Lowkey affair

Normally, the first time is always very eventful: the first time you take part in a local tournament, the first time you return home with a prize, the first time you represent the country in a sport event. For organizations, maybe the first time your game is featured in a multi-sport event like the SEA Games. Or the Asian Games.

I remember when chess was first included in the SEA Games in Vietnam in 2003, the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) made a lot of fuss over the fact. Rightly so, because it also marked the first time the MCF ever went anywhere under the banner of the OCM.

Chess was also in the 2005 SEA Games in the Philippines and the Malaysian chess players were also right there mixing with the athletes of the other sports. But thereafter, for the 2007 Games in Thailand and the 2009 Games in Laos, chess was dropped from the respective organizer’s calendars.

Nevertheless, there is also the Asian Games which is a much bigger and more significant multi-sport event than the SEA Games. When chess was introduced into the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, there was much hope that the MCF would participate but it did not. 

But being absent once does not mean that we would be absent a second time. This year at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, the Malaysian chess players are finally there. 

It was a rather small contingent of three chess players that were picked for duty in Guangzhou: Mok Tze Meng, Alia Anin Bakri and Nur Nabila Azman. They would play in only the men’s and women’s individual rapid chess tournaments and come home immediately. There would be no Malaysian team in the men’s and women’s classical chess tournaments. 

When I asked the MCF secretary about this, he said that everything boiled down to mainly two issues: funding and player availability.

As far as the OCM was concerned, chess was in their B category of games, which means that if the MCF wanted to play in the Asian Games, the federation or the players would have to raise their own funds to stay and play in Guangzhou. 

As for player availability, many of them were indisposed due to commitment of work. Some had already taken time off for other chess tournaments so it was near impossible for them to play again this year. For the MCF to go down their list of eligible players would mean coming up with a hotchpotch team of dysfunctional players. So a decision was taken not to play in the team events.

All that was left was for Mok, Alia and Nur Nabila to play in the individual rapid chess events. Perhaps for this fact, the MCF decided against making any noise to inform the Malaysian chess public about our participation in this Asian Games. Personally, I feel that instead of keeping it also very low key, the MCF should still have announced it just for the record. But I defer to their decision.

Mok played in the men’s rapid chess individual tournament and finished 38th, while both Alia and Nur Nabila participated in the women’s rapid chess individual tournament and finished in 22nd and 28th spots respectively. Both events consisted of nine rounds of rapid chess games and these were completed in four days flat.

As a measure of the strength of the men’s rapid chess tournament, 12 of the participating countries sent their top grandmasters. Indeed, Mok found out the hard way that negotiating his way through this minefield of grandmasters was no easy task. His quest for a first grandmaster title norm will have to wait till another time.

The rapid chess gold medal went to Uzebekistan’s Ruslan Kasimdzhanov who scored 7½ points. By the way, Kasimdzhanov was the FIDE world chess champion in 2004 and he had been working with Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the latter’s world chess championship matches in 2008 and 2010.

Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem also scored 7½ points but he had to be contented with silver. The bronze medal went to China’s Bu Xiangzhi.

The women’s rapid chess tournament also featured several top-class players that included three women players with the full-fledged grandmaster titles as opposed to the lesser woman grandmaster title.

The Chinese grandmasters made a clean sweep of the top medals with Hou Yifan, as the outright winner of the event, taking the gold and Zhao Xue the silver. India’s Dronavalli Harika took the bronze.

Meanwhile, there are 17 teams taking part in the men’s team tournament and 12 teams in the women’s team tournament. In both events, China are the top seeds for the gold medal. The ninth and final round of both events is scheduled for today.

Up next  

Perak closed

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) together with the Majlis Sukan Negeri Perak and KLK Berhad will jointly organize the Perak closed chess championship at the Dewan MSN in Ipoh tomorrow and on Sunday. Only players born, residing and working in the state are eligible to take part. Nine rounds, 45-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM15 (PICA members and players below the age of 16) and RM20 (others). Contact Yunus (013.3908129) to register.

Chess camp

A fun and informative Kids For Chess camp for beginners, intermediate-level and aspiring tournament players will be held at the Pandan Lake Club in Pandan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 1-2. Entry fees are RM90 per participant. Closing date is Nov 30. More details available from http://www.kids4chess.com.

Penang Chess League

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the annual Penang Chess League at the Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Kheng Thean in Jalan Van Praagh, George Town on Dec 4-5. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. The event is open to teams from the public sector, business community, factories, institutions of learning and registered societies and clubs. Entry fees per team are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams) and RM60 (under-12 teams). Entries close on Dec 1. More information from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517)

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control games. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship at the Premier Hotel in Jalan Kampung Nyabor, Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Shock pullout

If you are waiting for the next world chess championship match to be played between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, you can forget about it.

It’s not going to happen any time soon, not after the gifted 19-year-old Norwegian (he’ll be celebrating his 20th birthday in 11 days’ time, on Nov 30) pulled out from the Candidates matches that are due to be played next March.

It was a decision that shocked the chess world. The Norwegian grandmaster is currently the highest rated player in the world. Certainly, a match between him and defending champion Anand would have captured the world’s imagination.

But in order to reach Anand for the title, Carlsen would have to go through the series of elimination Candidates mini-matches. First off would be the Candidates quarter-final match and if he was successful, then the Candidates semi-final match and then the Candidates final match itself. The winner earns a ticket at a tilt with Anand in 2012.

Last week, Carlsen informed the World Chess Federation (Fide) that he was withdrawing from the Candidates. He claimed that the current world championship cycle was unfair to him. Also, the rules were not sufficiently modern enough. As such, he would not be able to motivate himself to compete. 

What Carlsen wanted was an end to the Candidates matches. He preferred an eight to 10 player world championship tournament to decide who would be the world champion, like what was played in 2005 and 2007. He didn’t like the idea of a series of knock-out matches.

Well, maybe to a teenager, the matches are not exciting or appealing enough. But to the rest of the world – and when I say the “rest of the world”, I mean the top-ranked professional chess players – the return to the Candidates matches were what they demanded and received from Fide. 

Few of the professional chess players wanted the world championship title to be decided on tournament play. There are tournaments a-plenty to satisfy the professional players throughout the year but a true test of a worthy champion, they said, is the ability to go through a series of games in a match with his challenger. For example, if two players were to play for the very highest stakes, would they want to stake everything on only one game or on a series of games? 

Therein lies the other argument in Carlsen’s withdrawal: the world championship is not a fight on equal terms. While players have to slug it out in the Candidates quarter-finals, semi-finals and final matches, the champion only needs to sit pretty and wait for a challenger to emerge.

Why should one player have one out of two tickets to the final, which is to the detriment of all remaining players in the world, he asked. Curiously enough, he then made a very puzzling comparison. Imagine, he said, if the winner of the 2010 Football World Cup directly qualifies to the 2014 World Cup final while all the rest of the teams fight for the other spot.

To me, this comparison with the World Cup is simply not spot-on. World championship chess and the football World Cup are two different creatures. World championship chess is a contest between individuals whereas the World Cup is a team game. 

In any tournament for individuals, the players do not change once the event had started. In team events, the players in a team do change from game to game. Even if two football teams play each other in quick succession, in all practical likelihood, the make-up of the teams on the two occasions would be different. Thus, it makes little sense to make this sort of comparison.

Another of Carlsen’s argument was that five years was too to complete a world chess championship cycle. To me, this is certainly true. However, one must understand the turmoil that world chess had undergone in the last two decades.

Since the days of Wilhelm Steinitz (the year was 1886), there had been a long chain of undisputed world chess champions. This chain snapped in 1993 when Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short chose to play their world championship match outside Fide. From 14 years, there were two parallel championship cycles. 

Although unification of the two titles eventually happened in 2006 after a lot of intense negotiation, the stakeholders still had much to demand from Fide.  You can say that Fide had to tread a fine line to satisfy everyone involved and that needed time. But eventually, everything settled down and there is now again one accepted format and one undisputed world chess champion in Anand. It was a tough lesson learnt. Would anyone want to repeat the same mistake?

But of course, it is all up to Carlsen. If he chooses to withdraw from the Candidates matches, that is up to him. Nobody can force him to accept a system which he dislikes. So without him playing, there is no potential Anand versus Carlsen world chess championship match to look forward to.

Nevertheless, the situation is still okay by Fide. All this had been anticipated and one or two days later, the world body announced that Alexander Grischuk has replaced Carlsen in the Candidates.

The Candidates matches will be world class with or without the Norwegian grandmaster. Only difference is that it will have that little less glamour. In fact, come next year, I’ll be looking forward to Veselin Topalov versus Gata Kamsky, Vladimir Kramnik versus Teimour Radjabov, Levon Aronian versus Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand versus Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. 

Up next  

November rating tournament

The Cheras Chess Academy will hold a Fide-rated open tournament, limited to players with Fide ratings of 1950 and below, at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur from tomorrow until Nov 24. Seven rounds, two-hour play-to-finish time control games. Entry fees are RM50 (Fide-rated players) and RM80 (non-Fide-rated players). More details from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578, geodat@yahoo.com).

Perak closed

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) together with the Majlis Sukan Negeri Perak and KLK Berhad will jointly organize the Perak closed chess championship at the Dewan MSN in Ipoh on Nov 27-28. Only players born, residing and working in the state are eligible to take part. Nine rounds, 45-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM15 (PICA members and players below the age of 16) and RM20 (others). Contact Yunus (013.3908129) to register.

Chess camp

A fun and informative Kids For Chess camp for beginners, intermediate-level and aspiring tournament players will be held at the Pandan Lake Club in Pandan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 1-2. Entry fees are RM90 per participant. Closing date is Nov 30. More details available from http://www.kids4chess.com.

Penang Chess League

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the annual Penang Chess League at the Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Kheng Thean in Jalan Van Praagh, George Town on Dec 4-5. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. The event is open to teams from the public sector, business community, factories, institutions of learning and registered societies and clubs. Entry fees per team are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams) and RM60 (under-12 teams). Entries close on Dec 1. More information from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517)

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control games. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship at the Premier Hotel in Jalan Kampung Nyabor, Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Chess powerhouse

Forty years ago, if I were to mention that chess was a popular game in China, I’m sure that you wouldn’t be thinking of any other type of chess than xiangqi, better known to many of us as Chinese Chess.

And you wouldn’t be wrong. Yes, down the centuries, xiangqi was the most popular board game in China and really, nothing has changed till today. It will always remain their most popular board game.

But there was a small section of people in China that decided on the big step to cross over and play what is known to you and I as international chess. It wasn’t that they (that is, those players) were abandoning the game that was their heritage but more that they were the innovators that decided to explore beyond their cultural boundaries.

In the years since then, there is no denying that China has become a very significant player on the international chess stage. 

At the last Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk for example, the Chinese national chess team finished fifth among 145 countries in the open event. That was no mean feat. Ahead of China were only the Ukraine, the Russian first team, Israel and Hungary, all very high-powered teams

Plus, breathing down the Chinese necks were the Russian second team, Armenia, Spain, the United States and France. These teams finished with the same points as China but they lost out on the tie-breaks.

And in the Women’s Chess Olympiad, the Chinese women were second behind the first Russian women’s team. All in all, there is no denying that as a chess-playing nation, the Chinese are very strong indeed.

But what about their individual chess players? For this, there are two reference points: one is the static World Chess Federation’s rating list that is published every two months, and the other is the rarified chess live rating list that ranks the chess players in the world who have an international rating of at least 2700.

 

The live rating list is dynamically changing all the time and presently, there are only 39 chess players on it. If a player gets onto this list, he is among the crème de la crème. China can claim to have two players there: Wang Yue is ranked 13th in the world and Wang Hao is joint 15th. 

Lately, China have also been making their mark as an international chess organizer. In July, they organized the Asian youth invitational chess championships over various age groups. 

And it was only last month that China organized the elite third Nanjing Pearl Spring chess tournament.

How high calibre was this double round-robin event? Well, in the first instance, only six players were invited. In the second instance, the organizers wanted only the best players and who would be among the best players in the world if not for Magnus Carlsen, Veselin Topalov and world chess champion Viswanathan Anand? Yes, indeed. In the third instance, it was the first time that a chess tournament anywhere would feature three players whose ratings were 2800 or higher. 

For 10 days then, all chess eyes were focussed on Nanjing. There were only three games played every round but they were three games of the highest profile. Not that the games were free of errors but on the contrary, the errors contributed to the tension and made this event one of the finest ever organised.

Carlsen’s form was superb and he practically ran away with the first prize of 80,000 euros. That was equivalent to earning about RM34,400 per game. Not bad for a player who was just a month shy of his 20th birthday. 

Anand also turned in a strong performance but it was not enough to challenge Carlsen for the first prize. In fact, at one stage of the tournament, Anand was in danger of finishing third after losing to Etienne Bacrot but a combination of luck and hard work landed him the second prize of 55,000 euros (about RM236,000).

Bacrot was delighted with his third placing and I suppose, Vugar Gashimov too, who finished fourth. An off-form Topalov found himself in fifth place while a most disappointed Wang Yue finished last. He had the home support but this was just not his tournament.

This game is a typical example of the high tension in this event. If Carlsen had won this game, he would have pulled far, far ahead of his rivals and if Anand had lost this game, who knows what psychological damage it would have inflicted on him. But a draw, well, it allowed him to fight on for another day.

White: Magnus Carlsen (Norway)

Black: Viswanathan Anand (India)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.Re1 Nd6 6.Nxe5 Be7 7.Bf1 Nf5 8.Nf3 0-0 9.d4 d5 10.c3 Bd6 11.Bd3 Nce7 12.Nbd2 c6 13.Nf1 Ng6 14.Qc2 Nfh4 15.Nxh4 Qxh4 16.g3 Qd8 17.Ne3 Re8 18.Bd2 Nf8 19.Nf5 Bc7 20.Rxe8 Qxe8 21.Re1 Be6 22.Qc1 f6 23.Qd1 Qd7 24.Qf3 Re8 25.h4 (Undeniably, White has the better game here.) 

25...Bf7 26.Rf1 Bg6 27.h5 Bxf5 28.Bxf5 Qf7 29.Kg2 g6 30.Bd3 f5 31.Rh1 Ne6 32.hxg6 hxg6 33.g4 (The first sign of tension) 33…Bf4 34.Be3 (34.Bxf4 is answered by 34...fxg4) 34...fxg4? (The second sign of tension. 34...Bxe3 would have been correct. Now, White increases his pressure on Black.)

35.Qxg4 Kg7 36.Rh5 (The threat of 37.Rf5 would be winning.) 36...Bxe3 37.fxe3 Nf8 38.Rh3 Kg8 39.Rf3 Qe6 40.Qf4 Kg7 41.b3 Qe7 42.c4 Rd8 43.Rh3 Rd6 44.Qh6+ Kg8 45.cxd5 cxd5 46.e4 Qg7 47.Qe3 Qe7 48.e5 Rc6 49.Qh6 Qg7 50.Qh4 a6 51.Rf3 Qd7 52.b4 b5 53.a3 Qc7 54.Kg3 Kg7 55.Bb1 Nh7 56.Ba2 Qd7 57.Bb3 Rc1 58.Kh2 Rb1 59.Bc2 Rb2 60.Rc3 Qf7 (see diagram)

61.Kg3 (The third sign of growing tension. After 61.e6, Black’s overworked queen cannot defend both his second rank and the g6 pawn.) 61...Nf8 62.Rf3 Qe6 63.Qd8?? (The fourth sign of tension. White throws the win away, having missed 63.Rf6 Qe8 64.Rf2 Ra2 65.Qf6+ Kg8 66.Bb3 Rxa3 67.Rf3. The game heads to a draw.) 63...Nd7 64.Rf2 Ra2 65.Kh2 Qg4 66.Qe7+ Kh6 67.Qd8 Qh5+ 68.Kg2 Qg4+ ½-½ 

Up next  

SJKC Jln Davidson open

The Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Jalan Davidson in Kuala Lumpur will organize an open chess tournament for under-16 players at the school this Sunday. Six rounds, 30-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM10 (players from SJKC Jalan Davidson) and RM12 (all other players). Entries close on Nov 12. More details from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578) and Bob Yap (012.2878378).

November rating tournament

The Cheras Chess Academy will hold a Fide-rated open tournament, limited to players with Fide ratings of 1950 and below, at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur on Nov 20-24. Seven rounds, two-hour play-to-finish time control games. Entry fees are RM50 (Fide-rated players) and RM80 (non-Fide-rated players). More details from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578, geodat@yahoo.com).

Perak closed

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) together with the Majlis Sukan Negeri Perak and KLK Berhad will jointly organize the Perak closed chess championship at the Dewan MSN in Ipoh on Nov 27-28. Only players born, residing and working in the state are eligible to take part. Nine rounds, 45-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM15 (PICA members and players below the age of 16) and RM20 (others). Contact Yunus (013.3908129) to register.

Chess camp

A fun and informative Kids For Chess camp for beginners, intermediate-level and aspiring tournament players will be held at the Pandan Lake Club in Pandan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 1-2. Entry fees are RM90 per participant. Closing date is Nov 30. More details available from http://www.kids4chess.com.

Penang Chess League

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the annual Penang Chess League at the Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Kheng Thean in Jalan Van Praagh, George Town on Dec 4-5. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. The event is open to teams from the public sector, business community, factories, institutions of learning and registered societies and clubs. Entry fees per team are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams) and RM60 (under-12 teams). Entries close on Dec 1. More information from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517)

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control games. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship at the Premier Hotel in Jalan Kampung Nyabor, Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Momentary slowdown

Just last week, I happened to be asking around a few people – they being adult chess players – what they would be doing if they were not playing chess on weekends. 

I thought it was quite a reasonable question to ask because right now, in the fourth quarter of the year, there is a certain lull in local chess activities. I wouldn’t say that chess activities have stopped but certainly, they have slowed down considerably. 

It happens all the time, almost like clockwork, because the main bulk of chess players get too preoccupied with school revision work and examinations until the end of next month.

The responses I received were varied but almost predictable. Watch football on television. Visit the shopping malls. Join the gym. Go for cinema shows. Indulge in photography pursuits. Catch up on reading. “Chess books?” I murmured. “No, just newspapers,” one replied. 

Go web surfing. Yeah, right, I thought, turn to the Internet for some instant chess gratification. “Maybe I’ll catch up with you on one of the Internet chess servers,” I told a friend, adding: “There are some great top-level tournaments going on.” “Erm, no,” he replied, “maybe I’ll see you on facebook instead.”

Like I said, varied but almost predictable responses. To an extent, my own non-chess hobbies may probably overlap with many other people’s too and it is exactly this period that I indulge more in them than at any other time of the year.

There is one person I know who turns himself completely off from chess in a big way at the end of the year. Come every mid-October, he will let go of all his wooden horses and turn his sights to real horses. The chess board at home gets transformed into the race courses of Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival. He owns a number of thoroughbred horses in Australia, you see.

Just last Saturday, he watched his horse So You Think thunder down the track at Melbourne’s Moonee Valley race course to lift the Cox Plate for the second time in two years. Come tomorrow, So You Think is again a favourite to win the Mackinnon Stakes at the Victoria Derby.

Just by mentioning the words “horse racing”, I would believe that you already know whom I’m referring to. In Australia, Datuk Tan Chin Nam is regarded as one of the most successful – if not indeed already the most successful – horse owners in recent history. A four-time winner of the Melbourne Cup, raced on the first Tuesday every November.

And come to think of it, that’s just next Tuesday, four days away. 

There are two ways to actually enjoy the Melbourne Cup races in Australia. One, be there yourself at the Flemington race course in Melbourne, or Two, entrench yourself in one of the drinking holes around Australia and cheer on the horses on television with scores of other beer guzzlers. 

Or alternatively, be an audience of one and watch the races on television at home here in Malaysia. The Australia Network says that they’ll be carrying the races live and it so happens that this channel is available on Astro. There’s definitely not the same thrill as One or Two mentioned above, but that’s what I’ll be doing.

In the meantime, I shall leave you this week with a mention that the annual World Youth Chess Championships are currently taking place in Greece. The official website is http://wycc2010.chessdom.com/ 

Among the 814 boys and 573 girls from around the world taking part, 14 of them are our own boys and girls battling in the under-8, under-10, under-12, under-14 and under-16 age group events in the championships. The event ends tomorrow. 

Up next  

Giant Kulai open

The Johor Bahru Chess Association, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Giant Kulai Hypermarket are jointly organizing a Giant Kulai open chess tournament in the hypermarket’s premises in Kulai, Johor this Sunday. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM12 (players below 12 years old), RM15 (players below 16 years old) and RM30 (other players). Entries close today. More information available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@yahoo.com). 

Kepong junior open

The Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Kepong Dua in Kuala Lumpur will organize their 16th junior open chess tournament for under-18, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8 players at the school this Sunday. Six rounds, 30-minute time control games. More details from Mdm Goh (012.9883351) or Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922).

MSSM-Masterskill chess

The Polgar Chess Asia has postponed indefinitely the organizing of the MSSM-Masterskill national scholastics chess championship that was scheduled for Nov 8-12 at the Masterskill University College campus in Ipoh, Perak. For more details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia) or Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com). 

SJKC Jln Davidson open

The Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Jalan Davidson in Kuala Lumpur will organize an open chess tournament for under-16 players at the school on Nov 14. Six rounds, 30-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM10 (players from SJKC Jalan Davidson) and RM12 (all other players). Entries close on Nov 12. More details from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578) and Bob Yap (012.2878378).

November rating tournament

The Cheras Chess Academy will hold a Fide-rated open tournament, limited to players with Fide ratings of 1950 and below, at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur on Nov 20-24. Seven rounds, two-hour play-to-finish time control games. Entry fees are RM50 (Fide-rated players) and RM80 (non-Fide-rated players). More details from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578, geodat@yahoo.com).

Chess camp

A fun and informative Kids For Chess camp for beginners, intermediate-level and aspiring tournament players will be held at the Pandan Lake Club in Pandan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 1-2. Entry fees are RM90 per participant. Closing date is Nov 30. More details available from http://www.kids4chess.com.

Penang Chess League

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the annual Penang Chess League at the Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Kheng Thean in Jalan Van Praagh, George Town on Dec 4-5. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. The event is open to teams from the public sector, business community, factories, institutions of learning and registered societies and clubs. Entry fees per team are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams) and RM60 (under-12 teams). Entries close on Dec 1. More information from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517)

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control games. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship at the Premier Hotel in Jalan Kampung Nyabor, Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Stormy election

Actually, long before the World Chess Federation’s (Fide) presidential election was held at the recently concluded Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, the writing was already on the wall that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was destined to be re-elected as the Fide president. 

Months before the election, both Ilyumzhinov and his rival, the former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, had been criss-crossing the globe to drum up support for their respective candidacies from among the far-flung national chess federations that make up the global chess family.

Karpov’s strategy was simple enough. Though every nation knew him as the 12th world chess champion, he still needed to visit them and convince the people in those chess federations that he was a viable candidate to lead Fide for the next four years. He campaigned on a platform to bring in reform and make chess more visible to commercial sponsors.

Ilyumzhinov, on the other hand, had little necessity to convince people at all. With the power of incumbency, he could make impromptu decisions on Fide’s behalf. Nevertheless, he still took no chances and he visited the Fide member countries, often almost shadowing Karpov’s movements.

Ilyumzhinov also had a powerful card up his sleeve. Wherever he travelled, he extracted letters of support from the member nations and with these support, he proudly proclaimed them on his campaign website. On the other hand, Karpov preferred to keep his support under wraps right until the end of the campaign, possibly to keep up an Ilyumzhinov guessing game. 

Whether or not Karpov had adopted the right tactic is debatable, but everyone that followed the election intrigues on the two candidates’ campaign websites didn’t need any great skill to see that the number of countries that supported Ilyumzhinov was far out-numbering Karpov’s. 

Nevertheless, Karpov was still hopeful for the numbers to reverse themselves in the run-up to the Fide election. A letter of support, he reasoned, may not necessarily translate into a firm commitment as long as the vote had not been cast. 

Moreover, he was hoping for a miracle decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland. There, five chess federations had applied to the Court to disqualify Ilyumzhinov’s team because of irregularities.

This, the Court refused to rule on, preferring instead to let the status quo remain. Naturally, this was a big setback for the Karpov team because a lot of optimism had been placed on the Court to agree with them.

When this didn’t materialize, it was already too close to the election date. With just a week to go, the only alternative left for Karpov was to plunge head-on into the election and face Ilyumzhinov in a do-or-die battle. 

It seemed that right until the day of the election, Karpov and his team were still quietly confident enough of winning but like I mentioned earlier, Ilyumzhinov’s power of incumbency meant that he held all the winning cards.

Among them was the power to show that he was in charge when making decisions, and there were decisions made that were reportedly not at all favourable to his rival. Reports from Khanty-Mansiysk suggested that at times when the meeting turned stormy, the microphones were turned off to leave Karpov and his team without a voice. 

There was also the issue of the contentious but important proxy votes from delegates who had passed their casting votes to Ilyumzhinov. In the end, with Ilyumzhinov winning 95 votes compared to Karpov’s 55 votes (and three absentions), it still proved impossible for a challenger to dislodge an incumbent. 

So Ilyumzhinov, who had held the Fide president’s post for the past 15 years, will continue in this position for the next four years. 

In the days following the election, there were attempts to close ranks with Karpov, who was offered a role as the Fide Ambassador for Life, but as Karpov himself said, he was not in any time trouble yet to accept it. The struggle against Ilyumzhinov, it seems, continues.

I leave you this week with two more games from the Chess Olympiad. Do enjoy them. 

White: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine)

Black: Baadur Jobava (Georgia)

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 Qb6 4. a3 e5 5. exd5 Nf6 6. dxe5 Bc5 7. exf6 Bf2+ 8. Ke2 O-O 9. Qd2 Re8+ 10. Kd1 Re1+ 11. Qxe1 Bxe1 12. Kxe1 Bf5 13. Be2 Nd7 14. dxc6 bxc6 15. Bd1 Re8+ 16. Ne2 Nxf6 17. Nc3 Bc8 18. a4 a5 19. Rf1 Ba6 20. Rf2 h5 21. Ra3 h4 22. g3 h3 23. g4 Rd8 24. Nf4 Nd7 25. Rb3 Qd4 26. Nfe2 Re8 27. Ne4 Qxa4 28. Bd2 Qa1 29. Bc3 Ne5 30. Ra3 Qb1 31. Nd2 Qc1 32. Rxa5 Ng6 33. Rxa6 Nf4 34. Ra8 1-0

White: Michael Adams (England)

Black: Magnus Carlsen (Norway)

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Nf6 3. e5 Nh5 4. Be2 d6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. exd6 exd6 7. d5 Ne7 8. c4 Bg7 9. Nc3 O-O 10. O-O Bg4 11. Re1 Re8 12. h3 Bxf3 13. Bxf3 Nf6 14. Bf4 Nd7 15. Rc1 Ne5 16. b3 a6 17. g3 Nf5 18. Bg2 g5 19. Bxe5 Bxe5 20. Ne4 Ng7 21. Qd2 h6 22. f4 gxf4 23. gxf4 Bf6 24. Kh2 Nh5 25. Rg1 Kh7 26. Rcf1 Rg8 27. Qe2 Ng7 28. Qd3 Kh8 29. Bf3 b5 30. Bd1 bxc4 31. bxc4 Bh4 32. Bc2 f5 33. Rg6 Kh7 34. Rfg1 Qe7 35. Ng3 Bxg3+ 36. Qxg3 Qf7 37. Bd1 Rae8 38. Rxh6+ 1-0

Up next  

UPSI open

The Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will organize an open chess tournament at their university campus in Tanjung Malim, Perak his Saturday and Sunday. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. Entry fees are RM30 (open), RM15 (school children) and RM10 (UPSI students). More details from Mohd Huzairi (013.5959350, mohdhuzairi89@yahoo.com) or Izza Hasrina (012.7412326). 

Giant Kulai open

The Johor Bahru Chess Association, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Giant Kulai Hypermarket are jointly organizing a Giant Kulai open chess tournament in the hypermarket’s premises in Kulai, Johor on Oct 31. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM12 (players below 12 years old), RM15 (players below 16 years old) and RM30 (other players). Entries close on Oct 29. More information available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@yahoo.com). 

MSSM-Masterskill chess

The Polgar Chess Asia will organise the MSSM-Masterskill national scholastics chess championship at the Masterskill University College campus in Ipoh, Perak on Nov 8-12 in association with the Ministry of Education, Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Malaysia and the Malaysian Chess Federation. 

There will be six age group events: under-13 open and girls sections, under-11 open and girls sections, and under-9 open and girls sections, and each state, through their respective schools’ sports councils, may enter one official player for each section. individual non-official entries are also accepted with a RM100 entry fee. 

The respective winners get the right to be the official Malaysian representatives at the Asian schools chess championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Dec 16-23. More details available from Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia) or Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com). 

SJKC Jln Davidson open

The Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Jalan Davidson in Kuala Lumpur will organize an open chess tournament for under-16 players at the school on Nov 14. Six rounds, 30-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM10 (players from SJKC Jalan Davidson) and RM12 (all other players). Entries close on Nov 12. More details from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578) and Bob Yap (012.2878378).

November rating tournament

The Cheras Chess Academy will hold a Fide-rated open tournament, limited to players with Fide ratings of 1950 and below, at the Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane in Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur on Nov 20-24. Seven rounds, two-hour play-to-finish time control games. Entry fees are RM50 (Fide-rated players) and RM80 (non-Fide-rated players). More details from Collin Madhaven (016.2123578, geodat@yahoo.com).

Chess camp

A fun and informative Kids For Chess camp for beginners, intermediate-level and aspiring tournament players will be held at the Pandan Lake Club in Pandan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 1-2. Entry fees are RM90 per participant. Closing date is Nov 30. More details available from http://www.kids4chess.com.

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control games. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship in Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Well done!

In the last week or so since the Chess Olympiad ended, I have seen some heated debates going on in the local chess scene about the selection process and the performance of the Malaysian men’s team in Khanty Mansiysk. 

The post-mortem was lively but personally, I believe that while everyone has a right to say whatever he wants about chess in this country, the debates do not matter anymore. It’s moot; the Chess Olympiad’s over. It’s interesting to make comparisons with previous achievements but always, we only live for today’s results.  

It’s important to me that we should always look at the positives in everything. At the Olympiad, what struck me was that our players tried their best. Absolutely. Each and every one of them, in their own way, they gave their best to the Malaysian team. Collectively, it was a team effort from start until the finish. This, I must credit them. 

So let me acknowledge today the contributions of our Malaysian players, both the men’s and women’s teams.

For Mas Hafizulhelmi, playing on the first board on the men’s team was never going to be easy. The final round was very unfortunate for him (you need to read last week’s column to know what happened) but to his credit, he scored 5½ points from 10 games. That’s a 55% score.

Neither was it supposed to be easy for Alia Anin Bakri who played on the first board of the women’s team. However, she turned in the most memorable result for the whole Malaysian contingent. Seven points from 11 games for a 63.6% score. It’s uncertain whether her results would merit her the title of woman international master (WIM) immediately but at the very least, it should be good enough for a WIM norm. I’m just crossing my fingers that FIDE, the World Chess Federation, will award her the title.

In the men’s team, Mok Tze Meng’s uncompromising style on the second board netted him six points from 11 games (a 54.4% result). Peter Long was a very steady player on the fourth board and he turned in 5½ points from 11 games (a 50% score). Both Mok and Long were the only players in the men’s team to play every round of the Olympiad.

Current national champion Tan Khai Boon was probably overwhelmed by his first international duty but he still contributed three points from nine games (a 33.3% result). I believe the tension got to him towards the end of the event and he was replaced by Gregory Lau. Despite playing only three games (winning two of them with a 66.7% result), Lau will be best remembered for delivering that vital final point for the Malaysian men’s team. 

On the second board in the women’s team was Nur Nabila Azman Hisham. Like Alia on the first board, Nabila played in all 11 rounds and she scored five points for a 45.4% result. Although Nurul Huda Wahiduddin brought in only one point from six games on the third board, she achieved a most important draw against a woman international master from the Netherlands in the ninth round. 

Roslina Marmono had a 50% result as our fourth board player, collecting 3½ points from seven games while our debutant reserve board player, Fong Mi Yen who is also the current national women’s champion, had the tournament of her life with 5½ points from nine games (a 61.1% result). I’m still waiting word from the Malaysian Chess Federation whether this would warrant her a woman candidate master title from FIDE.

Finally, the games this week feature exclusively some of the best efforts from our women players:

 

White: Alia Anin Bakri (Malaysia)

Black: IM Baquero Martha Fierro (Ecuador)

1. d4 g6 2. Nf3 Bg7 3. e4 d6 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 O-O 6. Be2 Nbd7 7. O-O e5 8. Be3 Ng4 9. Bg5 f6 10. Bd2 c6 11. Ne1 Nh6 12. d5 f5 13. dxc6 bxc6 14. Bxh6 Bxh6 15. Qxd6 Rf6 16. Qd1 Qe7 17. Qc2 Nc5 18. Rd1 a5 19. Bf3 Ne6 20. Ne2 Ng5 21. Ng3 f4 22. Ne2 Nxf3+ 23. Nxf3 g5 24. Qd3 Bg4 25. h3 Bh5 26. Qd7 Re8 27. Qxe7 Rxe7 28. Rd8+ Bf8 29. Ra8 g4 30. hxg4 Bxg4 31. Rd1 Rg7 32. Kf1 Rh6 33. Neg1 Bxf3 34. Nxf3 Rh1+ 35. Ke2 Rxd1 36. Kxd1 Rxg2 37. Ke2 Kg7 38. Rxa5 Kf6 39. Rxe5 Bd6 40. Rf5+ Ke7 41. Rh5 Rg7 42. Nd4 Kd7 43. Kf3 Re7 44. Ne2 Ke8 45. Nxf4 Rf7 46. Rf5 Ra7 47. a3 Ra4 48. c5 Bxf4 49. Kxf4 Rc4 50. f3 Rc2 51. b4 Rc3 52. Rh5 1-0

White: Damaris Abarca Gonzalez (Chile)

Black: Alia Anin Bakri (Malaysia)

1. e4 e6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. g3 Bc5 5. Bg2 dxe4 6. dxe4 e5 7. Ngf3 Nc6 8. O-O O-O 9. Qe2 Qe7 10. c3 a6 11. b4 Bd6 12. a4 Be6 13. Nc4 Rfd8 14. Bg5 h6 15. Bxf6 Qxf6 16. Ne3 Ne7 17. Rab1 c6 18. c4 b6 19. Qc2 Bc7 20. Rfd1 Ng6 21. b5 cxb5 22. axb5 axb5 23. Nd5 Bxd5 24. cxd5 Bd6 25. Rxb5 Bc5 26. Qe2 Ra7 27. h4 Rda8 28. Rdb1 Qd6 29. h5 Ne7 30. R5b2 Qf6 31. Qd3 Ra3 32. Rb3 Ra2 33. R1b2 Ra1+ 34. Bf1 R8a3 35. Rxa3 Rxa3 36. Rb3 Ra2 37. Be2 Nc8 38. Rc3 Nd6 39. Rc2 Ra4 40. Qb3 Ra1+ 41. Kg2 Nxe4 42. Qb2 Ra8 43. Qxe5 Qxe5 44. Nxe5 Rd8 45. f4 Nf6 46. Bc4 Bd6 47. Rb2 Bxe5 48. fxe5 Nxd5 49. Kf3 Nc7 50. Rxb6 Re8 51. Rc6 Re7 52. Kf4 Kf8 53. Rd6 Ne8 54. Rd8 Rb7 55. Bd5 Rc7 56. Bb3 Rb7 57. Bd5 Rc7 58. Kf5 Ke7 59. Rb8 Rc1 60. Bb3 Rc3 61. g4 Nc7 62. Rb7 Rf3+ 63. Ke4 Rc3 64. Kd4 Rc1 65. Bc4 Rd1+ 66. Bd3 Kd8 67. Ke4 Ne6 68. Rb5? Re1+ 69. Kf5 Nd4+ 70. Kf4 Nxb5 71. Bxb5 Ke7 72. Bc4 Rc1 73. Bd5 Rf1+ 74. Ke4 Re1+ 75. Kf4 f6 76. e6 Re5 77. Bc4 Kd6 78. Ba2 Rb5 79. Kf3 f5 80. Kf4 fxg4 81. Kxg4 Rg5+ 82. Kh4 Ke7 83. Bc4 Kf6 84. Ba2 Rb5 85. Kg4 Rb2 86. Bd5 Rb4+ 87. Kg3 Rb5 88. Bf3 Kxe6 89. Bg4+ Kf6 90. Be2 Rb4 0-1

White: Roslina Marmono (Malaysia)

Black: Sohair Basta (Eqypt)

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 c5 5. e3 cxd4 6. exd4 Nc6 7. Nf3 O-O 8. Bd3 h6 9. O-O d5 10. c5 Bxc3 11. bxc3 Qc7 12. Re1 a6 13. h3 Bd7 14. Ne5 Ne7 15. Bf4 Qa5 16. Nxd7 Nxd7 17. Rab1 Ra7 18. Bd6 Re8 19. f4 Qd8 20. f5 exf5 21. Bxf5 Nxf5 22. Qxf5 Nf6 23. Rxe8+ Qxe8 24. Qe5 Qxe5 25. dxe5 Ne4 26. Rb3 Nxd6 27. exd6 Kf8 28. c4 dxc4 29. Re3 Ra8 30. Rc3 Ke8 31. Rxc4 Kd7 32. Kf2 Re8 33. Rc2 Re5 34. Kf3 g5 35. g4 Kc6 36. Kf2 Re4 37. Rd2 Kd7 38. Re2 Rc4 39. Re7+ Kd8 40. Rxb7 Rxc5 ½-½ 

White: Fayrouz Elgohary (Eqypt)

Black: Fong Mi Yen (Malaysia)

1. d4 g6 2. Nf3 Bg7 3. e4 d6 4. Nbd2 Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bd3 e5 7. O-O O-O 8. h3 Nh5 9. Nb3 h6 10. Be3 Qf6 11. Nc1 Kh7 12. Ne2 Bxh3 13. Ng3 Bg4 14. Nxh5 gxh5 15. Be2 Rg8 16. dxe5 dxe5 17. Nh2 Rad8 18. Qc2 Qg6 19. Nxg4 hxg4 20. Rad1 Bf6 21. Rxd8 Bxd8 22. g3 h5 23. Kg2 Rh8 24. Rh1 Kg7 25. Bd2 Ne7 26. Bd3 Qf6 27. Qd1 Ng6 28. Be3 a6 29. Bc2 Be7 30. Qe2 b5 31. a3 c5 32. Bd1 Nf4+ 33. gxf4 exf4 34. Bxf4 Qxf4 35. Qd3 Rd8 36. Qg3 Qxe4+ 0-1

Up next  

UPSI open

The Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will organize an open chess tournament at their university campus in Tanjung Malim, Perak on Oct 23-24. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. Entry fees are RM30 (open), RM15 (school children) and RM10 (UPSI students). More details from Mohd Huzairi (013.5959350, mohdhuzairi89@yahoo.com) or Izza Hasrina (012.7412326). 

Giant Kulai open

The Johor Bahru Chess Association, Rakan Muda Johor Bahru and the Giant Kulai Hypermarket are jointly organizing a Giant Kulai open chess tournament in the hypermarket’s premises in Kulai, Johor on Oct 31. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control games. Entry fees are RM12 (players below 12 years old), RM15 (players below 16 years old) and RM30 (other players). Entries close on Oct 29. More information available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@yahoo.com). 

MSSM-Masterskill chess

The Polgar Chess Asia will organise the MSSM-Masterskill national scholastics chess championship at the Masterskill University College campus in Ipoh, Perak on Nov 8-12 in association with the Ministry of Education, Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Malaysia and the Malaysian Chess Federation. 

There will be six age group events: under-13 open and girls sections, under-11 open and girls sections, and under-9 open and girls sections, and each state, through their respective schools’ sports councils, may enter one official player for each section. individual non-official entries are also accepted with a RM100 entry fee. 

The respective winners get the right to be the official Malaysian representatives at the Asian schools chess championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Dec 16-23. More details available from Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia) or Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com). 

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control games. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship in Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Death by ringtone

If you had been watching the final round of the Chess Olympiad games live via the Internet from Khanty Mansiysk on Sunday, surely you would have noticed something amiss in the match between Malaysia and Bahrain. 

I was greatly puzzled while watching Mas Hafizulhelmi’s game. Although he was playing with the black pieces, he had already obtained a very comfortable position after 80 minutes of play . The game was transitioning from the opening stage to the middle game and it was starting to get exciting when abruptly it ended and a loss appeared against our player’s name. 

Of course, I couldn’t see what was happening in Khanty Mansisyk. All of us who were logged into the Chess Olympiad web server could only see this terminated chess board position with a terrible 1-0 score (see Diagram One). With no live video feed and no way to reach our players, we were all kept in deep suspense.

To make matters worse, I could see that Mok Tze Meng, Peter Long and Gregory Lau were all still playing as normal. Was there something wrong in Khanty Mansiysk? I was hoping that perhaps there was a problem with the organiser’s chess display software. But what if there was no problem and Mas Hafizul had indeed lost his game? If it was so, it would now need a big effort from the rest of our boys to overcome Bahrain.

To cut a long strong short, yes, our team managed to beat Bahrain but it was by the slimmest of margin. Long played out his game to a draw and then Lau uncorked a tactical surprise to bring in a whole point and keep the match level. Then, Mok settled matters with a win as well.

But what actually happened in Mas Hafizul’s game? It was not until about two days later that word filtered back from Khanty Mansiysk that he had fallen victim to what many chess players loosely call the dreaded Nokia Gambit: a mobile phone going off during a chess tournament.

According to rules of chess, all mobile devices are banned from chess tournaments. If any mobile device – and this includes a mobile phone – were to sound during play, the offending player would lose the game immediately. 

Since 2003, many chess players have found out to their deepest regret that the ringing mobile phone would bring about instant death. No two ways about it. In that year, the former Fide world champion, Ruslan Ponomariov, was the high profile offender when his mobile rang during a game. It was his 20th birthday and someone had called him to wish him Happy Birthday without knowing that his game was going on. An immediate loss.

Two years ago in another tournament, Nigel Short suffered the same fate when his new mobile phone tootled when it ran out of battery juice. Another immediate loss, another victim.

And in between those two celebrated cases, countless other players – both known and unknown – have also lost their games to a ringing mobile. Several years ago in Penang, I remember that there was this one same player who lost two games in two separate tournaments because his mobile phone went off. He never learnt his lesson the first time.

But by and large, chess players are getting smarter. They now remember to turn their mobile to the silent mode before they sit down at the chess board. Mas Hafizul, it seemed, had also done so. He confirmed having put his mobile into the silent mode. 

However, he did not reckon with his mobile phone’s alarm going off. Apparently, it doesn’t matter whether or not a mobile phone is in silent mode. When it’s time for the alarm to go off, it will. Mas Hafizul had set his alarm to go off daily at 12.20p.m. because he wanted to be reminded of lunch time. Unfortunately, the final round of the Chess Olympiad had started earlier at 11a.m. instead of the usual 3p.m. 

So, after 80 minutes into his game, amidst all the silence in the vast tournament hall, Mas Hafizul’s mobile suddenly woke up at 12.20p.m. I’m sure everyone in the Malaysian team were equally alarmed but none more alarmed than the unlucky mobile phone’s owner himself. No way could he extricate himself from this mess. And there was no other result than an immediate loss.

That explained everything. That explained why, after only 23 moves into the game and in an otherwise interesting position, the Malaysian team suddenly found themselves one game down. It wasn’t that our player was outplayed. No, he just became the latest victim of the dreaded mobile phone.

White: Mok Tze Meng (Malaysia)

Black: Khalil Bukhalaf (Bahrain)

1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ gxf6 6. g3 Bf5 7. Bg2 e6 8. O-O Bg7 9. Re1 O-O 10. d4 Nd7 11. c4 Nb6 12. Qb3 Qd7 13. a4 Rfd8 14. a5 Nc8 15. Bf4 Ne7 16. Ra4 Ng6 17. Bd2 Rab8 18. Bc3 e5 19. Raa1 exd4 20. Bxd4 b6 21. Qc3 Qd6 22. c5 bxc5 23. Bxc5 Qc7 24. Nd4 Bd7 25. a6 Bf8 26. Bxf8 Kxf8 27. Bxc6 Rdc8 28. Rac1 Bxc6 29. Qa3+ Kg7 30. Rxc6 Qd7 31. Rd6 Qc7 32. Qf3 Rb6 33. Qxf6+ 1-0 (After 33…Kh6 34. Qh4+ Kg7 35. Nf5+ Kg8 36. Qf6, checkmate follows.)

White: Gregory Lay (Malaysia)

Black: Husain Ayyad (Bahrain)

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 d6 3. g3 Nbd7 4. Bg2 e5 5. c4 g6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. dxe5 dxe5 8. O-O O-O 9. Qc2 c6 10. Rd1 Qc7 11. b3 Re8 12. Ba3 e4 13. Nd2 e3 14. fxe3 Ng4 15. Nf1 Qa5 16. Bb2 Nc5 (See Diagram Two. The start of an unfortunate adventure) 17. h3 Nxe3 18. Nxe3 Rxe3 19. b4 (An absolute spiffy tactical shot which Black did not see coming) 19…Qxb4 20. Rd8+ Bf8 21. Qd2 Re7 22. Nd5 Rxe2 23. Nf6+ Kg7 24. Nh5+ Kg8 25. Rxf8+ 1-0 (It’s checkmate after 25…Kxf8 26. Qd8+ Re8 27. Bg7+ Kg8 28. Qxe8.)

Up next  

UTP rapid chess

As part of Universiti Teknologi Petronas’ convocation programme this year, there will be a national rapid chess open tournament at the main hall of the university’s campus in Tronoh, Perak tomorrow and on Sunday. The Malaysian Chess Federation and the Perak International Chess Association are the co-organisers with the University. Seven round, 45-minute time control. Entry fees are RM35 (adults and players below 18 years old), RM30 (players below 16 years old) and RM25 (players below 12 years old). Closing date for entries is Oct 2. More information available from Saeksarn Sinnaso (017.5514682, saeksarnskill@gmail.com), Zulaizat (013.4666195) or visit http://nationalrapidchess.blogspot.com

UPSI open

The Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will organize an open chess tournament at their university campus in Tanjung Malim, Perak on Oct 23-24. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. Entry fees are RM30 (open), RM15 (school children) and RM10 (UPSI students). More details from Mohd Huzairi (013.5959350, mohdhuzairi89@yahoo.com) or Izza Hasrina (012.7412326). 

Penang open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organize the Penang Heritage City international open chess championship at the Penang City Hall in George Town, Penang on Dec 8-12. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM5,000 first prize. Nine rounds, full time control. Entry fees for the open tournament are RM50 (Fide-rated player), RM150 (PCA member) and RM180 (others), while for the challengers section, they are RM30 (Fide-rated player), RM50 (PCA member) and RM80 (others). Contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@streamyx.com) for more details.

MSSM-Masterskill chess

The Polgar Chess Asia will organise the MSSM-Masterskill national scholastics chess championship at the Masterskill University College campus in Ipoh, Perak on Nov 8-12 in association with the Ministry of Education, Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Malaysia and the Malaysian Chess Federation. 

There will be six age group events: under-13 open and girls sections, under-11 open and girls sections, and under-9 open and girls sections, and each state, through their respective schools’ sports councils, may enter one official player for each section. individual non-official entries are also accepted with a RM100 entry fee. 

The respective winners get the right to be the official Malaysian representatives at the Asian schools chess championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Dec 16-23. More details available from Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia) or Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com). 

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship in Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Mixed fortunes

It is at times like this, with the Chess Olympiad in full swing, that I yearn to own the biggest computer monitor so that I can open multiple windows with my web browser and view several chess games simultaneously.

In any given round of this Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, there are 524 games being played at the same time. Of course, many games are not worth the time to follow but certainly, it is always useful to keep an eye out for those match-ups between the top countries. And there are plenty.

Then there are always the games of the Malaysian teams. Regardless of who they play with – be it a strong opposing team or a weak team – as a Malaysian, I follow their progress very closely. 

I cheer when the team wins and I despair when they miss winning chances and lose. So far in this Chess Olympiad, I’ve had my fair share of high and low emotions.

Take, for example, the seventh round on Tuesday. The men were playing a team from the International Committee for Silent Chess (ICSC). The ICSC is one of three non-country teams in the event, the other two being the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA).

The match between Malaysia and the ICSC started off well enough and our players – Mas Hafizulhelmi, Mok Tze Meng, Tan Khai Boon and Peter Long – were actually pressing their opponents hard. There were good chances of them winning the match. 

But suddenly, the positions turned against them. Mok came under heavy pressure, could not defend his position adequately and had to resign his game. Long’s defence unravelled and he had to resign also. Mas Hafizul suddenly found his king being encircled by enemy pieces and he too had to give up. These frustrations aside, the consolation came when Tan rounded off the evening with a decisive attack on his opponent. That game cheered me up. Here it is.

White: Tan Khai Boon (Malaysia)

Black: Vladimir Klasan (ICSC)

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 Nbd7 7. Nxc4 Nb6 8. Ne5 a5 9. f3 Nfd7 10. Nxd7 Nxd7 11. e4 Bg6 12. Be2 Qb6 13. h4 h5 14. f4 e6 15. O-O e5 16. f5 exd4 17. fxg6 dxc3+ 18. Kh1 O-O-O 19. bxc3 Ne5 20. Qc2 f6 21. Rb1 Qa7 22. Bf4 Nxg6 23. e5 Nxf4 24. Rxf4 Be7 25. Qf5+ Kc7 26. Qg6 Qc5 27. Rc4 Qa3 28. Qe4 Bc5 29. Bf3 Rc8 30. Qg6 Rhe8 31. Qxg7+ Re7 32. Qxf6 Rce8 (see Diagram One) 33. Rxb7+ Kxb7 34. Qxc6+ Ka7 35. Rxc5 Qc1+ 36. Kh2 Qf4+ 37. g3 Qd2+ 38. Bg2 Qd8 39. Rb5 Qc7 40. Qd5 Ka6 41. Rc5 1-0

Until the seventh round of this Chess Olympiad, the most memorable round for us Malaysians must be the third. Our men were paired with a strong Lithuanian team that comprised three grandmasters and one international master. Like many others watching through the Internet, we were expecting the worst to happen but on the contrary, our players rose to the occasion and at one point there were real chances of our team winning the match. Unfortunately, that was not to be and all they got away with was a tied match.

This, here, is Mas Hafizul’s Herculean effort on the first board. In my opinion, a masterful game in which he gave up a pawn but completely tied down his grandmaster opponent. A good strategical decision.

White: Eduardas Rozentalis (Lithuania)

Black: Mas Hafizulhelmi (Malaysia)

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Nc6 4. O-O Bd7 5. Re1 Nf6 6. h3 a6 7. Bf1 Ne5 8. Nxe5 dxe5 9. a4 e6 10. b3 Bc6 11. d3 Bd6 12. a5 Bc7 13. Bd2 O-O 14. Bc3 Nd7 15. Nd2 Bb5 16. Qb1 Rc8 17. Nc4 f6 18. g3 Rf7 19. Bg2 Nb8 20. Qd1 Nc6 21. Qd2 Bxc4 22. bxc4 Nb4 23. Bxb4 cxb4 24. Qxb4 Bd6 25. Qd2 Bf8 26. Red1 Rd7 27. Qe1 Bc5 28. Rdb1 Rf7 29. Qd2 Qd6 30. Kh1 Ba7 31. Ra4 Rcc7 32. Rf1 Rfd7 (see Diagram Two) 33. f4 Qd4 34. Qe2 exf4 35. gxf4 Rc5 36. Ra3 g6 37. Qf3 Qb2 38. Rfa1 Qxc2 39. Rf1 Qb2 40. Rfa1 Rh5 41. R3a2 Qc3 42. Ra3 Qb4 43. Ra4 Qd6 44. Rf1 Bb8 45. c5 Rxc5 46. d4 Qc6 47. dxc5 Qxa4 48. e5 Qc2 49. exf6 Qxc5 50. Qb3 Kf7 51. Bxb7 Qxa5 52. Bc8 Qd5+ 53. Qxd5 Rxd5 54. Re1 Rd6 55. Ra1 Rc6 56. Bb7 Rb6 57. Bc8 Rc6 58. Bb7 Rc3 59. Bxa6 Rxh3+ 60. Kg2 Rc3 61. Ra4 Kxf6 62. Bb7 Kf5 63. Be4+ Kf6 64. Bf3 Rc2+ 65. Kh3 Rf2 66. Kg3 Rb2 67. Kh3 Bd6 68. Rd4 Rb6 69. Kg2 Kf5 70. Be4+ Kf6 71. Bf3 Bb8 72. Bg4 Rb2+ 73. Kf3 h5 74. Bh3 Rb3+ 75. Kg2 e5 76. fxe5+ Bxe5 77. Rd7 g5 78. Rh7 Rg3+ 79. Kh2 Re3+ 80. Kg2 Kg6 0-1

And below is Mok’s game in the same Malaysia-Lithuania match. Our player had very good chances to win but he missed the best continuation and allowed his grandmaster opponent to wriggle out with a draw.

White: Mok Tze Meng (Malaysia)

Black: Sarunas Sulskis (Lithuania)

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Be6 4. d3 Nf6 5. Nc3 c5 6. Bg5 Be7 7. Bxf6 Bxf6 8. Nd5 Nd7 9. h3 Nb6 10. Nxb6 Qxb6 11. b3 Qc6 12. a4 O-O 13. O-O d5 14. exd5 Bxd5 15. Bxd5 Qxd5 16. Qe2 g6 17. Qe4 Qxe4 18. dxe4 c4 19. Rfd1 Rfd8 20. Kf1 Rac8 21. Rxd8+ Rxd8 22. Ke2 Be7 23. Rd1 Rxd1 24. Kxd1 f6 25. Nd2 cxb3 26. cxb3 Kf7 27. Ke2 Ke6 28. Kd3 Bc5 29. f3 h5 30. Kc4 Be3 31. Nb1 Bd4 32. Na3 f5 33. Nb5 Bf2 34. Nc7+ Kd6 35. exf5 gxf5 36. Ne8+ Ke7 37. Ng7 h4 38. Nxf5+ Ke6 39. Nh6 Be3 40. Ng4 Bb6 41. b4 Bg1 42. Kd3 Kf5 43. Ke2 a6 44. Nf2 b6 45. Kf1 Bh2 46. Ne4 Bf4 47. Ke2 Bh2 48. Kd3 (see Diagram Three) 48…Kf4 49. Ke2 Bg1 50. Nc3 Bd4 51. Nd5+ Kg3 52. Kf1 a5 53. bxa5 bxa5 54. Nf6 Kf4 55. Nd5+ Kg3 56. Ne7 Kf4 57. Ke2 Kg3 58. Nf5+ Kxg2 59. Nxh4+ Kxh3 60. Nf5 Bb6 61. Kd3 Kg2 62. Ke4 Kf2 63. Nh6 Ke2 64. Nf5 Bc7 65. Ne7 Bd6 66. Nc6 Bc7 67. Na7 Kf2 68. Nb5 Bb8 69. Na3 Ke2 70. Nc4 Bc7 71. Nb2 Bb8 72. Nd3 Bd6 73. Nc1+ Kf2 74. Nb3 Bb4 75. Na1 Ke2 76. Nc2 Kd2 77. Ne3 Kc3 78. Kxe5 Kb3 79. Kd5 Kxa4 80. Nc4 ½-½ 

If you also want to watch the Chess Olympiad games through the Internet, visit the official website at http://www.ugra-chess.com. Today’s penultimate round starts at 5pm local time. Tomorrow is a rest day for the competition and the final round will be contested on Sunday at 1pm.

Up next  

UTP rapid chess

As part of Universiti Teknologi Petronas’ convocation programme this year, there will be a national rapid chess open tournament at the main hall of the university’s campus in Tronoh, Perak on Oct 9-10. The Malaysian Chess Federation and the Perak International Chess Association are the co-organisers with the University. Seven round, 45-minute time control. Entry fees are RM35 (adults and players below 18 years old), RM30 (players below 16 years old) and RM25 (players below 12 years old). Closing date for entries is Oct 2. More information available from Saeksarn Sinnaso (017.5514682, saeksarnskill@gmail.com), Zulaizat (013.4666195) or visit http://nationalrapidchess.blogspot.com

UPSI open

The Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will organize an open chess tournament at their university campus in Tanjung Malim, Perak on Oct 23-24. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. Entry fees are RM30 (open), RM15 (school children) and RM10 (UPSI students). More details from Mohd Huzairi (013.5959350, mohdhuzairi89@yahoo.com) or Izza Hasrina (012.7412326). 

MSSM-Masterskill chess

The Polgar Chess Asia will organise the MSSM-Masterskill national scholastics chess championship at the Masterskill University College campus in Ipoh, Perak on Nov 8-12 in association with the Ministry of Education, Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Malaysia and the Malaysian Chess Federation. 

There will be six age group events: under-13 open and girls sections, under-11 open and girls sections, and under-9 open and girls sections, and each state, through their respective schools’ sports councils, may enter one official player for each section. individual non-official entries are also accepted with a RM100 entry fee. 

The respective winners get the right to be the official Malaysian representatives at the Asian schools chess championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Dec 16-23. More details available from Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia) or Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com). 

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship in Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.

 

Olympiad begins

Finally, the main chess event of the year – the World Chess Olympiad 2010 – gets underway in Khanty-Mansiysk, a Russian town that’s buried deep in Siberia. Today is already the fourth day of the event which will continue until Oct 3.

Altogether there are 260 teams participating in the competition, of which 146 are in the open Olympiad and 114 in the women’s Olympiad. 

We are represented by two teams. Our men’s team – comprising Mas Hafizulhelmi, Mok Tze Meng, Tan Khai Boon, Peter Long and Gregory Lau – and our women’s team – consisting up of Alia Anin Azwa Bakri, Nur Nabila Azman Hisham, Nurul Huda Wahiduddin, Fong Mi Yen and Roslina Marmono – all left for Khanty-Mansiysk last Saturday via a long roundabout route that took them through Dubai and Moscow.

Controversially, Russia are represented by five very strong men’s team in the open Olympiad and three in the women’s Olympiad. The two “Russia A” teams are the top seeds and they are looking to wrest the title from Armenia and Georgia, the open and women’s team winners of the last Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany two years ago.

There were questions asked about why the organizing country had been allowed to field so many teams. Apparently, it seemed that Russia was first promised three teams in the open Olympiad.

The regulations allowed them an additional team should there be an odd number of teams, which there was, and then when Romania pulled out of the Chess Olympiad at the last minute, a vacancy was created and the World Chess Federation (Fide) granted the organizers a replacement.

The first round of any open chess event would normally be uneventful. Although it would be unlikely for any of the stronger teams to lose their matches against the weaker ones, casualties do happen on the individual boards.

In the open Olympiad, one of the earliest surprises was the second-board loss by Indian grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna to an unheralded Tim Kett of Wales. A few minutes later, there was an even greater shock when Vietnam’s top board, the 19-year-old grandmaster Le Quang Liem, fell to Botswana’s Phemelo Khetho. 

White: GM Le Quang Liem (Vietnam)

Black: Phemelo Khetho (Botswana)

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. b3 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. Bb2 Bf5 6. c3 e6 7. Be2 cxd4 8. exd4 Bd6 9. O-O Ne4 10. Nbd2 Qf6 11. c4 Qh6 12. cxd5 Nxd2 13. Qxd2 Bxh2+ 14. Nxh2 Qxd2 15. dxc6 Qxe2 16. cxb7 Rb8 17. Ba3 Qa6 18. Bc5 f6 19. Rfe1 Kf7 20. a4 Qxb7 21. b4 h5 22. a5 a6 23. Re3 h4 24. Nf3 h3 25. g3 h2+ 26. Nxh2 Rxh2 27. Kxh2 Rh8+ 0-1

The first round also saw the Malaysian men’s team losing to a very strong England team. It was an expected result but the blushes were saved by Mas Hafizul’s quick draw with the England grandmaster, Michael Adams, in a position that still promised lots of play for both sides:

 

White: IM Mas Hafizulhelmi (Malaysia)

Black: GM Michael Adams (England)

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d3 Nc6 4. Nc3 Na5 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 c6 7. a3 Nxc4 8. dxc4 d6 9. Qd3 Be6 10. Nge2 Be7 11. b3 g5 12. Bg3 Qa5 13. f3 O-O-O 14. O-O Kb8 15. Rfb1 h5 16. Bf2 Nd7 17. a4 Rc8 18. b4 Qd8 19. a5 g4 ½-½ 

The Malaysia women’s team lost all their games to Slovakia.

The battles on the chessboard are actually a prelude to a much more important contest in the days to come: the Fide elections on Sep 29 between the incumbent president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov. Leading to this very pivotal election, it has been a very acrimonious campaign by both candidates.

The presidential elections next week should be proceeding as planned unless there is already a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne in Karpov’s favour. The former world champion had filed a suit at the Court to disqualify Ilyumzhinov and his team. At this time of writing, no decision has been announced yet.

Interesting days are ahead for chess….

Up next  

DATCC weekender

The Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur will organize the fourth DATCC super supreme rapid chess weekender tournament at their premises on Sep 26. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control.

Entry fees are RM15 (players below 12 years old) and RM30 (others). Contact Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com) or Justin Kumar (018.3960781, kjustin09@yahoo.com) for more information.

Perak grand prix

The Kampar leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak grand prix chess tournament, sponsored by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, will be played at the Grand Kampar Hotel in Kampar, Perak on Sep 26. Seven rounds, 25-minute time control.

Entry fees are RM25 (open), RM15 (under-16 players) and RM10 (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), Sukumaran (012.5252445) or Kamaruddin (019.4316793). More details are available from http://perakchess.blogspot.com 

UTP rapid chess

As part of Universiti Teknologi Petronas’ convocation programme this year, there will be a national rapid chess open tournament at the main hall of the university’s campus in Tronoh, Perak on Oct 9-10. The Malaysian Chess Federation and the Perak International Chess Association are the co-organisers with the University. Seven round, 45-minute time control. Entry fees are RM35 (adults and players below 18 years old), RM30 (players below 16 years old) and RM25 (players below 12 years old). Closing date for entries is Oct 2. More information available from Saeksarn Sinnaso (017.5514682, saeksarnskill@gmail.com), Zulaizat (013.4666195) or visit http://nationalrapidchess.blogspot.com

UPSI open

The Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will organize an open chess tournament at their university campus in Tanjung Malim, Perak on Oct 23-24. Seven rounds, one-hour time control games. Entry fees are RM30 (open), RM15 (school children) and RM10 (UPSI students). More details from Mohd Huzairi (013.5959350, mohdhuzairi89@yahoo.com) or Izza Hasrina (012.7412326). 

MSSM-Masterskill chess

The Polgar Chess Asia will organise the MSSM-Masterskill national scholastics chess championship at the Masterskill University College campus in Ipoh, Perak on Nov 8-12 in association with the Ministry of Education, Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Malaysia and the Malaysian Chess Federation. 

There will be six age group events: under-13 open and girls sections, under-11 open and girls sections, and under-9 open and girls sections, and each state, through their respective schools’ sports councils, may enter one official player for each section. individual non-official entries are also accepted with a RM100 entry fee. 

The respective winners get the right to be the official Malaysian representatives at the Asian schools chess championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Dec 16-23. More details available from Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia) or Gregory Lau (greglau64@gmail.com). 

Sarawak open

The Lanang Chess Association and Sarawak Chess Association will jointly organize the Universal Chinese Sports Sarawak open chess championship in Sibu, Sarawak on Dec 17-19. This will be a FIDE-rated event with a RM2,500 first prize. Eight rounds, full time control. Entry fees are RM50 (adults) and RM25 (ladies and players below 18 years old). Contact Joseph Ting (016.8893185, fax: 084.331451) or Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, lkhwa@tm.net.my) for more details.