Doyen of local chess

Last week, I was writing about the youngest faces that had come to play, and perhaps to make a name for themselves, in the main event of this year’s Malaysian Chess Festival, the Arthur Tan Malaysian open chess championship.

It then struck me that if I want to do a similar story on the oldest player in the festival, I would have to look not at this same event but instead, I would have to cast my eye at the Lee Loy Seng seniors open chess championship for inspiration. 

But then again, everybody – and by “everybody”, I mean all of us in the chess circle – knows for a certainty that currently, the oldest active chess player in the country is none other than Datuk Tan Chin Nam himself.

He is the doyen of Malaysian chess, all 85 years of him. Although he was perhaps frailer than when I last saw him about a year ago, his mind was still as keen as ever. “Still up to playing chess,” he reminded me when we sat across the chessboard in the second round.

Tan, however, for all his enthusiasm, soon found out to his dismay that results still favoured the more, ahem, younger seniors as he finished the event with a modest 1½ points that he collected from nine games.

But despite the setback, he still took pride in his final game of the tournament. He lost but for much of that game he showed that he could still mix it up as well as his opponent. He absorbed the attack in a complicated game and then simplified the position to a point where he held a piece advantage. It was only a gross blunder in the critical last hour of play when tiredness had crept into both players’ game that spoilt everything for Tan. 

A draw would have been an equitable result in that game, seeing that both he and his opponent had fought and defended well.

Readers may remember that at last year’s Malaysian Chess Festival, Tan had announced that he intended to take a two-year sabbatical from sponsoring the festival so that he could enjoy playing the game for once without thinking about pumping money into organizing it. 

There could be other reasons and I would think that one of them was that he wanted to see how the organizers would rise to the challenge and continue with this chess festival with only his moral support.

Well, I would believe that he was encouraged by what he saw: the hard work put in by the organizers in the last two to three months to get their acts together. At the closing ceremony of the festival, he promised to end his sojourn and make next year’s edition the grandest Malaysian Chess Festival of all.

By the way, perhaps I should also mention that as the most senior chess player at the festival, Tan was at least 10 years older than the next most senior competitor, Thailand’s 74-year-old Pricha Srivatanakul.

   

 

Up next

National rapidchess

The Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Tronoh, Perak will organize the second national rapidchess championship at their university campus tomorrow and on Sunday on behalf of the Malaysian Chess Federation and the Perak International Chess Association. Eight rounds, with a time control of 25 minutes and 10-second increment per move. First prize for the open category is RM1,000. Entry fees are RM30 (players under 12 years old), RM35 (players under 16 years old) and RM40 (all others). For enquiries, contact Ariana (019.5451813), Nabilah (014.9045157), Thakshna Moorthy (016.9950070) or Khairil Anwar (013.3533720). More information also from http://nrcc2011.blogspot.com 

DATCC events

The Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC) at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur is now open daily to chess players. Operating hours: Mondays to Fridays (1pm to 8pm), Saturdays and Sundays (9am to 5pm). 

DATCC Blitz Sunday

The DATCC will hold a blitz tournament at the Wilayah Complex on Oct 9. A prize fund of RM500 is on offer, More information available from Kaber Azzad (012.6178624, info@chess-malaysia.com).

 

DATCC team open

The first round of the fourth DATCC team open team chess tournament will be played at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur starting Oct 22. Thereafter, the next seven rounds will be played on consecutive Tuesdays, and the final round on Dec 24. Entry fee is RM400 per team with a maximum of 10 players in each team. Total prize money is RM6,000. More information available from http://datcchess.blogspot.com. 

 

The future of chess

Truth be told, the Malaysian Chess Festival wasn’t a holiday for any player taking part in any of the events. After all, there wasn’t time to take things easy. As a player, I was struggling with my own personal demons during almost every round, be it the position on the chessboard or the remaining time on the chess clock as it ticked away.

There was only one round where my game ended relatively early and it gave me the only odd pleasure to walk around the tournament hall to look at the other games and take note of my fellow strugglers, especially those playing at the main event, the Arthur Tan Malaysian open championship.

Some of those in chess agony or chess ecstasy were very familiar, having seen them almost year in and year out, but by and large, fresh faces made up a significantly large proportion of the faces.

While wandering around the tables, I couldn’t help but noticed that at this main event, the average age of the players could be rather young.

It was a very intriguing thought which was later proven correct when I badgered the organizers to let me take a look at the details of the participants. Of the 98 players in the Malaysian open tournament, 44 of them were aged 21 years old or younger. That constituted almost 45 percent of the field. Add a further five players who were born in 1989 and exactly half the field were below 22 years old.

As I was scrolling through the participants’ details on the computer, I could almost hear my editor bellowing down on me that this would be a good angle for this column. So I decided to start off in search of the youngest participants in the Malaysian open.

There were three, all born in 1999 which would make them at the most, 12 years old. I gulped. Twelve years “young” and already taking part in a chess event where they would sit as equals across the chessboard with players possibly twice or thrice their age, or perhaps even older!

The most successful of the trio was Bai Jinshi from China. Born in May 1999, he finished eventually overall in 28th position. Nobody would have thought much of this player if not for him creating a sensation by beating Ju Wenjun, the Chinese woman grandmaster who weeks earlier had won a strong international tournament in Hangzhou ahead of reigning women’s world champion Hou Yifan. But there was more to come from Bai in the Malaysia open when two rounds later, he added the experienced grandmaster from Uzbekistan, Saidali Yuldashev, to his list of victims. 

Zachary Loh and Karl Zelesco, both hailing from Melbourne in Australia, were the other two players who were born in 1999. Loh, who was born in April and who had a precious experience playing overseas at the world youth championship for under-12 players last year, was the oldest of the trio while Zelesco turned out to the youngest.

“I’m not 12 yet,” Zelesco told me shyly when I asked him his age. I turned to look at his mother and she told me that he would be celebrating his 12th birthday on Aug 30. So technically, the boy was still 11 years old when he sat at the table to trade blows with his opponents. When I enquired further, she added that her son had been playing actively in Melbourne tournaments for the past year or so. 

This Malaysian open was to be his first international chess competition out of his home country and he even got a chance to play against – and lose to – a grandmaster. But what also interested me was that young Zelesco also played with two other opponents – William Lee Kah Howe and Tan Li Ting – who weren’t that much older than him. In fact, both Lee and Tan were just a year older. Nevertheless, Zelesco took 1½ points from them. 

Satisfied with his 58th position at the Malaysian open? “No,” he sighed, “I could have played better but it was a good experience for me to meet with good chess players from other parts of the world. I want to improve and I’m sure I will.”

Such confidence. It’s incredible what the youngsters, with the correct parental support, can get themselves up to today at the chessboard. Yes, anywhere in the world, they really are the future of chess.

 

Up next

National rapidchess

The Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Tronoh, Perak will be organizing the second national rapidchess championship at their university campus on Oct 1 and 2 on behalf of the Malaysian Chess Federation and the Perak International Chess Association. Eight rounds, with a time control of 25 minutes and 10-second increment per move. First prize for the open category is RM1,000. Entry fees are RM30 (players under 12 years old), RM35 (players under 16 years old) and RM40 (all others). For enquiries, contact Ariana (019.5451813), Nabilah (014.9045157), Thakshna Moorthy (016.9950070) or Khairil Anwar (013.3533720). More information also from http://nrcc2011.blogspot.com 

DATCC events

The Dato Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DATCC) at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur is now open daily to chess players. Operating hours: Mondays to Fridays (1pm to 8pm), Saturdays and Sundays (9am to 5pm). 

The second session of DATCC chess classes for beginners of all ages will start tomorrow at 10am. Please view the class schedule and topics covered at http://datcchess.blogspot.com. More information also from Najib Wahab (016.3382542, najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com).

First DATCC Super Kids weekend tournament for children below the age of 12 will be played tomorrow beginning 9am. Six rounds, 25-minute games. Entry fee: RM10 per player. Details available from Najib Wahab (016.3382542), Kaber Azzad (012.6178624) or Jax Tham (013.3232280) or visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com to download entry form.

 

Worthy winner

Less than a year ago, I overheard a comment that the Filipino players who were taking part in the Penang open of 2010 could not seriously be considered contenders for any future Philippine Olympiad chess team.

Sometimes, it is dangerous to say this because it is possible that something may then happen to show up the folly of this sweeping comment. Time has shown that in the case of Oliver Barbosa, he was indeed a worthy winner. 

Ten months ago, Barbosa was virtually unknown in Malaysia despite him already being an international master with a 2451 rating. But he came to Penang in December last year and snatched the first prize. 

Curious then about this fellow, I made some investigations and seen that he had actually been playing chess for quite a while; even having played in tournaments as far away as in New York during 2009. 

Then he was inactive for about a year, presumably to complete his studies at the University of the Philippines, before he resumed his international chess activities in April 2010. One tournament soon followed another, and the natural confidence soon crept back into his game. 

If he had been a player with a 2451 rating in the November 2010 rating list, his playing strength had shot up to 2538 points on the September 2011 list within 10 months. In the process, he achieved his first grandmaster norm at the 10th Asian continental individual chess championship in Mashhad, Iran in May and his second norm at the Philippine national chess championship in July. 

So ever since July, he had been searching for this third and final norm for his grandmaster chess title. He was disappointed at the Arthur Tan Malaysian open in August when his results fell short of his own expectations.

However, he still had one other bite at the title when he played at the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters chess championship that concluded last Saturday at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences in Kuala Lumpur.

This time around, Barbosa made no mistake in the 10-player round-robin tournament. He turned in a steady performance and then disposed off his nearest rival, Jahongir Vakhidov, who was running neck-to-neck with him at the initial stages.

By the end of the tournament’s seventh round, Barbosa found himself at the threshold of his goal which was duly achieved in the eighth round, coming from a short draw with our own international master, Mas Hafizulhelmi.

So within a remarkable spate of five months, Barbosa turned from an international master to a grandmaster. This title will still need to be ratified and awarded by the World Chess Federation but for all practical purposes, he is already one. 

I should also mention that the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters chess championship confirmed more than one new grandmaster. Apart from Barbosa, another of the Philippines’ international masters, Richard Bitoon, also achieved his final grandmaster title norm.

Bitoon had a much tougher journey towards reaching his goal in this tournament. At the start of the final round of the event, he was in an unenviable must-win situation, needing a full point from an opponent, the Uzbek grandmaster Tahir Vakhidov, who was very solid and had remained undefeated thus far.

The Filipino international master threw everything into the game and he emerged from the vast complications with an advantage. Yet the fact that Vakhidov still managed to put in a stubborn defence meant that this was the final game to finish in the tournament. 

There was a third player whose efforts netted him a grandmaster title norm at this tournament: Jahongir Vakhidov who, incidentally, was the son of the senior Vakhidov. Both the Vakhidovs have been rather regular visitors to the Malaysian Chess Festival and there is great satisfaction to see a young player grow up through the years. 

Now 16-years-old, young Jahongir not only earned himself his first grandmaster title norm but also confirmed his status as an international master. And incidentally, he is placed 30th among the world’s highest ranked under-16 players.

The accompanying Raja Nazrin Shah international open championship was won by the Vietnamese international master Nguyen Duc Hua, a full point ahead of five other international masters and one, Edgar Reggie Olay, who was also confirmed as a new international master at the end of this tournament.        

Up next

Chess world cup

Have you been mesmerized by the excitement of the Chess World Cup in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk? It is still an on-going event but the field has since been reduced to the final four players from the initial list of 128 participants. The final round of four games, which are played over normal regulation time control starts today and will continue until Tuesday. 

The stakes are pretty high as three of the four finalists will qualify to join the Candidates tournament of the next world chess championship cycle. You can watch the live games from the official website at http://chess.ugrasport.com/ starting at 5pm daily.

 

Keeping the tempo

Don’t let the name Chesskidz fool you in any way. This five-player team of four Filipinos and one Ukrainian which powered their way to win this year’s ASTRO Merdeka team rapid open chess championship in Kuala Lumpur comprised very experienced players that included three grandmasters in their line-up. 

Just like the Chinese had dominated the Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship days earlier, the Filipinos showed their indepth strength at the Merdeka team rapid open championship. 

In second place was the PNOY Expats (four Filipino players with one grandmaster in the team) and third went to Chesskidz Shock Troopers (four Filipino players and a lone Malaysian). 

The best all-Malaysian effort went to the team Formidable that comprised three past and present national champions in Marcus Chan, Nicholas Chan and Lim Zhuo Ren, with Yeap Eng Chiam propping up the rear.

After the excitement of the Malaysian Chess Festival, the focus of the chess community here has turned to the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters and international open chess championships at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences in Kuala Lumpur. 

These two tournaments started on Monday but are now towards their tail-ends. There are only three more rounds to be played before conclusion. Today sees the morning seventh round starting at nine o’clock and the afternoon eighth round beginning at three o’clock, while the ninth (and final) round will be played tomorrow morning.  

The first event was the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters tournament in which the organizers had invited 10 players to the round-robin tournament. Originally, the Filipino grandmaster, Joseph Sanchez, was supposed to play in the invitational but at the technical meeting on Sunday, he agreed to make way for the young Indian international master, Das Arghyadip, who was in search of his final grandmaster title norm.

Sanchez thus found himself competing with 65 other players in the Raja Nazrin Shah international open tournament instead. 

But before I say anything more about the open event, I must mention that the round-robin invitational tournament boasts a rather interesting mix of players. Apart from Arghyadip, the other nine players include grandmasters Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam and Singapore’s Dr Wong Meng Kong. Then there are the father-and-son duo of grandmaster Tahir Vakhidov and international master Jahongir Vakhidov from Uzbekistan. The remaining players are all international masters: Richard Bitoon and Oliver Barbosa who are both from the Philippines, Nguyen Van Huy from Vietnam, Goh Wei Ming from Singapore and of course, our own Mas Hafizulhelmi.

As for the open tournament, the number of participants eventually settled at 66. I was told by the tournament director, Peter Long, that he was quite relieved with this number as earlier, he kept getting enquiries from grandmasters and the number of participants had threatened to spill out of control. 

As he was organizing only one open event, he would prefer to keep the tournament at a manageable number and not turn it top heavy. He reasoned that too many grandmasters playing in the tournament could crowd out the lower-ranked local players whom he was encouraging to take part. 

Perhaps he has a point there because this open tournament had attracted 16 local participants that included both our current national champion Lim Zhuo Ren and current national women’s champion Nur Nabila Azman Hisham. That’s almost 25 percent of the field.

Nevertheless, a 66-player field that can boast of enough depth in three grandmasters (Sanchez, Susanto Megaranto and Cerdas Barus), 12 international masters, two woman grandmasters and two woman international masters cannot be that bad, can it?

(Incidentally, Megaranto had made his way to Kuala Lumpur directly from Khanty- Mansiysk in Russia where he had been playing in the Chess World Cup. Maybe he had expected to be eliminated in the very first round because he is here with us today in the thick of the Raja Nazrin Shah international open tournament!) 

 

The two events are organized by the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association with sponsorship from the Masterskill Education Group Berhad under its Educating Malaysia Corporate Social Responsibility programme. 

Up next

Chess world cup

Again, this is just a short note to say that the Chess World Cup is continuing in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk. This is a grueling knock-out event that started with 128 participants 13 days ago and the field has already been whittled down to eight survivors. The fifth round starts today. 

The stakes are pretty high as the top three winners of the event will qualify to join the Candidates tournament of the next world chess championship cycle. The final of this Chess World Cup will be played from next Friday until Tuesday at the latest if tie-break games are needed.  

You can watch live games from the official website at http://chess.ugrasport.com/ Check it out for the schedule of play.

 

Three winners

Right to left: Li Shilong (Malaysia open champion), Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva
(Chess challenge champion) and Dmitry Kayumov (International seniors
champion) with Malaysian Chess Festival organizing chairman Daniel Yong

One clear sign of the eighth Arthur Tan Malaysia open chess championship that ended at the Cititel Midvalley Hotel last week was the sheer dominance of the Chinese players. The Chinese have always been very fervent supporters of the Malaysian Chess Festival – of which the Malaysia open is just one of the three main events – and they had sent a contingent of 20 players to participate in this showcase event.

Frankly, I did not notice any big names among the Chinese unless one counted their woman grandmaster, Ju Wenjun, who had come out tops in July at the first Hangzhou women grandmaster chess tournament, ahead of the reigning women’s world champion, Hou Yifan.

I was very interested to follow her form since that event and I wasn’t disappointed. She was always among the leaders and had ended the Malaysia open placed in sixth position. Her play grew from strength to strength as the tournament approached its finish and she scored two great wins in the eighth and ninth rounds against Filipino grandmaster Oliver Dimakiling and Vietnamese grandmaster Cao Sang. 

Some readers may remember Cao Sang as the Malaysia open winner last year. He didn’t have the same luck this year and was almost unbeaten in the tournament until he met Ju in that ninth round.

Now, you may wonder why I said that the Chinese had dominated this year’s Malaysia open championship. Apart from the petite Ju who finished sixth, the top five winners were also Chinese. 

The new winner of the Malaysia open was their grandmaster, Li Shilong. He last played in this event in 2008, finished in eighth position. This year, he took the limelight by winning the Arthur Tan challenge trophy and the first prize of USD4,000 (about RM12,000).

Second was Chinese international master Lu Shanglei, third was their grandmaster Wen Yang, fourth was Wan Yunguo and fifth was their grandmaster Wang Rui.

In the sixth AmBank chess challenge, Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva of Uzbekistan lived up to her top billing by finishing as the champion in this tournament. Actually, it was a joint tie at the top of the standings with India’s Rohan Vijay Shandilya but a better tie-break ensured that Kurbonboeva was to receive the challenge trophy and the top prize of RM1,000.

Another Uzbek player, grandmaster Dmitry Kayumov, shared the winners’ limelight by successfully defending his title at the second Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng international seniors open chess championship and thus winning the top prize of RM5,000. 

Kayumov’s victory was more or less expected as he was the only grandmaster in the field and his rating was a hundred points above his nearest rival, Filipino international master Luis Chiong. Yet during the tournament, he reached a crisis point when an unexpected loss in the sixth round to Chiong meant that there were three players tied at the top of the standings.

However, Kayumov never looked back after that loss. He won his remaining three games to clinch the first prize as his rivals’ play began spluttering. 

Now that the dust has settled at the Malaysian Chess Festival, attention now turns to the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters and international open chess championships that will be organized at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences in Kuala Lumpur. The two events will run concurrently from this Sunday until Sept 10.

There are actually two events. The first is the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters championship where four veteran grandmasters from Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines and Uzbekistan will be joined by six international masters in a nine-round round-robin tournament. Among the competitors will be Malaysia’s international master, Mas Hafizulhelmi.

The other players in the invitational event are grandmasters Joseph Sanchez (Philippines), Nguyen Anh Dung (Vietnam), Tahir Vakhidov (Uzbekistan) and Dr Wong Meng Kong (Singapore), and international masters Oliver Barbosa and Richard Bitoon (both from the Philippineas), Nguyen Van Huy (Vietnam), Goh Wei Ming (Singapore) and Jahongir Vakhidov (Uzbekistan).

There is also an international open championship going on at the same time, with half the entries being internationally titled players. Malaysia will again depend on youth to lead the fight with 18-year-old national champion Lim Zhou Ren heading the local challenge. 

Also expected to play are our under-14 boys’ champion Roshan Ajeet Singh, under-14 girls’ champion Tan Li Ting, under-10 boys’ champion Teh De Juan and under-10 girls’ champion Teh De Zen. I have also heard that 85-year-old Datuk Tan Chin Nam may be playing too. 

The two events are organised by the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association with sponsorship from the Masterskill Education Group Berhad under its Educating Malaysia Corporate Social Responsibility programme. 

UP NEXT

Chess world cup

Just a short note to say that the Chess World Cup has started in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk. This is a grueling knock-out event that started with 128 participants and half the field being eliminated at the end of every round. The stakes are high as the top three winners of the event will qualify to join the Candidates tournament of the next world chess championship cycle. The final of this Chess World Cup is not expected to start until Sept 16.  

You can watch live games from the official website at http://chess.ugrasport.com/ Check it out for the schedule of play.

Festival highlights

For the better part of the last fortnight, I have been playing in the Malaysia Chess Festival. At the risk of disclosing my age to the whole wide world, I want to mention that I was not participating in the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship but rather, in the KLK Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng senior open tournament.

These two tournaments, together with the AmBank chess challenge, were the main showcase events of this year’s 12-day festival at the Cititel MidValley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

All these ended yesterday but there is no respite for the organizers. It is just one tournament after another and today sees the festival continue with the one-day ASTRO Merdeka individual rapid open tournament. Then tomorrow and on Sunday, the festival ends with the traditional ASTRO Merdeka team rapid open championship.

Earlier this week, I heard from the organizers that more than 80 teams had already registered for the team event, and these were only the early entries. The late entries had yet to be counted and it was anticipated that when they do, the number of teams in this event may go well above one hundred, meaning a possibility of more than 500 people taking part in a chess competition! By comparison, there were “only” 70 teams last year.

As for the three showcase tournaments – all individual events – there were 98 participants in the Malaysia open championship, 40 players in the chess challenge tournament and 29 in the senior open tournament. The numbers may be down from last year but there was still a very respectable list of visiting grandmasters and international masters.

Sandwiched within the nine rounds of the three events was a spectacularly run Swensen’s rapid age group championship, a one-day event that managed to attract 385 junior players from within and outside the country. 

From experience, I can tell you that managing age group chess events can be quite harrowing for organizers. The prospect of controlling the younger players, especially those that are 12 years old and below, can test the nerves of even the coolest organizers. 

Can’t remember how it was like to be a 12-year-old or an eight-year-old kid? For one day, these children reminded me how we were all young once. Surely like us, they are all noisy, boisterous, innocent, excitable, exuberant and impatient, and they have the most impressionable minds on the planet.

But I also marvelled at the ease these young chess players were alternating between being very serious to being very playful. They were full of energy away from the chessboards but by golly, they held such concentration and determination when seated across the board from their opponents.

I should also mention here that among the 385 players was a group of 35 children from Tehran, Iran, none of them older than 14 years old. Together with their parents and chess coaches, they came on an eight-day holiday but had also arranged with the festival organizers to take part in the Swensen’s event as part of their holiday itinerary. 

At the closing ceremony, they even arranged to appear on stage with the sponsors and organizers just to receive their certificates of participation and for some of them, their winner’s medals. 

Looking back at that, I would think that it was very important to the Iranian parents and coaches that this would be an educational trip and the children had something to show and remind them that they had after all come to Malaysia to play chess.

Up next

Merdeka rapid events

Here is a reminder to all local chess players that the ASTRO Merdeka individual rapid open tournament will be played today and the ASTRO Merdeka team rapid open tournament tomorrow and on Sunday. Venue for both events is the Cititel MidValley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. 

It is a bit too late to register for the individual rapid event but for the team rapid event, the entry fees are RM300 for four-player teams and RM375 for five-player teams. Junior teams (all players to be below 16 years old) will be charged at RM200 for four-player teams and RM250 for five-player teams. However, do note that the organizers reserve the right to impose late fees on all last-minute entries. 

For more information, visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com/2011/06/malaysia-chess-festival-is-on.html 

Raja Nazrin Shah open

Formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur open, the Raja Nazrin Shah international open chess tournament takes place at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur on Sep 4-10. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second increment from the first move. For details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia). 

 

Surprising turn

Being named as the top seed in any tournament can work two ways: this top billing can inspire the player to go on to win the event or make the player muck up his attempt to justify the ranking. 

I do observe that at most top chess events in the world, the highest rated player generally justifies his top ranking. Cases in point: at the Biel tournament in Switzerland, the Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen came through beautifully to win; at the Dortmund tournament in Germany, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik cut a swathe through his opposition to take the first prize; at the British championship in England, grandmaster Michael Adams won the play-off for the title; and at the Lake Sevan tournament in Armenia, grandmaster Baadur Jobava won on tie-break after finishing in joint first place.

But for every success in justifying the top seeding, there is also the disappointment. As examples, at the Hangzhou women’s grandmaster tournament, woman grandmaster Ju Wenjun won convincingly ahead of the women’s world champion, Hou Yifan; and at the Fide women’s grandm prix tournament in Rostov, Russia, grandmaster Koneru Humpy was overshadowed by a brilliant display by the same Hou Yifan.

Just earlier this week, the 50th world junior chess championship ended in Chennai, India. For the open event, the top-seeded Maxim Matlakov, a grandmaster from Russia, couldn’t live up to his ranking and after two crucial back-to-back losses, he finished well outside the prizewinners’ list. 

After Matlakov dropped out of contention, the number of front-runners chasing for the world junior championship title was reduced to just four players: the Polish grandmaster, Dariusz Swiercz, two Armenian grandmasters, Robert Hovhannisyan and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, and an Indian Fide master, A Koushik Girish.

Girish dropped out of the picture soon afterwards (but not before he qualified for a grandmaster title norm) and the front-runners were now reduced to only three. On the back of a series of seven consecutive wins, Hovhannisyan had taken over the lead after the ninth round but Ter-Sahakyan and Swiercz were right behind him.

The pressure was relentless as Ter-Sahakyan and Swiercz kept at Hovhannisyan’s heels for the next two rounds. Then, Ter-Sahakyan’s challenge fell apart when he suffered two consecutives losses in his final two games.

With only the final round to be played, Hovhannisyan was left to contend with only Swiercz. At this late stage in the tournament, the Armenian grandmaster held a slim half-point lead over his rival. Swiercz would have to win his final game but it would seem likely to any observer that all Hovhannisyan needed was a draw in the final round to secure the first place.

But chess with all its tie-break possibilities can spring surprises. Hovhannisyan made his draw and Swiercz won his game. Both players were now tied at the top. But surprise, surprise, according to the tie-break system, the draw had actually pulled Hovhannisyan down from the perch, giving him only second place and the silver medal. As a result, Swiercz ended up as the new world junior chess champion despite having trailed in the tournament until the last round was played.

This being the world junior chess championship, Malaysia was represented in this event by the current national champion, Lim Zhuo Ren. Although Lim had been an active player in local tournaments for several years, this event was his first outside the country. (As far as I’m concerned, participating in last year’s Singapore open doesn’t qualify as taking part in a foreign country.)

I think the strength of the event surprised him and taught him many lessons. Though he didn’t create any wave in Chennai, at the very least he played more or less according to his rating expectation. I’m sure that the lessons he brought back from India will be put to good practice at the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship which is in progress at the Cititel MidValley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Speaking of which, today is the second day of the Malaysia Chess Festival of which the Malaysia open is one of the three main showcase events that are running until Aug 25. The other three events are the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng senior open tournament and the AmBank chess challenge. 

All these three events are played daily – do check with the organizers because sometimes there are two rounds in a day and sometimes only one round – but there are two rest days next week on Sunday and Wednesday.

On Sunday, though, the Svensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament will take place at the same venue.

Up next

Merdeka rapid events

Here is a reminder to all local chess players that the Merdeka individual rapid open tournament will be played on Aug 26 and the ASTRO Merdeka team rapid open tournament on Aug 27-28. Venue for both events is the Cititel MidValley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. 

For the individual rapid event, entry fees are RM20 for players below 16 years old and RM30 for others. For the team rapid event, entry fees are RM300 for four-player teams and RM375 for five-player teams. Junior teams (all players to be below 16 years old) will be charged at RM200 for four-player teams and RM250 for five-player teams. 

For more information, visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com/2011/06/malaysia-chess-festival-is-on.html 

Raja Nazrin Shah open

Formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur open, the Raja Nazrin Shah international open chess tournament takes place at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur on Sep 4-10. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second increment from the first move. For details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia). 

 

Five days to go

There are just five days to go before the start of this year’s Malaysia Chess Festival. Are you ready for it? As for me, I’m preparing to make my way down to Kuala Lumpur very soon.

Normally, I would just be spending two or three days at the festival just to soak in the occasion, observing the participants and basically enjoy the fun among the people whom I’ve known for decades. However since last year, I have become more involved in the festival as a somewhat reluctant participant.

Yes, I’ve been roped in again to play in the second Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng seniors open tournament. Not to say that I’m totally prepared for it; I have to admit that just like last year, I am far from being comfortable. Apart from looking at chess games live on the Internet and doing some brief analysis and commentaries for this chess column, I haven’t sat down with real chess pieces and feeling their weight in my hands. Not for quite some time, I haven’t!

So it is with some trepidation that I’m getting myself involved again. And I know that the competition level this year isn’t going to be any easier than the maiden event last year. I took a sneak look at the preliminary list of players yesterday and true enough, it looks tough even before the first move is pushed.

Last year’s tournament had 18 participants but so far, I’ve seen 24 names in the players’ list. I am sure that before the event starts on Aug 18, they may be more additions to this number.

One reason for the increasing number is, of course, more players are now more aware of the existence of this event. Last year was just the curtain raiser; this year is the real competition.

Another reason is that the organizers in their infinite wisdom had decided to lower the age of entry into this tournament from 55 to 50, thereby enabling more people to make the transition from playing in open events to this senior event. It’s a good thought but I should say that the organizers should rein themselves in or otherwise, the continuing lowering of age limit will defeat the idea of holding a senior tournament in the first place.

As for the other two main draws of the Malaysia Chess Festival, the organizers say that they are confident of at least 100 entries for the main event, the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship, while 37 entries have been received for the AmBank chess challenge.

There are at least 17 grandmasters in the Malaysia open and this includes the defending champion, Vietnamese grandmaster Cao Sang. Also taking part are two woman grandmasters and nine international masters. The most prominent names among the Malaysians taking part will be Mas Hafizulhelmi and Lim Zhuo Ren.

These three main events will be held at the Cititel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on Aug 18-25. They will all be played over nine Swiss rounds using a 90-minute plus 30-second increment time control. 

Apart from these long time control tournaments, there are also the Svensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament on Aug 21, of which more than 200 entries have been received so far, and the Malaysia Chess Festival open blitz tournament on Aug 25.

Up next

Merdeka rapid events

Here is a reminder to all local chess players that the Merdeka individual rapid open tournament will be played on Aug 26 and the ASTRO Merdeka team rapid open tournament on Aug 28-29. Venue for both events is the Cititel MidValley in Kuala Lumpur. 

For the individual rapid event, entry fees are RM20 for players below 16 years old and RM30 for others. For the team rapid event, entry fees are RM300 for four-player teams and RM375 for five-player teams. Junior teams (all players to be below 16 years old) will be charged at RM200 for four-player teams and RM250 for five-player teams. 

For more information, visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com/2011/06/malaysia-chess-festival-is-on.html 

Raja Nazrin Shah open

Formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur open, the Raja Nazrin Shah international open chess tournament takes place at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur on Sep 4-10. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second increment from the first move. For details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia).

 

No surprises

To round up on the other two major chess events that had concluded last week in Dortmund and Biel, it didn’t come as a surprise to many that both Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik and Norway’s Magnus Carlsen were convincing winners in their respective tournaments.

In Dortmund, Germany, Kramnik had been dominant in the first half of the double round-robin tournament and though he could not repeat his feat in the second half, the advantage that he brought forward was enough to see him through.

In the final round, he was even tempted to try his luck against the American grandmaster, Hikaru Nakamura. Somewhere in the middlegame, he uncorked a brave sacrifice to open up his opponent’s defences around the king. 

A win would almost certainly have propelled Kramnik into the elite 2800 club of the live ratings list of which there are currently only three players: Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Levon Aronian.

But in this case, fortune did not favour the brave. There was always something in the position that enabled Nakamura’s defence to hold. Possibly, the draw could still be salvaged but at this late stage in the game, Kramnik was probably no longer interested to split the point.

Despite the loss in the final round, the Russian grandmaster still won the tournament with a big two-point margin over his rivals, the nearest of whom was the Vietnamese grandmaster, Le Quang Liem. Ruslan Ponomariov, a former Fide world champion, was third.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, the Biel tournament was won by Carlsen. This was also a double round-robin event which saw the players playing one another twice. However, the organizers had adopted a different scoring system that awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero point for a loss; something that we would probably be more familiar with in football competitions.

There are, of course, merits in trying something different for a change and in this case, the organizers were hoping to impress on the players – and the spectators – that drawing two games have less value than a win and a loss. It would call for fighting chess all the way, which was what the organizers achieved at the end.

Carlsen continued to put in an exemplary display in this event, despite showing a vulnerability in the first half when he lost to the French grandmaster, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. However, this only setback did not cause Carlsen any real damage because his closest rival, Alexander Morozevich, was unlucky enough to lose to Fabiano Caruana. The final standings could have been different had Morozevich won that game. 

Here is Nakamura’s win against Kramnik from the final round of the Dortmund tournament.

Vladimir Kramnik – Hikaru Nakamura, Dortmund 2011

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 Nh5 10. c5 Nf4 11. a4 f5 12. Bc4 fxe4 13. Nxe4 h6 14. Re1 Bg4 15. Ra3 g5 16. h3 Bh5 17. Bxf4 Rxf4 18. g3 Rf8 19. a5 Kh8 20. Kg2 Rb8 21. Qd2 b6 22. axb6 axb6 23. Nfxg5 (see diagram) 

23…hxg5 24. Qxg5 Bg6 25. cxd6 cxd6 26. Ra7 Rc8 27. Rxe7 Rxc4 28. f3 Rc2+ 29. Kg1 Rc8 30. Ra1 Rf7 31. Qxg6 Qxe7 32. Ng5 Kg8 33. Qh7+ Kf8 34. Ne6+ Ke8 35. Qh5 Bf6 36. g4 Qb7 37. Rd1 Qa6 38. Qg6 Ke7 39. g5 Bh8 40. Re1 Qa3 41. Nd4 Qxb4 42. Nf5+ Kf8 43. Rd1 Rc2 44. Nd4 exd4 45. Qxc2 Qc3 46. Qe4 Qe3+ 47. Qxe3 dxe3 48. Kg2 Bc3 49. Kf1 Rxf3+ 50. Ke2 Rxh3 0-1

Up next

Malaysia Chess Festival

According to the organizers of the Malaysian Chess Festival, 95 entries had been received for their showcase event, the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship when entries officially closed on Monday.

We should see at least 15 grandmasters (including the defending champion, Vietnamese grandmaster Cao Sang), two woman grandmasters and nine international masters in the field. The most prominent names among the Malaysians taking part will be Mas Hafizulhelmi and Lim Zhuo Ren.

For the AmBank chess challenge tournament, there are 34 entries presently while 24 players have been registered for the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng international seniors open championship. Uzbek grandmaster Dmitri Kayumov is back to defend his title but an interesting development is that the names of Filipino international master Luis Chiong, Malaysia’s Jimmy Liew and Ukranian international master Mikhail Vasilyev are included in the players’ list.

The organizers say that entries are still being accepted despite the official closing date but a 25 percent surcharge is imposed. And anyone submitting their entries within 24 hours of the start of these events will be subjected to a 50 percent surcharge. 

The three events will be held at the Cititel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on Aug 18-25. Nine round Swiss, 90 minutes plus 30-second increment time control. 

As for the complimentary chess events, the closing date remains at Aug 15. The events here are the Swensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament on Aug 21 (six rounds, 25 minutes per game), the Merdeka individual rapid open chess tournament on Aug 26 (seven rounds, 25 minutes per game) and the ASTRO Merdeka rapid open team chess tournament on Aug 28-29 (nine rounds, 25 minutes per game).  

For more information, visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com/2011/06/malaysia-chess-festival-is-on.html 

Raja Nazrin Shah open

Formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur open, the Raja Nazrin Shah international open chess tournament takes place at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur on Sep 4-10. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second increment from the first move. For details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia).

 

Armenia triumphs

There are simply too many world-class chess events taking place or have taken place all over the world at the same time. From Ningbo in China to Dortmund in Germany and Biel in Switzerland, my attention is presently being distracted with this surfeit of chess activities.

Would I consider this a problem? Yes, but this is a happy problem. I don’t mind the distraction. It only proves that chess can have a crowded calendar.

So where shall I start? Perhaps, from where I left off last week, with the world team chess championship that ended in Ningbo on Tuesday with Armenia deposing Russia to become the new champion. 

I thought at first that Russia was going to win this event but the Russians then stumbled badly and went out of contention. The Russian team lost to both China and Azerbaijan, and in the final round, suffered the ignominy of losing to India.

Russia’s setback was the opportunity for Armenia to spring into the lead. The Armenian team had played so steadily that they hadn’t lost to any other team yet. At their worst, they drew with Russia, the United States and Azerbaijan. 

On Tuesday, Armenia was due to play Ukraine in the final round. A drawn match was all that they would need to clinch the title but the Ukrainians themselves were in the chase. If they could score a crushing result like a 3½-½ win against Armenia, they may even come out tops. Maybe the Ukrainians saw the unlikelihood of this ever happening because soon after the start of the round, their match was quickly drawn.

 

I would believe that China was disappointed with this outcome because they were mathematically in contention for the title and they would only need to win by 2½-1½ against Hungary, which they did, to be the champion if Ukraine had won by any score line. The only consolation for the Chinese team was that they actually finished with the same game points as the Armenians, except that on the more important match points they trailed the new champion. 

India, Israel and Egypt found themselves out of their depth in this tournament. Israel was possibly the biggest disappointment seeing how just a year ago, they had finished third in the Chess Olympiad. 

India came into this event as the Asian champion but they soon realized that even finishing in the middle of the table would be a tall order. I even thought that they could play the role of a spoiler and take surprising points off the main title contenders but the only problem was, they could not until the very last round against Russia when the results did not count significantly any more.

As for Egypt, there is little to be said about this African representative except that they failed totally.

And so we move on to Dortmund in Germany where the former world champion, Vladimir Kramnik, is creating waves at the Dortmund Sparkassen invitational chess tournament. Well, at least he has been in impressive form right until the mid-way point of this event last Monday. By the way, the tournament ends on Sunday so there is still time to see whether Kramnik will carry his advantage right through till the end.

The Dortmund Sparkassen is an elite chess tournament that goes a long way back. However, it was not until 1973 when it was converted into a regular annual event. This year’s edition is a six-player, double round-robin tournament that features Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Ruslan Ponomariov, Le Quang Liem, Anish Giri and local German player Georg Meier.

As mentioned, Kramnik has been showing great form. He couldn’t have been happier. In the first half of the tournament, his victims have included Ponomariov, Giri, Meier and Nakamura, and he has dropped only a draw to Le. Even if he eases up on the pedal and draws the rest of his games in the second half, I believe he should coast through easily to win the top prize. 

The last tournament on my list today is the annual Biel Chess Festival. This is also another chess festival that has been around for decades. It started life as only a masters open tournament in 1968 but the grandmaster tournament was introduced in 1976. 

Since then, the grandmaster tournament has evolved into one of Europe’s showcase events. Like in Dortmund, this is a double round-robin tournament featuring six very strong players. Their names speak for themselves: Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexei Shirov, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Morozevich and Yannick Pelletier.

I would be very surprised if Carlsen does not win the event which will end today. On Tuesday as I was writing this story, he was leading the field with only Morozevich following hard on Carlsen’s tail. The rest had been left behind. Caruana, who had won last year’s Biel grandmaster tournament, found himself trailing everyone this time around. A complete reversal of form.

Up next

Malaysia Chess Festival

With only a few days remaining until the official closing date of entries for the main events of this year’s Malaysian Chess Festival, I’ve been informed by the organizers that there may be close to a hundred participants in their showcase event, the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship. 

At least players from 19 countries will be represented and among them will be at least 13 grandmasters, two woman grandmasters and nine international masters. Presently, there are only a small number of Malaysian players in the field but no doubt, we shall see the numbers increase ahead of the closing date. 

According to the organizers, the official closing date for entries for the main events – the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship, the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng international seniors open championship and the AmBank Malaysia chess challenge – is Aug 1. Entries will still be accepted after this date but a 25 percent surcharge will be imposed. Plus, anyone submitting their entries within 24 hours of the start of these events will be hit with a 50 percent surcharge. So before you say “ouch” and complain about the surcharges, it is best to submit your entry before Monday.

The three events will be held at the Cititel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on Aug 18-25. Nine round Swiss, 90 minutes plus 30-second increment time control. 

As for the complimentary chess events, the closing date remains unchanged, that is, Aug 15. Here, you have: the Swensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament, Aug 21, six rounds, 25 minutes per game; the Merdeka individual rapid open chess tournament, Aug 26, seven rounds, 25 minutes per game; and the ASTRO Merdeka rapid open team chess tournament, Aug 28-29, nine rounds, 25 minutes per game.  

For more information, visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com/2011/06/malaysia-chess-festival-is-on.html 

Raja Nazrin Shah open

Formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur open, the Raja Nazrin Shah international open chess tournament takes place at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur on Sep 4-10. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second increment from the first move. For details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia).

 

Who rules the world

We’re in the midst of a mini-Chess Olympiad and it is taking place in Ningbo, China. This is the world team chess championship which started on July 16 and will continue until Tuesday.

Since the first world team chess championship began in 1985, it has always been held every four years but the World Chess Federation changed its regulations and turned it into a biennial event. The last championship was two years ago in Turkey.

In case you are wondering, no, we are ineligible to play in it. Only the best teams in the world are able to take part, and there are only 10 places available. The foremost criterion for selection into this event is that a team must qualify as their continental champion. 

Thus, India came out the winner at the last Asian team championship in Kolkata two years ago and is thus representing Asia in this world team chess championship. Azerbaijan won the European team championship in 2009 and is playing in Ningbo. Similarly, the United States is the qualifier from America and Egypt is the representative for Africa.

Apart from these four countries, Russia is playing in the championship as the defending champion, while Ukraine, Israel and Hungary qualified from finishing first, third and fourth respectively from last year’s Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. Of course, China as the host country is participating, and Armenia is the World Chess Federation president’s nomination.

Of these 10 countries, Egypt has arguably the weakest line-up. The team is not expected to end up anywhere but in the cellar position. But among the other nine teams, it is a real challenge to predict the winner.

Of course, Russia is still the team to beat with a line-up that comprises Sergey Karyakin, Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Peter Svidler and Nikita Vitiugov. But they can’t be expecting any favour from the other teams. 

If anything, Azerbaijan and Ukraine will be breathing down hard on the Russians. Both Armenia and Hungary cannot be discounted from leapfrogging over these top three teams while China, the United States, Israel and India will always be there as spoilers. 

But having said all this, the first surprise was sprung in the very first round of the championship by an Egyptian player. International master Samy Shoker had been overwhelmed by playing the Ukrainian grandmaster, Alexander Areshchenko.

At the most critical point in the game, Areshchenko, thinking that the point was already in his pocket, went into an auto-pilot mode and relaxed for a second. Shoker had the presence of mind to detect the smallest chance given to him and he seized on it. The result? Areshchenko came under a mating attack and was unable to save the game. Here is the game.

Alexander Areshchenko (Ukraine) – Samy Shoker (Egypt)

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 c6 5. h3 Nbd7 6. Nf3 Qc7 7. Bd3 e5 (I would have thought that the most logical move was to fianchetto the bishop and go for castling quickly.) 8. Qd2 exd4 (Again, 8…Bg7 was called for) 9. Nxd4 Bg7 10. Bh6 Bxh6 (Castle! Black should be castling here. Now, his king is caught in the centre.) 11. Qxh6 b5 (Black plays like a patzer. This move can be refuted immediately with 12.Bxb5 cxb5 13. Ndxb5 and Black is in deep trouble). 12. O-O-O b4 13. Nb1 Bb7 14. Nd2 Qb6 15. N4b3 Ba6 16. Bxa6 Qxa6 17. Kb1 c5 18. Nf3 c4 (At least Black has the presence of mind not to tempt fate further by capturing the e-pawn) 19. Nc1 Ne5 20. Rd4 c3 21. Rhd1 cxb2 22. Nb3 Nc4 23. e5 

(See diagram. White was already feeling so comfortable that he thought the game would play by itself. He totally overlooked Black’s threats or otherwise he would have played 23…Qg7. Just this one move, 23 e5, and the fortunes in this game turned around.) 23…Rc8 24. exf6 Na3+ 25. Kxb2 Rxc2+ 26. Ka1 Nc4 27. Re4+ Kd8 28. Nc1 Qa3 0-1 (Checkmate is next.)

Up next

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School (MBSSKL) in Kuala Lumpur will hold the sixth MBSSKL open tournament at their school on Sunday. Six rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM5 (MBSSKL students) and RM15 (others). For more details, visit http://mbsskl.edu.my or contact Sanusi or Madam Yong LY (03.20782293).

Malaysia Chess Festival

Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship, Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng international seniors open championship and Malaysia chess challenge, Aug 18-25. Nine rounds, 90 minutes plus 30-second increment time control. Closing date: Aug 1. 

Swensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament, Aug 21, six rounds, 25 minutes per game; Merdeka individual rapid open chess tournament, Aug 26, seven rounds, 25 minutes per game; ASTRO Merdeka rapid open team chess tournament, Aug 28-29, nine rounds, 25 minutes per game. Closing date: Aug 15. 

All game are played at the Cititel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. For more information on the entry fees and prizes, visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com/2011/06/malaysia-chess-festival-is-on.html 

Raja Nazrin Shah open

Formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur open, the Raja Nazrin Shah international open chess tournament takes place at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur on Sep 4-10. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second increment from the first move. For details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia).

 

Future champs

At the last minute on Sunday, I decided to take a short drive down from Penang to look in at the fifth and final leg of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament at the Syuen Hotel in Ipoh.

I wasn’t disappointment by what I saw. In fact, it was very encouraging. When I entered the tournament hall, I could see that the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) has a good thing going for them. The playing hall at the hotel was full and there were a total of 213 people playing chess.

Players of all ages, from the young to the old, and they had come to Ipoh not only from all over Perak but from other nearby states as well. As far as I could tell, there were players from Selangor and Penang but the organizers were quick to stress that that there were busloads of players from areas like Bagan Serai, Slim River, Grik, Kampar, Ayer Tawar, Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Siput. 

In fact, despite there being a closing date for entries that were announced much earlier, the PICA officials suddenly found an unprecedented number of unregistered players knocking at the door on Sunday morning. 

They had to adjust their entries quickly and would have gladly accepted all that turned up at the last minute if not for the fact that they had filled up the tournament hall and had run out of chess equipment. I was told that possibly, some 30 to 40 players were turned away reluctantly.

Because of this large number of players, the organizers also took a quick decision to increase the number of rounds to eight and at the same time, reduce the time control for each round.

Of course, some of the more serious participants may say that these factors made it not conducive to competing seriously (there was a lot of prize monies involved) but privately, I was thinking to myself, who cares? 

It was a great carnival atmosphere and I could see that the majority of the players were enjoying themselves tremendously. Noise level was high and impossible to shut out, but who cares again?

Naturally, the top boards got the most attention. They were the games that were usually among the last to finish and so, it gave the other players a great opportunity to mill around and watch the better players.

This is actually the second year of the grand prix. The series started last year and according to the PICA president, Chan Swee Loon, the association had received RM25,000 from Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK) this year for the running of the five legs in various towns around Perak. 

The series began with the Taiping leg in April and then proceeded to Bagan Serai, Slim River, Kampar and finally, Ipoh. Chan said that the grand prix circuit had drummed up a lot of interest in the towns where chess is not normally played. Next year’s grand prix circuit, he added, would probably be increased to six legs and start earlier in January.

At the closing ceremony on Sunday, the Datuk Bandar of Ipoh, Datuk Haji Roshidi bin Haji Hashim enthused about the game and paid a glowing tribute to the late Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng, the founder of KLK. Then he sprang a surprise on the PICA by pledging that the Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh would contribute RM10,000 to next year’s grand prix circuit in the state.

Just for the record, the eight winners of the grand prix were Fong Yit San, Muhammad Nabil bin Azman Hisham, Fong Yit Ho, Ahmad Jamal Husni Jamaluddin, Jason Teh Chee Ying, Azman Hisham bin Che Doi, Amirul Rahimi bin Shamsuddin and Noor Ahmad Fazilah.

Up next

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School (MBSSKL) in Kuala Lumpur will hold the sixth MBSSKL open tournament at their school on July 23. Six rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM5 (MBSSKL students) and RM15 (others). Closing date for entries is July 9. For more details, visit http://mbsskl.edu.my or contact Sanusi or Madam Yong LY (03.20782293).

Malaysia Chess Festival

Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship, Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng international seniors open championship and Malaysia chess challenge, Aug 18-25. Nine rounds, 90 minutes plus 30-second increment time control. Closing date: Aug 1. 

Swensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament, Aug 21, six rounds, 25 minutes per game; Merdeka individual rapid open chess tournament, Aug 26, seven rounds, 25 minutes per game; ASTRO Merdeka rapid open team chess tournament, Aug 28-29, nine rounds, 25 minutes per game. Closing date: Aug 15. 

All game are played at the Cititel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. For more information on the entry fees and prizes, visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com/2011/06/malaysia-chess-festival-is-on.html 

Raja Nazrin Shah open

Formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur open, the Raja Nazrin Shah international open chess tournament takes place at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur on Sep 4-10. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second increment from the first move. For details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia).

 

Junior rule

India, together with China, the Philippines and Vietnam, are considered among the great chess-playing countries in Asia, if not the world. I say this because these countries continue to produce some of the most exciting names in world chess. 

For example, isn’t India’s Viswanathan Anand today the world chess champion? Wasn’t China’s Xie Jun the first Asian to become the women’s world champion? And isn’t Le Quang Liem the first Vietnamese player to break into that elite group of players with a rarified 2700+ chess rating? 

I need to mention only these three names but in fact, there are so many other talents that have emerged from these four countries. 

Wesley So from the Philippines is currently that country’s top ranked player and he is only 17 years old; Hou Yifan from China is currently the women’s world chess champion and she is also only 17 years old; Parimarjan Negi is considered to be a chess prodigy from India and he is 18 years old. I should also add that Le Quang Liem is 20 years old.

All very talented junior players. And when we also consider the likes of Norway’s Magnus Carlsen who is approaching his 21st birthday, the Italian-American Fabiano Cauana who is 19 years old and currently the top junior player in the world, and the 17-year-old Nepalese-Russian (but now Dutch) Anish Giri, we find that the world is practically littered with junior players that continue to shake up the older chess masters in today’s chess world.

Recently, the Delhi Chess Association and the Airport Authority of India joined hands to organize the AAI international grandmasters chess tournament in New Delhi, India and they invited four of these young chess talents to participate.

Joining Caruana, So, Negi and Hou in this double round-robin tournament were two other players. One was the Czech Republic’s Viktor Laznicka, who at 23 years old wasn’t that much older than the four, and India’s second-best player Krishnan Sasikiran who at 30 years old found himself the oldest player in the tourmanent.

The event was a romp for Caruana who justified his top seeding. He led after the third round and never allowed any of his rivals to get near enough to him. By the end of the eighth round, he was the only unbeaten player and he enjoyed a 1½-point advantage over his closest rival, Sasikiran.

But disaster struck for Caruana in the ninth round. According to him, he had blundered in a position which would have led to a draw. As a result, Sasikiran crept to narrow the gap on him to only a single point. However, Caruana’s first place in this tournament was never in any real danger as a draw in the 10th round was enough to seal his top prize. 

Sasikiran came second in the tournament and he was followed by Laznicka in third place. And what of the other three teenagers in this event? Well, by their own admission, they could have played better but actually, they finished according to expectation. So and Negi were expected to finish in fourth and fifth positions respectively, and so they did.

Hou was the weakest player in the field and she did finish last. In fact, if not for a much steadier performance in the second half of the tournament, she would have ended up with even less points. The first half of the tournament was a disaster as she lost her first four games. 

On the basis of her play in this tournament, I think she is going to have her hands full later this year when she defends her women’s world championship title against her official challenger, Koneru Humpy. It will be back to the training board for her as her coaches try to build up her game before the big match.

This week, I’m featuring a critical game between the tournament winner and the current chess champion of India. I’m referring, of course, to Negi who had won the Indian national championship in December last year. In this marathon game which went to 98 moves, Caruana sacrificed his queen and in return, got back three pieces as compensation. At first, Caruana’s advantage was slight but his pieces coordinated better and he gradually built up to a winning position. However, he still had to tread carefully to prevent Negi’s queen from continually checking him as he pushed his pawn towards queening. Eventually though, both players managed to convert their pawns into new queens but where Caruana was concerned, his position was already winning.

Fabiano Caruana – Parimarjan Negi, Round 6

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5 8. Qd2 Nbd7 9. g4 h6 10. O-O-O Ne5 11. Qf2 b4 12. Nce2 Nc4 13. Ng3 Qc7 14. Bxc4 Qxc4 15. Kb1 g6 16. h4 e5 17. Nb3 Be6 18. h5 g5 19. Nf5 Bxf5 20. gxf5 Rc8 21. Rd3 Be7 22. a3 d5 23. exd5 Nxd5 24. Rhd1 Nf6 25. axb4 Qxb4 26. Bd2 Qb8 27. Bc3 O-O 28. Qe3 Rfe8 29. Bxe5 b5 30. f4 Qc4 31. Qd2 Ne4 32. Qg2 Qc6 33. Rd5 Nf6 34. fxg5 hxg5 35. Qxg5+ Kh7 36. Bxf6 Qxc2+ 37. Ka2 Rg8 38. Qxg8+ Rxg8 39. Bxe7 Rg3 40. Na5 Rg2 41. Ba3 Rf2 42. Nb3 Rf3 43. Nc5 Qc4+ 44. Kb1 Rf1 45. Rd4 Qe2 46. Rxf1 Qxf1+ 47. Ka2 Qxf5 48. Rd6 Qf1 49. Nxa6 f5 50. Nb4 Qc4+ 51. b3 Qe2+ 52. Bb2 Qxh5 53. Nd5 Qf3 54. Rd7+ Kg6 55. Ne7+ Kh6 56. Rd6+ Kh7 57. Rd8 Kh6 58. Rd6+ Kh7 59. Rd4 Kh6 60. Nd5 Qe2 61. b4 Kg5 62. Kb3 Qf1 63. Nf4 Qa6 64. Bc1 Kf6 65. Bd2 Qf1 66. Rd5 Qb1+ 67. Kc4 Qa2+ 68. Kb5 Qa8 69. Bc3+ Kg5 70. Be5 Qa7 71. Ne6+ Kg4 72. Rd4+ Kf3 73. Nc5 Ke3 74. Kc6 Qf7 75. Rd3+ Ke2 76. Rd5 Qe8+ 77. Kb6 Qf7 78. Rd6 Kf3 79. b5 Qe8 80. Re6 Qc8 81. Bc7 Qa8 82. Rd6 Ke2 83. Ne6 Qe4 84. Nd4+ Kf2 85. Nc6 Qc2 86. Kb7 Qb3 87. b6 f4 88. Kc8 Qh3+ 89. Rd7 f3 90. b7 Kg2 91. b8=Q f2 92. Qb2 Kh1 93. Ne5 f1=Q 94. Kb8 Qh8+ 95. Rd8 Qhf6 96. Qb7+ Kg1 97. Rg8+ Kh2 98. Ng4+ 1-0

Up next

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association will organize the fifth leg of this year’s Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament at the Syuen Hotel in Ipoh this Sunday. 

As this tournament is also the final leg of the chess grand prix, the organizers have doubled the value of all the cash prizes. The winner of the open section, for instance, will receive RM600 instead of RM300. In addition, there will be prizes for the top eight players who accumulate the most points in the grand prix standings, with the grand prix champion set to receive RM800. 

Like the four previous legs, this one in Ipoh will be contested over seven rounds with a 25-minute time control. Entry fees: RM25 (open section), RM15 (players under 16 years old), RM10 (under 12 years old). For PICA members and Perak residents: RM20 (open section), RM10 (all players under 16 years old). For more information, contact Yunus (013.3908129) or visit http://perakchess.blogspot.com. 

Hillcrest open

The Sek Men Keb Hillcrest in Taman Seri Gombak, Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur will organize their first Hillcrest open tournament at the school premises on Sunday. Six rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM25 (players below 18 years old), RM30 (others). For details, contact Wong Yen Lee (017.3577788, yenlee741011_u@hotmail.com), Farah Alwani (013.3336849) or Manivannan (018.3757339).

JB Rakan Muda open

The Johor Bahru Chess Association, Rukun Tetangga Taman Sri Tebrau and Rakan Muda Johor Bahru are jointly organizing the 22nd Rakan Muda Tebrau open chess tournament at the Plaza Pelangi in Johor Bahru on Sunday. Seven round Swiss with 25-minute time control. Entry fees: RM30 (open section), RM16 (under-16 section) and RM12 (under-12 section). Details available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717 525, jb_chess_association@yahoo.com). 

MBSSKL open

The Methodist Boys’ Secondary School (MBSSKL) in Kuala Lumpur will hold the sixth MBSSKL open tounament at their school on July 23. Six rounds, 25 minutes per game. Entry fees: RM5 (MBSSKL students) and RM15 (others). Closing date for entries is July 9. For more details, visit http://mbsskl.edu.my or contact Sanusi or Madam Yong LY (03.20782293).