Pit your chess skills against one of the world’s best players.
WE ARE almost there. Just about a week away from the start of the Malaysian Chess Festival and there’s really good news for chess enthusiasts in the country, especially if you are already in Kuala Lumpur for the festival.
Apart from the Merdeka rapid open team tournament, the IGB Arthur Tan memorial Malaysia open chess championship, the AmBank chess challenge and the Merdeka open chess tournament, the organisers have thrown in one more big event: a simultaneous chess exhibition.
American chess grandmaster Yasser Seirawan will be giving his simultaneous chess match on 30 boards on Aug 28, followed by a closed clock simultaneous chess match on Aug 29 against the 12 winners of this year’s national age-group chess championship.
It’s not going to be just any chess exhibition but one by a visiting American chess grandmaster who is no stranger to Malaysian chess: Yasser Seirawan. He’ll be giving his simultaneous chess match on 30 boards at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 28. If you want to test your skill against a grandmaster who still ranks among the top 100 players in the world today, this is your chance.
Just call Malaysian Chess Federation secretary Gregory Lau (012-902 0123) to register. Participants will be required to pay a fee of RM50 for this rare opportunity.
Seirawan will also be involved in a closed clock simultaneous chess match on Aug 29 against the 12 winners of this year’s national age-group chess championship.
Personally, I feel the clock simul will be a much tougher test for Seirawan. All the games will be played with chess clocks and he’ll have the same amount of time as each of his opponents. What this means is that he will be forced to play 12 times as fast as his opponents.
I’m sure a super-level grandmaster like him will be able to cope superlatively with the chess clocks. Normally, grandmasters will only agree to six simultaneous clock games, maybe eight at the most. Believe you me, it can really be very taxing for the simul giver!
If you have the time, do pop over to the Wilayah Complex on Aug 29 to give this match a watch and support our junior players.
As a side note, I wonder whether Seirawan will want to give a demonstration of his own chess variant known as Seirawan Chess. He has been trying to popularise it elsewhere during his travels. I hope he won’t keep it under wraps here.
In case you don’t already know, Seirawan Chess introduces two new pieces into the conventional game of chess. The game is still played on an 8×8 chess board but each side will have an Elephant and a Hawk. The Elephant can move like a rook or a knight, whereas the Hawk moves like a bishop or a knight.
It’s not that difficult to understand the concept of the new game but of course, the introduction of new elements will always complicate the way the game is played.
Mas in Biel
Let me wrap up my coverage of Mas Hafizulhelmi at the Master tournament of the Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland.
This was one of his best performances in an international chess arena this year but unfortunately, he was just half a point short of picking up his first grandmaster title norm.
He lost the 10th round game but won in the 11th (and final) round. If the results had been the other way round, he would have secured his first norm.
Mas must have been disappointed with the 10th round loss but it did not show in his next game. To his credit, he shrugged off the disappointment to turn in a solid performance that boosted his final standing to 11th position among 121 competitors.
He was bunched with six other players with 7½ points but seven GMs were ahead of him with eight points and one GM, Vladimir Belov, had 8½ points. Still, Mas was the best performing international master at the tournament.
Here is Mas’ crucial game in the last round. His opponent was completely outplayed.
White: Mas Hafizulhelmi
Black: Misho Cebalo
1. e4 c5 2. f4 Nc6 3. Nf3 g6 4. Bb5 Bg7 5. Bxc6 bxc6 6. d3 d6 7. O-O Rb8 8. Nc3 Nh6 9. Qe1 f5 10. e5 O-O 11. b3 Qc7 12. Bb2 Nf7 13. Na4 Nd8 14. Qh4 Ne6 15. Rae1 d5 (Don’t be fooled by Black’s double bishops. They mean nothing in this game because there are holes all over his position but more importantly, White is keeping the position closed which means that his knight is a much happier piece)
16. Ng5 (I like this move because in one fell swoop, White exchanges off Black’s sole active piece. Black’s bishop pair are passive compared to White’s own bishop and knight)
16. … Nxg5 17. Qxg5 c4 18. Ba3 Rf7 19. Rd1 cxb3 20. axb3 Rb5 21. Bc5 (A logical follow-up to his 18th move which seized control of the a3-f8 diagonal. Now, the bishop prevents any idea of Black pushing up his c-pawn.)
21. … Bf8 22. d4 Ba6 23. Rfe1 Ra5 24. Ra1 (Now observe how White gradually builds up the pressure on the a-file to force the exchange of rooks.)
24. … c8 25. Qg3 Qb8 26. Qc3 Qb5 27. Qb2 Qb8 28. Ra3 Bh6 29. Qc3 Ra6 30. Qd2 Bf8 31. Rea1 Rg7 32. Nb2 Rxa3 33. Rxa3 a6 34. Nd3 h6 35. Qa5 g5 36. Qd8 (After this move, the only way that Black can eject the queen is to force off an exchange but in order to do so, Black has to eject his a-pawn)
36. … Qb7 37. Ra4 Qd7 38. Qxd7 Bxd7 39. Rxa6 Kf7 (It’s already a lost game for Black)
40. Ra8 Rg8 41. Kf2 Be6 42. Nb4 Bd7 43. Rd8 (1-0)
(See diagram. Black will lose the bishop. If 43. … Be8, then 44. e6+ loses it while if 43. … Ke6, then 44. Na6 threatens 45. Nc7+. In my opinion, the two bishops remain useless till the end.)
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This story first appeared in The Star on 08.08.08