Tense tourney

During the 28th edition of the Merdeka rapid chess open team tournament last weekend, hardly anyone could remember when a rapid chess show had been so tight.

We witnessed one of the most nail-biting finale. Two teams were racing neck-to-neck to the finish line. It was a classic two-horse race but there could only be one team to claim the champion’s trophy.

On Saturday, which was the first day of the competition, teams were trying to get into the mood for the two-day event. Some teams were definitely last-minute entries – especially the foreign ones – several teams had players who were simply grouped together at the last minute. Last week, there were at least 43 confirmed entries but eventually the figure settled at 50 teams.

Two teams emerged as the strongest contenders at the end of the first day: Gold IS Berhad and Team Philippines. They were way ahead of the rest of with Gold IS holding down a one-point lead over Team Philippines. Both teams had met in the fourth round and Gold IS had won with a 2½-1½ score, giving it a one-point lead. Its closest rival, Laguna Chess, was 2½ points back.

  f_20winner.jpgTeam Philippines emerged champion of the 28th edition of the Merdeka rapid chess open team tournament of the Malaysian Chess Festival

It had been anticipated that the second day of the tournament would be a battle of nerves between Gold IS and Team Philippines. In every subsequent round, it would boil down to how many points both teams could steal from their opponents. All that Gold IS had to do was to beat its opponents with the same margin that Team Philippines could.

It all looked so simple especially when the first two boards on the Gold IS teams were grandmasters. It had Uzbek grandmasters Saidali Yuldachev and Marat Dzhumaev while third and fourth boards, Ian Udani and Khor Shihong, weren’t exactly pushovers in the local chess scene.

But disaster struck the team in the first match of the second day. Gold IS lost 1½-2½ to Laguna Chess while Team Philippines picked up three points against Dark Knights. Suddenly, the tables were turned. Team Philippines now had a very slim half-point lead.

The rapid chess tournament showed its unpredictability when in the seventh round, Team Philippines managed to beat Laguna Chess by 3-1 while Gold IS crushed Dark Knights 4-0. The lead changed hands again and this time, it was Gold IS ahead by half a point.

In the eighth round, Gold IS conceded two points to Apocalypse Manila, its third consecutive Filipino team. Such was the luck of the Swiss System. Gold IS drew 2-2 and in the meantime, Team Philippines picked up 3½ points against Bhayangkara Polri from Indonesia to find itself a clear point ahead.

However, nobody expected Team Philippines to drop a point in the ninth and final round against Glory Knights. Watching Gold IS complete a 4-0 rout of the Wah Seong team must have been agoni­sing for Team Phili­ppines.

So it was an exhausting finish with two teams tied at the very top. These two teams did not coast to an easy victory. It was a nail-biting race all the way to the end.

But on the podium, only one team could lift the Deputy Prime Minister’s challenge trophy. Team Philippines hoisted the trophy because it had the better tie-break over Gold IS.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Chess Festival continues with the IGB Arthur Tan memorial Malaysia open chess championship. This is a full time-control event and the sixth and seventh rounds are being contested today at the Cititel MidValley ballroom on the fifth floor of the hotel. There are two rounds daily beginning 9am and 3pm until Sunday.

Spectators are welcome to watch the nine grandmasters, three woman grandmasters, 10 international masters, five woman international masters, 10 Fide masters and one woman Fide master in action among the 112 competitors from Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Croatia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, the United States, Uzbekistan and of course, host Malaysia.

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