Masters meet

The close proximity of the Chinese New Year to the dates of this year’s Tata Steel chess tournament has meant that I haven’t been able to give this annual international chess event in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, much attention. 

This Wijk aan Zee tournament has a very long history that goes back to 1938. Before Tata Steel came into the picture, it used to be called the Corus tournament and before that, the Hoogovens event. Wijk aan Zee itself is the Dutch seaside town from where the tournament takes its name.

Anyway, the Tata Steel chess tournament is traditionally a very strong event and only the world’s best players will ever get a chance to be invited. There are three Grandmaster groups with 14 players each.

Since Jan 13, the eyes of the chess world have been focused mainly on the Grandmaster Group A tournament. And why not when this year’s participants include six of the world’s eight highest-ranked players in Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov, Veselin Topalov, Sergey Karjakin and Vassily Ivanchuk? Only the names of Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand are missing from this list. 

To round up the player’s list, there are also Vugar Gashimov, Hikaru Nakamura, Boris Gelfand, Fabiano Caruana, Gata Kamsky, Anish Giri, David Navara and local Dutch grandmaster Loek van Wely in the starting line-ups.

Until the eighth round, Carlsen and Aronian were leading the tournament but so far, it did not look like a complete domination to me. They were just a half point ahead of Radjabov who in turn was half a point ahead of Ivanchuk, Caruana and Nakamura.

Gelfand’s inclusion in this premier event was a surprise. He is due to play Anand for the world chess championship title in May and I thought he would have withdrawn himself from active play in order to prepare for the match of his life. However, he must be believing that the best preparation is to keep on playing actively, at least for this one or two months.

The Grandmaster Group B included players like Lazaro Bruzon, Vladimir Potkin, Alexander Motylev and Sergey Tiviakov. It was rather disappointing to see only Pentala Harikrishna and Harika Dronavalli as the only Asian players in this group because last year there were three Asian players in Wesley So, Li Chao and Le Quang Liem.

Nevertheless, it was interesting to notice the inclusion of four women chess players – all grandmasters – in this Group B tournament, namely, Harika, Kateryna Lahno, Daniele Vocaturo and Viktorija Cmilyte. 

This week, I’d like to feature an interesting game from the third round of this tournament. 

White: Magnus Carlsen

Black: Levon Aronian

1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.Qc2 Nf6 7.h3 g6 8.e3 Bf5 9.Qd2 h5 10.Bd3 Bxd3 11.Qxd3 Nbd7 12.Nge2 a5 13.0-0 0-0 14.f3 b5 15.e4 dxe4 16.fxe4 Nc5 17.Qf3 Ne6 18.Be3 (I should think that White has a firm grip on this game. His centre is strong while his opponent has several weaknesses all over the board, in particular the pawn on c6 and a very loose kingside due to his pawn on h5. It’s not so clear yet, as it’s hidden by the knight, but the pawn on f7 is also weak.) 18….b4 19.Nb1 Nh7 (Now we see Black’s other weakness exposed: the pawn on f7.) 20.Nd2 Rc8 21.Rad1 Bh4 22.g3 Bf6 23.Nc4 Bg7 (Black’s position is all passive. He has no counter-play and can only react to White’s play.) 24.b3 Qe7 (Black realises that the pawn on a5 cannot be defended for long and so, prepares to give it up.) 25.Qg2 Nc7 26.Nxa5 Rfe8 27.e5 Nd5 28.Bd2 Red8 29.Nf4 Qa7 30.Nxc6 (The start of a little combination) 30….Rxc6 31.Nxd5 Rc2 (Not 31….Qxd4+ 32. Kh1 Qxe5 when 33.Ne7+ wins material.) 32.Kh1 Bf8 33.e6 (Superb play by White. Black’s kingside becomes totally exposed. The next few moves are just about forced for both sides.) 33….Qa8 34.exf7+ Kh8 35.Nf4 Qxg2+ 36.Kxg2 Rxd4 37.Rf2 Rd6 38.Bc1 Rxf2+ 39.Kxf2 Rxd1 40.Bb2+ Nf6 41.Bxf6+ Kh7 42.Ne6 Bd6 43.Be5 Be7 (43….Bxe5 44.f8=Q, naturally. Anyway, there is no doubt that White is already winning in the endgame.) 44.f8=Q Bxf8 45.Nxf8+ Kh6 46.Ne6 g5 47.h4 gxh4 48.gxh4 Kg6 49.Nd4 Rd3 50.Nc6 Rd2+ 51.Ke3 Rxa2 52.Bd6 Ra1 53.Kd4 Rg1 54.Kc5 Kf5 55.Nxb4 Rc1+ 56.Kd4 Re1 57.Nc6 Re4+ 58.Kd5 Rxh4 59.b4 Rh1 60.b5 Rb1 61.Nd4+ Kg4 62.Kc6 Rc1+ 63.Kd7 Rb1 64.Kc7 h4 65.b6 Kh3 66.b7 Kg2 67.Nf5 h3 68.Nh4+1–0 (See diagram. White will promote his pawn next and after which, the knight will manoeuvre to f3 where it combines with the bishop to stop Black’s pawn from any further advance.)

The event only ends on Sunday, so you can still follow the last three rounds of the Tata Steel tournament from their website, http://www.tatasteelchess.com/, from 8.30pm nightly. Do enjoy the games!

Up Next

InSoFar chess

The InSoFar Chess Academy will hold its first event of the year at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Players can choose to play in any one of three sections – the rapid open, the junior scholarship open and the adult scholarship open – which will all be run off together.

Seven Swiss rounds with a 25-minute time control. Entry fees: RM20 (rapid open), RM50 ( junior scholarship open and adult scholarship open). To register, please send your full name and age by text message to Mat Zaki Yeop (017.2032051). Entries are limited to the first 64 players only.

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will kick off this year’s Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng grand prix chess circuit with the first leg at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Clifford in Kuala Kangsar on Feb 12. 

This is the third series of the local grand prix which will see six legs held in Kuala Kangsar, Taiping, Slim River, Bagan Serai, Kampar and Ipoh until July. Last year’s second series attracted widespread interest from players around the country and were held at five different districts in the state. PICA is confident that this year’s series would attract even greater response. 

Each leg of the grand prix will be played over seven rounds with a 25-minute time control. Players can register for the open, the under-16 or the under-12 sections. Grand prix points shall be awarded to the top 10 winners of the open section of each leg and these would accumulate till the final leg in Ipoh. Those that register under the two junior categories will not be eligible for the open prizes or grand prix points. 

Entry fees for the first leg in Kuala Kangsar: RM25 (open section), RM15 (under 16 years old), RM10 (under 12 years old). For PICA members and Perak residents: RM20 (open section), RM10 (players under 16 years old). Closing date: Feb 9. For more information, call Yunus (013.3908129), Abu Bakar Martin (019.4007663), Azhar (013.4570443) or check the PICA blog at http://perakchess.blogspot.com for updates. 

Rakan Muda JB

The Rakan Muda Johor Bahru, Johor Chess Academy, Johor Bahru Chess Association and the Southerncity Giant hypermarket  are the joint organisers of this year’s seventh Johor Bahru junior tournament on Feb 19. Venue will be the concourse area of the hypermarket in Johor Bahru. Seven-round Swiss event with 25 minutes time control.

Entry fees: RM15 (players under 17 years old) and RM13 (players under 12 years old). Closing date is Feb 17. Details available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@yahoo.com).

 

Siblings rule

The last big tournament on our shores as last year drew to a close was the fourth national junior chess championship that the Malaysian Chess Federation organised at the Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur in late December. The championship was divided into the boys’ and girls’ events and both were completely dominated by a trio of siblings.

First off, Mohd Nabil bin Azman Hisham demonstrated why he is possibly among today’s most promising youngsters when he pulled off a power display of skills in the boys’ event. Anyone scoring eight points from his fellow peers in a national tournament of this level simply cannot be taken of lightly.

Save for a blip in the sixth round when he lost to his closest rival, Roshan Singh, and hence had to be contented with a momentary share of the lead, Mohd Nabil practically led all the way from the start till the finish.

A strong spurt in the first half of the event – during which time the opponents he beat included Amier Hamzah, Ong Wei Bin and Mark Siew – was followed by an equally strong finish against Aron Teh, Low Jun Jian and Yee Jian Yang in the second half.

At the end of the tournament, Mohd Nabil finished with a clear 1½ points more than the three joint runners-up, Roshan Singh, Aron Teh and Teh Wee Zhun.

Of the trio that finished behind the champion, Roshan’s results were perhaps remarkable. Not only was he the only player to have inflicted a loss on the winner, Roshan was also the only participant in the 54-player field not to suffer any loss. His play was solid, comprising four wins but the five draws he made in this tournament did not do his overall chances any good. More tellingly, he could have pulled clear of the jam had his last three games not ended in consecutive draws.

As for Mohd Nabil’s two sisters who played in the girls’ event, it had been quite expected that they would make this event their own. I would believe that among the present batch of junior players in the country, the two sisters are the strongest players we have.

Nur Nabila binti Azman Hisham, being the older of the two, also came across as the stronger player. In this event, she also finished with eight points from nine games but unlike her brother, she was unbeaten throughout.

She started off with three wins, then a draw followed with her sister before he reeled off another two wins, followed by a second draw with Nur Sabrina Aliya before she closed off the event with two final wins. Her wins came from games with Ee Sun Xin, Anis Fariha, Camilia Johari, Goh Xin Yen, Nur Farihah, Zainoor Ikmal Maisarah and Nur Faqihah.

Nur Najiha binti Azman Hisham did not do badly either as she was just half a point behind her elder sister. She was also unbeaten throughout the tournament but there was just one draw too many for her, against Camilia Johari and Anis Fariha.

Up Next

InSoFar chess

The InSoFar Chess Academy will hold its first event of the year at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre, Wilayah Complex, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur on Jan 29. Players can choose to play in any one of three sections – the rapid open, the junior scholarship open and the adult scholarship open – which will all be run off together.

Seven Swiss rounds with a 25-minute time control. Entry fees: RM20 (rapid open), RM50 ( junior scholarship open and adult scholarship open). To register, please send your full name and age by text message to Mat Zaki Yeop (017.2032051). Entries are limited to the first 64 players only.

Rakan Muda JB

The Rakan Muda Johor Bahru, Johor Chess Academy, Johor Bahru Chess Association and the Southerncity Giant hypermarket  are the joint organisers of this year’s seventh Johor Bahru junior tournament on Feb 19. Venue will be the concourse area of the hypermarket in Johor Bahru. Seven-round Swiss event with 25 minutes time control.

Entry fees: RM15 (players under 17 years old) and RM13 (players under 12 years old). Closing date is Feb 17. Details available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@yahoo.com).

 

Fragile grandmaster

If Lahiri Atanu’s brief loss of form cost him the title at the Sarawak open chess tournament last month, I can only say that that was just a small matter. Players everywhere experience it all the time. It doesn’t matter whether they are amateurs at the game or the professional chess players, it just happens.

Just about two weeks ago, something of this nature happened in faraway Italy. The only difference was that it happened this time to a high-ranking professional chess player who was taking part in a top-level chess competition.

That it ever happened to Vassily Ivanchuk, a grandmaster from Ukraine, should not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the chess world. Most everyone knows that Ivanchuk can be highly emotional at the chess board.

He can scale the greatest heights in his games and at the next moment, plunge into the deepest depths. 

A few years ago, he got so emotionally pissed off after losing a vital game for his team at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden that he refused to give a scheduled urine sample. At that time, the World Chess Federation had just made it compulsory for chess players to take random dope tests in compliance with regulations of the International Olympics Committee.

He got off very lightly. After a hearing, the World Chess Federation concluded that he was not to blame for refusing. But that incident cemented Ivanchuk’s reputation as being a highly fragile chess player. Perhaps he’s even the most highly fragile professional chess player in the world. He is so into the game that an important loss of form can turn him into a blubbering mess.

Witness what happened last September in the semi-finals of the Chess World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. It was the critical third game of a play-off match. Ivanchuk thought he was winning and fell into his opponent’s psychological trap. He played a two-move blunder and lost the game and the match. A highly distressed Ivanchuk left the chess board, covering his face with his hands. Not many chess players openly display their emotions so much.

And so we fast forward four months to January 2012. This was the traditional annual invitational tournament at Reggio Emilia in northern Italy. Ivanchuk had been invited to play in this double round-robin event, as were also Alexander Morozevich, Hikaru Nakamura, Nikita Vitiugov, Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri.

Perhaps the matter that he was the highest rated among the six players caused him some uneasiness but the fact was that he did not play like the tournament favourite. At the middle point of the tournament, he was lying in third place behind Nakamura and Morozevich, but only just. There were still hopes of overtaking them.

Then in the sixth round Ivanchuk lost to Giri, the lowest ranked player among the six participants. It was a strange game. To all of us watching it through the Internet, it was as if Ivanchuk was willingly inviting his opponent to break up his pawn formation. Giri seized upon it, then tightened his grip around the loose holes in Ivanchuk’s game and collected an easy win. 

Ivanchuk looked groggy after that. In the seventh round he lost again, this time to Vitiugov. He played a combination, not realising that there was a hole in his analysis. Vitiugov saw the refutation, played it and suddenly, Ivanchuk found himself down by a piece with no compensation.

It became very clear by now that the Ukrainian grandmaster was not only groggy but probably punch drunk as well. His play became suicidal. In the eighth round he was thoroughly outplayed by Caruana. The Italian had a mass of pawns in the centre and his rook had invaded Ivanchuk’s territory. If he wasn’t already losing, he would be within two or three more moves.

So what did Ivanchuk do in this dire position? He simply chucked everything away. He started to give up every single one of his remaining pieces. It began with him exchanging his queen for his opponent’s bishop, then a rook for his opponent’s pawn, followed for a bishop for another of his opponent’s pawn, and finally throwing away his remaining bishop as well.

Everyone watching was aghast. If I had done it, I would have been accused of bad sportsmanship, not losing with grace. But this was Ivanchuk and lost in his own world, he was suffering an Ivanchuk meltdown. His frayed nerves have betrayed him yet again. And in a big way too. Three lost games in a row. Any chess player would be greatly affected by this dramatic change of fortune.

But I sympathise with him. I know how it feels to lose one game after another, especially when silly mistakes are made. As I mentioned earlier, this loss of form can happen to anyone: great players like him or anonymous players like me. Trouble is, when it happens to high-profile players, everyone notices. Me, I’m safe in my anonymity.

Remarkably, Ivanchuk did never let this incident affect him. He returned to the chess board in the ninth round as if nothing had happened. A draw with Morozevich and then he joined the spectators to watch the rest of the games. 

And then in the final round of the event, inspiration came back to him. A masterful display against Nakamura ensured that he would end the game on a positive note. A man who would be first but eventually ending up fifth. That’s Ivanchuk for you.

Here is that fateful eighth round game where he imploded completely:

White: Vassily Ivanchuk

Black: Fabiano Caruana

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bf4 Bg7 4. e3 d6 5. h3 O-O 6. Be2 b6 7. O-O Bb7 8. c3 Nbd7 9. Bh2 Qe8 10. a4 a6 11. Na3 e5 12. Nc4 Ne4 13. Nfd2 Nxd2 14. Nxd2 Kh8 15. Qc2 f5 16. Rfe1 g5 17. Bd3 Qg6 18. f3 Rae8 19. Rf1 d5 20. a5 c5 21. g4 e4 22. fxe4 dxe4 23. Be2 f4 24. axb6 Qxb6 25. Qb3 Qa7 26. Bb5 cxd4 27. Bxd7 dxe3 28. Nc4 Rd8 29. Ba4 Rd2 and here it comes… 30. Qxb7 (see diagram) 30….Qxb7 31. Rxf4 gxf4 32. Nxd2 exd2 33. Bxf4 Rxf4 34. Bc6 Qb6+ 0-1

 

The big four

As had been expected last week, the Indian grandmaster and current world chess champion, Viswananthan Anand, has been knocked off the second spot on the latest international rating list which was released by the World Chess Federation earlier this week. 

His rating took a tumble from the 2810 rating points a year ago (the January 2011 rating list) to 2799 this January. Without a doubt, his last three performances in Bilbao, Moscow and London had greatly affected his ratings and he is now placed fourth in the world rankings.

The Norwegian grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen, now 21 years old, has retained his number one standing in the world. But more than that, over the past year, his rating has increased from 2814 points in January 2011 to 2835 points in the January 2012 list. 

Considering that the top players in the world are playing with one another exclusively, this is actually a gain of 21 points against top chess opposition.

More tellingly, Carlsen’s present rating of 2835 points is a good 30 points more than his nearest chess rival, Levon Aronian from Armenia. Over the past year, Aronian’s rating has not changed and remains at 2805 points. But because of Anand’s drop down the list, Aronian has been propelled from third to second-placed. 

Similarly, Vladimir Kramnik has been pushed up from fourth to third in the world ranking. But at least for this Russian grandmaster, he has seen his rating increase by 17 points from a year ago to 2801 in January 2012. This has been helped by an impressive display of chess technique at the London Chess Classic last month which he won comfortably.

So there you have it, the top four players in the world today are Carlsen, Aronian, Kramnik and Anand. 

Fifth in the world rankings is Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov whose rating is 2773. His rating had also risen by 29 points over the past year. At this time last year, he was placed in 12th position among his peers.

The Bulgarian grandmaster, Veselin Topalov, remains sixth in the world today, unchanged from a year ago. However, five points have been shed by him and he stands today with 2770 rating points.

Sergey Karyakin is in seventh position with 2769 points, Vassily Ivanchuk is eighth with 2766 points, Alexander Morozevich is ninth with 2763 points and Vugar Gashimov rounds up the top ten with 2761 points.

Outside of this top list includes Alexander Grischuk who is also with 2761 points, Hikaru Nakamura with 2759 points, Peter Svidler with 2749 points, Boris Gelfand with 2739 points (placed 16th in the world today), Fabiano Caruana with 2736 points, China’s Wang Hao with 2733 points and Gata Kamsky with 2732 points.

There are 44 players whose ratings are at least 2700 points. Apart from Anand and Wang, the only two other Asian players in this exclusive 2700-plus club are Le Quang Liem from Vietnam with 2714 points and Krishnan Sasikiran from India with 2700 points. 

Sasikiran’s position in the world rankings has remained relatively unchanged: an increase of 10 rating points has seen his ranking rise from 45th a year ago to 44th position this January.

Le’s climb has been more phenomenal: a 50-point increase. Accordingly, his ranking has gone up from 79th in the world to 29th today.

Turning my sights to the top women players in the international rating list, I see that Judit Polgar is still the number one woman chess player in the world with 2710 rating points. Her grip on the women’s world ranking has been total. Nobody has been able to touch her for years. 

But in the next few years, we may be able to see someone else come closer to challenging Polgar’s status. If there is any woman chess player who can do it, it is likely to be that lass from China, Hou Yifan, who is the current women’s world champion.

In the January 2012 rating list, Hou is finally the number two in the world, having displaced the former number two, Humpy Koneru, who is now the world’s number three woman player.

But interestingly enough, Hou’s present rating is very little changed from a year ago. Then, she was at 2602 points while now, her gain is only three rating points to 2605. It is just that Humpy’s poor performances lately have lost the Indian player some 18 points. She had been most affected by her terrible display at the women’s world championship match in November. 

Finally, I should also mention that China’s Ju Wenjun who was here in Kuala Lumpur playing in last year’s Malaysia open championship is now ranked as the sixth best woman chess player in the world. Over the past year, she had risen from 13th position. 

 

Tale of two players

This year-end may be a fitting time to pay some tribute to two chess players who have placed Asia on the world chess map. It’s fitting that they should be the representatives from two of the oldest civilisations in the world, China and India.

The two players are the current holders of the men's and women's world chess championship crowns: India's Viswanathan Anand and China's Hou Yifan.

Hou's exploits on the chess board are still fresh in our minds. Only last month, she had defended her world champion’s title successfully against Humpy Koneru who was rated so much higher than her. And incidentally, Koneru is also from India. 

Moreover just three days ago, Hou had helped the China team to win the women's world team chess championship in Turkey.

Hou is the dominant woman chess player in the world today and her rivals have good reason to be afraid of her. After all, can you imagine that a girl who is not quite 18 years old can already have so much experience on the chess board and is presently the women's world champion? There are still countless years for her to improve further. I would reckon that she will continue to have a good grip on the title for a long time to come.

But unlike Hou, Anand is already 42 years old. He is at an age where he is finding it increasingly challenging to play against other top chess grandmasters in the world.

The past four months especially have been a very trying period for Anand. All of a sudden he has found his form dipping. No longer is his game as feared as before. For a world chess champion, he has discovered to his dismay that it is getting harder to win.

It all started in September with the Chess Grand Slam Masters Final tournament. This six-player top-scale event was arranged as a double round-robin tournament with the first leg in Sao Paolo, Brazil and the second leg in Bilbao, Spain. The event had featured some of the best grandmasters in the world – players like Magnus Carlson, Lev Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Vasily Ivanchuk.

Anand finished the event with a 50 percent score. In the process, six draws peppered his results. He also lost two games which he made up with two wins against the tail-ender. A world champion scoring 50 percent in tournament play isn’t quite inspiring.

Anand’s woes continued after a break of about a month. At the sixth Tal memorial tournament in Moscow in November, he achieved the dubious distinction of drawing all his games. 

Till today, the former late world champion Mikhail Tal is admired foremost for his attacking style of play. Some say Tal’s style was reckless and unsound. Maybe it is true. However, his play did create the imbalance in his games and Tal thrived on the knife’s edge. 

However in this tournament, the players did not do much justice to the memory of the man that they had come to celebrate. An astounding 77.8 percent of the games – or 35 games out of the 45 played – were drawn. Anand’s own nine games was a significant contribution to this statistic. 

Finally in December, there was the London Chess Classic. Again, Anand’s result was lack lustre. It was his third 50 percent result in a top-notch tournament. He drew six of the eight games, lost one and won one.

All these indifferent results suggested that Anand the world champion was slipping down the top rankings. 

Long before these three events, he had already been displaced by Carlsen as the number one ranked player in the world. Now after these three events, he is down to number four in the world ranking list. Even Aronian and Kramnik have climbed above him.

More alarmingly, Anand’s rating has suffered in the process. When the World Chess Federation comes out with their January 2012 rating list this weekend, Anand’s rating will fall below the 2800-point level again. The last time he was below this level was in the May 2010 rating list.

It may be interesting to speculate why Anand’s form has suffered so much in the past four months. Perhaps it is because he is holding back his chess strength. 

Next May in Moscow, he shall be due to defend his world chess champion’s title against Boris Gelfand. 

Anand claimed that he hasn’t started his preparations yet. He would do so, he said recently, after the New Year. But even if he hasn’t started on his new preparations, he has certainly started to stop revealing his old preparations and ideas.

It makes sense to hold back your discoveries and only reveal them when the proper time comes. The Grand Slam Masters Final in Sao Paolo/Bilbao, the Tal Memorial in Moscow and the London Chess Classic were not the proper time nor the proper place, not when the title defence is just five months away.

Some people tend to dismiss Gelfand as a serious challenger to Anand because of his lower profile but in my opinion, all these people do not know the real Boris Gelfand. He has the necessary experience to cause Anand pain if the Indian is not careful. In the early 1990s, Gelfand was already a top grandmaster from the old Soviet Union. After the turbulence of the Soviet Union’s disintegration, Gelfand eventually migrated to Israel which he now calls home.

 

Surprise meltdown

Across the South China Sea from the peninsula, the one big event that occupies the minds of the local chess players is the Sarawak open which is organised annually by the Sarawak Chess Association.

This year, the FIDE-rated event received an added boost when a small number of foreign participants decided to cross over to Kuching from the Penang heritage city open event that had finished two days earlier.

Thus, it was of interest this time to see a few players from India, the Philippines, Singapore, Germany and Japan in the largely Malaysian field.

The Indian international master, Lahiri Atanu, had looked set to run away with the first prize but instead, his form suffered from a late meltdown.

His misfortune started in the seventh round of the competition when he found himself at the losing end of his game with a Singaporean player, Andre Jerome Eng. From a position of strength – he was leading the rest of the field by half a point – two players had leapfrogged him as the new tournament leaders and suddenly, he was half a point behind them. 

At this stage of the tournament, there were only two rounds left to play: the eighth and the ninth rounds. For Lahiri, the eighth round would have to be a do-or-die effort. He would have to win this vital game if there was to be any chance of reclaiming his lead in the event. 

However his opponent, Wong Jianwen, had other ideas. Wong, who was as our first board junior player at the recent world youth under-16 Olympiad in Turkey, refused to buckle and continued to cause problems to the Indian international master in a delicate queen and pawn endgame. Wong had his chance when all of a sudden, Lahiri blundered into a checkmate in one move. 

If Lahiri’s loss in the seventh round came as a surprise to all the participants, his unexpected loss in the eighth round was equivalent to a shock. It was quite unreal for an experienced tournament leader to suffer two losses in consecutive rounds. 

Although the main beneficiary of Lahiri’s bad luck was Eng, there were now seven other players who had climbed above the Indian in the standings with only one final round to play. 

Definitely, Lahiri was out of contention not only for the first and second prizes but perhaps the third and fourth prizes too. The event was wide open and anyone from among the top eight players could now win it.

Eng decided to play it safe and he took a draw with Wong in the final round. In other key games that finished soon afterwards, Benjamin Foo, another player from Singapore, beat Thomas Bueder from Germany while Kamaluddin Yusof had an inspired game to overcome Efren Bagamasbad from the Philippines.

These results meant that Eng and Foo would finish with equal points at the top of the standings. However, there was another surprise in the tournament as the tie-break system awarded the first prize to Foo and the second prize to Eng. Wong was third and Kamaluddin fourth. Lahiri won his ninth round game to take the fifth prize. 

I should also be mentioning here that over the last three months, the Persatuan Catur Negeri Kelantan had successfully organised its first Fide-rated tournament. 

Twelve players participated in this round-robin event which was won by Abdul Haq Mohamed with Nik Ahmad Farouqi finishing second. 

What I liked about their format was that the organisers managed to hold the games over two venues in Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan. Mainly, this was meant to overcome the logistics of getting enough Fide-rated players to play in Kelantan. 

   

Up next

National junior

The fourth national junior chess championships for boys and girls are now taking place at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre in the Wilayah Complex, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur. The event started on Monday and today is actually the final day of competition. Altogether, there are 54 boys and 22 girls playing in the two events.

 

Disputes and decisions

Getting appointed to an Appeals Committee at a big chess tournament may seem like an important recognition for a chess player but in reality, it is a thankless job. You may think, “wow, I'm being recognised by my peers” but really, it is not that big a deal.

Why? Because in the first instance, you are put on call for the whole duration of the tournament. It is well and good if there are no disputes to handle but when there is one, you will be called back to attend to the problem. So you have to let the organisers know where to find you.

Secondly, it eats into your time whenever there is an appeal. Your time becomes the organiser's time. Just as you want some peace and quiet between rounds or have your meal, you have to postpone all that to sit in the committee and hear out some other chess players' problems. 

Thirdly, being asked to judge your peers can be uncomfortable for many people. It's just like a people's court: a group of people having to come together to decide on the fate of their neighbours. One has to win the appeal and one has to lose it. Although the decision is collective, many people still don't feel good about it. 

Fourthly, there is always a danger that the committee may decide wrongly. 

Thankfully, disputes seldom occur in chess tournaments. Not that they don't happen but chances are very good that the chief arbiters are able to decide upon the matters firmly and the Appeals Committee are never called upon to meet at all. 

And if the tournament regulations require the appealing party to put up an appeal fee – which can be quite substantial to prevent players from making frivolous appeals – this will reduce even more any idea of filing the appeal. 

Just last week, I had the occasion to see the working of an appeals committee to consider the appeal from one young chess player in the challengers section of the Penang heritage open chess tournament. 

I won't go into the nitty gritty details of the appeal but what happened was that in a winning position, the player had blurted out the word “draw” to his opponent. Of course, his opponent accepted the offer. 

The chief arbiter was then called to intervene, he listened to both young players and decided that the draw should stand. Both players wrote “½-½” on their score sheets and signed them. Everyone thought that would be the end of the matter.

But a short while later, a notice of appeal was submitted by the winning player's parent who asked for the decision of the chief arbiter to be reviewed and that the game should continue. So the Appeals Committee was called in.

I chose to watch the proceedings from afar. As a visitor to the tournament, I was not even a parent to any of the players. Certainly, I wasn't going to mess about even as an observer. It wouldn't be fair to the tournament organisers.

So I simply watched from the back of the tournament hall. A lot of discussions went on, a lot of animated arm-waving and ultimately a decision was reached. Somehow to my surprise, the Appeals Committee had overturned the decision of the chief arbiter and allowed the game to continue from where the players left off.

Yes, sometimes it does happen that the chief arbiter's decision is overturned but it is rare. More often than not, the arbiter's decision would stand. And in this particular case, I thought that the arbiter's decision was rock-solid correct and should indeed stand. Hence, my little surprise.

More than that, while the Appeals Committee was meeting, the two affected players had in all probability analysed the position with their friends and coaches, and come to a conclusion how to play out the win. Asking the players to continue with the game would be, in my opinion, grossly unfair to the losing player.

Ah, but who am I as an outsider to tell the Appeals Committee that they were wrong, right? Therefore, I kept my elegant silence.

The game continued from where the two players left off under the watchful eyes of not one but several arbiters, plus many curious spectators, the parents among them, and true enough, the winning position quickly became a won position. All that was left was the mopping up exercise. A satisfied parent on the one hand and a dissatisfied parent on the other hand. But what to do? That was the decision of the Appeals Committee.

As a postscript to this story, I noticed that in subsequent rounds, this young player had scrawled across the top of his own score sheets a short warning to himself that he should “not say the word Draw if you are winning!” Obviously, he himself had learnt the lesson. There would not be another second chance.

By the way, I should also mention that Filipino international master Oliver Dimakiling successfully defended his Penang heritage open title. He had also won the tournament last year. 

Second was another Filipino player, Edgar Reggie Olay, while third and fourth were Vietnamese international master Nguyen Van Huy and Indian international master Atanu Lahiri.

The best Malaysian players were Yeoh Li Tian and Tan Khai Boon who were among the players in joint fourth positions. Altogether there were seven international masters and three Fide masters in the 73-player open event.

The challengers event attracted an unprecedented 135 players, including a sizable contingent of young players from Singapore. 

The winner here was Malaysia's Geeneish Sivalingam who edged out Ethan Soh of Singapore. Teh De Juan finished joint third in the standings together with Mohd Faizal Roslan, Tin Ruiqi and Marcus Chee.

Up next

Perak closed

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seri Putera will jointly organise the Perak close chess tournament at the Dewan SMK Seri Putera in Jalan Sri Kepayang, Ipoh tomorrow and on Sunday. Only players who reside, work or born in Perak are permitted to participate in this two-day event. Nine rounds, 30-minute time control.

Entry fees: RM15 (PICA members, players below 16-years-old), RM20 (others). For more information, contact Yunus (013.3908129).

National junior

The Malaysian Chess Federation will hold the fourth national junior chess championship for boys and girls at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre in the Wilayah Complex, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Kuala Lumpur on Dec 19 to 23. Nine rounds, time control of 90 minutes with 30-second increment each move. Entry fees: RM60 (Fide-rated) and RM100 (unrated).

The winners of the boys' and girls' tournaments will be awarded the National Junior Master title. The results of these events will be a main criteria used for selection of players for international events next year. For more information, contact Gregory Lau (012.2577123, msianchess2010@gmail.com), Zuraihah Wazir (017.2837808) or Haslindah Ruslan (019.2069605). 

 

Chess etiquette

I wanted to call this week’s story The Art of Resigning but then I realised that the resignation process in a chess game is just a part of chess etiquette.

So what is chess etiquette? More than anything else, it means how to behave at the chess board, especially when you are taking part in a competition. Chess etiquette does not mean much when you are playing a social game with your chess friends but when it comes to competitions, be it a local event or an international-level tournament, misbehaviour just reflects badly on the offending chess player.

Let me bring up just this very simple example: the start of a game during a chess competition. It is good manners when both players shake hands before the first move of every game is played. After all, it is common courtesy that the players acknowledge the very existence of their opponents before the start of the game.

If you want to go one step further, you may even want to wait until your opponent finishes filling in the initial details on his score sheet before you start the game. Of course, this is assuming that you are playing in a local tournament where it is left to the players to start their chess clocks. In international events though, this is not possible at all as the arbiters will insist that all the games in each round start together and at the same time.

What else can be considered as chess etiquette? Recently, I was told by a friend that he became quite irritated once when his opponent suddenly picked up a piece from the chess board.

Now, the chess laws dictate that a piece once touched must be moved or captured, if it can be moved or captured. This offending player realised that he must move that piece but where should he move it to?

Normally, any player would just place the piece back on the board and consider his move. But not this fellow. What he did was to start chewing on the head of the piece as he thought and thought. Any player would be upset if his opponent would suddenly do that. I know that I would be. Now, that's bad chess etiquette.

Many years ago, I came across a player that brought a novel to the playing hall. It wasn't that he was reading his book between rounds when the pairings were being prepared; no, he would read the book during the game itself.

That act by itself showed a complete disrespect for his opponents. Initially, nobody complained because everyone could see that it was just a story book and not a chess book. But unfortunately, he kept winning game after game, and people were starting to get uncomfortable. Right after the lunch break, the arbiter put a stop to it and told him to put the book away. Whatever you do, you must show respect to your opponent no matter how good you think you are.

So now, back to my original peeve which is the art of resigning a chess game. When would you actually resign a lost game? 

Do you resign when your opponent is carrying out a decisive attack on your position and is having a big advantage in the game and you know that he wouldn't blunder his way out of winning it? Would you give up when you are down by one piece, two pieces or more, and you are certain that you are going to lose? Or would you play till the bitter end and await your opponent to bring down the axe with the checkmate?

It brings to mind the difference between a sadist and a masochist. The sadist of a chess player would love to make his opponent squirm and suffer long in the game while the masochist chess player would love to suffer through his own misfortune. Which one are you?

Anyway, I was placed in an unfortunate position last weekend when I was playing in the Penang Chess League – one of the very rare occasions that I can get to play in a local chess competition. There I was, seated across from this young player who refused to resign the game even though I had two rooks and a king, while he had only his king left on the board. A simple technical checkmate that any beginner would know. But we played on almost till the end. Admittedly, I was pretty irritated.

But I know that it may not be the kid that was totally at fault. The young chess players nowadays would have learnt their chess from parents or the local chess coaches. I would suppose that the coaches would also have taught their young charges how not to give up the struggle early and how the game is not won until the opponent gives up. 

To play till the end of a game shows good fighting spirit. That's a "never say die" attitude. But for goodness' sake, teach the kids that they must also respect their opponents. The senior players are not novices in the game; they are not the kids' fellow school mates with whom their chess games would be played till checkmate. They don't realise it so they must be taught how to resign their games properly. And that’s where the parents and coaches must come in to teach them to adopt the good habits and discard the bad. That's what good chess etiquette is about.

There are more that I can say about this subject matter but I think that I shall have to leave that to another time. In the mean time, happy playing!  

Up next

Penang heritage open

The Penang heritage city open chess championship started on Tuesday and will conclude tomorrow. There are two separate events: the open and challenger sections, and both are internationally rated. Nine rounds are being played with a time control of 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move.

If you hurry down to the Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel, you will still be able to watch the final three rounds of the competition. Round seven is at nine o'clock this morning while the eighth round begins at 3p.m. Tomorrow, the final round will start at 9a.m.

Sarawak open

The five-day Sarawak open chess tournament kicks off from Monday at the Ultimate Professional Centre, opposite the Pullman Hotel, in Jalan Bukit Mata Kuching, Kuching.  This is an internationally-rated event played over nine rounds, 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment for each move.

Entry fees: Free for grandmasters and international masters (men and women), RM25 (ladies and all players below 16 years old) and RM50 (all other participants). Details available from Morsin Ahmad (012.8949415, morsinab@sarawaknet.gov.my), Abang Mohd Reduan (019.8887786, reduan_sahari@bsn.com.my) and Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, limkhwa@gmail.com). 

Perak closed

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) and the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seri Putera will jointly organise the Perak close chess tournament at the Dewan SMK Seri Putera in Jalan Sri Kepayang, Ipoh on Dec 17 and 18. Only players who reside, work or born in Perak are permitted to participate. Nine rounds, 30-minute time control.

Entry fees: RM15 (PICA members, players below 16-years-old), RM20 (others). Closing date is Dec 14. For more information, contact Yunus (013.3908129).

 

Hou retains title

WELL DONE!

The picture shows our woman Fide master Nur Najiha bt Azman Hashim (left) and international master Lim Yee Weng proudly showing off their bronze medals that they won in the mixed pair chess competition at the recent SEA Games in Indonesia. 

These were the only medals won by the Malaysian contingent at the biennial games and they came at the expense of the Indonesian mixed pair, only because the regulations favoured determining results by match points instead of game points. 

The Malaysian pair had lost badly to Vietnam and the Philippines, gold and silver winners respectively, but had chalked up good victories against Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand, thus collecting six match points.

By comparison, the Indonesian mixed team had beaten Myanmar and Thailand, drawn with Vietnam and lost to the Philippines and Malaysia, to give them only five match points.

If game points had instead been used in this competition, the situation would have been reversed and the Indonesia team would have ended up ahead of Malaysia. So for once, the regulations were in our favour. My congratulations to the two bronze medallists. 

HOU RETAINS CROWN

At the end, it was a Humpy Koneru collapse of form that effectively ended her challenge in the women’s world chess championship match in Tirana, Albania.

When I was writing last week’s column, Humpy had just fallen behind by two games, having lost the third game and then the sixth game. 

And then, before I could even steel myself for her comeback in this match, the Indian grandmaster lost the seventh game as well. At the end of the game, she admitted that she was suffering from a loss of form.

But to my mind, it was more than a loss of form that did her in. Her nerves failed her as well. Humpy got herself into severe time pressure and she couldn’t cope with it. She made some pretty weak moves at critical stages in her games and her opponent, the defending women’s world champion, 17-year-old Hou Yifan  (pictured), punished her with some powerful play.

According to Hou, her opponent could have been under some great psychological pressure to perform too, especially since the Chinese grandmaster was already leading in the match.

The moment that Hou won the seventh game, Humpy knew that the end was near. Theoretically, she could still tie the match but it would mean having to win the last three games in a row. Practically, it was an impossible task and she knew it.

So in the eighth game, as soon as it became clear that there was no advantage to gain in the position, Humpy agreed to draw it. And with it, Hou had defended her women’s crown successfully.

Up next

Penang chess league

Teams participating in this weekend’s Penang Chess League are reminded of the change in venue to the SJKC Kheng Tean in Van Praagh Road, Penang. The two-day event is open to teams from four broad categories: public sector, factories, institutions of learning and others. 

Each team shall comprise four players and an optional reserve. Average rating per team during play should not be more than 2100 points. Seven rounds, time control of one hour play-to-finish for each game. Entry fees are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams), RM60 (under-12 teams).  

More details available from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@yahoo.com or estan64@gmail.com) or visit http://penangchess.com for more information.

Penang heritage open

The Penang heritage city open chess championship kicks off on Tuesday at the Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel, Penang on Dec 6-10. There are two separate events: the open and challenger sections, and both are internationally rated. There will be nine rounds played with a time control of 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move.

Entry fees for the open event: free for Malaysian national masters and all players with FIDE ratings of above 2300 points, RM100 (PCA members) and RM150 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 2000 and 2299 points, RM150 (members) and RM200 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 1800 and 1999 points, RM200 (members) and RM300 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 1600 and 1799 points, and RM250 (members) and RM350 (non-members) for players without any FIDE rating.

Entry fees for the challenger event: RM50 (PCA members) and RM100 (non-members) for players with a FIDE rating, and RM100 (members) and RM150 (non-members) for unrated players. 

Although the closing date was yesterday, the organisers, the Penang Chess Association, will still accept late entries but the participants are charged double. Direct all inquiries to Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@yahoo.com or estan64@gmail.com). More information also at http://penangchess.com

Sarawak open

The Sarawak Chess Association will hold the Sarawak open chess tournament at the Ultimate Professional Centre, opposite the Pullman Hotel, in Jalan Bukit Mata Kuching, Kuching on Dec 12-16. Internationally-rated event played over nine rounds, 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment for each move.

Entry fees: Free for grandmasters and international masters (men and women), RM25 (ladies and all players below 16 years old) and RM50 (all other participants). The closing date for entries is Dec 5.

Details available from Morsin Ahmad (012.8949415, morsinab@sarawaknet.gov.my), Abang Mohd Reduan (019.8887786, reduan_sahari@bsn.com.my) and Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, limkhwa@gmail.com). 

 

Suspense all the way

The last two weeks have meant late nights for me again, no thanks to the women's world chess championship match being played in Tirana, Albania. We are seven hours ahead of Albania which means that when China's Hou Yifan and India's Humpy Koneru sit down to play, their games start at 10 o'clock at night over here.

Still, this is women's chess at the top-most level and it is well worth spending the effort to watch them play. It could be a momentous occasion. The match itself is carried live on the official website, http://www.wwcc2011tirana.com, but there are other sources providing better live coverage, such as on Susan Polgar's blog, http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com. 

The 17-year-old Hou is defending her women's world champion's title against Humpy, 24 years old, who became the challenger from the women's chess world cup series.

At the halfway stage of this 10-game match, Hou was holding a slim one-point lead over her rival, but she won again in the sixth game to increase her lead to two points. 

When I see the two ladies battle it out on the chess board, I couldn't but help think how well prepared they have been for this match. So far, each game has been a very intense struggle. 

To me, it seemed that Humpy, yearning to win the women's world championship title for the first time, was the one that kept asking for more in each game, probing for that little weakness in the position where she could press home that miniscule advantage but Hou the defending champion seemed equal to the task. Her defence has been superb.

What can you expect when one kept pressing on and the other kept putting up a solid defence? Why, the pressure would be neutralised till a draw ensued. And that has been what's happened in the first, second, fourth and fifth games.

In the third game, however, Humpy perhaps tried a bit too hard and overlooked a resource by her opponent. The result? The only decisive result in the first five games. 

As I wrote this week's story, the sixth game was being played. Before the game started, it was disclosed that Hou had spent several hours the day earlier in hospital for some severe stomach ailment, and the diagnosis was psychological pressure. 

However during the game itself, she showed no sign of the discomfort. There was a bit of early excitement as the Indian grandmaster went in for a pawn sacrifice in exchange for an enduring pressure against Hou's king. The Chinese player was forced later to give back the pawn. 

But despite holding on to the pair of bishops – theoretically better than a bishop and a knight – there was little that Humpy could do right after that. And once Hou forced the queens off the board and took command of the centre with her pair of rooks, Humpy's game began to become difficult.

By this time, both players were terribly short of time. With only two or three minutes left before reaching the time control, Humpy's game crumbled and Hou launched a final assault on the Indian player's king. Faced with the inevitable checkmate, Humpy threw in the towel and Hou claimed a 4-2 lead in the match.

I would believe that the lead of two points would be enough for the Chinese lass to retain her title. Already, Humpy is faced with the unenviable task of winning back the two lost games and she is fast running out of time and games. Between Tuesday and today, I would presume that nothing much would have changed after two more games.

If by a super-human effort Humpy does manage to catch up on her deficit and equalise the match (the ninth game is tomorrow and the 10th game is on Monday), the two women will go into a series of tie-break games on Nov 30 to determine the title.

Up next

Asian amateur open

The second Asian amateur open and women chess championship starts today at the Crowne Plaza Mutiara in Kuala Lumpur. According to the Malaysian Chess Federation which is organising this continental event on behalf of the Asian Chess Federation, about 100 players have registered for this FIDE-registered tournament which shall run until Dec 1. 

Predictably most of the participants will be Malaysians but there are many foreign players as well, making this event a very interesting mix. The organisers said most of the registered foreigners were from Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, India, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and even Nepal. 

Top prizes for the open section are USD1,500 (about RM4,500) for first, USD1,000 (about RM3,000) for second and USD800 (about RM2,400) for third. There are six other minor prizes that go down to USD200 (about RM600). For the women, there are four prizes with the best of them set to win USD400 (about RM1,200). There are also identical prizes for the four best unrated players.

Penang chess league

This year’s Penang Chess League will be held at the SJKC Kheng Tean in Van Praagh Road, Penang, on Dec 3 and 4. The two-day team event is open to teams from four broad categories: public sector, factories, institutions of learning and others. 

Each team shall comprise four players and an optional reserve. Average rating per team during play should not be more than 2100 points. Seven rounds, time control of one hour play-to-finish for each game. Entry fees are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams), RM60 (under-12 teams). Closing date is Nov 29. 

More details available from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@yahoo.com or estan64@gmail.com) or visit http://penangchess.com for more information.

Penang heritage open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organise the Penang heritage city open chess championship at the Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel, Penang on Dec 6-10. Two separate events: open and challenger sections, both internationally rated. Nine rounds, 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move.

Entry fees for the open event: free for Malaysian national masters and all players with FIDE ratings of above 2300 points, RM100 (PCA members) and RM150 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 2000 and 2299 points, RM150 (members) and RM200 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 1800 and 1999 points, RM200 (members) and RM300 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 1600 and 1799 points, and RM250 (members) and RM350 (non-members) for players without any FIDE rating.

Entry fees for the challenger event: RM50 (PCA members) and RM100 (non-members) for players with a FIDE rating, and RM100 (members) and RM150 (non-members) for unrated players. 

Closing date for all entries is Dec 1 and thereafter, all late entries will be charged double. Direct all inquiries to Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@yahoo.com or estan64@gmail.com). More information also at http://penangchess.com

Sarawak open

The Sarawak Chess Association will hold the Sarawak open chess tournament at the Ultimate Professional Centre, opposite the Pullman Hotel, in Jalan Bukit Mata Kuching, Kuching on Dec 12-16. Internationally-rated event played over nine rounds, 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment for each move.

Entry fees: Free for grandmasters and international masters (men and women), RM25 (ladies and all players below 16 years old) and RM50 (all other participants). The closing date for entries is Dec 5.

Details available from Morsin Ahmad (012.8949415, morsinab@sarawaknet.gov.my), Abang Mohd Reduan (019.8887786, reduan_sahari@bsn.com.my) and Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, limkhwa@gmail.com). 

 

Imagine that

As expected, there’s no live coverage at all of the nine chess competitions at the SEA Games in Palembang, Indonesia. The only details that are available from the official website are the round-by-round results.

Fortunately, the people running the chess competitions are all experienced international chess arbiters and they have taken a lot of trouble to ensure all the results can be viewed on the Chess-Results.com website. This is the only consolation so far.

The SEA Games are actually already winding down both in Jakarta and Palembang, and accordingly so too are the chess competitions. The men’s and women’s standard chess events and the rapid chess events started yesterday and will end on Monday. A blitz chess competition also on Monday will bring the proceedings to a close.

Earlier this week, the mixed pair standard chess team, the ASEAN chess individual and the blindfold chess individual events have been completed.

Like I mentioned last week, our blindfold chess players – I mentioned only Mok Tze Meng but have discovered subsequently that Jimmy Liew was also playing in the blindfold event – arrived in Indonesia not knowing what to expect from the organisers, only to find out later that during the blindfold games, a player and his opponent would be seated at an empty chess board.

There would be no dramatic blindfolds to cover their eyes. Instead, they were allowed to stare and concentrate on the empty squares of the chess board while their pieces danced and jiggled around in their minds. 

When they decided on a move to make, they would write down that move in long form algebraic notation on a piece of paper that they would pass on to the game controllers who then verified the moves on a normal chess board (with chess pieces) that would be out of the players’ sight. 

And the most newsworthy part was that infractions of the tournament rules, such as making an illegal move or not writing down the moves properly, would lead to the arbiters rendering YELLOW cards to the players after giving them an initial verbal warning. 

After two yellow cards, the third infraction during a game would lead to a RED card, which meant the automatic loss of the game. Very interesting regulation, indeed.

Let’s have a look at one of the games from the third round of the blindfold event. Perhaps by playing through this game, you can appreciate how much the players can compute even without sight of the chess board. Le Quang Liem is Vietnam’s top grandmaster but still, he managed to lose a blindfold game one round later to a Pinoy player.

Zaw Win Lay (Myanmar) – Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) 

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nd2 e6 5.Nb3 c5 6.dxc5 Bxc5 7.Nxc5 Qa5+ 8.c3 Qxc5 9.Be3 Qc7 10.Nf3 Nc6 11.Bb5 Nge7 12.Bc5 Bg4 13.0–0 Bxf3 14.Qxf3 Qxe5 15.Rfe1 Qc7 16.c4 0–0–0 17.cxd5 Rxd5 18.Rac1 Nf5 19.a4 Kb8 20.b4 Rhd8 21.Bf1 b6 22.Be3 Nxe3 23.Qxe3 Re5 24.Qc3 Rxe1 25.Rxe1 Nd4 26.Qh3 h6 27.Qg4 Nf5 28.a5 Rd4 29.Re4 Rxe4 30.Qxe4 bxa5 31.bxa5 Qxa5 32.g4 Nh4 33.Qf4+ Qc7 34.Qb4+ Ka8 35.Qf8+ Kb7 36.Qxg7 Qf4 37.h3 Nf3+ 38.Kg2 Ne5 39.Kg1 a5 40.Bg2+ Kc7 41.Qf8 a4 42.Qc5+ Kd7 43.Bf1 Nf3+ 44.Kg2 Nd4 45.Kg1 Ke8 46.Bg2 Kd8 47.Qf8+ Kd7 48.Qc5 Ne2+ 49.Kf1 Qc1+ 0–1

I had also mentioned last week about the start of the women’s world chess championship match between 17-year-old Hou Yifan of China and 24-year-old Humpy Koneru of India in Tirana, Albania.

They are already playing the fourth game of the match today. If the match goes the full distance, it will end on Nov 30 with the tie-break games. You can follow the match live from the official website, http://www.wwcc2011tirana.com. The games start at 10pm Malaysia time.

Up next

Penang age group

The Penang Chess Association is holding this year’s Penang age group chess championship for boys and girls over five Sundays. The final two events, for players under 15 and 17 years old, will be played this Sunday. Venue is the clubhouse of the Residents’ Association of Bayan Baru in Bandar Bayan Baru, Penang. Entry fees: RM15 (PCA members) and RM30 (non-members). For inquiries, contact Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517) or visit http://penangchess.com for more information.

National scholastics

The Malaysian Chess Federation will organise this year’s national scholastics age group chess championships for boys and girls over two weekends. The under-13 and under-15 group events will be played tomorrow. Seven rounds for each event, time control of 60 minutes per game. Venue is the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre at the Wilayah Complex, Jalan Munshi Abdullah in Kuala Lumpur. Entry fees: RM40 (under-13 and under-15 events). 

The respective age group champions will be selected as the country representatives at the Asian schools chess championships in New Delhi, India on Dec 16-23. For inquiries, contact Zuraihah Wazir (017.2837808) or Najib Wahab (016.3382542).

Asian amateur open

The Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) will organise the second Asian amateur open and women chess championship in Kuala Lumpur from Nov 25 to Dec 1. The tournament is open to only Asian players who are either unrated or with an international rating of not more than 2100 points. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move.

Entry fees are USD125 for players with international ratings and USD150 for non-rated players. Malaysians wishing to play will be charged at RM412 and RM495 respectively. Closing date for entries is extended to Nov 14. 

Top prizes for the open section are USD1,500 (about RM4,500) for first, USD1,000 (about RM3,000) for second and USD800 (about RM2,400) for third. There are six other minor prizes that go down to USD200 (about RM600). For the women, there are four prizes with the best of them set to win USD400 (about RM1,200). There are also identical prizes for the four best unrated players.

All inquiries and requests for entry forms to the event secretariat (najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com).

Penang chess league

This year’s Penang Chess League will be held on Dec 3 and 4. Pending confirmation from the Penang Chess Association, there may be a change in the playing venue. The two-day team event is open to teams from four broad categories: public sector, factories, institutions of learning and others. 

Each team shall comprise four players and an optional reserve. Average rating per team during play should not be more than 2100 points. Seven rounds, time control of one hour play-to-finish for each game. Entry fees are RM150 (open category), RM90 (under-18 teams), RM60 (under-12 teams). Closing date is Nov 29. 

More details available from Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@yahoo.com or estan64@gmail.com) or visit http://penangchess.com for more information.

Penang heritage open

The Penang Chess Association (PCA) will organise the Penang heritage city open chess championship at the Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel, Penang on Dec 6-10. Two separate events: open and challenger sections, both internationally rated. Nine rounds, 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move.

Entry fees for the open event: free for Malaysian national masters and all players with FIDE ratings of above 2300 points, RM100 (PCA members) and RM150 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 2000 and 2299 points, RM150 (members) and RM200 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 1800 and 1999 points, RM200 (members) and RM300 (non-members) for players with FIDE ratings between 1600 and 1799 points, and RM250 (members) and RM350 (non-members) for players without any FIDE rating.

Entry fees for the challenger event: RM50 (PCA members) and RM100 (non-members) for players with a FIDE rating, and RM100 (members) and RM150 (non-members) for unrated players. 

Closing date for all entries is Dec 1 and thereafter, all late entries will be charged double. Direct all inquiries to Tan Eng Seong (012.4299517, estan64@yahoo.com or estan64@gmail.com). More information also at http://penangchess.com

Sarawak open

The Sarawak Chess Association will hold the Sarawak open chess tournament at the Ultimate Professional Centre, opposite the Pullman Hotel, in Jalan Bukit Mata Kuching, Kuching on Dec 12-16. Internationally-rated event played over nine rounds, 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment for each move.

Entry fees: Free for grandmasters and international masters (men and women), RM25 (ladies and all players below 16 years old) and RM50 (all other participants). The closing date for entries is Dec 5.

Details available from Morsin Ahmad (012.8949415, morsinab@sarawaknet.gov.my), Abang Mohd Reduan (019.8887786, reduan_sahari@bsn.com.my) and Lim Kian Hwa (016.8603180, limkhwa@gmail.com).