Masters of the game

CHESS By

QUAH SENG SUN

ssquah@gmail.com

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Kudos to Malaysia’s two new international masters.
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NEW Year’s Day brought some mixed news for the Malaysian chess scene. I don’t like to use well-worn clichés but anyway, the good news should come first and it is that two new International Masters were confirmed by the World Chess Federation last November.
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Lim Yee Weng achieved his three IM title norms at the Turin Chess Olympiad in 2006 and two of the Malaysia open tournaments in 2007 and 2008.
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Last September, we knew that Mok Tze Meng had been awarded a provisional IM title pending his rating points jumping above 2,400. Well, his title has now been confirmed.
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The other player who now also has a confirm­­­­ed IM title is Lim Yee Weng. His application to Fide was made in November 2008 after he had achieved his three IM title norms at the Turin Chess Olympiad in 2006 and two of the Malaysia open tournaments in 2007 and 2008. At that time, Fide agreed to the application but made his IM title conditional upon his rating rising above 2,400 points. He did achieve this subsequently and the title was finally confirmed in last November’s rating list.
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Good for the two of them because they had put in a lot of hard work to get their titles.
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As it stands right now, Malaysia has five international masters.
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Jimmy Liew was the first to achieve this title so there is always a special place reserved for him whenever this subject of international masters is raised locally. Mas Hafizulhelmi was our second player to gain this title and he also has a special place in Malaysian chess because after all these years, he remains our strongest player.
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Apart from Liew, Mas Hafizul, Mok and Lim, our other international master is Wong Zijing who is unfortunately inactive because he’s totally caught up with his studies overseas. Hopefully, we shall be able to see him return to active chess duties sometime in the future.
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The bad news is that, suddenly, I discover that Malaysia’s name has disappeared from the Fide list of member nations. For that to happen, it can only mean one thing: that the Malaysian Chess Federation’s (MCF) membership standing with
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Fide has not been regularised in the past one year. The MCF has been such a long-standing member of the world body since 1974 (even longer if we consider the days of the old Chess Association of Malaysia, which was the MCF’s predecessor) that it is embarrassing that this should happen.
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New level: Mok Tze Meng, who was awarded a provisional International Master title pending his rating points jumping above 2,400, has finally achieved that.
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Unfortunately, such delistings do happen once in a while even to more active chess federations. The least that the MCF should do now is to take steps to rectify this hiccup as soon as possible.

On top of the world

by Quah Seng Sun
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Norwegian Magnus Carlsen has risen to the top of the World Chess Federation rating list for the new year.

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WELL, a happy new year to you! By tradition at the start of every new year, the World Chess Federation (Fide) releases its January edition of the Fide rating list. It’s always the case that chess players worldwide – those who are internationally-rated, anyway – look forward to the release of the Fide list to see where they stand.

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It is a numbers game and the higher one’s rating gets, the inference is that one has become a stronger player. It works conversely, too. A decline in chess ratings means a decline in a player’s chess strength.

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However, much interest also centres on the top echelons of chess players. Understandably, people are also very interested to know the rankings of those super-level grandmasters whose ratings are way above the ordinary folks. And any number above 2700 qualifies a player as super-level.

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If you have been following the developments in world chess, it will probably not come as a surprise to know that today, there is a new, official No.1 chess player in the world.

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Yes, Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov has been toppled from the Numero Uno spot. His successor? None other than Magnus Carlsen – that 18-year-old former Norwegian wunderkind that I had written about last October.

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His new official rating is 2810, a jump upwards by nine points from his last published rating in November last year. Within a spate of two months, he now stands entrenched at the top of the chess world.

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Although this does not mean that he is world champion, surely that target cannot be too far away if Carlsen continues to improve. And he will improve with Garry Kasparov as his trainer.

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Last September, the chess world was abuzz with news that the two of them would be working together to take the Norwegian’s chess level to a higher plane. Prior to that announcement, the former world champion had already been working informally with Carlsen for about six months.

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I had the opportunity to ask Kasparov recently at Putrajaya how long he hoped to work together with Carlsen.

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“I wish I have the luxury of making long-term plans,” Kasparov replied. “We live in an ever-changing world. I cannot foresee the consequences of this cooperation. However, I hope that we will have at least one more year and I hope that I will help him to become not only No.1 in the unofficial rating list but a solid No.1 in the official rating list and eventually the world champion. And he will deserve to win the title if he continues to work hard and if he brings more hard work to his unique talent.”

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What about his chess ideas, I asked Kasparov. In his decades at the top of world chess, he would have accumulated a wealth of information. How much would he be prepared to reveal to Carlsen?

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“It doesn’t make any sense to hide my secrets,” he told me. “Undoubtedly, I have the largest database of opening ideas in chess and I keep working on updating this. Carlsen will always have full access to my library.”

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So there you have it. The great man himself obviously sees a lot of himself in Carlsen. Will the Norwegian cement his position at the top of the world chess rankings? The next one year will see how the cooperation between the two of them bears out.

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How Carlsen rose to be No.1

Soon after news broke of Carlsen training under Kasparov, the Norwegian grandmaster flew to Nanjing, China, to participate in the Pearl Spring chess tournament in September together with Topalov, Wang Yue, Dmitry Jakovenko, Teimour Radjabov and Peter Leko.

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His results in this double round-robin event made nearly everyone sit up to take notice of this young man. Carlsen scored an astounding eight points. By comparison, second-placed Topalov obtained only 5½ points. This tremendous result against his fellow super-level grandmaster opponents boosted Carlsen’s rating by 28.8 points.

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In November, Carlsen was playing in the Mikhail Tal memorial tournament in Moscow. The field included notable chess heavyweights like Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich, Levon Aronian and world champion Viswanathan Anand. Though he did not win this event – he came second behind Kramnik – the result was still good enough to add a further 4.7 points to his rating and lift his standing to unofficial world No.1 position.

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Then in December at the London Chess Classic, he finished ahead of Kramnik and six other players to add a further 3.9 points to his rating.

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I should also point out Carlsen has played 28 straight games at the top level without loss. His last defeat was at the hands of Kramnik at the Sparkassen tournament in Dortmund, Germany, as long ago as July last year.

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Here is an example of Carlsen’s recent form in a game from the Pearl Spring tournament in China:

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Magnus Carlsen – Dmitry Jakovenko,

Pearl Spring tournament, China

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1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Bxd6 Qxd6 8.e3 Ne7 9.Bd3 b6 10.Nf3 Ba6 11.0-0 Bxd3 12.Qxd3 Nd7 13.e4 0-0 14.e5 Qe6 15.Rae1 Rfe8 16.Nh4 Ng6 17.Nxg6 Qxg6 18.Qd2 Nf8 19.f4 Qf5 20.Nd1 f6 21.Ne3 Qd7 22.Qd3 fxe5 23.dxe5 Ne6 24.f5 Nc5 25.Qd4 Ne4 26.Nxd5 Qxd5 27.Qxe4 Rad8 28.e6 Qxe4 29.Rxe4 Rd6 30.g4 Kf8 31.g5 Ke7 32.Kg2 Rd5 33.Kg3 Kd6 34.h4 c5 35.f6 gxf6 36.gxf6 Rd3+ 37.Kh2 Rd2+ 38.Kh1 1-0. -The Star

Winning edge

CHESS
By QUAH SENG SUN

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Experience gives players the edge over the competition.

THE results of two recent chess tournaments here and elsewhere have left me doubly convinced that experience can be a great leveller. Time and again, the player with the greater experience has shown the resilience to come up tops in chess events.

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In faraway Khanty-Mansiysk, the experience of a 41-year-old Boris Gelfand triumphing over 26-year-old Ruslan Ponomariov in the Chess World Cup knock-out tournament was a typical example.

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King of kings: (from left) Ibrahim Bakar (MCF), Mok Tze Meng, Nicholas Chan and the triumphant Mas Hafizulhelmi.
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Gelfand was the oldest player in the tournament but in 26-year-old Ponomariov, he was facing a former Fide world champion in 2002 who knew his way around the chessboard.

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Many did not expect Gelfand to last the distance against the younger Ponomariov. The previous six rounds had been gruelling enough and in the final, Ponomariov had been expected to play better in the rapidchess tie-break games should their classical time control games ended drawn.

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Sure enough, all four of the classical games were drawn and the two players went on to play rapidchess. However, they also ended with a drawn result and so, everything boiled down to blitz chess. Here, Gelfand sprang the greatest surprise by beating Ponomariov 3-1, thus ending the latter’s hopes of winning the Chess World Cup.

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Likewise at home, we have found this year’s Malaysian King of Kings. After six months, the Malaysian Masters knock-out tournament is finally over. A much more experienced Mas Hafizulhelmi triumphed over Nicholas Chan in the final which was staged in Kuala Lumpur last weekend.

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Both players have played chess for long years but in terms of recent exposure to the game, Mas Hafizul held a big advantage over Chan. Whereas Mas Hafizul has been totally immersed in playing competitive chess all over the world in the past two years, Chan had been more pre-occupied with his studies. As a result, the rustiness showed in Chan’s play and this was well exploited by Mas Hafizul.

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Although six games had been scheduled for this match, it was practically over by the end of the first day of play when Mas Hafizul went two-up in the match. The third game was drawn but Chan again faltered in the fourth game and allowed Mas Hafizul to wrap up the match with a 3½-½ score.

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Mas Hafizul had progressed through the Malaysian Masters by beating Muhammad Tariq Amru in the first round and Mok Tze Meng in the semi-finals. In the meantime, Chan advanced to the final of this event by beating Evan Timothy Capel in the first round and Lim Yee Weng in the semi-finals.

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Here are the four games from the Malaysian Masters finals:

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Mas Hafizulhelmi vs Nicholas Chan (Game 1)

1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. exd5 Nf6 4. Bb5+ Bd7 5. Bxd7+ Qxd7 6. c4 e6 7. Qe2 Bd6 8. d3 O-O 9. dxe6 fxe6 10. Nf3 Nc6 11. O-O Rae8 12. Nc3 e5 13. f5 Nd4 14. Qd1 Nxf5 15. Bg5 Ng4 16. Qd2 Nd4 17. Ne4 Be7 18. Bxe7 Qxe7 19. Rae1 Nxf3+ 20. Rxf3 Rxf3 21. gxf3 Nh6 22. f4 exf4 23. Nf6+ Qxf6 24. Rxe8+ Kf7 25. Re4 g5 26. h4 Nf5 27. hxg5 Qxg5+ 28. Qg2 Qh4 29. Re2 Kf6 30. Qxb7 Qg3+ 31. Qg2 Nd4 32. Rf2 Kg5 33. Kf1 Nf5 34. Qf3 h5 35. b4 Qxf3 36. Rxf3 Kg4 37. Rf2 Ne3+ 38. Ke2 Kg3 39. bxc5 Nf5 40. Rf3+ Kg4 41. Rf1 h4 42. Kf2 Nd4 43. Rg1+ Kf5 44. Rg7 h3 45. Rxa7 Nc6 46. Rh7 Kg4 47. Rh6 Ne5 48. c6 Nxd3+ 49. Ke2 1-0

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Nicholas Chan vs Mas Hafizulhelmi (Game 2)

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. Qb3 Nc6 5. Bg2 Nd4 6. Qd1 O-O 7. e3 Bxc3 8. bxc3 Ne6 9. e4 Qe7 10. Ne2 Nc5 11. d3 Qd6 12. d4 Ncxe4 13. Qc2 Nxf2 14. Kxf2 Ng4+ 15. Ke1 Re8 16. Qf5 exd4 17. Bd5 Nf6 18. cxd4 c6 19. Bf3 Qxd4 20. Rb1 Qxc4 21. Bb2 d5 22. Qf4 Ne4 23. Rc1 Qxa2 24. Bh5 Be6 25. Rf1 Qxb2 0-1

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Mas Hafizulhelmi vs Nicholas Chan (Game 3)

1. d4 c5 2. d5 Nf6 3. Nc3 d6 4. e4 g6 5. Nf3 Bg7 6. Nd2 O-O 7. Be2 Nbd7 8. O-O Ne8 9. a4 Rb8 10. f4 a6 11. a5 Nc7 12. Nc4 Nb5 13. Na4 Nf6 14. Bd3 e6 15. Nab6 exd5 16. Nxd5 Nxd5 17. exd5 f5 18. c3 Nc7 19. Nb6 Bd7 20. Be3 Be8 21. Qd2 Na8 22.Nc4 Bb5 23.Bf2 Re8 24.Rfe1 Qc7 25.Ne3 Bxd3 26.Qxd3 Bh6 27.g3 Qd7 28.Nc4 Qb5 29.Re6 Bf8 30.Rae1 Nc7 31.R6e2 Rxe2 32 Rxe2 Ne8 33 Re6 Rd8 34. h3 Ng7 35. Re2 Nh5 36. Kg2 Bh6 37. Kf3 Rf8 38. Re6 Nf6 39.Qe2 Qb3 40.Be3 Ne4 41.g4 Bg7 42.g5 Bg7 43.h4 Kf7 44.Bc1 Rd7 45.h5 Rd8 46.Kg2 Qb5 47. Kh3 Qb3 48.Ne3 Qb5 49.Nc4 Bh8 50. Kg2 Rd7 51. Kf3 Bg7 52. Be3 Qb3 53. Qd3 Qa2? 54. hxg6+ hxg6 55. Rxe4 fxe4+ 56. Qxe4 Re7 57. Qd3 Kg8 58. Nxd6 Qxb2 59.Qxg6 Qh2 ½-½

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Nicholas Chan vs Mas Hafizulhelmi (Game 4)

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qb3 a5 5. g3 d5 6. a3 Be7 7. d4 O-O 8. Bg2 c6 9. O-O a4 10. Qa2 b6 11. Rd1 Ba6 12.Ne5 Nfd7 13.Nxd7 Nxd7 14.cxd5 cxd5 15. e4 Bc4 16. Qb1 Nf6 17. e5 Nd7 18. Re1 b5 19. Qc2 Qb6 20. Qd1 Nb8 21. Qg4 Kh8 22. Be3 Nc6 23. Ne2 Bxe2 24. Rxe2 Na5 25. Rd1 Rac8 26. h4 Rc4 27. h5 Nb3 28.Bf1 b4 29.axb4 Qxb4 30.f3 Rfc8 31.Qf4 Kg8 32.Rf2 R4c7 33.Bd3 Bf8 34.Kg2 Na5 35.Ra1 Qb3 36. Bb1 Qb5 37.Kh2 Nb3 38.Ra2 Nc1 39.Ra1 Ne2 40.Qg4 Qxb2 41.h6 Qxa1 42.hxg7 Qxb1 43.hxf8+=Q Kxf8 44.Bh6+ Ke7 45.Rxe2 Rc2 46.Bd2 R2c4 47. Qg5+ Kd7 48. Qf4 Qf5 49. Qe3 f6 50.g4 Qg5 51.Qd3 Qh4+ 52.Kg2 f5 53.Be1 Qe7 54.gxf5 Qg5+ 55. Kf1 Qxf5 56.Qa3 Qf8 57. Qd3 Rb8 58. Qxh7+ Qe7 59. Qh6 Rb3 60. Bh4 Rxf3+ 61. Kg2 Qf8 62.Qg6 Qf5 63. Qg7+ Qf7 64. Qg4 Rcc3 65. Rb2 Kc6 66. Be1 Rce3 67. Rc2+ Kd7 68. Bh4 Re4 69. Qg5 Rxh4 70. Qxh4 Qg6+ 71. Kxf3 Qd3+ 72. Kf4 Qxc2 73. Qh8 Qf2+ 74. Kg4 Qxd4+ 75. Kg3 Qd3+ 76. Kg2 Qe2+ 77. Kg3 a3 78. Qb8 Qd3+ 79. Kh4 Qc4+ 80. Kg5 Qc7 81. Qb5+ Kd8 82. Qa6 Qxe5+ 83. Kg6 Qf5+ 84. Kg7 Qg5+ 85. Kf7 Qe7+ 86. Kg6 Qb4 87. Kf7 Kc7 88. Qa7+ Kc6 89. Kf6 Kb5 90. Kxe6 Qc5 91. Qh7 a2 92. Qd3+ Qc4 93. Qa3 d4+ 94. Kd7 Qa4 0-1 -The Star

Chess: Carlsen number one

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As the youngest chess player ever, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen (19) now tops the list over the world's top players, after his match at the London Chess Classic against British Michael Adams on Monday ended in a draw.
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Carlsen whose 19th birthday was on November 30th, is also the first player from a western nation to reach the top since Bobby Fisher in1972.
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The Norwegian will meet Nigel Short on Tuesday in the last round of the tournament.
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(NRK/Aftenposten)
Rolleiv Solholm
http://www.norwaypost.no