It was a tight race at the men’s and women’s selection trials for the SEA Games.
LAST weekend, the national selection trials for the SEA Games continued from where it had left off two weeks earlier.
When the men’s trials took a break in mid-event, international masters Mas Hafizulhelmi and Jimmy Liew were in the joint lead with four points from their first five games. One point behind them were international master Lim Yee Weng, current national champion Lim Zhuo Ren and Sumant Subramaniam. Further back were international master Mok Tze Meng, former national champion Kamalariffin Wahiduddin, Fong Yit San, Fong Yit Ho and Tan Jun Feng.
The race in the women’s selection trials was equally tight. At the midway stage, former national women’s champion Fong Mi Yen and Camilia Johari were both in the lead with four points and right behind them were the current national women’s champion, Nur Nabila Azman Hisham, and her sister, Nur Najiha Azman Hisham. Further back were Puteri Rifqah Fahada Azhar, Tan Li Ting, Sarika Subramaniam, former national women’s champion Nurul Huda Wahiduddin, Tang Kar Khei and Puteri Munajjah Az-zahra Azhar.
No.1: International master Mas Hafizulhelmi shows that he is still the top chess player in the country.Normally, half-way standings can give a pretty good guide on how tournaments will turn out at the end but at the same time, they can be pretty misleading, too.
The only non-surprise in the men’s selection trials was the consistency of Mas Hafizul in demonstrating that he was, perhaps, still the top player in the country. By the end of the tournament on Sunday, Lim Yee Weng had climbed up above Jimmy Liew in the standings although technically, both of them were tied in joint second place.
There was a dead heat tie for the fourth and fifth places by Sumant and Kamalariffin, which even the tie-break systems were unable to resolve, but more about that later. And further down the list, Lim Zhuo Ren was in sixth place above his coach and mentor, Mok Tze Meng, who was in seventh position. Finishing below them were Fong Yit San, Tan Jun Feng and Fong Yit Ho.
And in the women’s selection trials, Fong Mi Yen had a rude awakening when she was bumped off the perch and could only finish joint fifth with Puteri Rifqah. Nur Najiha came triumphant to top the table, while sandwiched in between the three of them were Tan Li Ting, Camilia Johari and Nur Nabila. In the second half of the table were Puteri Munajjah, Nurul Huda, Sarika and Tang Kar Khei.
Fong Mi Yen would be deeply disappointed with her play over the weekend because finishing in fifth place meant that effectively, she had missed qualifying for the four places in the women’s chess team that would be going to this year’s SEA Games in Jakarta.
There would also be four places in the men’s chess team and three of these places are filled by Mas Haifzul, Lim Yee Weng and Jimmy Liew. Determining the last qualifier was more problematic and both Sumant and Kamalariffin had equal points and equal tie-breaks. Moreover, they had also drawn with one another in this tournament.
In order to break this tie, the Malaysian Chess Federation organised a play-off mini-match of two rapidchess games. Sumant won the first game but then, Kamalariffin struck back to win the second game.
It was a tie again. According to the regulations, the two players now had to play two blitz chess games. Blitz games are normally played with five minutes on the chess clock so you can imagine tension running high in the two games. But then, there were still no decisive results when the two blitz games ended. Sumant and Kamalariffin were still tied.
The final resolution was to play Armageddon blitz chess. Here, one player would be allotted five minutes on his chess clock, while the other was given four minutes. The player with five minutes would be required to win his game, no if’s and no buts. If the game ends drawn, the player with four minutes would be adjudged the winner.
So this was going to be the decisive moment. There would be no more second chance for either player. In this game, Kamalariffin cracked and lost, thereby sending Sumant to the SEA Games.