EVERY year, whenever the national age group chess championship comes on my radar screen, I feel a slight tinge of regret that I never started playing chess at a younger age. I only took it up in Form Three – old by today’s standards – while waiting for the public examination results.
Today, players are starting to play chess at a very young age. It’s not uncommon to see six- or seven-year-old kids competing in chess tournaments, with their parents and coaches some distance away watching their young charges play. I’m certain this scene is going to be repeated at this year’s national age group event on March 10-12.
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Seven-year-old Yeoh Li Tian will be coming under close scrutiny this March. |
According to Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) secretary Hamid Majid, a record number of entries will be expected this year.
“We are reducing the number of age categories from six to five, but we are very confident of achieving another full capacity at the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s indoor sports arena in Kuala Lumpur,” he said. “The majority of the players are from the Klang Valley but we anticipate the other states to give us their strong support again,” he added.
Space at the OCM’s hall is not a problem, he said, as it is capable of filling at least 600 players sitting elbow to elbow.
Hamid said that the championship would be played over five age groups: the under-8, under-10, under-12, under-14 and under-16. Each age group will feature separate events for boys and girls.
There used to be an under-18 event but this has been scrapped.
“Our intention is to introduce a separate national junior championship later this year in which we will welcome any player below 20 to come and participate. Even if you are eight- or 10-years-old, you can take part,” he said. For the moment, the three-day national age group championship will take centre-stage.
Seven-year-old Yeoh Li Tian will be coming under close scrutiny, not because he will be defending his under-8 title, but because of his excellent results at last year’s world age group championship in Turkey, in which he finished fourth in the under-8 section. That was by far the best result ever achieved by one of our junior players in any international chess event.
In the national age group championship, the top four players in each age group event will be required to play in a round-robin tournament at the Wilayah Complex on March 13-14.
The MCF said the results of these round-robin events would be used as the basis of selection to pick representatives to events such as the world-, Asian- and Asean-level age group tournaments.
Entry fees are RM15 for players participating in the under-8, under-10 and under-12 events, and RM20 for those in the under-14 and under-16 categories. Entry fees will be doubled if registrations are made after March 9.
For more details on the national age group championship, contact Gregory Lau (012-902 0123 / e-mail: all4chess@hotmail.com) or Hamid Majid (e-mail: aham@pc.jaring.my/ fax: 03-4024 4337).
Babylonian chess
Last week, we had some visitors from Iraq. Not the country’s top-notch chess players but still, some rather strong ones. A match was quickly arranged and for want of a better tag, it was called the Kuala Lumpur-Babylon match.
The MCF called upon international master Mas Hafizulhelmi, and former national champion Mohd Kamal Abdullah, for their services and coupled with the presence of others like Tham Tick Hong, Ismail Ahmad, Abdul Haq and Fariz Shafruddin, a good fight was on the cards.
The first match was won 3-1 by the KL side while the second match was drawn 2-2.
(This story first appeared in The Star on 29 Feb 2008)