Two simultaneous Fide titled events in the country have given players a dilemma of choice.
I WAS grumbling to one of my friends last week. I told him, the chess pie in Malaysia was just not big enough.
Wazzat, he asked. He couldn’t fathom what I was trying to say so I had to explain to him that here in Malaysia, we cannot afford to have two or more big chess tournaments running at the same time.
We are just splitting much-needed resources and publicity.
Formidable player: Bong Villamayor from the Philippines promptly gave his opponent a tough time at the KL open.
This week, we have two international-level chess tournaments going on at the same time in this country. Y
ou may think that this puts Malaysia into an enviable dilemma: not many countries have the ability to organise a Fide titled event and here we are, organising two and simultaneously too!
Two separate events run by two separate organisations but both clamouring to attract the same local Fide-rated players – and by extension, the same group of foreign faces from around the region – to take part.
The KL open tournament started on Monday while the Terengganu open tournament began two days later. Both events are internationally-rated with opportunities for players to earn Fide rating points and, in the case of the KL open, even to qualify for Fide title norms.
Under normal circumstances if you have the two events run at different times, I would dare say that there would be more of our local Fide-rated players taking part in both events. After all, that’s two opportunities for them.
But now, they find themselves able to play only in one. It’s a big decision. Should it be the KL open or the Terengganu open? They’ll have to make up their minds and sacrifice one for the other.
And it’s not only the players who are at the losing end. To an extent, the tournaments also suffer. They have lost out on potential players who could have played in both events.
Wouldn’t it be better if there had been no overlap and both events can attract more local participation?
Take the local players at the KL open. Among them are good players like Fairin Zakaria, Tan Khai Boon, Gerald Soh, Yeap Eng Chiam, Edward Lee, Justin Ong, Sumant Subramaniam, Evan Capel and Balendran who are all already with Fide ratings.
In Kuala Terengganu, the tournament there has attracted equally good names like Mas Hafizulhelmi, Mok Tze Meng, Kamaluddin Yusuf, Ian Udani, Mohd Kamal Abdullah, Abdullah Che Hassan, Fadli Zakaria, Mustafa Kamal Zamhuri, Ismail Ahmad, Zarul Shazwan Zulkafli and Lim Kian Hwa, who are all also Fide-rated players.
So you see the split in our resources. The KL open and the Terengganu open could each have been all the more interesting if our local Fide-rated players can compete together.
But who are to blame for this mess? Surely not the players. When you have two over-lapping international events, we cannot fault any player for choosing one tournament over the other.
So it can only be the organisers that are responsible for this situation. There was just no coordination between them. Each of the organisers had gone in their own directions to hold their tournaments.
If only there had been better coordination, the clash in tournament dates might have been avoided. We wouldn’t end up in this “enviable” dilemma.
Anyway, if you are not playing in either event but happen to be in their vicinity, why not drop by to see the players in action?
The KL open, organised by the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association, is being held in the Commonwealth Hall at the Bukit Jalil Stadium and altogether, there are 135 players – 68 in the open event and 67 in the Challengers event.
Among the 68 players in the open event are eight grandmasters: Anton Fillipov (Uzbekistan), Susanto Megaranto (Indonesia), Mark Paragua and Bong Villamayor (both from the Philippines), Dao Thien Hai and Nguyen Anh Dung (both Vietnam), Magesh Chandra Panchanathan (India) and Zaw Win Lay (Myanmar).
Other top players in the open field include nine international masters: Saidikin Irwanto, Tirto and Salor Sitanggang (Indonesia), Julio Sadorra and Luis Chiong (the Philippines), Wang Rui (China) and Chandrasekhar Gokhale (India).
Also playing are woman grandmaster Aartie Ramaswamy, and women international masters Priya Ramachandran Panneer and Sai Meera (all three from India).
The rounds today and tomorrow will start at 9am and 4pm on both days. On Sunday, there will be only one round at 9am and Regent of Perak Raja Nazrin Shah is then expected to close the event at 1pm.
Meanwhile, the Terengganu open, organised by the Persatuan Catur Terengganu, attracted 69 players.
The tournament is being held at the Terengganu Trade Centre in Kuala Terengganu. It’s quite an intensive event and from today until Monday, there’ll be two rounds daily beginning at 9am and 3pm.
Mas Hafizulhelmi and Mok Tze Meng are the only two Fide-titled players in this event. The field is mostly local except for five foreign players.
Here’s a game from the KL open. Filipino grandmaster Bong Villamayor had just arrived from Penang where he had been playing in the Penang Chess League and he promptly sat down to give his junior opponent a lesson on the chess board.
White: Bong Villamayor
Black: Yeap Eng Chiam
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Bd3 Nbd7 6. O-O Bd6 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. e4 dxe4 9. Nxe4 Nxe4 10. Bxe4 f5 11. Bc2 e5 12. Bg5 Be7 13. Bxe7 Qxe7 14. Nxe5 Nxe5 15. Re1 Rd8 16. Rxe5 Qxe5 17. dxe5 Rxd1+ 18. Rxd1 Be6 19. b3 Re8 20. f4 Kf7 21. Kf2 g6 22. h3 Ke7 23. Rd6 Rd8 24. c5 Rf8 25. a3 Rd8 26. b4 Rxd6 27. exd6+ Kf6 28. Bd3 a6 29. Ke3 h5 30. h4 Bd5 31. g3 Be6 32. Kd4 Bd7 33. Bc4 Be8 34. Kc3 Bd7 35. Kb3 Be8 36. Ka4 (1-0)