Selection trials for chess tournaments

EVERY year, the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) faces the same old dilemma of selecting players to represent the country at official overseas chess tournaments. The federation has not been able to find a satisfactory solution for almost 40 years.

Initially, it was thought that selecting a team based solely on the results of the national closed championships would be good enough but as we all know, how accurate can that be when a chess competition is run according to the Swiss pairing rules with a limited number of rounds?

At worst, only the champion can really be considered worthy of selection. All other standings become less accurate as we go down the final prize-winners’ list and that is why organisers use all sorts of tie-breaking systems to justify the players’ standings. Still, it is not quite sufficient.

There were also occasions when the best one or two players in the country were given automatic entry into the national teams and the rest were selected from either the Fide rating list or the results of the national closed championships or a combination of both.

Then it was decided that the MCF president should have the prerogative of selecting a player for the national team, based on a short-list provided by the council. Sort of a wild card entry just in case a really worthy case needed to be considered at the last moment.

Each of these methods has its shortcomings. So every time a major chess event comes along, there are new suggestions and new tweaking made to find an appropriate solution to suit that occasion.

Let me say here that we do compete regularly at world and regional chess events. At the heart of our activities is the biennial Chess Olympiads but lately, there’s also the Asian Games and the SEA Games. With the SEA Games in Jakarta in about six months’ time, the MCF is now selecting players for the national men’s and women’s teams.

This year, the federation has decided that there would be round-robin selection trials with the bulk of eligible players to come from national closed championships that concluded recently.

This decision will please those who feel that the national closed results are now being given more recognition by the same body that organised it. On the other hand, it could also distress other people who had expected to compete in the selection. To be fair, the MCF had announced the national selection trials way ahead of the national closed championships, so any of the top players who find themselves now missing from the selection trials have only themselves to kick. To be eligible for the selection trials a player must finish within the top eight positions in last month’s national closed championships. If any were to decline participation, their places would be taken up by players from either the FIDE rating list or by going down further through the results of the two national closed events. There are two remaining slots that would be filled by the participants in last year’s Asian Games.

So last weekend, the selection process for the men’s and women’s teams began in earnest in Kuala Lumpur but it had to break for two weeks to accommodate the week-long 38th Selangor open chess tournament in Kuala Lumpur, which spills into this weekend. The selection trials will resume on May 7 and 8 when the sixth to ninth rounds are played.

In any case, based on these criteria, the players who started the men’s selection tournament were international masters Mas Hafizulhelmi and Mok Tze Meng (the two had participated in last year’s Asian Games), international master Jimmy Liew, current national champion Lim Zhuo Ren, Sumant Subramaniam, Fong Yit Ho and Fong Yit San (qualifiers from the national closed championship) and international master Lim Yee Weng, former national champion Kamalariffin Wahiduddin and Tan Jun Feng (whom MCF had chosen to replace three players that had declined to take part).

For the women’s selection tournament, the players were Nur Nabila Azman Hashim (qualified from last year’s Asian Games but also the current national women’s champion), Nur Najiha Azman Hisham, Fong Mi Yen, Tan Li Ting, Puteri Rifqah Fahada Azhar, Camilia Johari, Sarika Subramaniam and Puteri Munajjah Az-zahra Azhar (qualifiers from the national women’s closed championship) and Nurul Huda Wahiduddin and Tang Kar Khei (as replacements for two other qualifiers).

I shall leave you this week with a game from the very first round of the selection trials. Sumant Subramaniam is a very promising junior player but he came a cropper in his game with Jimmy Liew:

Sumant Subramaniam (rated 2065) – Jimmy Liew (rated 2302)

National selection tournament, 2011

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Be2 Be7 6.0-0 0-0 7.Bg5 a6 8.Qd2 b5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Nxe5 dxe5 11.Qe3 c6 12.Qg3 Nd7 13.Bh6 Bf6 14.Rad1 Qe7 15.Rd2 Nc5 16.Be3 Ne6 17.Rfd1 Nd4 18.Bg4 Bxg4 19.Qxg4 Ne6 20.Ne2 Rad8 21.Ng3 Rxd2 22.Rxd2 Rd8 23.Nf5 Qb4 24.c3 Qc4 25.Rxd8+ Nxd8 (The game had been on a rather even keel with Black having equalised comfortably. Now, White thought that his worthy opponent had missed something. See the diagram: was there a small brilliant combination here in this position that could net him a winning advantage?)

26.Nxg7? (But this sacrifice turned out to be delusional. Black saw deeper into this move and had a rejoinder ready.) 26…Bxg7 27.Bh6 Ne6 28.Bxg7 h5 (And this is the move that wrecked White’s plans. Black would keep his knight although he loses two pawns. White was actually banking on 28…Nxg7 29.Qc8+ Ne8 30.Qxe8+ Kg7 31.Qxe5+ and Black would be in trouble.) 29.Qxh5 Nxg7 30.Qxe5 Qxa2 31.h4 Qxb2 32.h5 Qc1+ 33.Kh2 Ne6 34.Qb8+ Kh7 35.Qe8 Qf4+ 36.Kg1 c5 37.Qe7 Kg7 38.Qe8 Qc1+ 39.Kh2 Qg5 40.g4 Qh4+ 0-1

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