympiad to Manila in 1992. It was again a first for Asian chess as never before had any Third World country organized such a large-scale team chess event in this part of the world.

But chess was never the same after that. During Campo’s tenure as Fide president, Kasparov declared that his world championship title never belonged to the World Chess Federation and he could choose to defend his title any time he liked or wanted. Not surprisingly, Kasparov had the support of the western chess federations and most of the top western chess grandmasters.

So chess went in two separate directions. Kasparov had his own version of a world chess championship running for several years while Fide continued with its own regular world chess title series. It was not until 2006 that there was unification again.

The pressure on Campo began to tell and in 1995, he stepped down as the Fide president and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov took over. Nevertheless, Campo remained active in the chess world and he was made the Fide honorary president which allowed him to roam the globe as the ultimate chess ambassador.

He never slowed down, not even a horrendous car crash in Turkey in 2007 was able to stop him. Though seriously warded in a hospital with his neck in braces, he received all guests and insisted on playing chess with them on his hospital bed. That was his dedication to the game.

Campo turned up often in Malaysia because he was a fast friend of Datuk Tan Chin Nam whom he first met in 1974. It was mainly Campomanes that persuaded Tan to stand for Fide election in 1982. Every time that Campo came into town, he would come as a guest of Tan. 

I can’t remember the last time I met him in Kuala Lumpur. It must have been at the early part of this decade. He was already frail of body but still sharp in mind. Impressively, he still carried with him a very distinguished and statesman-like air. Without any prompting, he could always remember my name but never once could he say it properly. But like him, I did not care. I did not care very much for the mispronunciations because I knew that he only wanted to be polite and address me, not how to call my name.

Tan told me, “I have lost an old friend and a dear friend. My heart goes out to his family. There will never be another Campomanes.” 

Casto Abundo, one-time Fide general secretary, recalled that Campo continued to be active in FIDE, Asian and Philippine chess until his bout with cancer reached the terminal stage last year. “He was still strong and hearty on his 83rd birthday last Feb 22 but his health quickly deteriorated. I was at his bedside at the Notre Dame Hospital in Baguio City on May 1. As I thanked him for all our chess years together, he smiled and said "We had fun."”

Naturally, Campomane’s death on Monday overshadows the current world chess championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and challenger Veselin Topalov. The match still has four days to go, provided it goes the whole distance, and if it ends equal at 6-all after 12 games, tie-break games on May 13 will decide the winner.

However, as at the end of the seventh game earlier this week, Anand is leading Topalov by 4-3. After the turbulence of the first two games, both the players have settled down well into the match.

The third game was drawn and Anand won the fourth game. After that, the next three games were all great fighting draws.

Up next  

KL rapid grand prix 

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize the fourth leg of the KL rapid grand prix tomorrow and on Sunday. Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the Royal Selangor Club (RSC) and RM20 for non-members. For the under-12 section, the entry fees are RM5 for children of KLCA and RSC members and RM10 for others. Venue is the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, (http://www.klchess.com/)

Perak grand prix

The Manjung leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Methodist (ACS) in Sitiawan on May 16. 

Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. Entries will close on May 13. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Hamisah (012.5008723). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

 

Punch and counter-punch

It’s been a week since the start of the world chess championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and his challenger, Veselin Topalov. After all the drama of Anand’s overland journey from Frankfurt to Sofia, the match was put off for a day and it kicked off last Saturday instead of Friday.

I was a little miffed to learn that the Bulgarian Chess Federation and the match organizers had refused to meet Anand half-way. A lot of reasons were given but I think they were only trying to make it difficult for the world champion. Initially, Anand had requested for a three-day postponement but a one-day postponement would have been reasonable enough.

In the end, it was left to the World Chess Federation (Fide) to find an amicable solution and they decided that the first game would start on Saturday. However, it doesn’t seem to be the end of the story because the latest word from Sofia is that Silvio Danailov, who is Topalov’s manager, is contemplating to sue Fide for the late start.

Of course, he is well within his rights to seek legal redress but I think it also paints him in very bad light. After all, it was no fault of anybody that the volcano in Iceland erupted and caused air traffic chaos in Europe. 

Everybody knows that this is a very high-stake match in Bulgaria. All the more reason that if Danailov really wants Topalov to win the world championship title, let him win it fair and square from Anand over the board. 

By the way, I’m writing this story during the first lull in the match. As I write this on Monday, only the first two games have been completed. And you know what? I’m already having withdrawal symptoms! When you are eagerly looking forward to following every game of this world chess championship match, all you want to do is to sit down at the computer every night at 8pm to follow the games live.

Unfortunately, the match rules stipulate that there should be a rest day after every two games. As the schedule would have it, Monday was a rest day. The players are resting or preparing themselves for more battles ahead, but we chess followers and spectators can only wait impatiently for the next day to come.

The only consolation is that the two games have been very exciting and decisive. At the opening ceremony three days earlier, Topalov drew the white envelope, meaning that he would play the first game of this match with the white pieces. That was the first stir of excitement. With the white pieces, we can expect the Bulgarian grandmaster to kick of the match in his aggressive style.

True enough, Topalov was first off the block. He came out fighting and slugging. Remarkably, Anand tried to match him blow for blow. When I was following this game live through the Internet, my first thought was whether both players were playing blitz chess or world championship chess.

For this particular match, they had agreed on a time control of 40 moves in two hours, followed by 20 moves in one hour, and then a final 15 minutes for a play-to-death session. There’s lots of time to think and yet, Topalov and Anand sailed through their first 18 moves in barely 10 minutes. 

It was only on the 19th move that Topalov paused long enough to think. Here was where the real battle began. Unfortunately, the game ended early, after another 11 moves. You see, Anand made an uncharacteristic blunder in the game. His position was already difficult but he made it more difficult for himself by walking into a piece sacrifice. This is the game:

Veselin Topalov – Viswanathan Anand, Game 1

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 c5 8. Ne2 Nc6 9. Be3 O-O 10. O-O Na5 11. Bd3 b6 12. Qd2 e5 13. Bh6 cxd4 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. cxd4 exd4 16. Rac1 Qd6 17. f4 f6 18. f5 Qe5 19. Nf4 g5 20. Nh5+ Kg8 21. h4 h6 22. hxg5 hxg5 23. Rf3 Kf7? (See diagram. Black needs to tread carefully in this position. His knight and one of the rooks are terribly out of play on the queenside and his king is rather exposed. On the other hand, White has good chances on the kingside and there’s always a danger of him infiltrating through the c-file. Black’s 23rd move is a blunder and allows a decisive stroke from White. The best resistance may be 23…Bd7.) 24. Nxf6 (After this sac, which White played almost immediately, Black’s position is untenable.) 24….Kxf6 25. Rh3 Rg8 26. Rh6+ Kf7 27. Rh7+ Ke8 28. Rcc7 Kd8 29. Bb5 Qxe4 30. Rxc8+ 1-0 

People like me watching from afar was shell-shocked. Why was it so easy for Topalov to dismantle Anand’s game? Has Topalov’s preparation been so superior that Anand had no answer? Or, was the Indian grandmaster still suffering from his overland drive? These are questions without immediate answers. 

It was also almost impossible to gauge Anand’s frame of mind after this loss. Would he brush it aside as an aberration? Certainly, it came as a shock to his system and to his world-wide fan base (and I know that he has a big fan base in Asia). Most people would be demoralized to have lost in only 30 moves. However, Anand is made of sterner stuff and he came back with a firm resolve on the next day. In the second game, he gave Topalov no opportunity at all for open tactical play and scored a fine win to level the match at 1-all. Here it is:

 

Viswanathan Anand – Veselin Topalov, Game 2

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 a6 6. Ne5 c5 7. Na3 cxd4 8. Naxc4 Bc5 9. O-O O-O 10. Bd2 Nd5 11. Rc1 Nd7 12. Nd3 Ba7 13. Ba5 Qe7 14. Qb3 Rb8 15. Qa3 Qxa3 16. bxa3 (Shades of Bobby Fischer. Inspirational. I still remember one of Fischer’s games with Spassky in 1972 when he willingly saddled himself with a doubled pawn on the h-file. Likewise in this game, Anand accepted the doubled pawns on the a-file. However, in return, he keeps up the pressure on the queenside.) 16….N7f6 17. Nce5 Re8 18. Rc2 b6 19. Bd2 Bb7 20. Rfc1 Rbd8 21. f4 Bb8 22. a4 a5 23. Nc6 Bxc6 24. Rxc6 h5 25. R1c4 Ne3? (This move is considered a mistake. Black showed impatience with the position.) 26. Bxe3 dxe3 27. Bf3 g6 28. Rxb6 Ba7 29. Rb3 Rd4 30. Rc7 Bb8 31. Rc5 Bd6 32. Rxa5 Rc8 33. Kg2 Rc2 34. a3 (At this stage, Black is probably already lost. This unassuming pawn will ultimately decide the game.) 34….Ra2 35. Nb4 Bxb4 36. axb4 Nd5 37. b5 Raxa4 38. Rxa4 Rxa4 39. Bxd5 exd5 40. b6 Ra8 41. b7 (I hope you remember that this was the pawn that was originally on the a2 square) 41….Rb8 42. Kf3 d4 43. Ke4 1-0

Up next  

Selangor open

The nation’s longest-running chess tournament, the 37th Selangor open chess tournament, started yesterday at the Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur and will continue daily until May 2. Do drop by to have a look at this tournament even if you are not playing.

KL rapid grand prix 

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize the fourth leg of the KL rapid grand prix on May 8 and 9. Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the Royal Selangor Club (RSC) and RM20 for non-members. For the under-12 section, the entry fees are RM5 for children of KLCA and RSC members and RM10 for others. Venue is the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, (http://www.klchess.com/)

Perak grand prix

The Manjung leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Methodist (ACS) in Sitiawan on May 16. 

Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. Entries will close on May 13. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Hamisah (012.5008723). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

 

Summit uncertainty

As typical with all high-stake chess events, especially the world chess championship matches, the pre-match mind games usually start well before the first move is played.

This year’s world championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and challenger Veselin Topalov is no different. The mind games actually started months ago when both parties were negotiating the terms for this match. It was to be expected that both sides would want the best conditions for their players without acceding any concession to their rival. Nevertheless at the end of the day, they would have to agree on a common ground for the match to proceed.

That, of course, would have been settled a long time ago. Today, we are scheduled to see the start of the first game of the match in Sofia, Bulgaria but will we? As I write this story earlier this week, there is a big question mark over this happening.

You see, even the best man-made plans can be torn asunder by the unpredictability of Mother Nature and as we all know, for much of the past 10 days or so, Europe has been affected by an event happening on the fringe of that continent.

Who would have expected that a volcanic eruption on Iceland could have affected air travel everywhere on the globe? Although travel within Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas are generally unaffected, tens of thousands of flights within, in and out of Europe have been cancelled. Air passengers are stranded everywhere and even the alternative land travel is pretty much choked up. 

It’s a chaotic situation that is even affecting chess. Anand, who is based in Spain, has suddenly discovered that Mother Nature, aided unwittingly by the European Union, has no respect for world champions. His flight from Madrid took him to Frankfurt but on landing there, his contingent was told that the airport was closing and the connecting flight to Sofia had been cancelled. Stranded!

This is not the best news for anyone who is directly involved in the high-stake world championship match. At the every worst, it will throw the player’s psychological preparation totally out of whack. We shall not know how much Anand has been affected until he sits down to face Topalov. 

I’m sure that to a lesser degree Topalov is also affected. However he is already comfortably settled into Sofia for several weeks now and his preparations continue uninterrupted. I’m pretty sure too that he cannot give a darn about Anand’s present predicament. Whatever happens to the weather, every free day in Sofia is an opportunity for him to rest and psyche himself up properly for the match.

So the pressure is mostly on Anand himself. When I wrote this story earlier this week, I understood that the world champion had already finalized plans to travel overland into Bulgaria. Maybe, he would have had arrived in Sofia by Wednesday and wrecked by travel fatigue. His preparations are totally disrupted. Would one or two days be enough for him to recover his frame of mind?

In this regard, both Anand and the All India Chess Federation have made statements and requests to both the World Chess Federation and the match organizers from the Bulgarian Chess Federation to delay the start of the match for three days. This was while Anand was still stuck at Frankfurt.

To the vast majority of chess players worldwide, it was a request made not totally unreasonably. Although chess players are waiting for the match to start, they would only want to see both players come to the both fully prepared physically, technically and psychologically. 

However, the match organizers saw it differently. They said that they could not agree to the postponement of the opening ceremony two days ago because they had contractual agreements with many third parties. Nevertheless, the organizers said they were still open to the postponing of the first game from today to tomorrow but this would still have to be discussed internally. Let’s see how this turns out.

In the meantime, I am priming myself up to watch the match over the Internet. There’ll be a maximum of 12 games, all playing with classical time control, and they all start at 8pm, local time here in Malaysia. 

Unless there are changes to the schedule, there will be a rest day after every two days of play with an additional rest day thrown in on May 9 before the 12th game. If the score reaches 6-all, the players will break the tie with a series of faster games on May 12.

The official world chess championship website is at http://www.anand-topalov.com/ but there is a host of other high profile chess websites and blogs covering the event too. Fully recommended are Chessdom.com (http://www.chessdom.com), Chessbase.com (http://www.chessbase.com) and Susan Polgar’s web-blog (http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com).

On paper, Topalov, who is presently ranked second in the world at 2805, must be considered a slight favourite over Anand, who is ranked fourth at 2787. But external influences aside, one can imagine almost anything to happen in this match.

I’ve mentioned often enough that Topalov is an enterprising player that creates energy on the chessboard. He sees resources where others may well get bogged down in complications. His games are stuff to excite any onlooker. 

On the other hand, Anand is more experienced in match play and his game is more sound and filled with better judgment. This shorter match of 12 games is supposed to favour the older Anand (he’s 40 years old, five years older than Topalov) who is likelier to get tired over a longer match. The Indian grandmaster is also believed to play better if it ever comes to the faster tiebreak games.

Up next  

Perak grand prix

The third leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Sek Men Teknik Kerian in Jalan Siakap, Bagan Serai on Apr 25. 

Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. Entries will close on Apr 22. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Mas’ud Hamzah (012.4681665).

Stonemaster chess

The one-day second Stonemaster amateur chess tournament for 2010, organized by Cerdik Catur Enterprise will be held at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Kuala Lumpur on Apr 25. Only players without a national rating or a national rating of below 1650 are allowed to play. Entry fees are RM30 for adults and RM20 for school children. Closing date for entries is Apr 23. For details, contact Mohd Fadli Zakaria (014.2312370, seme_event@yahoo.com) or Cikgu Farah (017.9100836). 

 

Selangor open

The nation’s longest-running chess tournament is back! The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will hold their 37th Selangor open chess tournament at the Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur from Apr 29 to May 2.

This nine-round, Fide-rated event will have 10 main prizes totalling RM6,000 with the winner getting RM2,200. There will also be various minor category prizes. Entry fees are RM80 for CAS members with Fide ratings, RM90 for CAS members without Fide ratings, RM90 for non-CAS members with Fide ratings and RM100 for non-CAS members without Fide ratings. Entries received after Apr 25 will be charged an extra RM20.

For enquiries, contact Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922) or Mat Zaki Yeop (017.2032051).

KL rapid grand prix 

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize the fourth leg of the KL rapid grand prix on May 8 and 9. Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the Royal Selangor Club (RSC) and RM20 for non-members. For the under-12 section, the entry fees are RM5 for children of KLCA and RSC members and RM10 for others. Venue is the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, (http://www.klchess.com/)

 

Girl power

China has a lot of young and talented chess players but very few have ever created a more lasting impression in recent years than their sensational 16-year-old wonder lass, Hou Yifan.

Hou, who started playing chess 10 years ago and is a grandmaster in her own right, stamped her mark on Malaysian chess when she claimed the Kuala Lumpur open chess title on Monday. 

She captured the hearts and imagination of both players and spectators alike with a performance rarely matched among women competitors. Though not the top seed in this event, the unassuming and ever obliging Number Two seed was clearly the choice and favourite of many people.

She reeled off four consecutive wins in her first four games and found herself in a neck-and-neck tussle with Vietnamese player Nguyen Anh Dong who had also won the same number of wins. The two of them met in the fifth round and drew their game. 

Though at the sixth round, Hou and Nguyen were joined briefly at the top of the tournament standings by Thomas Luther, Marat Dzhumaev and Oliver Dimakiling, this joint lead proved short-lived as these four nearest rivals of hers could do no better than draw their games in the seventh round while she won her game.

As a result, the Chinese girl found herself enjoying a sole lead of half a point at this late stage of the tournament. She increased her lead to a full point in the eighth round when her closest rivals all faltered again. 

By then, her winning the tournament was already a foregone conclusion. Regardless of her result in the ninth and final round, nobody else would be able to catch up with her. Still, a loss would certainly be out of the question. She wouldn’t want to spoil an otherwise impressive run with a final-round loss. 

Her opponent, Susanto Megaranto, was faced with an even greater dilemma. How was he to approach the game? Should he bring the game to her in the final round and try for a full point (and risk losing a full point too) or go for a peaceful draw that would suit his opponent better than him? Hou was prepared for a fight over the chessboard if the situation warranted but at the end, discretion proved to be the better part of valour and both players quickly agreed to split the point.

Final top standings: GM Hou Yifan 7½ points; GM Nguyen Anh Dung, Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Georgia) 7 points each; GM Susanto Megaranto (Indonesia), GM Thomas Luther (Germany), IM Dhopade Swapnil (India), GM Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), IM Dzhurabek Khamrakulov (Uzbekistan), IM Ashwin Jayaram (India) 6½ points each.

The best performing Malaysian in the field of 111 players was newly-minted medical doctor Nicholas Chan. Chan, who is a Fide Master, missed out on his second international master norm but only barely. That is still his main target, he confided in me. Still, finishing in 16th position was a very creditable effort considering that he hadn’t played at this high a level in the last five years due to studies.

Chan’s next tilt at an IM norm is at the closed Kuala Lumpur Masters tournament now on-going at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in Bangi. Chan and Abdul Haq Mohamad are our two representatives in this 10-play, round-robin event.

My impression of this third KL open chess tournament? It was very well run. Playing condition was superb although I felt that the lighting in the tournament hall could have been slightly brighter. 

Nevertheless, the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association and it’s technical director, Peter Long, must be commended for a job well done. It wasn’t easy to coordinate the entries and guests from all parts of the world, but the organizers pulled it off without any observable hitch. I’m looking forward to the fourth edition of the KL Open next year.

This event, played at the Olympic Sport Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, was sponsored by the Masterskill University College of Health Sciences and the Malaysian Intellect Development Foundation. 

World chess   

Get set for the world chess championship between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov which starts on Apr 23 in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

Anand, who turned 40 years old recently, is the defending champion but he is expected to face great pressure from Topalov who is five years younger. Both are dynamic players with lots of experience at top-level chess.

During the KL Open, I asked a few of the participating grandmasters who they thought would win the match. Opinions were mixed. Some supported Anand to win but those who looked at the match more objectively said that Topalov could be the victor because of his no-holds-barred sort of play. 

Anyway, with the match starting next week, readers can visit the official website at http://www.anand-topalov.com/ for the latest developments.

Up next  

Perak grand prix

It’s now confirmed that the third leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Sek Men Teknik Kerian in Jalan Siakap, Bagan Serai on Apr 25. 

Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. Participants are reminded that entries will close on Apr 22. To register, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or Mas’ud Hamzah (012.4681665).

Stonemaster chess

The one-day second Stonemaster amateur chess tournament for 2010, organized by Cerdik Catur Enterprise will be held at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Kuala Lumpur on Apr 25. Only players without a national rating or a national rating of below 1650 are allowed to play. Entry fees are RM30 for adults and RM20 for school children. Closing date for entries is Apr 23. For details, contact Mohd Fadli Zakaria (014.2312370, seme_event@yahoo.com) or Cikgu Farah (017.9100836). 

 

Selangor open

The nation’s longest-running chess tournament is back! The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will hold their 37th Selangor open chess tournament at the Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur from Apr 29 to May 2.

This nine-round, Fide-rated event will have 10 main prizes totalling RM6,000 with the winner getting RM2,200. There will also be various minor category prizes. Entry fees are RM80 for CAS members with Fide ratings, RM90 for CAS members without Fide ratings, RM90 for non-CAS members with Fide ratings and RM100 for non-CAS members without Fide ratings. Entries received after Apr 25 will be charged an extra RM20.

For enquiries, contact Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922) or Mat Zaki Yeop (017.2032051).

KL rapid grand prix 

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize the fourth leg of the KL rapid grand prix on May 8 and 9. Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the Royal Selangor Club (RSC) and RM20 for non-members. For the under-12 section, the entry fees are RM5 for children of KLCA and RSC members and RM10 for others. Venue is the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, (http://www.klchess.com/)

 

Game of joy and creativity

… but don’t get too carried away.

Today is already the third day of the Kuala Lumpur open chess tournament. As a chess enthusiast, if you still haven’t heard about this event, where have you been?

It’s one of the country’s bigger chess tournaments this year. For one thing, there’s an unprecedented number of foreign players in the event and for another thing, there’s also a record number of titled players. Compared with last year’s tournament, this year’s KL Open is definitely richer in quality.

With these increased chances for grandmaster norms and international master norms in this tournament, will our local players be willing to rise to the occasion? More so, will they be willing to seize the opportunities? 

Unfortunately, my observation is that there are not enough local players registered for this event for reasons best known to them. Maybe they are working, maybe they don’t have enough leave, maybe they are saving their leave for other major events later in the year….I don’t know. Anyhow, among those that are playing in the tournament, let’s admit it: only a handful has the realistic chance of scoring a title norm. 

Nevertheless, our local players should strive hard to try and attain these norms – or at the very least, gain the experience from playing these foreign players – because after all, this tournament is organized specifically with these objectives in mind.

But please don’t get me wrong. The games are tough enough without me putting any additional pressure on the local players to perform. 

In a chess tournament, there is always the competition. The competitive effort to be better than the next guy. Maybe there are a few draws here and there but by and large, someone has to win a game and someone has to lose. And it gets tougher as the tournament progresses because players tire and you get to meet opponents closer to your own standards. 

You are no longer overwhelmed by people whose chess strengths are better than yours. At the same time, there are also no more weaker players for you to bully. As a tournament progresses, you meet opponents of relatively the same standard as you and that’s where the tough gets tougher.

Nevertheless at the end of the day, you must remember that it is only a game and not a matter of life and death. Therefore, forget about the results and go enjoy playing your chess. 

Once a round is over, forget about the results of that game and look forward to preparing for the next one. Euphoria is temporary and so is disappointment. However, what’s important is why should a player suffer needlessly through a tournament? 

If you love playing chess, it is not an ordeal when you lose a game. But if you fear losing a game or even your rating points, then taking part in competitions is not for you. If you harbour thoughts of getting unrealistic returns from your investment, which is the entry fee and all the incidental expenses, then a tournament such as this is not for you too. Set your expectations right and you’ll start enjoying life over the chessboard.

Have you heard of Damocles? No? According to classical Greek culture, he featured in an anecdote that is known as the Sword of Damocles. 

The Damocles in this story was a court employee living in the time of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a tyrant who lived about 2400 years ago. One day, Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority, Dionysius was truly fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places with him for a day, so that Damocles could taste that fortune first-hand. 

At the evening’s banquet, Damocles very much enjoyed being waited upon like a king. However at one point, he looked up to see a sharpened sword hanging directly above his head by a single horse hair. All at once, he paled and lost all appetite, and he asked leave of Dionysius, saying he no longer wanted to be so fortunate.

This is only a story but the message is clear enough. The value of the sword is not that it falls but rather, that it hangs and threatens to strike.

So, what I’m trying to say is, don’t play chess like there is a sword of Damocles hanging over you. Winning and losing are part of the game – any game – but if you fear that the horse hair is going to snap any moment, then the psychological impact will definitely affect you and your game. Some people may disagree with me but that’s not the way that I would want to play chess.

I feel inspired enough to give you yet another story today. It’s about Confucius. More people will have heard about this famous Chinese sage instead of that relatively unknown classical Greek courtier. There are many wise sayings attributed to Confucius and this is one of them.

Confucius, it is said, once mentioned that if you choose a job you love, then you will never have to work a day in your life. Very profound, isn’t it? If you love your job, it becomes a passion, something you look forward to every day. A job? It’s something you have to do, whether or not you like it.

Put it into the context of chess, if chess is what you truly love, then playing chess is never a chore that needs to be done; chess becomes a game of joy and great creativity, regardless of the ultimate outcome. 

Coming back to the Kuala Lumpur open, the fourth and the fifth rounds are being held today: the fourth round starts at 9am while the fifth game begins at 4pm. Venue is the Grand Olympic Hotel in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur. 

Tomorrow, there’ll only be one game (the sixth round) in the morning. In the afternoon, get ready to rumble with that articulate British grandmaster, Nigel Short, who will be in town briefly for a simultaneous exhibition before he scoots off to Bangkok for a tournament there. The participants of this event will also have the chance to sit down with Short for a meal after the games are over.

There’ll be two more rounds on Sunday and one on Monday morning to round off the Kuala Lumpur Open. On Monday afternoon, a blitz tournament is scheduled before the official prize-giving ceremony at 6pm.

However, this is not all. I hear that the organizers are planning a KL Masters tournament immediately after the KL Open ends. This will be a small nine-round round-robin tournament to offer more opportunities for local players to try for a title norm or even to improve their ratings.

I am sure there are enough grandmasters and international masters from the KL Open who are willing to continue playing a few more days in Malaysia. The ultimate mix of players will decide if this KL Masters tournament ends up as a GM, IM, WIM or rating tournament!

Any questions? Just direct them to MCF Secretary Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com) or KLCA Events Director Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia).

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Perak grand prix

The third leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played in Parit Buntar on Apr 25. Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. Participants are reminded that entries will close on Apr 8. PICA will release the registration details later.

KL rapid grand prix

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize the fourth leg of the KL rapid grand prix on May 8 and 9. Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the Royal Selangor Club (RSC) and RM20 for non-members. For the under-12 section, the entry fees are RM5 for children of KLCA and RSC members and RM10 for others. Venue is the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, (http://www.klchess.com/)

 

Passing of a master

It is very easy to get excited when meeting revered players such as world champions, or even former world champions. When my friends and I were in Lucerne way back in 1982, our greatest reverence were reserved for two former world champions who turned up at the Chess Olympiad.  

One of them was Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov, officially the seventh world chess champion. His reign at the pinnacle of the chess world for only a very short period, 1957-1958, but nevertheless, he was still the world champion.

Smyslov died in Moscow last Saturday. He was 89 years old, having celebrated his birthday just three days earlier. He was warded in a Moscow hospital and he died there of heart failure. The first inkling of his death came when Moscow TV announced it in a news broadcast.

Vasily Smyslov could have been a professional opera singer. Blessed with a powerful baritone voice, he auditioned for the Bolshoi Theatre in 1950. When he was not accepted into the Theatre, he concentrated and excelled in his other love, chess. 

Yet, music was never far from his mind. He once said, "I have always lived between chess and music." It was not uncommon of him to give private impromptu recitals in the midst of a chess event. It was said that on occasions, he would be accompanied by his fellow chess grandmaster, Mark Taimanov, who also happened to be a professional concert pianist.

He produced a CD of Russian romances when he was 75 years old. And in May 2001, he finally took centre stage in the Bolshoi Theatre in celebration of Anatoly Karpov's 50th birthday. (Karpov is, of course, another former world chess champion. Recently, he announced his intention to contest for the World Chess Federation’s presidency.)

But enough of Smyslov’s music abilities. It’s his chess abilities that people remember Smyslov for and for a long while, from 1954 until 1958, his world chess championship matches with Mikhail Botvinnik was one of the few great rivalries in the modern game.

He was already a Candidate player in the world chess championship cycles on two occasions in 1948 and 1950 but in 1953, Smyslov won the Candidates tournament in Zurich to earn a shot at the defending champion, Botvinnik. That match ended drawn at 12-all and Botvinnik retained his world title.

In the next Candidates tournament in Amsterdam in 1956, Smyslov again showed his fine mettle by eliminating the other contenders to earn a second shot at the title.

This time, Smyslov was successful, beating Botvinnik by 12½-9½ in 1957. A rematch ensued the following year and Smyslov lost back his title with a 10½-12½ final score. Smyslov later said his health suffered during the return match, as he came down with influenza and pneumonia, but he also acknowledged that Botvinnik had prepared better.

Smyslov never got near to challenging Botvinnik or anyone in the world championship final again. By 1959, other rising stars were emerging in the old Soviet Union and they were surpassing their older colleagues with their results.

Nevertheless, Smyslov still featured occasionally in Candidates qualifying events right through until 1985. But more so, Smyslov achieved great successes in tournament play well through the 60s and 70s.

Maybe I should also mention that in 1983, he catalyzed one of the biggest chess rivalries at world championship levels. At the ripe age of 62, which was already a surprise for a player his age, he made his last appearance in the final stage of that year’s Candidates series. The winner of that match would have played with Karpov in 1984. However, Smyslov lost that match by 4½-8½. 

We all know what happened in 1984, don’t we? It was the start of Karpov’s six-year struggle with Garry Kasparov over the chessboard. Yes, Kasparov was the player that Smyslov could not overcome in 1983. 

Smyslov last appearance in a Candidates event was in 1985. He still played chess but it was clear that he was no longer up there with the world’s best players. 

In 1991, he won the inaugural world senior chess championship. However, his eyesight was starting to fail him and his swansong event was the 2001 Klompendans Veterans versus Ladies tournament in Amsterdam. He never played competitively after that.

According to an obituary in The Guardian newspaper, “Smyslov and his wife of more than half a century spent their final few years in near-poverty as his heart ailment deteriorated.” His wife survives him. With Smyslov’s death, the oldest surviving former world chess champion is now Boris Spassky.

Up next  

KL rapid grand prix

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) and Polgar Chess Asia will jointly organize the third leg of the KL rapid grand prix tomorrow and on Sunday. Entry fees for the open section are RM15 for members of the KLCA and the Royal Selangor Club (RSC) and RM20 for non-members. For the under-12 section, the entry fees are RM5 for children of KLCA and RSC members and RM10 for others. Venue is the RSC’s Card Room at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. More details at  the KLCA website, (http://www.klchess.com/)

Klang Parade open

The Klang Parade and the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre are jointly organizing this year’s Klang Parade chess tournament early next month. An age group event for under-12 and under-18 players will be held on Apr 3, while there will be an open event on Apr 4. Entry fees are RM10 for under-12 players and RM15 for all others. To register, contact Hamid Majid (019.3158098) or Siti Nor Faiza (03-33437889).

KL open

The Kuala Lumpur open chess tournament begins at the Grand Olympic Hotel in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur, on Apr 6. The seven-day event features some 120 participants from 21 countries, including at least 15 grandmasters and about 24 international masters and 20 Fide masters. 

As part of the activities, English GM Nigel Short, the former finalist of the world chess championship in 1993, will be in town on Apr 10 to give a simultaneous exhibition to a maximum of 20 players. More information available from the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association website at http://www.klchess.com or alternatively, contact Peter Long (013.3920920, peterlong@aol.asia) for details.

Perak grand prix

The second leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Chinese Recreation Club in Jalan Stesen, Taiping on Apr 11. Entry fees are RM25 for the open section, RM15 for under-16 players and RM10 for under-12 players. Members of the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and players born in Perak pay RM5 less. Participants are reminded that entries will close on Apr 8. More information is available from Yunus (013.908129) or http://perakchess.blogspot.com