Calendar of events

Just in case anyone’s asking, I have to say that to the best of my knowledge, no, the Malaysian Chess Federation have yet to finalise their official chess calendar for this year, which makes it rather tardy of them. Last year, the chess calendar was released in January!

Or, even if they have finalized the calendar, they haven’t released it to the general chess-playing public yet. Everything remains a closely guarded secret within the four walls of the MCF office in Kuala Lumpur.

However, the good news is that I still have an inkling of some of the events that are almost guaranteed to make their way into the calendar.

The immediate tournament is the national age group chess championship that is due to begin at the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s indoor stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 11. You can read more about this in the Up Next section of this column.

This event shall be followed by the national closed championship and the national women’s closed championship. Both these tournaments shall be played concurrently from Mar 28 to Apr 1. 

Come this July, it will be quite possible that the MCF shall be playing host to a visiting contingent from Singapore for this year’s Malaysia-Singapore chess match. You may remember that in the last match in Singapore some 14 months ago, the Malaysian side had managed to beat their southern neighbours.

And then in August we shall again be treated to the next instalment of the Malaysian Chess Festival. Again you may remember that at the end of last year’s edition, the doyen of Malaysian chess, Datuk Tan Chin Nam, had once again declared his commitment to sponsor the festival.

However, there may be changes to the whole chess festival. There are rumours going around that the Arthur Tan Malaysian open may adopt a totally new format that can either make or break the chess festival. So be prepared for the announcements when they are made eventually.

Of course, August is also the time for the Merdeka team chess championships. It has become a tradition for chess players to meet up at this most successful chess event in the country. I don’t see why this year should be an exception.

The national scholastics age group chess championship should be held sometime in September, followed by the national rapid and blitz age group chess championships in October and the national junior chess championship in November. Busy times indeed for the junior chess players in the country!

Among the state chess associations, only the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association have made known their clear intention of organising their Raja Nazrin Shah Kuala Lumpur international chess championship in September.

However, we should expect that the Chess Association of Selangor will organise their annual Selangor open chess tournament in the middle of the year. It is the longest-running chess event in the country, dating back to 1974.

The Sarawak open chess tournament should still be organised in December but before then, there is always the anticipation of the Penang heritage city open chess tournament. In particular, the Penang event should take on an extra significance this year because the organisers, the Penang Chess Association (PCA), shall also be celebrating their 40th anniversary.

Forty years ago at around this time of the year, the inaugural meeting of the Penang Chess Association was held at the Penang Library in George Town. Unfortunately, not many of the original PCA members are around to remember this. 

These are then the main tournaments that chess players can expect from the organisers for the rest of the year. Apart from them, do expect the various state chess organisations and small independent chess organisers to come on board with their own weekend chess events too. 

With such a plethora of activities, the next 10 months will continue to be busy times for chess players, with or without the MCF’s chess calendar. So do enjoy them!

Up Next

National age group

The Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) will organise this year’s national age group chess championships at the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s indoor stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 11 to 13. Eight rounds with a time control of 45 minutes, plus increment time of 30 seconds per move.

There are six separate categories for both boys and girls – the under-eight, under-10, under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18 – which will mean that the 12 events will be played simultaneously. Entry fee is RM40 per player if paid before Mar 7. After this date, acceptance of registration shall be at the discretion of the organisers and the entry fee is increased to RM80.

The top four players from each category shall qualify to represent the country at the world, Asian, ASEAN and other age group events subject to the acceptance of the federation’s terms and conditions.

Entry forms can be downloaded from http://malaysianchessfederation.blogspot.com. For inquiries, contact Hamid Majid (019.3158098, aham@pc.jaring.my), Gregory Lau (017.2898215, msianchess2010@gmail.com), Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922, tsepin@gmail.com), Zuraihah Wazir (017.2837808) or Haslindah Ruslan (019.2069605).

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organise the second leg of this year’s Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament at the Chinese Recreation Club in Taiping on Mar 4. 

This second leg in Taiping will be played over seven rounds with a 25-minute time control. The four remaining legs will be held in Slim River, Bagan Serai, Kampar and Ipoh. Other than cash prizes, points are awarded to the top 10 winners of each leg and these would accumulate till the final leg. 

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 second leg in Taiping: 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). For more information, call Yunus (013.3908129), Mrs Chow (05.8076882) or check the PICA blog at http://perakchess.blogspot.com for updates. 

USM chess festival

This year’s 18th Universiti Sains Malaysia chess festival will comprise an eight-round individual event on Mar 10-11 and a seven-round team event on Mar 17-18. Time control for both events will be 45 minutes per game. 

Entry fees for the individual tournament are RM17 (under-12 players), RM19 (under-18 players), RM21 (university and college players) and RM27 (others). Members of the Penang Chess Association will be charged at RM15, RM17, RM19 and RM22 respectively. For the team event, entry fees are RM80 (under-12 teams), RM90 (under-18 teams), RM100 (university, college and school teams) and RM110 (all other teams). 

Details are available from Ng Sok Ling (014.9443919, sokling_9100@hotmail.com), Chung Yao Liang (017.4343182, yaoliang_1228@yahoo.com) or Lee Youn Hock (014.9445491, chessmanlee@hotmail.com). 

Rakan Muda JB

The Johor Chess Academy, Johor Bahru Chess Association and the Giant Tampoi hypermarket are the joint organisers of this year’s third Giant Tampoi junior tournament on Mar 11. Venue will be the hypermarket in Tampoi, 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 for entries is Mar 8. Details available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@yahoo.com).

 

Hou makes history

Despite being the women’s world champion, China’s 17-year-old Hou Yifan never started out as a favourite in the Tradewise Gibraltar chess festival a few weeks ago. 

In the first place, Hou’s international rating was “only” at 2605 points and there were at least 20 high-profile players who were ranked very much higher than her. And actually, 11 of them were players whose ratings placed them in the super-grandmaster class. If anybody were favourites to win this chess festival, well, she wasn’t one of them.

Secondly, there was always Judit Polgar who has been the top ranked woman chess player for as long as anybody could remember. She is a 2700-plus chess grandmaster and all women chess players walk in her shadow. 

But Hou had arrived in Gibraltar with a reputation of her own. She was the women’s world champion and only a few months back, she had demonstrated how easy it was for her to defend her world title against an opponent who was on paper ranked above her. Her rivals would have done well to study her games.

With this as the background, Hou began the Gibraltar masters tournament without making any loud impression. 

In the first round, she quietly dispatched off a Swiss Fide master, Emanuel Schiendorfer, and then easily refuted a rash attack from the English international master Adam Hunt in the second round.

Her first real test was in the third round but she proved that the Hungarian grandmaster Zoltan Almasi was no big obstacle for her. 

The fourth round could be considered as Hou’s first appearance in the Gibraltar limelight. Against the experienced English grandmaster, Michael Adams, she played faultlessly to neutralize Adams’ game plan and both players agreed to split the point.

It was in the fifth round that she received her first and only setback in the tournament. The Indian grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran, presumably much wiser to Hou’s style of play than the Westerners, never gave her much of a chance in their game and he converted his positional advantage into a full point.

After that loss, Hou retreated back into the crowd. Against the Ukraine international master Mariya Muzychuk in the sixth round, the Chinese ace displayed her usual form to win almost effortlessly.

The seventh round witnessed Hou’s historical game against Judit Polgar which I had written about last week. As the two had never met across the chess board before, this game generated quite a lot of interest around the world. The fact that Hou won this game ensured that this historical moment would be remembered for a long time to come.

After this win, the spotlight returned to Hou and it never left her again until the end of the tournament. The Vietnamese grandmaster Le Quang Liem was the next to feel the power of Hou’s will as he wilted under her persistent tactical pressure on the board.

 

In the ninth round, she was paired against the Latvian grandmaster Alexei Shirov. For a brief moment, it seemed as though Hou’s position was under great pressure but in a quick turn of events, she emerged with real winning chances which she converted into a full point after an interesting endgame.

By then, Hou had surged ahead to become the sole leader in the tournament. All she required in the final round was at least a draw with the Azeri grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to take a share of the first prize. She took it instead of risking everything to beat her opponent.

This draw, however, enabled the English grandmaster Nigel Short the chance to creep up on her and finish with equal points. Technically on tie-break, Hou was the winner of the Gibraltar masters tournament but the rules of the chess festival required the two players to play two quick games to determine the overall winner.

Unfortunately for Hou, she was no match for the wily Short in this department. Short had honed his chess skills playing just this type of chess on the Internet chess servers and his experience quickly told on Hou as he won the first game of the tie-break before he offered her a draw in the second game.

For all her efforts, she received STG12,000 as the second prize but she also received STG10,000 as the best woman player and STG600 as the best junior player. Short came away with the STG20,000 first prize and a further STG5,000 special prize set up to honour Queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee.

Up Next

Perak grand prix

The Perak International Chess Association (PICA) will organise the second leg of this year’s Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng chess grand prix tournament at the Chinese Recreation Club in Taiping on Mar 4. After the success of the first leg in Kuala Kangsar on Sunday which attracted 313 participants from around the peninsula, PICA is hopeful of an equally good response in Taiping. 

This second leg in Taiping will be played over seven rounds with a 25-minute time control. The four remaining legs will be held in Slim River, Bagan Serai, Kampar and Ipoh. Other than cash prizes, points are awarded to the top 10 winners of each leg and these would accumulate till the final leg. 

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 second leg in Taiping: 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). 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 Sunday. 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 for entries is today. Details available from Narayanan Krishnan (013.7717525, jb_chess_association@yahoo.com).

USM chess festival

This year’s 18th Universiti Sains Malaysia chess festival will comprise an eight-round individual event on Mar 10-11 and a seven-round team event on Mar 17-18. Time control for both events will be 45 minutes per game. 

Entry fees for the individual tournament are RM17 (under-12 players), RM19 (under-18 players), RM21 (university and college players) and RM27 (others). Members of the Penang Chess Association will be charged at RM15, RM17, RM19 and RM22 respectively. For the team event, entry fees are RM80 (under-12 teams), RM90 (under-18 teams), RM100 (university, college and school teams) and RM110 (all other teams). 

Details are available from Ng Sok Ling (014.9443919, sokling_9100@hotmail.com), Chung Yao Liang (017.4343182, yaoliang_1228@yahoo.com) or Lee Youn Hock (014.9445491, chessmanlee@hotmail.com). 

National age group

The Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) will organise this year’s national age group chess championships at the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s indoor stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 11 to 13. Eight rounds with a time control of 45 minutes, plus increment time of 30 seconds per move.

There are six separate categories for both boys and girls – the under-eight, under-10, under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18 – which will mean that the 12 events will be played simultaneously. Entry fee is RM40 per player if paid before Mar 7. After this date, acceptance of registration shall be at the discretion of the organisers and the entry fee is increased to RM80.

The top four players from each category shall qualify to represent the country at the world, Asian, ASEAN and other age group events subject to the acceptance of the federation’s terms and conditions.

Entry forms can be downloaded from http://malaysianchessfederation.blogspot.com. For inquiries, contact Hamid Majid (019.3158098, aham@pc.jaring.my), Gregory Lau (017.2898215, msianchess2010@gmail.com), Lim Tse Pin (012.2984922, tsepin@gmail.com), Zuraihah Wazir (017.2837808) or Haslindah Ruslan (019.2069605).

 

Titans clash

It is not often that the chess world really gets excited over a chess game but at the Gibraltar masters tournament last week, there was little else being discussed except for the first-ever encounter between Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan.

In case you don’t already know, Judit Polgar is just about the most talented of the three Polgar sisters that emerged from Hungary in the 1980s and 1990s. She was never the women’s world champion but this was because she had always refused to play in the women’s world championship cycles.

If she had agreed to play, there would be without any doubt that she would have become one sometime in the last 20 years or so. Instead, she had played almost exclusively in tournaments against the best male chess grandmasters.

Even today, everyone regards Judit Polgar as the most talented woman chess grandmaster in the history of the game. At her strongest, which was just seven years ago, she was ranked eighth in the international rating list. Her ratings have consistently stayed above the 2700 points level.

With this as the background, when it became known that Judit Polgar had been paired against 18-year-old Hou Yifan in the seventh round of the Gibraltar masters tournament, it resulted in very strong interest around the world.

This would be an historical game between the highest ranked woman chess player in the world and the current women’s world champion. Never before had these two women met across the chess board. Polgar’s shadow loomed large over Hou. There was a 105 rating points difference between the two. But would Polgar be able to teach her young opponent a lesson or would Hou show her older opponent that there is now a worthy challenger to her eminent position?

While the world tuned in to their game through the Internet, logged into chess servers everywhere, the two women sat down to play. At first the game was rather equal but then, Polgar became impatient and made a hasty move.

This was just the opportunity that Hou was waiting for. The Chinese lass pounced on the Hungarian grandmaster. Hou sacrificed a pawn but she quickly won it back and obtained a lingering pressure on Polgar’s position. Then, after a second inaccurate play from Polgar, Hou netted a pawn herself.

After that, the rest of the game was all Hou. She neutralized everything else that Polgar tried. In the final position, Hou had pushed Polgar into a corner. A check would be coming next and Hou was threatening to win a piece. Polgar saw it and decided that enough was enough as she threw in the towel.

Here is the game.

White: Hou Yifan

Black: Judit Polgar

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 Nge7 7. Bf4 Ng6 8. Nxc6 bxc6 9. Bd6 Bxd6 10. Qxd6 Qe7 11. O-O-O Qxd6 12. Rxd6 Ke7 13. Rhd1 Nf4 14. Bf3 Rb8 15. R6d2 g5 16. Na4 d5 17. g3 Ng6 18. Re1 Kf6 19. Bh5 Rb4 20. Nc3 d4 21. e5+ Nxe5 22. Ne4+ Ke7 23. Nxg5 h6 24. Nxe6 Bxe6 25. Rxe5 Rd8 26. f4 Rb5 27. Rde2 Kf6 28. Bf3 c5 29. a4 Rb4 30. Rxc5 Rxa4 31. b3 Rb4 32. Be4 Bg4 33. Re1 Rd6 34. Bd3 Bd7 35. Ree5 Be6 36. Kd2 Rbb6 37. Ra5 Rbc6 38. Ra4 Rb6 39. Re4 Bf5 40. Rexd4 Re6 41. Bc4 Rec6 42. Ra5 Bc8 43. Bd3 Be6 44. Rd8 Bc8 45. Rad5 Be6 46. Rh5 Kg7 47. f5 1-0 (See diagram. After 47….Bc8, White will win a piece with 48. f6+ Kxf6 49. Rxc8 Rxc8 50. Rxh6+ Ke7 51. Rxb6)

Next week: the story of how the women’s world champion finished first at the Gibraltar masters.

Up Next

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 this Sunday. 

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). 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).

USM chess festival

Chess players who have been waiting for the 18th Universiti Sains Malaysia chess festival should take note that it has been rescheduled to the middle of March because of the early Chinese New Year festivities. This year’s chess festival will comprise an eight-round individual event on Mar 10-11 and a seven-round team event on Mar 17-18. Time control for both events will be 45 minutes per game. 

Entry fees for the individual tournament are RM17 (under-12 players), RM19 (under-18 players), RM21 (university and college players) and RM27 (others). Members of the Penang Chess Association will be charged at RM15, RM17, RM19 and RM22 respectively. For the team event, entry fees are RM80 (under-12 teams), RM90 (under-18 teams), RM100 (university, college and school teams) and RM110 (all other teams). 

Details are available from Ng Sok Ling (014.9443919, sokling_9100@hotmail.com), Chung Yao Liang (017.4343182, yaoliang_1228@yahoo.com) or Lee Youn Hock (014.9445491, chessmanlee@hotmail.com). 

 

Clear winner

Levon Aronian ended up comfortable winner of the latest edition of the Tata Steel tournament at Wijk aan Zee earlier this week.

He achieved this despite a late scare when he lost unexpectedly to David Navara. But then, none of Aronian’s closest rivals could take advantage of this lapse and he preserved his lead.

At the end of the tournament, Aronian finished with a clear one-point lead over three players – Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov and Fabiano Caruana – who tied for the second to fourth places.  

Here is one of the more interesting games from the tournament. 

White: Anish Giri

Black: Levon Aronian

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bf4 (It strikes me that 5.Bf4 is getting more popular as players move away from the more traditional 5.Bg5. Let’s see how this game develops here) 5….0-0 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Be2 dxc4 8. O-O Nb6 9. Qc2 Nh5 10. Be5 f6 11. Ng5 fxg5 12. Bxh5 Bd7 (Black is one pawn to the good but the position is very unbalanced.) 

13. Bf3 (A logical move but it is a clear invitation for Black to sacrifice the exchange) 13...Rxf3 Rxf3 14. gxf3 Bd6 15. Qe4 Bc6 16. Qg4 Qe7 (Black’s position is solid and there is compensation for the sacrificed material. Especially, the white pawn on f3 is weak and can be attacked by the black bishop on c6 and a lack rook on f8 later. If White were to play e3-e4, then the f4 square becomes a weakness for him.) 17. Bxd6 cxd6 18. Ne4 h6 19. Qg3 d5 20. Nc3 Rf8 21. Ne2 Rf5 (In the last few moves, Black has straightened out his centre pawns, fortified his kingside position and took control of the fifle. The bishop seems hemmed in by the black pawns but it can be re-deployed quickly to the e8 square and then the h5 square to keep the pressure on the f3 pawn.) 

22. Kg2 Nd7 23. Rh1 Nf8 (The knight looks headed for the h4 square. Same idea to attack the f3 pawn but a much harder idea to meet.) 24. h4 Ng6 25. f4 (This move doesn’t mean that the weakness on f3 has been eliminated. It’s still there) 25….Nxh4+ (Winning a second pawn. I think by now, White is probably lost. His queen and rook are in very poor positions. In fact, White’s queen has become very passive. And once the king is forced onto the f1 square, the rooks become disconnected.) 

26. Kf1 Qb4 (A good move which keeps White’s king in the centre and at the same time, attacking White’s weak queenside pawns) 27.Rb1 Be8 (Black’s last piece springs into life.) 28. Nc3 Qe7 29. b4 Rf8 (Why the rook retreat? So that the bishop can move to g6 and then d3 next.) 30. Rb2 Bg6 31. Ke1 Bd3 32. fxg5 Nf3+ 33. Kd1 hxg5 (The black bishop and knight completely dominate the game.) 34. Qh3 Qf6 35. Kc1 Bg6 36. a4 Rd8 (After this move to guard the d5 pawn, Black prepares to force open the centre with a e6-e5 pawn push. Hardly preventable.) 

37. Ne2 e5 38. Qg4 exd4 39. exd4 Re8 40. Qd7 c3 (This move weaves a mating net around the white king. If now 41. Nxc3, then 41….Qf4+ wins. And if 41. Rc2, then 41….Rd8 followed by 42….Bxc2 wins.) 41. Ra2 Ne1 (See diagram. This move is the icing on top of the cake. It’s a beautiful move which forces the white rook to capture. If White doesn’t capture, then 42….Nd3+ follows next.) 42. Rxe1 Qf4+ (The queen cannot be captured because 42. Nxf4 Rxe1 is checkmate.) 43. Kd1 Qe4 0-1 (It is checkmate next with the queen on the b1 or c2 square.) 

The Grandmaster Group B was won by Pentala Harikrishna with Alexander Motylev and Lazaro Bruzon sharing the second and third prizes. In the Group C tournament, Maxim Turov was the clear winner ahead of Hans Tikkanen. 

Up Next

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).

USM chess festival

Chess players who have been waiting for the 18th Universiti Sains Malaysia chess festival should take note that it has been rescheduled to the middle of March because of the early Chinese New Year festivities. This year’s chess festival will comprise an eight-round individual event on Mar 10-11 and a seven-round team event on Mar 17-18. Time control for both events will be 45 minutes per game. 

Entry fees for the individual tournament are RM17 (under-12 players), RM19 (under-18 players), RM21 (university and college players) and RM27 (others). Members of the Penang Chess Association will be charged at RM15, RM17, RM19 and RM22 respectively. For the team event, entry fees are RM80 (under-12 teams), RM90 (under-18 teams), RM100 (university, college and school teams) and RM110 (all other teams). 

Details are available from Ng Sok Ling (014.9443919, sokling_9100@hotmail.com), Chung Yao Liang (017.4343182, yaoliang_1228@yahoo.com) or Lee Youn Hock (014.9445491, chessmanlee@hotmail.com). 

 

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).