Stiff competition

The winner of the Malaysia Open will be known today.

stiffcompetition.jpgI WILL be in Kuala Lumpur, ensconced at the Cititel Midvalley’s ballroom where the Malaysia Chess Festival is going on.

The chess festival is such an interesting meeting place for chess minds from all over the region and beyond. I will be witnessing the last round of the IGB Arthur Tan Malaysia open chess tournament this morning.

Earlier this week, I was following the progress of the tournament. So, I was aware of what was happening even though I wasn’t in Kuala Lumpur yet.

For example, I knew about the small misunderstanding that one of the players had with the chess clock. In the split second that he reached the time control, he pressed his clock, thinking that the extra 30 seconds would be added to his time. However, that was not to be. When a player oversteps his time, the clock stops. End of the game, and end of story.

Luckily, that was about as close as it got to an “incident”. That aside, I was told the event has been moving along very smoothly.

This year, there are 99 players in the Malaysia Open and another 45 in the AmBank chess challenge tournament. Both tournaments are going on at the same time.

The Malaysia Open is, of course, the biggie with a cast of players that includes 11 grandmasters and two woman grandmasters.

Two-time champion Li Chao from China is here to defend his title but he’s having an uphill task. At the end of six rounds, he was trailing tournament leaders by one point.

The single point difference may seem comparatively small but actually, it is a gulf because he has eight players who are ahead of him in the standings. And this too, does not take into consideration the 18 who have the same points as he does.

f_20chess.jpgVying for the top spot: (from left) Parimarjan Negi, Yu Yangyi and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. – Pictures by Khairunisa Wahiddudin

After six rounds of the Malaysia Open on Tuesday, the standings saw three players leading the field with five points: grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vietnam), grandmaster Parimarjan Negi (India) and untitled Yu Yangyi (China).

There were also five players who have each scored 4½ points: grandmaster Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), Ma Qun (China), Xiu Deshun (China), grandmaster Darwin Layto (Philippines) and grandmaster Gerhard Schebler (Germany).

And among the 18 who are keeping company with Li Chao on four points were his fellow grandmasters, Ziaur Rahman (Bangladesh), Susanto Megaranto (Indonesia), Saidali Yuldachev (Uzbekistan) and Nguyen Anh Dung (Vietnam).

This is indeed a tight field. These standings were only as good as Tuesday evening after the sixth round.

Today’s final round starts at 9am and we’ll either see a clear winner emerging or possibly, more than one player tied for the first spot. If this does happen, there won’t be any play-off and the champion will be declared based on tie-breaks.

There are several Malaysians participating in the Malaysia Open, too.

Mas Hafizulhelmi may be missing from this year’s event but leading the local challenge are players like Fide master Mok Tze-Meng and Lim Chuin Hoong. At the end of the sixth round, both had four points each.

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