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Fancy playing chess over the board chess for a change? The "Chess For Fun Club - eat play laugh- Meetup group" is now, starting 5th Sept 2020, meeting every Saturday 3pm-5pm at A&W Off Jalan Sultan, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Bring a mask and yourself and play with other chess-loving students and working young adults. Why can't we make chess popular in Malaysia for the masses? Join us every Saturday 3-5pm, if you can! It's free.

Incident at KL Chess Classic

My student was playing against the adult player, Lim Sim Leong A closed position was reached and both sides started repeating moves. Student offered a draws a few times, thinking that Lim Sim Leong could not make progress. Somehow Lim managed to break through but almost immediately blundered an exchange.

Student now had a R vs B ending which was easily winning. As I was looking at the online chess-results I saw that he was accorded the win. To my surprise a few minutes later, this was changed to a draw result.

I asked him about it and he related the story. Lim kept badgering the arbiter to declare the game drawn. His reasoning was that there were mutiple three-fold repetitions and also my student was repeatedly offering draws. In fact he held up the beginning of the next round by almost half an hour.

Finally the arbiter turned to student and asked him whether he agreed to the draw. In order not to create a bigger scene and to get the next round started, he agreed and a draw was recorded.

I posted this incident to Facebook and drew many comments (Over 130 at this point in time). I have tried to get the arbiter of his version of how this happened but sadly he has not given any. So I can only relate what I believe happened based on my conversation with my student and her mother.

Here I want to give a proper SOP on how to handle this type of situation which is not that uncommon actually.

Arbiter entered the result as win and posted to chess-results, as seen with my own eyes. So there is no reason to deny he already accepted the result of the game at that point.

Then Lim comes along and protests the result. Was he not present when the result given to the arbiter earlier? In such situation, the arbiter should verify the result. How? By playing through the game from the scoresheets. He will then see the final position which he being a chess player for decades he should know that the position was lost for Lim. Case closed.

So why did he start asking my student if he will agree a draw?

The arbiter commented on Facebook that Lim refused to accept the result and delayed the start of the next round. Therefore his solution was to get both players to come to a compromise (draw). The position was win for him so the results stand. It does not matter if the opponent does not agree. Pair the next round and start.

Instead, the arbiter took the coward way out. Instead of standing firm against a bully , he bullied my student instead by asking him if he agrees a draw instead. An 8 year old boy could not stand his ground against a 70 year old arbiter and gave in.

There was some comment that my student made numerous draw offers and this was the reason Lim contested the result. This is not uncommon either and the player can also protest to the arbiter. Arbiter can warn the player. If warning is not complied with, than a penalty can be imposed. Start with time penalty and the last resort forfeit the game. I do not think the arbiter did any of this.

There were also many comments defending the arbiter decision from his daughter, Ruby Kwan. Her arguments were totally irrelevant and without any reference to FIDE Laws of Chess. She did out of loyalty. I respect that last part but sorry.

Know the rules.

Be objective

Make the correct decisions from your understanding of the FIDE rules.

Stand firm on your decisions

Enforce your decisions.

This is the job of a chess arbiter.

Bullying in chess

This is a story about how a grown up man cheated an 8 year old kid of half-point in a chess tournament.

My student (let's call him S, so clever of me) was playing against the adult (I call him A). now A is the number one seed but not doing so well in the tournament. A closed position was reached and both sides started repeating moves. S offered a draws a few times, thinking that A could not make progress. Somehow A managed to break through but almost immediately blundered an exchange.
S now had a R vs B ending which was easily winning. As I was looking at the online chess-results I saw that S was accorded the win. To my surprise a few minutes later, this was changed to a draw result.

I asked S about it and he related the story. A kept badgering the arbiter to declare the game drawn. His reasoning was that there were mutiple three-fold repetitions and also S was repeately offering draws. In fact he held up the beginning of the next round by almost half an hour.

Finally the arbiter turned to S and asked him whether he agreed to the draw. In order not to create a bigger scene and to get the next round started, he agreed and a draw was recorded.

Other students have also related their stories against L, how he lied and cheated against them. I have seen many instances of adults bullying young chess players, arbiters should be alert to this. Unfortunately in some cases, even the arbiters do it as this story shows. If you are not fit to be an arbiter please do not do any arbitering.


I have to say Malaysia has some of the worst arbiters (even senior ones are guilty). It does not help that it is so easy to get an arbiter title here. Almost anyone can organize a chess arbiter seminar and anyone can join after paying the fees.

Lesson on clock handling

Jimmy Liew- Cahyadi

Diagram is my fifth round game at UniKL last Saturday. Both of us less than one minute left. I played Rc2 attacking his bishop and after his bishop moves, d3-d2 wins a piece. He kept thinking and thinking and after some time he moved Bd2-b4. I thought he must have lost on time, glanced at the clock and saw I actually was the one that lost on time! My opponent had just waited and pretending to think about his move until my time ran out.


I actually did press the clock but it did not register. This can happen if the table is uneven (because it is made of two joined tables) and your side is slightly lower. When you press, the clock just moved down due to the uneveness and the feedback made you think you correctly pressed the button but actually your time is still running.


This also happened to IM Mok Tze Meng earlier this year in Pahang. I was watching and wondering why he did not move as his time counted down.

By the way I do not blame my opponent, it is up to ourself to press the clock correctly and he has no obligation to point it out.

8 year old wins Under 1600 tournament

8 year old Kavin Mohan has emerged as the U1600 FIDE Classica Edition 5 tournament at Institute of Chess Excellence today. This
is the third tournament he has won consecutively.

After 8 rounds, he scored 7 points, half a point ahead of Noor Akbar Daniel Iskandar who was the only player who beat Kavin and Benjamin Cheah the leader till the last round.

Benjamin Cheah had 6.5 points against 6 points by Kavin. A draw would ensure a first placing for Benjamin. Kavin was not having any of that even though he was playing the black pieces. He beat Benjamin decisively to take first place.

The time control of 30 minutes plus 30 seconds increment for each move suited Kavin very well. He has always been a fast player. He won a gold medal at the Asian Schools last year and a bronze in Asian Youth in Sri Lanka this year both in the blitz section. It is no surprise that out of 8 games he finished with more time than he started with! In the last round, he had 48 minutes on the clock when he checkmated Benjamin.

So how did he win this tournament against a field much older than him? Kavin used to blunder very easily but this has mostly been corrected. He showed good preparation and fighting spirit in his games. In the position from round 7 below, most of us will write it off as impossible to win even with Black's weaknesses due to the reduced material on the board. But Kavin kept pressing and eventually won!

Kavin receiving his prize from me

On Thursday, 1st August Kavin will leave for Bangkok for the Eastern Asia Youth Championship Under 08 section.

Simul with IM Yeoh Li Tian

Play simultaneous chess against IM Li Tian Yeoh ! Malaysia's highest rated player and international master Yeoh Li Tian will be at Summit USJ this Saturday 14th July 2018.

Where: Summit at USJ, Concourse area

Time: 2:00 PM

Date: 14th July 2018 (Saturday)

Participants: Free to all registered players for the 7th Summit Junior. For others, a nominal fee will be charged.

Register with IM Jimmy Liew at 019-6571628 or email to cmliew@gmail.com to book a place!

Skyworld International Chess Competition 2018

Skyworld International Chess Competition 2018

Date : 23rd June 2018
Time : 9am to 6pm
Entry fees : RM 30, lunch provided
Category : U7/U8/U9/U10/U11/U12/U15

Registration form

Venue: Skyworld Gallery @ Sentul, Jalan 1/48A, Bandar Baru Sentul, 51000 KL.

Bank Detail:
Public Bank
Mega Chess Academy
3155813022

15th Malaysian Chess Festival Announcement

15TH MALAYSIAN CHESS FESTIVAL 2018 (17TH – 27TH AUGUST 2018)

DATO’ ARTHUR TAN CHESS CENTRE (DAT CHESS CENTRE)

We are pleased to inform you that the Dato’ Arthur Tan Chess Centre (DAT Chess Centre) with endorsement from the Malaysian Chess Federation will be organizing the MALAYSIAN CHESS FESTIVAL 2018 at Cititel Midvalley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Details of the said event are as follows :

1) ASTRO MERDEKA TEAM CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2018
2) 3RD DATIN YEE WAI FONG MERDEKA JUNIOR TEAM (U-12) CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
3) 9TH DATCC / DATIN YEE WAI FONG AGE-GROUP CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2018
4) 15TH IGB DATO’ ARTHUR TAN MALAYSIAN OPEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
5) 9TH IGB SENIORS OPEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
6) 14TH IGB BERHAD MALAYSIA CHESS CHALLENGE
7)   MERDEKA DAY INDIVIDUAL RAPID OPEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP (OPEN / UNDER 18 / UNDER 12)
8)   MERDEKA BLITZ CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP – (16:45 – Saturday, 18th August 2018)
9)   MALAYSIA FESTIVAL BLITZ CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP (1pm –  Sunday, 26th August 2018)
10) FIDE Arbiter Seminar (FIDE Lecturer -  IA Nikolopoulos Panagiotis) 20th - 24th August

Please refer to website for those event.

Should you have any enquiries, do not hesitate to contact via :

Email : aham@pc.jaring.asia , ahamchess@yahoo.com , datcc@outlook.com

Tel : +(60)193158098

Or visit website

Eugene Torre FischerRandom Tournament

A Fisher Random tournament will be held tomorrow 6th of March 2018 at ICE, Bandar Puteri in Puchong at 8:00 PM. Entry fee is RM20.

The living legend, GM Eugene Torre will be present, and the winner will receive an autographed book from him. Do not miss the chance to meet the legend in the flesh!

Eugene Torre showed that he is still a top class player when at the Baku Olympiad in 2016 he scored a performance rating of 2836 and at the age of 64!

Middle-game Strategy II

Middlegame-Strategy II

White Knight Chess Academy in co-operation with Noble Minds Academy are pleased to present our Middlegame Strategy series of chess classes conducted by Malaysia’s first International Master and FIDE Trainer Jimmy Liew.

The structure of the class will be a lecture on typical middle-game structures. In each class, IM Jimmy Liew will present two types of middle-games and show the ideas for each side. Students will learn how to play these middle-games using well researched games. The first session concentrated on two well-known structures , Isolated Queen Pawn (IQP) and Hanging Pawns.

The second session continues on to Doubled bishop pawns and the Caro-kann structure The date and time for Middle-game Strategy 2 is now announced to be conducted on 24th September 2017 starting 2-5 pm. Registration is now open. Send an email to cmliew@gmail.com or SMS/Whatsapp 019-6571628

Venue

F3A-09 Starpac Point, 
Jlnn Tmn Ibu Kota, 
Kuala Lumpur 
Date: 24/09/2017 (Sunday) Time: 2-5 PM

Penang is 4th in Asian Cities

The Penang team did very well to finish in 4th position in the Asian Cities Team Championship in India just last month.

Their final score of 5 wins 2 draws and 2 losses puts them just behind Dhaka, thus missing a podium finish. The team was in third position after seven rounds. A round eight loss to final third placed Dhaka, denied them the bronze medal.


 

The team performance is commendable especially as several members of the team won board prizes. They are

Board 1 (Silver) for Looi Xin Hao

Board 2 (Bronze) for Wong Yinn Loong

Board 4 (Bronze) for Tan Jun Ying

Photo from FIDE website

Middlegame Strategy

I remember starting out in chess a long time ago. I had no opening and I was primarily a tactical player. I had no problem as long as there were some tactical possibilities in the middlegame. I got better and started studying openings and my results improved. Then I noticed something, there were some players that I always had difficulties with. I could never get the type of positions I liked with them.

I knew something was missing from my game. Then I found Ludek Pachman's books called "Modern Chess Strategy" which is a three volume set and I found the gap in my chess understanding. These books took a lot of effort to understand but it helped me to increase my playing strength.

The link between openings and middlegame - the former determines the latter's pawn structure. By studying the games of masters based on this structures, you will come to a better grasp of how to play these type of structures which occur again and again even from different openings.

The basic middlegame structures can be grouped as follows

1. Isolated Queen Pawn aka IQP
2. Hanging Pawns
3. Doubled pawns
4. Caro-kann formation
5. Slav formation
6. Carlsbad center
7. Stonewall center
8. Closed King's Indian
9. Open King's Indian
10. Grunfeld center
11. French center
12. Benoni Center
13. Benko formation
14. Sicilian Centers
15. Miscellaneous others

 So one way of studying the middlegame is to take positions from the above and thoroughly understand how to play them. For this purpose, I am starting a series of classes on Middlegame Strategy. There will be 4-5 sessions cost at RM50 per session. The first session will be on Sunday 20th August 2017.

  More details here
  Registration form here

Summit Subang Juniors

Dr. Cafe Rapid Tournament

The 1st Dr. Cafe Leisure Rapid Tournament will be held on 29th July (Agong's Birthday). There are Open, Under-18 and Under-12 categories. Lunch will be provided for participants. For the full prospectus click link below.

DR-CAFE-ENTRY-FORM-FINAL

Discount for Malaysian Chess Festival 2017

MALAYSIAN CHESS FESTIVAL - ANNOUNCEMENT

There will be a 20% discount for all paid entry registration until 15th May for the following events:

28th Aug – 03rd Sep
14th IGB DATO’ ARTHUR TAN OPEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
8th IGB SENIORS OPEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
12th GOLDIS MALAYSIA CHESS CHALLENGE

Exchange Rate for the US $ is 4.3.


Bank Account: DAT Chess Centre  
Maybank Current A/C No: 5145  9822  0396,
Jalan Bunus,  50100 K L, Malaysia - SWIFT : MBBEMYKL


Download Entry Forms here:

http://datcc.net/
Prospectus

44th Selangor Open

The 44th Selangor Open is announced for 27th April to 1st May 2017. The venue is the same as for last year, the Grand Ballroom of the Cititel Hotel.

There is the usual Open event and also the Challengers, the latter is only open to those with FIDE rating below 1900. The closing date is 24th April 2017 so hurry and register yourself today.

Below are the prospectus.



Selangor Open 2017 Challenger Entry Form rEF

Selangor Open 2017 Entry Form rEF

14th Malaysian Chess Festival announced

Prospectus

Zone 3.3 blunders

In many ways I was puzzled at what happened at the Zone 3.3 Championship. The top two seed, GM NGUYEN Ngoc Truong Son was held to early draws while Filipino GM Julio Catalino Sadorra lost two consecutive games, one of them to a sub 2000 player.

Malaysian FM Yeoh Li Tian is in the lead with 6/7 drawing two games. His success was probably due to the low number of inaccuracies in his games while many others were struck by some really bad blunders.

Look at the following diagrams.

FM Liu Xiangyi - GM Megaranto

 White is just winning after 39. b7 Rb8 40 Rc1 and 41 Rc8 is unstoppable. Instead he played 39. Be4?? Rd8+ 40 Ke2 g4, black exchanged pawns and sacrificed his knight for the white b-pawn to reach a drawn R+B vs R ending.

IM Goh Wei Ming - Novendra Priasmoro

After sacrificing an exchange, White has started mopping up black pawns. In this position, his b5 pawn is almost unstoppable. Now 40 Kh2 getting his king of the back rank and attacking the black rook is winning. However he played 40 b6?? Rxf3 41 b7 Rxd1+ 42 Kh2 Rb3 allows black to stop the pawn and eventually draw.

FM Liu XiangYi - GM Sadorra

Even the 2nd seed was not immune to blunders. In the above diagram,  white has just checked on f3. What should black play, how should he get out of check? 42....Qf7?? The worst possible move as 43 c6 and the pawn just cannot be stopped.

Interview with IM Yeoh Li Tian

Yeoh Li Tian was already identified as a chess talent at a young age. At the age of 10 he was sent to a six week training stint in Beijing, China, sponsored by Dato' Tan Chin Nam. In the next four years, he came tantalizingly close to IM norms in several tournaments.

In 2015 he finally made his first norm and last December, Yeoh Li Tian made back-to-back International Master norms at two tournaments in Australia, fulfilling the norm requirements of 27 games.

Recently, I did an interview with him to find his thoughts, his preparations and how he sees his future  chess career.


JL: You recently finished your SPM examinations and straight after flew to Australia to play two tournaments. What expectations if any did you have when you were invited to these two tournaments?

LT: Frankly speaking I didn’t expect much before these tournaments. As it was right after SPM examination, I didn’t have time to prepare for my opponents beforehand as if they were round robin tournaments. Hence I was just aiming for IM norms before these tournaments. I was actually quite confident on the chances as my performance has always been stable and seldom become rusty even if I have not played in any tournament for a long time. It turned out to be correct as I got my IM norms with one round to spare in both tournaments.

JL:  How did you prepare for these tournaments? 

LT: As mentioned above, I didn’t prepare for any of the 2 tournaments due to my SPM examination. However, in a round robin tournament, I will normally first check the age and rating of my opponents to estimate their strength. I will then check the required points to achieve IM (maybe GM in future) norm and set a target score (win or draw) for each game, based on my colour if possible. After completing all these only I will start to prepare on a particular opponent by his opening and try to find out which type of position he/she normally loses in.

JL: Which game did you like the most from these two tournaments?

LT: I like some of my smooth wins against lower rated opponents, but I think the most interesting game is my game against Patrick Gong in the Lidums Young Master. (Game below)

JL: Any stories you want to tell us?

LT: There was really not much interesting moment in Australia. It was all about mind duel during the game and resting my mind after the game. I was hosted by a local family in Adelaide and they were really friendly. We actually saw a wild koala on a hill road while getting back home. 

JL: How old were you when you learnt the game?

LT: Around 2-3 years old. I must be literally “playing” with the chess pieces at that time.

JL: How much time do you spend on chess?

LT:It really depends on my other activities. At the very least, I will spend some time daily to follow the current tournaments to keep my chess-mind awake. I will put it as 10 hours per week.

JL: Young talented chess players often make their IM titles even before the age of 14. Why did it take you until 17 years old?

LT: The first factor is of course being an amateur player. Even though I focused in chess as much as in academic, it is still a big disadvantage to not work on chess full time compared to those young professional players. Besides, there are also not many suitable sparring partners in Malaysia as chess is not a mainstream sport. There are also few problems with myself such as easily distracted when I face difficulties during training.

JL: How much the computer plays in your chess preparations? Do you bring it to you every tournament?

LT: Computer definitely plays a crucial role in my chess preparation. Basically all my preparations require computer, including checking opponent’s basic information, database and opening. Computer is a necessity for me in all important and big chess tournaments. I only leave it at home in event like MSSM [Note: MSSM is an annual schools chess competition in Malaysia] or rapid events.

JL:  Who is the player you admire most?

LT: I really admire Magnus Carlsen. Sometimes I simply couldn’t understand how he wins such drawish position against strong players. I really hope I can learn that skill.

JL: What is your career that you think you most likely be in. Is it chess?

LT: To be honest I don’t plan to have a profession related to chess. I may contribute to chess in future, but definitely not full time. I am interested in actuarial science, computer science and engineering.

JL: What subjects are you good in or like at school?

LT: I am really good in mathematics compared to my peer. I like math, physics and chemistry in school. I like part of biology but I have never obtained good results in biology.

JL: What advice will you give to others who wish to pursue their ambition to be a good player?

LT: Study midgame and endgame. I can see many players and coaches focusing too much in the opening. Trying to win fast by trapping your opponent in a sharp opening can never bring a player to high level.

JL: Are you going to be world champion :)

LT: As far as I am concerned, no. It is pretty impossible to reach the elite without doing chess full time.

JL: Thank you for your very informative answers. I believe other young chess players as well as chess parents will find it very useful