All Or Nothing And Malaysian Chess Festival 2009

The winner gives the loser the prize. Again.

WELL, it happened again. In the second match of the Malaysian Masters tournament in Kuala Lumpur last weekend, the winner of the match graciously presented the prize to the loser.
Mas Hafilzulhelmi had presented the loser’s cheque to Muhammad Tariq Amru two weeks ago and last weekend Mok Tze Meng presented the loser’s cheque to Ooi Chern Ee.

Yes, Mok had defeated Ooi and my prediction was wrong. I had thought that the match would be close but it was anything but. At the end of the first day of play, Ooi was already reeling on the ropes, down by 0-2 and needing a miracle to even survive until the play-off.

A draw wouldn’t have been enough for him in the third game as the draw would have eliminated him from the knock-out contest. “I would either draw level 2-2 or lose by 0-3,” he reflected before the start of the game. For Ooi, it was all or nothing. For Mok, it turned out to be all and everything. He took advantage of Ooi’s dire situation to hammer home his third win in as many games.

This weekend, another interesting match is in the offing: a face-off between former national champion Nicholas Chan and current national champion Evan Timothy Capel. On paper, it is a shoo-in for Chan but Capel can be a very stubborn player. We’ll see how stubborn tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are the three games between Mok and Ooi.

Ooi Chern Ee – Mok Tze Meng, Game One
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. c4 d6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Be3 e5 6. Nge2 exd4 7. Nxd4 Nge7 8. h4 f5 9. h5 fxe4 10. hxg6 Nf5 11. Nxf5 Bxf5 12. gxh7 Qf6 13. Nd5 Qf7 14. Qh5 Bg6 15. Qg5 Ne5 16. O-O-O (16. Rh4 Rxh7 17. Rf4 Qd7 18. Bd4 Rh5 19. Nf6+ Bxf6 20. Qxf6 Qf7 21. Bxe5 dxe5 22. Qxf7+ Bxf7) 16… Rxh7 17. Rxh7 Bxh7 18. Be2 Kd7 19. Bh5 Qf8 20. f4 exf3 21. gxf3 c6 22. f4 cxd5 23. fxe5 Bxe5 24. Bg4+ Kc7 25. cxd5 Re8 26. Be6 Qf3 27. Re1 Rxe6 28. Qh4 Bd3 29. dxe6 Qc6+ 30. Bc5 Qxc5+ 31. Kd2 Qc2+ 32. Ke3 Bg6 33. e7 Kd7 34. Kf3 Qf5+ 35. Kg2 Qf4 36. e8=Q+ Bxe8 37. Qh3+ Kd8 38. Re2 Bc6+ 39. Kg1 d4+ 0-1

Mok Tze Meng – Ooi Chern Ee, Game Two
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Bxd7+ Qxd7 5. c4 Nc6 6. Nc3 g6 7. 0-0 Bg7 8. a3 Nf6 9. Rb1 0-0 10. b4 Ng4 11. Ne2 Nge5 12. Nxe5 dxe5 13. d3 Rfd8 14. Rb3 e6 15. Be3 Bf8 16. Qb1 Rac8 17. bxc5 Rc7 18. Qb2 a6 19. Qc3 f5 20. f3 Nd4 21. Bxd4 exd4 22. Qb2 Bxc5 23. Rb1 b6 24. exf5 gxf5 25. Nf4 Qd6 26. g3 Rg7 27. Kh1 e5 28. Nd5 b5 29. Qe2 Re8 30. a4 bxa4 31. Rb6 Bxb6 32. Rxb6 Qd8 33. Rxa6 Rg6 34. Rxa4 h5 35. f4 e4 36. Qxh5 Ree6 37. Ra7 Rh6 38. Qf7+ 1-0

Ooi Chern Ee – Mok Tze Meng, Game Three
1. d4 g6 2. c4 Bg7 3. e4 d6 4. Nc3 e5 5. Nge2 Nc6 6. Be3 Nh6 7. f3 f5 8. d5 Ne7 9. Qd2 Nf7 10. g3 h5 11. h4 fxe4 12. Nxe4 Nf5 13. Bg5 Nxg5 14. hxg5 Qe7 15. 0-0-0 Bd7 16. Bh3 0-0-0 17. Qd3 Kb8 18. Kb1 a6 19. N2c3 h4 20. g4 Nd4 21. Bg2 Rdf8 22. Rh3 Rf7 23. Rdh1 Rhf8 24. Rf1 Rh8 25. Qe3 Rf4 26. Qe1 Rhf8 27. Qd1 Rh8 28. Re1 c5 29. a4 b5 30. axb5 axb5 31. cxb5 Kb7 32. Qa4 Ra8 33. Qc4 Rxe4 34. Nxe4 Bxb5 35. Qc3 Kb6 36. Kc1 Ra4 37. Kd1 Rc4 38. Qa3 Ba4+ 39. Kd2 Rc2+ 40. Ke3 Qf7 41. Qxa4 Qf4+ 42. Kd3 c4+ 43. Qxc4 Rxc4 44. Kxc4 Qf7 45. Nc3 Qf4 46. Kd3 Qxg5 47. Ne4 Qe7 48. Rhh1 Qb7 49. Nc3 Qa6+ 50. Ke3 Nc2+ 51. Kf2 Nxe1 52. Rxe1 Qd3 53. Bf1 Qd4+ 54. Kg2 Qf4 55. Ne4 h3+ 56. Kf2 Qh2+ 57. Ke3 Bh6+ 58. g5 Qf4+ 59. Kf2 Bxg5 60. Ra1 Qh2+ 61. Ke1 Bh4+ 62. Kd1 Qxb2 63. Ra6+ Kc7 64. Rc6+ Kb8 65. Bxh3 Qb1+ 66. Ke2 Qe1+ 67. Kd3 Qd1+ 68. Ke3 Qe1+ 69. Kd3 Qd1+ 70. Ke3 Qe1+ 71. Kd3 Qd1+ 72. Kc4 Qe2+ 73. Kb4 Be1+ 74. Ka4 Qa2+ 75. Kb5 Qb3+ 76. Ka6 Qa4+ 77. Kb6 Qa5 0-1

Malaysia Chess Festival
It’s the final countdown to the Malaysia Chess Festival. Ten days of chess, and if you count the Kuala Lumpur open, there are almost 17 days of non-stop high-level chess. Enough to get any chess player drunk!

The premier feature of the festival is the sixth IGB Arthur Tan memorial Malaysia open chess tournament. Concurrently, there’s also the smaller AmBank Chess Challengers tournament. Both events will be played from Aug 22 to Aug 28 at the CitiTel MidValley’s ballroom.

When I last spoke to the organisers, they were quite confident of a good turn-out for both tournaments. “We have about 90 players who have either confirmed their entries or have made firm enquiries from us,” said the chief organizer, Hamid Majid. “And indications are very good that there may be about 20 to 30 more players from around this region, especially from the Philippines and Indonesia.”

I asked whether China’s Li Chao would be here to defend his title. He will come, replied Hamid.
And joining the crowded field will be Uzbekistan’s two popular grandmasters, Saidali Yuldashev and Marat Dzhumaev, as well as Bangladeshi grandmaster Ziaur Rahman, Filipino grandmaster Joey Antonio, Kazakh grandmaster Evgeni Pak, Vietnamese grandmasters Nguyen Ahn Dung and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and German grandmaster Gerhard Schebler.

How about the Philippines’ latest hot shot, Wesley So? Wait and see.

We can also expect several international masters to turn up, like China’s Yang Kaiqi, Armenia’s Ashot Nadanian, Australia’s Igor Goldenberg, India’s Tania Sachdev and Sriram Jha, the Philippines’ Ronald Dableo, Azerbaijan’s Nijat Abasov and our own Jimmy Liew. Mas Hafizulhelmi, however, will be away playing in Europe’s chess circuit.

Other events during the Malaysia Chess Festival will include:
> one-day Merdeka national age group open rapid chess tournament on Aug 26. This is a newly announced event for players in the under-16, under-14, under-12, under-10 and under-8 age categories for both boys and girls. Entry fees are RM25 per player.
For details and registration, contact Gregory Lau (012-902 0123), Haslindah Ruslan (019-206 9605), Lim Tse Pin (012-298 4922) or Hamid Majid (019-315 8098) before Aug 23.

> A lecture by United States national master Ron Gross on Aug 26 at 12.30pm. For 30 years, he was Bobby Fischer’s closest pal and at this lecture, Gross will be giving insights into the late former world chess champion. Everyone is welcome to the talk.

> A half-day Malaysia open blitz tournament on Aug 28.

> A three-day ASTRO Merdeka team rapid chess open tournament that kicks off on Aug 29. As this tournament normally attracts lots of entries from around the country, the organisers say that they are capping entries at 50 teams because of the capacity constraints at the CitiTel’s ballroom.

Of course, there’s also the Kuala Lumpur open chess tournament at Shah’s Village Motel on Sept 3-9. It’s another big event on the Malaysian chess calendar and it will have its fair share of visiting grandmasters and other world titled players. For more details of the KL open, visit klchess.com

source: All In The Planning blog by SS Quah, 14th August 2009.