It's All In The Planning!

Interesting mix of players at round-robin tournament.

AFTER the excitement of the Malaysian Chess Festival, the focus of the chess community has turned to the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters and international open chess championships at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences in Kuala Lumpur.

These two tournaments started on Monday and are now towards their tail-end. There are only three more rounds to be played before conclusion. Today sees the seventh round starting at 9am, and the eighth round beginning at 3pm, while the ninth (and final) round will be played tomorrow morning.

The first event was the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters tournament in which the organisers had invited 10 players to the round-robin tournament. Originally, the Filipino grandmaster, Joseph Sanchez, was supposed to play in the invitational but at the technical meeting on Sunday, he agreed to make way for the young Indian international master, Das Arghyadip, who was in search of his final grandmaster title norm.

Sanchez thus found himself competing with 65 other players in the Raja Nazrin Shah international open tournament instead.

The round-robin invitational tournament boasts a rather interesting mix of players. Apart from Arghyadip, the other nine players include grandmasters Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam and Singapore’s Dr Wong Meng Kong. Then there are the father-and-son duo of grandmaster Tahir Vakhidov and international master Jahongir Vakhidov from Uzbekistan. The remaining players are all international masters: Richard Bitoon and Oliver Barbosa, both from the Philippines, Nguyen Van Huy from Vietnam, Goh Wei Ming from Singapore and our very own Mas Hafizulhelmi.

As for the open tournament, the number of participants eventually settled at 66. I was told by the tournament director, Peter Long, that he was quite relieved with this number as earlier, he kept getting enquiries from grandmasters and the number of participants had threatened to spill out of control.

As he was organising only one open event, he would prefer to keep the tournament at a manageable number and not turn it top heavy. He reasoned that too many grandmasters playing in the tournament could crowd out the lower-ranked local players whom he was encouraging to take part.

Perhaps he has a point there because this open tournament had attracted 16 local participants that included our current national champion Lim Zhuo Ren and current national women’s champion Nur Nabila Azman Hisham. That’s almost 25% of the field.

Nevertheless, a 66-player field that can boast of enough depth in three grandmasters (Sanchez, Susanto Megaranto and Cerdas Barus), 12 international masters, two woman grandmasters and two woman international masters cannot be that bad, can it?

The two events are organised by the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association with sponsorship from the Masterskill Education Group Bhd under its Educating Malaysia Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

No let-up in pace at 12-day chess fest.

FOR the better part of last fortnight, I had been playing in the Malaysia Chess Festival.

At the risk of disclosing my age to the whole world, I want to mention that I was not participating in the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship but rather, in the KLK Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng senior open tournament.

These two tournaments, together with the AmBank chess challenge, were the main showcase events of this year’s 12-day festival at the Cititel Mid Valley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Full of beans: Iranian children aged 14 and below with the certificates and medals which they won at the Swensen’s rapid age group championship.

All these ended yesterday but there is no respite for the organisers.

It is just one tournament after another, and today sees the festival continue with the one-day Astro Merdeka individual rapid open tournament.

Then tomorrow and on Sunday, the festival ends with the traditional Astro Merdeka team rapid open championship.

Earlier this week, I heard from the organisers that more than 80 teams had registered for the team event, and these were only the early entries.

When the late entries are counted, the number of teams may well go above 100, meaning a possibility of more than 500 people taking part in a chess competition!

By comparison, there were only 70 teams last year.

As for the three showcase tournaments – all individual events – there were 98 participants in the Malaysia open championship, 40 players in the chess challenge tournament, and 29 in the senior open tournament.

The numbers may be down from last year but there was still a very respectable list of visiting grandmasters and international masters.

Sandwiched within the nine rounds of the three events was a spectacularly-run Swensen’s rapid age group championship, a one-day event that managed to attract 385 junior players from within and outside the country.

From experience, I can tell you that managing age group chess events can be quite harrowing for organisers.

The prospect of controlling the younger players, especially those 12 and below, can test the nerves of even the coolest organisers.

Can’t remember how it was like to be a 12-year-old or an eight-year-old?

For one day, these children reminded me that we were all young once.

Like us, they were noisy, boisterous, innocent, excitable, exuberant, impatient and impressionable.

I marvelled at the ease they alternated between being serious and playful.

They were full of energy away from the chess boards but displayed great concentration and determination when seated across the board from their opponents.

Among the 385 players was a group of 35 children from Teheran, Iran, none of them older than 14.

Together with their parents and chess coaches, they came on an eight-day holiday but had also arranged with the festival organisers to take part in the Swensen’s event as part of their holiday itinerary.

At the closing ceremony, they even arranged to appear on stage with the sponsors and organisers just to receive their certificates of participation and for some of them, their winner’s medals.

Looking back, I would think that it was very important to the Iranian parents and coaches that this would be an educational trip, and the children had something to show and remind them that they had, after all, come to Malaysia to play chess.

Polish grandmaster pulls ahead in final lap.

BEING named as the top seed in any tournament can work two ways: it can inspire the player to win the event or make the player muck up his attempt to justify the ranking.

I observe that at most top chess events in the world, the highest rated player generally justifies his top ranking. Case in point: at the Biel tournament in Switzerland, Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen came through beautifully to win; at the Dortmund tournament in Germany, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik cut a swathe through his opposition to take the first prize; at the British championship in England, grandmaster Michael Adams won the play-off for the title; and at the Lake Sevan tournament in Armenia, grandmaster Baadur Jobava won on tie-break after finishing in joint first place.

Chess whizz: Dariusz Swiercz is the new world junior chess champion.

But for every success in justifying the top seeding, there is also the disappointment. For example, at the Hangzhou women’s grandmaster tournament, woman grandmaster Ju Wenjun won convincingly ahead of the women’s world champion, Hou Yifan; and at the Fide women’s grand prix tournament in Rostov, Russia, grandmaster Koneru Humpy was overshadowed by a brilliant display by Hou.

Just earlier this week, the 50th world junior chess championship ended in Chennai, India. For the open event, top-seeded Maxim Matlakov, a grandmaster from Russia, could not live up to his ranking and after two crucial back-to-back losses, he finished well outside the prizewinners’ list.

After Matlakov dropped out of contention, the front-runners chasing the world junior championship title were reduced to just four players: Polish grandmaster Dariusz Swiercz, two Armenian grandmasters, Robert Hovhannisyan and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, and an Indian Fide master, Koushik Girish.

Girish dropped out of the picture soon afterwards (but not before he qualified for a grandmaster title norm) and only three front-runners were left. On the back of a series of seven consecutive wins, Hovhannisyan had taken over the lead after the ninth round but Ter-Sahakyan and Swiercz were right behind him.

The pressure was relentless as Ter-Sahakyan and Swiercz kept at Hovhannisyan’s heels for the next two rounds. Then Ter-Sahakyan’s challenge fell apart when he suffered two consecutive losses in his final two games.

With only the final round to be played, Hovhannisyan was left to contend with only Swiercz. At this late stage in the tournament, the Armenian grandmaster held a slim half-point lead over his rival. Swiercz would have to win his final game but it would seem likely to any observer that all Hovhannisyan needed was a draw in the final round to secure the first place.

But chess with all its tie-break possibilities can spring surprises. Hovhannisyan made his draw and Swiercz won his game. Both players were now tied at the top. But surprise, surprise, according to the tie-break system, the draw had actually pulled Hovhannisyan down from the perch, giving him only second place and the silver medal. As a result, Swiercz ended up as the new world junior chess champion despite having trailed in the tournament until the last round was played.

This being the world junior chess championship, Malaysia was represented in this event by the current national champion, Lim Zhuo Ren. Although Lim had been an active player in local tournaments for several years, this event was his first outside the country. (As far as I’m concerned, participating in last year’s Singapore open does not qualify as taking part in a foreign tournament.)

I think the strength of the event surprised him and taught him many lessons. Though he did not create any wave in Chennai, at the very least he played more or less according to his rating expectation. I’m sure that the lessons he brought back from India will be put to good practice at the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship which is in progress at the Cititel Mid Valley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Speaking of which, today is the second day of the Malaysia Chess Festival of which the Malaysia open is one of the three main showcase events that are running until Aug 25. The other three events are the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng senior open tournament and the AmBank chess challenge.

All these three events are played daily – do check with the organisers because sometimes there are two rounds in a day and sometimes only one round – but there are two rest days next week on Sunday and Wednesday.

On Sunday, though, the Svensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament will take place at the same venue.

Tough fight expected at Malaysia Chess Festival.

THERE are just five days to go before the start of this year’s Malaysia Chess Festival. Are you ready for it? As for me, I’m preparing to make my way down to Kuala Lumpur soon.

Normally, I would spend two or three days at the festival to soak in the occasion, observe the participants and basically enjoy the fun among the people whom I’ve known for decades.

However, since last year, I have become more involved in the festival as a somewhat reluctant participant.

The heat is on: The playing hall at last year’s Malaysia Chess Festival. The organisers are confident that the venue will be equally packed for this year’s edition of the chess festival.

Yes, I’ve been roped in again to play in the second Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng seniors open tournament. I have to admit that just like last year, I am far from being comfortable. Apart from looking at chess games live on the Internet and doing some brief analysis and commentaries for this chess column, I haven’t sat down with real chess pieces and feel their weight in my hands. Not for quite some time, I haven’t!

So it is with some trepidation that I’m getting myself involved again. And I know that the competition level this year isn’t going to be any easier than the maiden event last year. I took a sneak look at the preliminary list of players and true enough, it looks tough even before the first move is pushed.

Last year’s tournament had 18 participants but so far, I’ve seen 24 names in the players’ list. I am sure that before the event starts on Aug 18, there may be more additions to this number.

One reason for the increasing number is, of course, more players are now aware of the existence of this event. Last year was just the curtain raiser; this year is the real competition.

Another reason is that the organisers have lowered the entry age from 55 to 50, thus enabling more people to make the transition from playing in open events to this senior event.

Although it’s a good idea, the organisers should rein themselves in. Otherwise, if they continue to lower the age limit, it will defeat the idea of holding a senior tournament in the first place.

As for the other two main draws of the Malaysia Chess Festival, the organisers say that they are confident of at least 100 entries for the main event, the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship, while 37 entries have been received for the AmBank chess challenge.

There are at least 17 grandmasters in the Malaysia open and this includes the defending champion, Vietnamese grandmaster Cao Sang. Also taking part are two woman grandmasters and nine international masters. The most prominent names among the Malaysians taking part are Mas Hafizulhelmi and Lim Zhuo Ren.

These three main events will be held at the Cititel Mid Valley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, from Aug 18-25. They will all be played over nine Swiss rounds using a 90-minute plus 30-second increment time control.

Apart from these long time control tournaments, there is the Svensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament on Aug 21, of which more than 200 entries have been received so far, and the Malaysia Chess Festival open blitz tournament on Aug 25

Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen finish in top form.

IT did not come as a surprise to many that Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik and Norway’s Magnus Carlsen were convincing winners in the Dortmund Sparkassen invitational chess tournament and annual Biel Chess Festival respectively.

In Dortmund, Germany, Kramnik had been dominant in the first half of the double round-robin tournament and though he could not repeat his feat in the second half, the advantage that he brought forward was enough to see him through.

In the final round, he was even tempted to try his luck against American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. Somewhere in the middlegame, he uncorked a brave sacrifice to open up his opponent’s defences around the king.

A win would almost certainly have propelled Kramnik into the elite 2800 club of the live ratings list of which there are currently only three players: Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Levon Aronian. But in this case, fortune did not favour the brave. There was always something in the position that enabled Nakamura’s defence to hold. Possibly, the draw could still be salvaged but at this late stage in the game, Kramnik was probably no longer interested to split the point.

Despite the loss, the Russian grandmaster still won the tournament with a big two-point margin over his rivals, the nearest of whom was Vietnamese grandmaster Le Quang Liem. Ruslan Ponomariov, a former Fide world champion, was third.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, the Biel tournament was won by Carlsen. This was also a double round-robin event which saw the players playing one another twice. However, the organisers had adopted a different scoring system that awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero point for a loss, something that we would probably be more familiar with in football competitions.

There are, of course, merits in trying something different and in this case, the organisers were hoping to impress on the players – and the spectators – that drawing two games have less value than a win and a loss. It would call for fighting chess all the way, which was what the organisers achieved at the end.

Carlsen continued to put in an exemplary display in this event, despite showing a vulnerability in the first half when he lost to French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. However, this only setback did not cause Carlsen any real damage because his closest rival, Alexander Morozevich, was unlucky enough to lose to Fabiano Caruana. The final standings could have been different had Morozevich won that game.

Here is Nakamura’s win against Kramnik from the final round of the Dortmund tournament.

Vladimir Kramnik – Hikaru Nakamura, Dortmund 2011

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 Nh5 10. c5 Nf4 11. a4 f5 12. Bc4 fxe4 13. Nxe4 h6 14. Re1 Bg4 15. Ra3 g5 16. h3 Bh5 17. Bxf4 Rxf4 18. g3 Rf8 19. a5 Kh8 20. Kg2 Rb8 21. Qd2 b6 22. axb6 axb6 23. Nfxg5 (See diagram)

23…hxg5 24. Qxg5 Bg6 25. cxd6 cxd6 26. Ra7 Rc8 27. Rxe7 Rxc4 28. f3 Rc2+ 29. Kg1 Rc8 30. Ra1 Rf7 31. Qxg6 Qxe7 32. Ng5 Kg8 33. Qh7+ Kf8 34. Ne6+ Ke8 35. Qh5 Bf6 36. g4 Qb7 37. Rd1 Qa6 38. Qg6 Ke7 39. g5 Bh8 40. Re1 Qa3 41. Nd4 Qxb4 42. Nf5+ Kf8 43. Rd1 Rc2 44. Nd4 exd4 45. Qxc2 Qc3 46. Qe4 Qe3+ 47. Qxe3 dxe3 48. Kg2 Bc3 49. Kf1 Rxf3+ 50. Ke2 Rxh3 0-1