MAY ALLAH BLESS YOU, IA ABDUL LATIF MOHAMAD

I knew competitive chess in 1996 when I was in IIUM Matriculation in Lembah Pantai. The first tournament I entered was IIUM Open held at IIUM Main Campus Petaling Jaya. There I had my first tournament game (a draw against Azhari Mohd Nor) and there also I knew the late IA Abdul Latif Mohamad.

Then, there was no computer pairing system. It was manually done and he was among the experts at that. It was the first of my many encounters with him throughout the years because he was really close with the IIUM Chess Club members, especially Rizal Ahmad Kamal (one of my coach) and his gang.

Fast forward 20 years later, his health deteriorated which limited his participation in chess. I hardly ever met him from 2006 onward, mainly because I had already returned to my hometown to become a teacher. News about him came either from reading in the media or through social interaction with chess friends.

On 20 September 2018, the final news came in sadness. He passed away at approximately 9 p.m. As fellow Muslim, I was grateful because passing away in the eve of a Friday is considered a dream of many Muslims.

May Allah bless you, IA Abdul Latif Mohamad.

* I'm still searching for my old chess files because I might have something original to be shared here. As for now, I'll settled with a profile picture taken from his blog SIFU.mycatur.

CHESS CHEAT = BLACKLIST?

There are cheaters in Malaysian chess scene after all! Reading Rizal's and Sifu's blogs confirmed what I feared most. And it happened to me before in my early chess experience.


My First Story

Several years ago I was cheated by a good Malaysian chess player, but part of it was due to my naivety. It was a three-fold-repetition, watched by many spectators, but in the end what really matters were the players themselves. I should have claimed the repetition before I moved my King at the same place for the third time. What happened was after I moved the King, stopped the clock and raised my hand to call the arbiter, he promptly moved his pawn and pressed the clock before the arbiter arrived. When the arbiter finally came, the pawn structure had already changed, thus the three-fold-repetition claim was no longer valid. A sporting and gentleman player would have accept the draw, but not this man, who went on to win the game amidst my confusion. After the game, somebody told me that I still had the opportunity to claim the draw after the pawn move, because I was the one who stopped the clock (can somebody with knowledge of the chess rule confirm this, please?).


My Second Story

It was at a rapid game, with 25 minutes per person. I was still an amateur then, a matriculation student at IIUM, with only several tournaments of experience to boast. I was waiting at the table for over 20 minutes now, and my opponent has yet to show his face. When it was certain (I checked the clock several times, mind you!) that there was only around 2 minutes left of his clock, I stood up and stopped to watch my friend's game on my way to the arbiter's table. Not long after that, a guy touched me at the back and asked me to make my move. I was perplexed and duly went to the table with him. I noticed that there was still 5 minutes remaining on his clock! As I was a junior then, I did not have the courage to ask him where did the 5 minutes come from as I was certain that he had lost on time and I was on my way to the arbiter's table. I played on to his Alekhine Defense and lost.


So, should these guys be banned? Not likely. Nobody probably will do anything until it happen to them personally. Nevertheless, my personal opinion is that the person in Rizal's case should be banned from local chess scene, as it will tarnish its image.

In Islam, chess is permitted with strict rules, one of which involved using vulgar words throughout the game. Cheating can be included in this rule, IMHO, because it is more dangerous than merely speaking some nasty words which probably do not alter the outcome of the game. Moreover, I agree with Rizal that the winnings (nowadays in the form of money) would not be advisable to feed the loved ones as it is after all acquired from incorrect means.

UNSUCCESSFUL OUTING

Venue: CAC Hall, IIUM
Date: 16th November 2008
Format: 8 rounds Swiss
Time control: 20 mins

Utterly disgusted. Two walkovers, two nearly wins, one fighting draw, and three lame losses were not what I'm looking for in my return to IIUM. I'm not going to blame it on the time control, which was slashed from 25 mins to 20 mins only, but for my incapability of competing among the best. Two losses against Fairin and Saprin were not even close to my real capabilities. That and the loss against Mohan Raj which was due to underestimation and succumbed to mate with his one and only hopeful attack, were uncharacteristic of me. However, I can take heart from the fact that I nearly beaten one of my coaches, Mr. Rizal Ahmad Kamal, before accepting his hand for a draw in game 5. The other one, Sargeant Ismail Ahmad, went all the way to the podium for second placing after drawing his last game against the eventual champion Ian Udani.

Here are the top 10 for the Open Category

1. Ian Udani (7.0 points)
2. Ismail Ahmad (7.0)
3. NM Zarul Shazwan (7.0)
4. Mohd Saprin Sabri (6.5)
5. Rizal Ahmad Kamal (6.5)
6. Nor Ilhamuddin (6.5)
7. NM Mohd Kamal Abdullah (6.0)
8. Nik Ahmad Farouqi (6.0)
9. Mohd Khair Wahiduddin (6.0)
10. Muhd Syakir Shazmeer (6.0)
45. Yours Truly (4.5)

Full results can be found here.

Below are pictures from the event.

Waiting for the opponent, who never came, in round 1

146 participants in the lovely CAC Hall

Ian Udani pondering upon his moves (the first board game shown at the screen)

Battling draw against former coach, Rizal AK