KELANTAN CLOSED CHESS TOURNAMENT

Date: 1 August 2009 (Saturday)
Venue: Level 3, MARA Auditorium Hall, MARA Building, Kota Bharu, Kelantan.
Organizers: MARA and PCMK

Persatuan Catur Melayu Kelantan (PCMK) will jointly organize a closed chess tournament with MARA in the first day of August this year. The tournament will be opened to those who were born or live in Kelantan only. There will be two categories: open and under 16.

For those who are interested, please contact these persons:

Ahmad Nadzri (012-6767020)
Adzlin (013-9223707)
Rozlisham (013-7238898)

COLIN EXPLAINS HIS SIMUL

From left to right: Tan Eng Seong, Lee Siew Fai (Seremban), Mr. Loh (Seremban),
International Master Jimmy Liew, Raymond Yap (CFO, SP Setia Berhad),
Collin Madhavan, Lim Teck Hoe (Asian Memory Record Holder),
American Master Larry Parr and PS Lim.

Here Colin explains his simul to me through email:

Explanation & Rules for 'The Most Consecutive Chess Games Played'.

As with any other simultaneous chess matches, there will be one player (chess master or expert) who will play against a number of opponents simultaneously. The Chess master/expert will play the White pieces on all boards unless the he decides to play with the Black pieces on selected or all the boards.

Unlike the record for the Most Simultaneous Chess Opponents, the record for the 'Most Consecutive Chess Games Played' will be done as follows:

A) The number of chessboards will be fixed. For example, 80 boards.

B) However, with this record, after a player has lost his/her game, he/she will have the option to start another game or give up the seat for another player to start a new game.

C) So for this record, the number of games start to increase though the chessboards are fixed at 80. That is the reason why the number of games will be higher than the number of players. Some players will play more than 1 game. For my recent match, 14 players played more than 1 game against me.

An good example is Susan Polgar’s match in 2005. She played 326 Simultaneous Chess Opponents (Record - Most Simultaneous Chess Opponents) while her record for 'Most Consecutive Chess Games Played' was 1,131!!

Question:

Why I like this kind of match?

Answer:

Because I think it is very fair to the participants. See below for a comparison between the 2 types of simul matches.

For Most Simultaneous Chess Opponents, some players who started the match against the master/expert, will still be there at the end of the match. In my match against 88 players in May 2008, the last player to finish against me (6.30pm) began playing against me at 9 am!!!

However for Most Consecutive Chess Games Played, the players can leave the moment their game is over. For example, in my recent match, the last player from the morning session left the hall at around 2.15pm, while players who joined the match at 1.30 pm, finished latest by 6.40pm.

Question:

Is it more difficult for the master with the record for Most Consecutive Chess Games Played?

Answer:

Yes, it is mainly because the master/expert is still on his feet playing chess for about hours or so. However, the participants who come in later in the match are fresh and rested. The master will tend to be less sharp than at the start of the match. Furthermore, most of the experts/masters playing in such matches DON’T EAT. Drinking some fruit juice and water is recommended.

For more pictures and info, visit Colin's website.

ASAT KELANTAN 2009

SMK Dato' Perdana

Venue: SMK Dato' Perdana, Bachok, Kelantan
Date: 19th June 2009
Time: 9.00 am - 5.00 pm
Format: 5 rounds Swiss system

Wan Mohd Alif from PPD Tumpat and Noraihan from PPD Kuala Krai conquered the ASAT Chess Competition held today at SMK Dato' Perdana, Bachok. Wan Mohd Alif won all his games, including against the more fancied Mohd Fadhil from PPD Kota Bharu. The main highlight of the competition was in Wan Mohd Alif's game against Mohd Fadhil where his opponent blundered away a rook in a winning position. Surviving from the scare, he won against his last opponent to clinch the title. Meanwhile, Noraihan needed her last game to take the throne. In a more competitive field, she lost a game against Halimatul Saadiah from PPD Gua Musang in round 4 before winning her last game. Another PPD Gua Musang player, Khairul Anwar, failed to make his presence felt when he only managed to win two games and lost the rest.

Personally, I hope that the two Kelantan representatives will play their hearts' out in the upcoming national ASAT which will be held in Perak.

Boys Category

Girls Category

Khairul Anwar (with Wan Mohd Alif sitting to his left)

Halimatul Saadiah (with Noraihan sitting to her right)

In related story, two chess players from Jeli did not show up at the competition because of an accident. Mohd Rosdi Ahmad and Norazlina Che Hassan were involved in a head-on collision between a Proton Iswara and a Perodua Viva, where the two students were in with their two teachers en route to Bachok for the ASAT Chess Competition. The Proton Iswara driver, Chong Lian Hee, died on the spot while the others suffered serious and minor injuries. The other players were shocked to read the Sinar Harian newspaper, which ran the story on Friday, at the tournament hall (notice that in the first and second pictures there is an empty seat for each category).

You can read the story here.

LATEST POSITION

White just moved 29.Qd4

This is the latest position in the battle between Arkurni vs IIUMChessmaster. Black is a pawn up, but in Queen - Rook ending, anything could happen. What both sides can do now is to improve piece position. It is quite disturbing for Black that White's Queen is positioned neatly in the middle of the board. The plus for Black is that he has a passed pawn and White's pieces are not so coordinated. So, how do you think Black will reply?

COLIN SURVIVES MARATHON, LOSES ONLY ONCE

Thanks for the mention in your blog. The final number of games played was 151. I won 116 games, drew 34 and lost 1. My playing performance was 88%. The match lasted 9 hours 50 mins. The actual number of players was 137. Thanks again.

This is the results for Colin Madhavan's record breaking simul. As mentioned by him personally above, he lost only once from 151 games. Even though I did not fully understand what he said, but we should salute this guy who has a very strong stamina. I myself did simuls when I was at the university (my best there was 15 in a go, beating all of them, university teammates) and in central trainings for the Gua Musang MSSM team (36 students, lost 1), I knew that it was a very demanding task, testing your body to the limit, especially your legs.

ASAT GUA MUSANG RESULTS

Here is the full results for ASAT Gua Musang 2009. Complete with tie-breaker taken from ASAT Kebangsaan. Congratulations to the winners! Khairul Anwar and Halimatu, please do your best at ASAT Negeri in Bachok.

Boys


Girls

ASAT GUA MUSANG

I think it's about time I teach them how to use Swiss Perfect. As for now, I am the only one in Gua Musang who knows how to use this pairing programme. Even though I am sick, I do the pairing from my home, and send the result and the pairing using SMS. However, this will not stop PPD Gua Musang from having a successful ASAT Chess. Hopefully next time when I am not available, somebody will step up as the arbiter.

Venue: SK Limau Kasturi 1
Time: 9.00 - 12.00pm
Format: Swiss 3 Rounds

ASAT boys

Ahmad Wafi (SMK Paloh)
Md Faizzuddin (SMK Tengku Bendahara)
Md Zul Husni (SMK Tengku Indra Petra 2)
Che Md Sallehuddin (SMK Chiku 2)
Md Khairul Anwar (SMK Tengku Indra Petra 2)
Md Zaidi (SMK Tengku Indra Petra 1)
Afik Affendi (SMK Sungai Asap)
Tn Md Shafiqie (SMK Bandar Chiku)

ASAT girls

Norhayati (SMK Paloh)
Safinah (SMK Sungai Asap)
Norlaila (SMK Tengku Bendahara)
Halimatu (SMK Sungai Asap)
Nurhayati (SMK Chiku 2)
Syazana (SMK Tengku Indra Petra 2)
Nor Syafini (SMK Tengku Indra Petra 1)
Siti Nurain (SMK Bandar Chiku)

Colin in his previous simul

123 PLAYERS FOR RECORD BREAKING SIMUL

Candidate Master Colin Madhavan (FIDE 2220) will play against 123 players in a simultaneous chess event which will be held at Setia Alam, Shah Alam at the end of this month. The event is organized by SP Setia Berhad. The details of the programme:

Date: 24th May 2009
Time: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Venue: Setia Alam Welcome Centre, No. 2 Jalan Setia Indah AD U13/AD, Setia Alam Seksyen U13, 40170 Shah Alam.

Those who are interested please contact 03-3343 2255 or download the form here.

SULTAN KELANTAN IS ILL

I just received a news that Duli Yang Maha Mulia Tuanku Al-Sultan Ismail Petra ibni Almarhum Al-Sultan Yahya Petra has just been admitted to HUSM because of illness. However, by the time of writing, the cause of his illness has yet to be revealed. Bernama said it was because of asthma attack, but it remains to be determined by the doctors. A HUSM assistant director, Dr. Rosdi Abdul Rahman, said that the Sultan is in stabil condition but refused to revealed the cause of illness when asked. Let's us pray for our beloved Sultan's health.

WHEN I WAS...

... still at the IIUM Matriculation Centre, I entered many rapid tournaments in order to gain some experience. One of the tournament I went to was the UKM Convocation Open Chess in 1998. I registered early through my friend who happened to be the tournament committee member, but I was late on the tournament day. I lost the first game by default, but I quickly recovered and won the other 5 games and drew one to get 7th placing.

Here is a game between me and my fellow blogger, Nassero, whom I stumbled upon in the last round. He practically begged me to post this game, maybe because there was no score sheet at the time, and I was crazy enough to return home and record the game afterwards. The game was marred with inaccuracies because I was still new at chess, and, of course, I was, and still, not a chess master.

White: Yours Truly
Black: Nassero
UKM 26th Convo Open (Round 7)
27.06.1998

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.d4 Be6 7.Nxe6 fxe6 8.0-0 Qd7 9.Nc3 0-0-0 10.Re1 exd4 11.Nxd5 exd5 12.Bb5 Bc5 13.Bf4 Rhf8 14.Bg3 a6 15.Bd3 g6 16.a3 Bd6 17.b4 Bxg3 18.hxg3 Ne7 19.a4 c6 20.Qd2 Nf5 21.b5 Kb8 22.bxa6 b6 23.Rab1 Ka7 24.a5 b5 25.Bxf5 Rxf5 26.Qxd4+ Ka8 27.Re3 Qa7 28.Qb6 Qd7 29.Rbe1 Rb8 30.Re8 Rf8 31.Qxb8# 1-0

After 25... Nxd4!

A CORRESPONDENCE BLUNDER??

After a long fight, White cracks. However, it is perplexed as how White made the move 25.Rd2? which I saw it as a blunder. It is supposed to be a blunderless game, a correspondence game, but we are human after all. Sometimes, the first move we already ruled out, is the one we played on the board. There are games where I was trapped like this, and I regretted it afterwards.

CHANNEL 64 FOR CHESS, ASTRO?

Move aside from the couch, football fans! Here come the chessmasters! Malaysia's Olympic Council is currently developing a sports channel for chess at our beloved private cable operator, .

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary Sieh Kok Chi said,

"Many games like the Selangor (state) league football matches and less popular sports like chess matches don't get any airtime as TV stations normally ask us to pay for the crew or get sponsors to pay for the costs"

Read the AFP article here.

GULA PERLIS OPEN

Kindly be informed that Kilang Gula Felda Perlis will be organising Gula Perlis Open Chess Challenge 2009 on 16th May 2009 at Dewan Sek Men Teknik Kangar, Perlis. This is a national rated event and it's open to all chess players nationwide. Time control for each player is 30 minutes. The tournament is offering total cash prizes of RM4,240 for up to 57 winners including 10 lucky draws. Closing date for registration is 11th May 2009.

It is hoped that the tournament will draw as many entry as possible as this is the first time Kilang Gula Felda Perlis is sponsoring such a big chess tournament. With huge entries, the management will be happy to establish this tournament as a yearly event.

Feel free to contact Syaiful at 013-3939838 should you have any queries.

Registration Form

Map to SM Teknik, Kangar

ARKURNI vs YOURS TRULY

This is the latest position of our correspondence chess.

White just moved 24.Qd3

ROOK ENDGAME

White to move

White: iiumchessmaster (2294)
Black: mariomar (2346)
online game

Rook endgames are the most common type of chess endgames played in chess literature. Every chess players need to know how to play the rook endgames correctly to achieve victory. Even when you are a pawn up, there is no guarantee that you will win the game. Here, my opponent is a pawn up, but his rook position is passively guarding the passed d-pawn which I promptly block with my rook.

1.Rd5
Blocking the passed pawn and at the same time attacking the queenside pawns.

1.... Kf7
Trying to bring the King to more aggressive squares in the middle. The King also likes to replace the rook as the guardian of the passed pawn.

2.a4!
Giving Black no time to regroup by attacking the pawns.

2... bxa4 3.bxa4 Ke7 4.Ra5

Now Black has to choose between guarding the a-pawn or trying his luck with the passed d-pawn. He chose the latter.

4... f4 5.Rxa6 Re3 6.b4
Starting the passed pawns rolling.

6... Rb3 7.b5 Rb2+ 8.Kf1 Ke6

The Black King tries to cross over through the middle to help in delivering checkmate. In the meantime, White is banking on crowning one of his pawns to win the game.

9.Rb6 Ke5 10.a5 Kd4

Black throws away his passed pawn in his haste to checkmate White's King, which White duly accepts.

11.Rxd6+ Ke3 12.b6 Kxf3

Here Black should have take the draw with 12... Rb1+, but with his rating at stake, he tried to find a win. A quick glance at the board shows an ugly sight for White, but he has defensive resources.

13.Rd3+! Ke4 14.Ra3
Rook behind passed pawn, a basic rook endgame theory.

14... Kd5?
Again Black tries for a win, but this time there is no saving the game. He should have took the draw with 14... Rb1+.

15.a6 Rxb6 16.a7 1-0

Final position