Seasoned player Mok Tze Meng shows his mettle at the international chess open tournament.
LAST week turned out to be more pleasant than I thought possible. I met quite a number of old friends among the chess-playing participants and spectators at the (take a deep breath) Penang heritage city international chess open tournament.
This was definitely one of the better events organised by the Penang Chess Association (PCA) in recent years. I know that a lot of effort and team work went into organising this event to ensure that it ran smoothly.
They had also thought of the spectators. Though cordoned off from the players by a long row of tables, the spectators could sit and watch the games in comfort. It was a nice touch to the tournament, thinking of both players and spectators. But of course, the hall at the Dewan Sri Pinang was large enough to accommodate everyone.
Despite the short notice for this tournament, 82 people registered as players.
Another nice touch was that there were two events running concurrently: the open proper and the challenger section.
Champ: Fide master Mok Tze Meng (right) receiving his prize from the political secretary to the Penang Chief Minister and Komtar state assemblyman Ng Wei Aik.
This allowed the stronger and more experienced players to sweat it out in the open tournament while the younger and less experienced players could fight it out among themselves in the challenger tournament.
Effectively, it made the open tournament so much stronger. As early as the second round onwards, there were no easy games. Almost every game was a stiff fight that lasted hours.
In the third round, for example, former national champion Ronnie Lim found himself paired against German grandmaster Gerhard Schebler. By chance, Schebler had heard of this Penang tournament from his contacts in Bangkok, and had decided to take part.
Lim’s game with Schebler proved to be the longest game on record, lasting some five-and-a-half hours and chalking 110 moves. Lim had to defend an inferior endgame in which he played with king and bishop against the grandmaster’s king and rook. Nevertheless, he successfully defended the draw.
I would consider that there were two turning points in this tournament and coincidentally, both involved games by our international master, Mas Hafizulhelmi. The first turning point was in the fifth round when he beat Schebler in a very entertaining game.
Clash of the titans
The second turning point came two rounds later when Mas Hafizul lost to Ronnie Lim. At that time, Mas Hafizul and Fide master Mok Tze Meng were leading the tournament. Mok drew his game early in the round but Mas Hafizul wasn’t able to capitalise on it. Instead, he found himself facing defeat against Lim.
So Mok was now thrust into the picture as the tournament leader. If some people had thought that he could trip up with two rounds remaining, they failed to remember that he was an old hand on the local scene. No way was he going to give up his lead.
At the end, he collected two more points to finish the tournament with eight points from nine rounds. He completely dominated the tournament as Mas Hafizul, for a long time his closest rival in the event, could only muster second place with seven points.
I should add that Schebler also obtained seven points but he lost out on the second prize because of a poorer tie-break than Mas Hafizul. I asked the German grandmaster later whether he felt the pressure was on him by virtue of his GM title and rating.
Yes, he said, he could feel the pressure on him but after he had lost to Mas Hafizul, the pressure was off and he could play his normal game. “I prefer to be the underdog in a tournament and not the role of favourite. Without pressure, I play better,” he admitted.
In the challenger event, 11-year-old Fairuz Hamizah Ahmad Fuad turned in a sparkling performance to snatch the first prize from Francois Wolfaardt. The South African player was the only Fide-rated player in the 45-player field and was the firm favourite to win the challenger prize but he finished in second place behind Fairuz Hamizah. Wolfaardt’s chances evaporated when he suffered a defeat late in the eighth round.