Who will be champ at this year’s Malaysia Chess Festival?
YOU MAY think that six weeks is a long time but, actually, it is not. That’s about the time left before the start of this year’s Malaysia Chess Festival. As I had mentioned some weeks ago, it may possibly be the last of the Festival in its present form.
Most certainly, it will be the fifth and final edition of the Arthur Tan memorial Malaysia open chess tournament. It’s one of the first-class chess events in this part of the world and has never failed to generate much interest among the top chess grandmasters in the region.
Over the years, we’ve had visiting grandmasters and international masters from Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, China, India, England, Scotland and Australia. We have also had strong players from Brunei, Bangladesh, Armenia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Singapore among the participants. The Arthur Tan event has even attracted players from the United States, Hongkong, Macao, New Zealand and Japan. Basically, every continent except Africa has been represented here.
According to the Malaysian Chess Federation – the organisers of the Malaysian Chess Festival – foreign players have started making inquiries. Some are already making their travel plans.
One thing we can expect is China to be well represented in the Arthur Tan event. They’ve always given this event very good support over the years by sending players who almost never failed to make an impact.
In three out of the last four editions of this event, the trophy had been held by a Chinese player. In the inaugural event in 2004, Ni Hua was the winner. In 2005, Wang Hao was the big winner when he practically annihilated the rest of the field in his relentless march to the champion’s podium. Then, last year, it was Li Chao’s turn to make an impression.
Wouldn’t you already consider this as a Chinese stranglehold on the tournament? Well, maybe not quite because in 2006, the event was won by Vietnam’s Dao Thien Hai. In that year, the Chinese players were rather subdued. Perhaps it was good that they couldn’t excite the field because it gave the other players a chance to shine.
In that year, we saw an interesting tussle for the top prize. There was a lot of excitement because going into the final round, the Filipino player, Oliver Dimakiling, was holding a slim half-point lead over the others. The crunch came in the final round. He failed to deliver a win. Dimakiling only managed a draw while four of his closest rivals won their games!
The result? A five-way tie at the top of the table. But the first prize had to go to someone and according to the tie-break system, Dao’s tie-break points were the best among them. Of course, it was a big heartbreak for the Filipino player but Dao’s success could not be faulted. You may say that it was luck but he did take his calculated risks well.
Whether or not we’ll see a tight finish again this August or whether another Chinese player will rule the roost remains to be seen but the Arthur Tan event promises to be full of excitement.
When I received a copy of the entry form earlier this week, I was surprised to find that the prize fund had been topped up to US$24,000 (RM78,577). Yes, the organisers have increased the number of prizes in the hope of attracting a bigger and better field.
There are now prizes for the best 20 results in the tournament, compared to last year’s 15. The value of the first prize is unchanged, though, which is US$4,000 (RM13,100). Neither has the quantum of the second to fifth prizes changed.
But there will be a slight redistribution of the remaining prizes to accommodate the increased number of winners. There are also separate prizes for the top five Malaysians in this event.
Game of the week
This was probably the most spectacular game from the second Arthur Tan event three years ago. Wang Hao had arrived in Malaysia with a reputation of having won the Dubai open tournament several months earlier but how was he going to perform here? Would he be able to repeat his feat?
The participants did not have long to wait. Round after round, the Boy Wonder from China simply chalked up point after point to leave his opponents panting behind. Throughout the 11-round tournament, he dropped only two draws. Already a clear-cut winner, he didn’t have to win his game in the last round but obviously, nobody told him that he could have drawn the game and still take away the champion’s cheque.
So what did Wang do? He approached the final round like the way he played the 10th round and the ninth round and the eighth round and all the rounds before that. He wanted only to play for a win, and his hapless opponent was the Australian grandmaster, Ian Rogers.
White: Ian Rogers (Australia)
Black: Wang Hao (China)
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.e3 Bb4 5.Qc2 d6 6.a3 Bxc3 7.Qxc3 e4 8.Ng1 Ne5 9.b4 b6 10.f4 (I felt this move weakened White’s position too much. After the exchange of pawns, Black found himself an excellent square for his knight to jump.)
10….exf3 11.Nxf3 Ne4 (Here it comes. This knight occupies such a dominant square in the centre of the board and White must already be feeling a chill around his king.)
12.Qd4 Nxf3+ 13.gxf3 Qh4+ (This must be near the end of the game. White is positively lost by now.)
14.Ke2 Qf2+ 15.Kd3 Qxf3 16.Qxg7 (Why not 16.Qxe4+ Qxe4+ 17.Kxe4? Because White’s rook gets skewered after 17?.Bb7+. So White tries another measure.)
White: Ian Rogers (Australia); Black: Wang Hao (China)
16….Bf5 (Wow, a double rook sacrifice. You don’t see this every day. See diagram. Will White dare to take them? Actually, he doesn’t have many alternatives.) 17.Qxh8+ Ke7 18.Qg7 (White needs his queen to guard the long black diagonal. He cannot play 18.Qxa8 because Black will finish him off with 18….Nc5+ 19.Kc3 Na4+ 20.Kb3 Qd1+ 21.Ka2 Qc2+ 22.Bb2 Qxb2 mate.)
18….Rg8 19.Qxg8 Nf6+ (It’s inexplicable why Black did not go for 19….Nc5+ etc.) 20.Kc3 Nxg8 21.Rg1 Qf2 22.Rxg8 Qxf1 23.e4 Be6 24.Rg3 Qxc4+ 25.Kb2 Qxe4 26.Rc3 Kd7 27.d3 Qe2+ 0-1 (Finally, White gives up.)