Candidates begins!

The 2013 Candidates in London starts today, Friday 15th March. See my previous post on this. Read Chessbase report on the opening ceremony.

As GM Erwin l'Ami  sums  it up nicely - "there are no weak players in London". This will be one of the strongest , if not the strongest, tournament of 2013.

London is eight hours behind Malaysia and normally, such tournaments starts their games at 3:00 PM , so in Malaysia we have to stay  up to a late hour if we want to catch the games.

First round pairings -

Let the games begin!

Bangkok Chess Club Open

The 13th Edition of the Bangkok Chess Club Open will be held  from 14th to 21st of April 2013 at the 5-star Dusit Thani Pattaya Resort.

BCC Open prizes are for 1-10 ranks and 5 best Thais, and certificates for best 3 best juniors and best lady. 1st prize will be Baht 100,000 (approximately RM10,400/-).  BCC Challenger has prizes for 1-5 with 1st prize Baht 15,000 (approximately RM1,560/-), and certificates for 3 Best Juniors and best Lady.

Entry fees for the open is 3,000 Baht (approximately RM310/-) and for Challenger it is 1,500 Baht (approximately RM156/-). Tournament fees are waived for GMs, WGMs, IMs, WIMs and players rated over 2500 as of the  official FIDE list at April 2013.

This tournament is normable so those seeking IM and GM norms should consider making their way north. The bad news is the cost of hotel - you can expect to pay  3,100 Baht nett per room per night.

For more details and entry form go to Bangkok Chess website here. Better hurry because the deadline for registration is 15 March, 2013.

Ukraine wins Women's World Team

Ukraine won the gold medals at the Women's World Team Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan yesterday. The team, consisting of Kateryna Lagno, World Champion Anna Ushenina, Mariya Muzychuk, Natalia Zhukova and Inna Yanovska-Gaponenko edged out China (second) and Russia (third).

In the final round, the Ukrainians played Russia with the latter needing to win to have a chance at gold as they were behind by two points (the tournament was based on match points, two for a win and one for a draw). Surprisingly all the four games were drawn with everyone one of them finishing in thirty plus moves. Thus Ukraine took gold and Russia bronze. China (without Hou Yifan) took the silver by beating India in the last round.

MCF Election 2013

The MCF AGM was held on Sunday, 10th March at Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) in one of the halls there. I was there to meet up some friends who were attending the AGM. No outsiders were allowed into the meeting so I sat in the cafe with another non-attending friend. Only the state delegates and the current MCF council members were in the meeting. The only exception seems to be IM Mas Hafizul who for some reason was invited (or maybe he was a delegate for Kelantan, I'm not quite sure)  but he left the meeting after a short while.

The meeting started from 10:00 AM and ended around 2:00 PM when the attendees started streaming out of the hall and into the cafe. What most of us were interested in was the elections, especially the post of President. This was a two way fight between the incumbent, Tan Sri Ramli and the Vice President, Zuhri.

One of the hotly contested argument was that the sitting MCF council members had voting rights in the election. I understood that this was always the practice but Zuhri and his supporters tried to change this. Eventually the motion was dropped and the voting began. The total number of voters was forty. Voting was by secret ballot and this may or may not be advantageous to either candidate.

When the votes were counted, it was a dead heat! Both candidates had the same number of votes i.e twenty each. Unprecedented! Well actually it is because there has never been a fight for the presidency , in my memory. No contest until this year.

There were discussions on how to proceed next. Some wanted to adjourn and come back to vote another day. This in my mind was not the best solution as there are many from other states who have to return to KL another day. So the decision was to have a second round of voting.

There is the interesting part to this vote tie. Eye witnesses told me that when the tie was announced, both Zuhri and Tan Sri Ramli were stunned, meaning that both had expected to win handily. And this means that some who had promised to vote one way had reneged and voted the other. As they say, in politics there are no permanent friends nor enemies.

So the voting began anew. I was very sure that there will be no tie this time and I told my friend so. There will be switches of allegiance anew. I was right for the results came back with Tan Sri Ramli retaining his post with 21 votes while Zuhri got 16.

Sharp eyed readers will notice something not right. There were total forty votes (20-20) in the first round but only 37 votes in the second? What happened to the three remaining votes? Did they abstain or spoilted their vote deliberately? No one will ever know because the voting slips were shredded after the votes were counted.

So now we have a new council, hopefully they will get down to work. 

MSSWP Champions

The MSSWP Kuala Lumpur schools championship was completed last week. See the list of winners here.

The 2013 MSSM will start on Monday 25th March in Taiping, Perak.

DATCC Rapid this week-end

DATCC will organize its first rapid series for 2013 with the FANTASTIC RAPID WEEKEND on 17th March 2013 starting at 9:00am followed by Round 1 at 10:00am. The 7 Round Swiss tournament will use a time control of 25 minutes per player played to the finish, with a total prize fund of RM 1,100. The prize giving presentation is expected to start at 6:30pm.

The eventual winner will earn RM300 for his/her effort followed by RM200 for the runner up, and 6 other main prizes up to the 8th spot. Special prize of RM30 each have been allocated for the best U12/U17/Unrated player whilst another RM40 each for the top Veteran and Best Lady player. For the special prizes, there must be at least 3 players or more vying for the tops spots in each category. For DATCC members, there is an additional fund of RM50 and RM40 for the top 2 DATCC members who is not able to win any prizes in the main category - no minimal number of members playing in order to be eligible for the prize.

Students can request for Certificate of Participation/Achievement provided the request is made before the start of the round.

Entry fees for adults are RM25 for non-members and RM15 for members. Entry fees for the junior players below 12 years old are RM10 for members and RM20 for non-members. Closing date is 16th March before 6pm and those who register late for the event will incur an additional RM15. No late penalty charges will be imposed to members but, entries are only limited to the first 80 players hence, once all the seats are filled, it may be difficult to squeeze more people in.

For more information, please download our entry forms by clicking HERE and submit your entries to mailto:datcc@chess-malaysia.com or mailto:najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com. Payments can be made to our bank account as per the details contained in the entry forms but players are requested to scan their transaction slip and email it together with their entry forms. Please retain the payment slip and bring it to the centre at 9:00am to confirm your registration.

Come have fun and join us for our rapid event. It is going to be FANTASTIC!!!

CAS First Quarter Allegro

This Chess Association of Selangor event will be held on Sunday, 24th March 2013. The venue is the DAT Chess Connections in Wilayah Complex. This event will have a combined prize fund of Ringgit 2,980/=, quite a large sum for a one day tournament.

There will be two sections, one for those with National Rating over 1400 and the other below 1400. The prizes are equal for both sections e.g first prize is RM300 for both sections.

It is unfortunate that the date for this tournament is so close to the MSSM in Perak which  starts the next day on 25th March, though die-hard chess players can still play in this and rush off to Perak immediately :)

By joining the tournament, you will be supporting the CAS and at the same time see first hand the new look of DAT Chess Connections. For more details and entry forms go to CAS website

MCF, where are their titles ?

At the Istanbul Olympiad last September, three of our players fulfilled the requirements for titles. They are Lim Zhuo Ren for FIDE Master, Camilia Johari for Women FIDE Master and Tan Li Ting for Women Candidate Master.

The latest list (March 2013) still does not reflect their titles. See below.

Titles which are earned at special tournaments like the Olympiads are automatically registered by the FIDE President. So what is happening? I checked some of the other players who also achieved the FM title at the Istanbul Olympiad and they reflect the title besides their names. Except for our players.

Below is an example of how the player card shows titles which are registered by the President.

Why is it that the Malaysian Chess Federation, which should look after the interests of all Malaysian chess community/players, is not even aware of this (its already five months since Olympiad)? Or is it because some required fees for title registration were not paid?

Do they serve the chess community or do they serve their own interests? Where is MCF taking us? What are their plans to develop Malaysian chess? Or the MCF officials have no clue?

In the coming election this Sunday, I hope the state delegates vote wisely, who will best serve the chess community and players.

2013 FIDE Candidates

The 2013 FIDE Candidates tournament will begin in a week's time. The tournament will be a double round robin to be held in London from 14th March till 2nd April. This tournament is to determine a challenger to the current World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

The contenders are -

Boris Gelfand - loser of 2012 World Championship Match
Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik  and Levon Aronian - highest average ratings on July 2011 & January 2012 lists:
Peter Svidler , Alexander Grischuk and Vassily Ivanchuk  - top three from the 2011 World cup
Teimour Radjabov - nominated by Azerbaijan

Now the last candidate mentioned is a bit of a puzzle. The event is going to be held in London but Azerbaijan has a nomination? The answer is that Azerbaijan was originally slated to hold the tournament. However, Levon Aronian is Armenian and his country and Azerbaijan are still in conflict. Aronian had previously stated that he will not play in Azerbaijan thus London stepped in to hold the event. Azerbaijan was allowed to keep their nominee in the tournament.

The man in form and also the highest rated player in the world is Magnus Carlsen. My bet is on him to win. Kramnik is also in great shape and he is my other bet to win,

One thing is for sure. With a line up like this we will be treated to some great chess!

The deal with short draws

This game ref here received a lot of attention with some criticizing the short draw while others defended the two players action. Even Australian GM Ian Rogers had to comment on it in US Chess ; by the way I learnt a new word there -  ropable -  I had to look up a dictionary for the definition which by the way  means "extremely angry" :)

For what my opinion is worth, I do not see anything wrong with short draws, if drawing ensures a certain result e.g first place, and both players are agreeable with that result. Does it matter if the draw was in three moves or more than three moves?

What I do not like is when the players delay their draw and I have seen plenty of these examples. In one local tournament, the eventual winner needed only a draw in the final round. He was playing with a "friendly", and they were delaying their result waiting for the game on the second board. Presumably an appropriate result there could mean a loss would still ensure a first placing and at the same time help his friend to get a higher placing.  This is the type of situation everyone should be upset about and not a three move draw which was not even pre-arranged.

In the last round of the 2011 SEA Game selection, I offered my last round opponent , IM Lim Yee Weng, a draw after around twelve moves. The ever correct Yee Weng was hesitant about it even though the draw meant that both of us will tie for second placing. We eventually drew after I checked with the arbiter if it was alright for us to draw.

Filipino chess legend, GM Eugene Torre, achieved his title with a thirteen move draw offer against US GM Robert Byrne. When he published his biography, he titled it "Beyond the 13th Move". This book gave me the inspiration to achieve my own IM title.

FIDE Gen. Secretary , Ignatius Leong, once awarded two players zero points. Both players came late to the game and signed their scoresheet with a draw without a single move being made. Good decision I say.

On another occasion, at an important Open tournament, I witnessed the players at the  third board were delaying their game (obviously waiting for the first board result). The tournament director (a strong player himself) noticed this and warned them that he would not accept a decisive result as he contended that the players were involved in match fixing By then, one of the players had reached a winning rook ending. The player with the winning ending tried to appeal to the tournament director to no avail. Eventually they submitted a draw.