Stir of activities put an end to chess doldrums.
THE final four months of any year is usually the slowest period for chess in Malaysia. In case you haven’t noticed, usually from September onwards, chess activities slow down to a snail’s pace.
After the hustle and bustle of August, it would become so quiet on the chess front. It’s due in part to chess fatigue that follows a high. August is always the peak season for the game in Malaysia.
Chess players from around the world had converged in Kuala Lumpur, and local players took it as an opportunity to renew their friendships. So, after expending all that energy, what else is left except to glow and lie low?
In part too, chess activities grind to a near-halt because many of our players, being schoolchildren, are caught up with their end-of-year examinations.
Relaxed: The friendly between the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre and the Neo Manhattan Chess Centre. – Picture by Hairul Hamid.
A good proportion of our chess players are adults, but youths are the engine of growth for chess in this country and many of our local tournaments revolve around them.
In a way, it is rather unfair to the adult chess population here that they are at times penalised by the slowdown in chess activities. But then too, considering that adults also have a life outside chess, issues such as careers, families and other recreational activities are just as important, if not more important than just chess. There’s more to life than hanging out with the chess cronies, right?
Wrong! There’s nothing more important than your chess buddies. And that’s why the chess doldrums are almost at an end. This month, we are going to see a revival in activities, starting with the second DATCC team open chess league on Tuesday.
The first time I heard about this new event, I was wondering: eh? Didn’t the DATCC team open chess league end in mid-August? It’s hardly three months and here it is again. I gave the DATCC office a tinkle and was told that chess players in the Klang Valley were clamouring for more long games.
So the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre agreed to organise a second such team event for them. This time around, though, instead of playing on Wednesdays, the weekly matches will be played mostly on Tuesdays from Nov 10 to Dec 15, followed by the last three rounds on the Dec 19-20 weekend.
The tournament won’t drag on for as long as the first series and will be limited to only nine rounds. However, it will still be played to a long time control of 90 minutes and 30-second increment per move. The organisers told me that apart from cash prizes for the winning teams, there’ll be dinner vouchers and complimentary stays at the CHM Hotel Chain.
The other main activity for this month will be the first DATCC Fide-rated open tournament for individuals, a nine-round Swiss event held over two weekends. The first four rounds will be played on Nov 14 and 15, and the final five rounds will be from Nov 20-22. Same time control as the team event, and similar prizes on offer.
For more information on the two events, contact Abdul Hamid Majid (019-3158098, 03-40219576 / aham@pc.jaring.my)
Meanwhile, two weeks ago, the DATCC hosted the Neo Manhattan Chess Centre (NMCC) to a friendly match that ended with a victory for the visitors.
The NMCC is a local chess outfit with its premises at Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur. Set up in the early this year, the chess centre was quite active initially with varied activities such as talks and seminars, monthly blitz events and thematic tournaments but somehow, their activities slowed down considerably after May.
Nevertheless, the NMCC is still around and last Oct 25, a few of their players visited the DATCC in the Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur, for a low-key match over two rounds and on six boards.
The NMCC won the match but victory did not come without some drama.
The first leg of the battle went the way of DATCC with a narrow victory margin but any chance of the DATCC repeating the feat in the return leg was completely dashed when the NMCC struck back emphatically. The match ended with a flattering 7½-4½ score line to the NMCC.