Back for more

LAST week, I was looking through the list of chess players at the 35th Royal Selangor open tournament and I thought to myself that this could quite possibly be one of the strongest local events ever organised.Any event that can attract a horde of former national chess champions – Yeoh Chin Seng, Lim Yee Weng, Mohd Kamal Abdullah, Kamal Arifin Wahiduddin, Nicholas Chan and Lim Chuin Hoong – must have something special to it.

LimYeeWeng

Lim Yee Weng receiving the winner’s trophy from Royal Selangor director Datin M.K. Chen. – Photo courtesy of Chess Association of Selangor

I suspect that one of the reasons that attracted players to the Royal Selangor open would be the opportunity to play against players with international rating points. With at least 30 players with Fide ratings in the 62-player field, it would be inevitable for a participant to meet at least two of them.

It was a golden opportunity for many players to pick up some rating points while the luckless ones lost rating points at the end of the tournament.

I may be wrong but I believe the real reason for the big crowd was that most of the players were looking forward to playing a tournament with real time control. Not those 30-minute or even 60-minute games. But a solid four hours of chess in a single round. Quick time controls may give you an adrenalin rush and keep your heart pumping wildly but it doesn’t give you the time to really enjoy your thinking process. Playing with a longer time control gives you the opportunity to think properly and to reflect on your strategies and tactics.

Why do you think top chess events around the world are normally organised over two weeks?

I believe that players tend to improve faster when they sit down to games with longer time controls. Longer time controls also instil discipline in players because they learn how to control their emotions and exercise patience during their games.

But sadly, you will hardly find chess tournaments in the country today that have real tournament conditions.

I’m glad for events like the national closed championships and the Malaysia open championships that adopt such longer time controls. I’m equally glad that the Royal Selangor open continues with this tradition.

LimYeeWeng-HendryJamal

Winning moves: White: Lim Yee Weng (white) vs Hendry Jamal (black). 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 a6 4. Bd3 c5 5. c3 cxd4 6. cxd4 Nc6 7. Ngf3 dxe4 8. Nxe4 Be7 9. O-O Nf6 10. a3 O-O 11. Qc2 h6 12. Be3 Nd5 13. Rad1 Bd7 14. Qe2 Na7 15. Nc3 Rc8 16. Bd2 Nc6 17. Bb1 Nf6 18. Qd3 Bd6 19. Rfe1 Ne7 20. Ne5 Bc6 21. Qg3 Kh8 22. Qh3 Neg8 23. Bg5 Qc7 24. Bh4 Rcd8 25. Rd3 Be7 26. Bg3 Qb6 27. Nc4 Qa7 28. Be5 (See diagram) 28… Bb5 29. Nxb5 axb5 30. Rg3 bxc4 31. Rxg7 Kxg7 32. Qg4+ Kh8 33. Qe4 1-0

I wish that more chess associations in the country would follow suit. Shorter time controls may bring in more players and make the game more popular, but it is never good if you want to build a real solid base of good players. So, chess associations must consider longer time controls once in a while if they want to move forward.

The Royal Selangor open was won by Lim Yee Weng, with 7½ points. He was a clear half point ahead of Lim Chuin Hoong, who was last year’s champion.

These two players were in close contention for the top prize. Chuin Hoong led most of the way but Yee Weng was never far away. They began the final round equal on points but while Chuin Hoong could only draw against a resilient Kamal Ariffin Wahiduddin, Yee Weng was too experienced for his opponent, Justin Ong.

What made Yee Weng’s victory in this event more remarkable was that he had to forfeit his sixth round game due to pressing work.

I’m going to end this week with an interesting game from the seventh round of the Royal Selangor open. In order for Yee Weng to keep up the pressure on Chuin Hoong, he had to win this game at all cost. Fortunately, his opponent, the Indonesian Hendry Jamal, was in a rather passive mood and allowed him to dictate terms on the chessboard.

In the diagrammed position, Hendry had a choice to make. 28…Nd5 29. Nxd5 Bxd5 30. Ne3 Bf6 31. Nxd5 Rxd5 32. Ba2 Rd7 33. Qf3 Rfd8 34. Bb1 could possibly keep the game going on longer but 28…Bb5 simply gave up control of the white diagonal.

Also, 30…bxc4 was a foolhardy acceptance of the sacrificed knight, which led to Yee Weng happily offering a second piece, his rook, on the g7 square. When his opponent resigned the game, it was clear that checkmate would be unavoidable.

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One Response to Back for more

  1. John Koh says:

    I may be wrong but I believe the real reason for the big crowd was that most of the players were looking forward to playing a tournament with real time control. Not those 30-minute or even 60-minute games. But a solid four hours of chess in a single round. Quick time controls may give you an adrenalin rush and keep your heart pumping wildly but it doesn’t give you the time to really enjoy your thinking process. Playing with a longer time control gives you the opportunity to think properly and to reflect on your strategies and tactics…

    Dear Mr. Quah SS,

    If I remember correctly, as far as 20 years back, when the MAA Allegros were at its peak, people were wondering if these allegros would bring any drastic improvements to the players in the country. Although it did bring up the level of interests of the locals, but I think most people were just looking for the quick weekend kill for a few hundred ringgits rather than seriously improving their chess.

    And even then, there were also those who asked for more longer time controls tournaments to be held to improve the standard of the local players. Sadly it seems that 20 years on, we are still talking about this. True enough 20 years on, we do have marginally more titled players but we are still looking to boast more IMs and the still-elusive first GM. Sigh. Sad indeed.

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