1 May 2013, Kuala Lumpur – As the 40th Selangor Open 2013 draws to a close, GM Fominyh ensures his victory by winning his round 9 game against Villenueva of the Philippines on top board. Fominyh scored 7.5 points, 2nd, Wong Jianwen with 7.0 points, 3rd Villanueva with 6.5 points, 4th Sumant Subramaniam.
Official website: http://selangorchess.blogspot.com
(Picture courtesy of Ahmad Shafruddin, CAS President)
1st May 2013, Kuala Lumpur – Here are the round 8 results of the 40th Selangor Open 2013 held earlier this morning. Wong Jianwen lost and Nelson Villanueva triumphs. So now we have three players at 6.5 points. Villanueva, Fominyh and Jianwen.
Pix 1. Jianwen was a piece down in his round 8 game, Selangor Open 2013, white played 43.Bc5 and black resigned.
To see more results, please visit chess-results.com or click here.
1 May 2013, Kuala Lumpur – It is a Labour Day holiday in Malaysia today and the 40th Selangor Open 2013 is in its final stretch today with two last rounds. Wong Jianwen is currently the outright leader with a 6.5 points score after seven rounds of play. This morning the 8th round is underway and on top board is Wong Jianwen against Filipino Nelson Villanueva who has 5.5 points so far.
Pix 1. Wong Jianwen, MAS. Pix 2. Nelson Villanueva, PHI.
A live game is still going-on on top board and shown live at the following link:
http://thechessconnections.blogspot.com/p/live-game.html?showComment=1367323208249
Official website: http://selangorchess.blogspot.com
29 April 2013, Kuala Lumpur – Here is the winning round 4 game for Wong Jianwen against GM Alexander Fominyh of Russia during the Selangor Open 2013. The round 4 game was held on Sunday, 28 April 2013 at DAT Chess Connections, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur.
(Game courtesy of CAS)
28 April 2013, Kuala Lumpur – Wong Jianwen did the unthinkable by beating GM Fominyh in round 4 on top board of the Selangor Open 2013. Another important win for Jianwen who now has four full points, the same as another youngster, Fong Yit San.
Results of Round 4:
To see more results, please visit chess-results.com or click here.
Or visit the official website: http://selangorchess.blogspot.com
27 April 2013, Kuala Lumpur – In the lead are five players with GM Fominyh of Russia, Alberto Muniz Pardino of Hong Kong, Fong Yit San, Nor Ilhamuddin and Wong Jianwen. All scoring the perfect three full points from three rounds.
Wong Jianwen overcomed National Master Roshan Singh on board six during round 3. That’s an important win for Jianwen.
Rank after Round 3 (Top 31):
To see more results, please visit chess-results.com or click here.
Official website: http://selangorchess.blogspot.com
27 April 2013, Kuala Lumpur – At the end of round two of the 40th Selangor Open 2013, twelve players are in the leading group with two full points. GM Fominyh is still top gun with a win against Mark Siew of Malaysia during round 2. Ian Udani won, IM Jimmy Liew drew with Fairul Yusoff on third board and Villanueva of Philippines drew against youngster WFM Nur Najiha bt Azman Hisham on fourth board.
Results of Round 2, Selangor Open 2013 (top 21 boards):
Rank after round 2:
To see more results, please visit chess-results.com or click here.
Official website: http://selangorchess.blogspot.com
27 April 2013, Kuala Lumpur – Here are the round 1 results of the Selangor Open 2013 held earlier this evening in DAT Chess Connections, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur. Most of the seeded players won their first round classical games. GM Fominyh Alexander of Russia won his game against Vice President of MCF, Madam Haslindah Ruslan.
26 April 2013, Kuala Lumpur – the first round of the 40th Selangor Open 2013 begins tonight at 7 pm at DAT Chess Connections, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur. Top seed is Russian, GM Alexander Fominyh and he has 71 other players for company. Thank you to Chessdom.com for promoting Selangor Open.
First round pairings Selangor Open:
Please visit chessdom.com to read the article or click here.
Or visit the official website: http://selangorchess.blogspot.com
22 April 2013, Kuala Lumpur – In anticipation and celebration of the upcoming Selangor Open 2013, here is another article by the late Lim Chong on his thoughts of the Selangor Open.
One night after work in December 1978, I decided to go take a look at national individual chess championship which was being held in Petaling Jaya. Late at night, there were few spectators and sometimes they were outnumbered by the players.
Lew Chin Chuan and Laurence How, who were involved in organising the event, were the first two chess officials I met. Though I told them I was not on assignment, they were still pleased to see a reporter showing interest in the game.
The title that year was won by Christi Hon, with Jimmy Liew in second place and Peter Long third and the three of them went on to dominate the chess scene for many years.
From here I was introduced by Lew and How to the Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) and its activities, including its flagship tournament, the Selangor Open, which has the distinction of being the longest running chess event after having started in 1974.
Those who have participated in the Selangor Open would surely have found it an unforgettable experience. Having taken part in five events of the series, with the earliest in 1979 and the latest this year’s edition, they have all provided fond chess memories despite the poor results.
The Selangor Open provided an exciting opportunity for an enthusiast like me to play against top players like Liew, Tony Tay, Ahmad Muzzaffar Mustaffa and Chang Hing Wah, all of whom handed out valuable lessons in chess.
As well as women’s champion Audrey Wong at Selangor Open 1983 through a “surprise introduction” nicely arranged by How, who was the tournament director. I was one of those who lost to Audrey who was making her debut and at the end of the tournament, a star was born when she scored five points from nine rounds.
Audrey’s mother, Jackie Wong, was one of the hardworking officials who helped CAS to rise to the pinnacle. As a longtime secretary, her efficient and frugal approach saw the association having more members, more sponsors and more activities than ever before.
Even during the hard times, CAS somehow was always able to find the resources to carry on with its activities, including its junior training programme, that ensured that new generations of players kept coming up.
Despite difficulties in finding sponsors in recent years, current CAS secretary Lim Tse Pin is among those at the association who have managed to keep things going. He reported that last year’s Selangor Open suffered a loss of RM3,000 and this year’s event, even with 70 participants, is expected to incur a deficit of RM4,000.
The bad news continued with Lim warning that the tournament may be scrapped if CAS is unable to find a sponsor for next year. That would be a terrible loss for chess in this country. Though overshadowed in recent years by events like the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia Open and Kuala Lumpur Open in terms of international appeal, the Selangor Open has a unique tradition of its own, which evolved through the long years.
At the latest Selangor Open 2010, the final results saw four generations of players among the top four winners.
Liew, placed second, comes from the veterans, third-placed Kamal Ariffin Wahiddudin was the 1991 national champion, 11-year-old Yeoh Li Tian, who ended fourth, is considered among the most promising juniors, and champion Dr Nicholas Chan is currently the country’s strongest player without the international master title.
Also deserving mention is Penang coach Loo Swee Leong who should be commended for not just playing well to take the fifth spot but also for his effort in bringing down a group of schoolchildren to gain useful exposure in the tournament.
Chan was able to retain the title he had won last year but he still has a long way to catch up with Liew, an eight-time champion. The pivotal moment was in round five when both were paired against each other in their first ever meeting and Chan won with the white pieces.
Throughout the tournament, Chan was hardly troubled except for the eighth round when his opponent Ian Udani of the Philippines had a winning position but failed to convert and the result was a draw. Chan later admitted that he played badly in the opening but he was resourceful enough to fight hard to share the point, maintaining his unbeaten record.
At the rate Chan is progressing, it looks like a matter of time before he joins our small group of international masters if he is able to still find the time to continue playing.
For Liew, being the runner-up showed that he remains a force to be reckoned with. He was the one who ended the foreign domination at the Selangor Open by winning the title in 1980, marking a new era in the country’s chess development.
Liew went on to win the Selangor Open title eight times, a remarkable record that is unlikely to be broken, especially when he has shown that he is still capable of winning more.
The closest challenger is five-time winner Mok Tze Meng but he seems to be less active in tournaments after becoming an international master.
Many of us have gained in many ways from the Selangor Open which represents chess tradition at its finest. It would be surely be an immeasurable loss for all chess enthusiasts if such a tradition is not continued. So, see you at the 38th Selangor Open next year
13 April 2013, Kuala Lumpur – The late Larry Parr had contributed to the Selangor Open memoirs by Lim Chong. The article elucidates the 7th Selangor Open held way back in 1980 when IM Jimmy Liew made an impression on the local chess scene.
The Playing Fields of Selangor
By Larry Parr (1998)
Catur and I first became directly acquainted on the evening of August 22, 1980, at the 7th Selangor Open. Playing my first tournament game in several years, I pushed my e-pawn two squares and scored the full point in 18 moves after an opening that began 1. e4 c5 2. b3. I could not help thinking that catur, or chess as it’s played in Malaysia, is an easy game.
Boy, did I get that one wrong! None of us knew it at the time, but the 7th Selangor Open marked a coming of age – a competitive watershed – for chess in Malaysia. If foreign masters had won the first six Selangor Opens in a competition dating back to 1974, then a very young Jimmy Liew was about to become the first Malaysian to capture this country’s most prestigious – indeed, its de facto – national open title. He would score an undefeated 8-1 to finish a full point ahead of the two foreign runners-up, Singapore’s Chia Chee Seng and this writer, who also went undefeated.
The Selangor Open, which this year comes wrapped in a glittering 25th silver edition of numerous satellite events, emerged from the creative turmoil of the early 1970s following the deregistration of the old Malaysian Chess Association and the birth of the Malaysian Chess Federation. Fresh blood entered the ranks of chess leadership, and it somehow seemed natural that the energy and dedication of new MCF president Datuk Tan Chin Nam should also be expressed by leaders at the state level. Hence the 1st Selangor Open in 1974 and the 1st Penang Open shortly thereafter.
But as I was saying about the 7th Selangor Open: Not only did international master-to-be Liew win the event, he triumphed effortlessly. Going into the ninth and final round, he stood at 7.5-0.5 seventh round victory that spelled finis to foreign domination of a tournament that is rivalled in Malaysia only by the National Closed:
Figure 1 IM Jimmy Liew Chee Meng, Malaysia
Figure 2 White played 25. Bg5+ and black resigned.
In spite of the admirable attacking élan of Liew and other Malaysian players, one also noticed an interesting kind of ignorance in the opening and a fatal propensity to weaken squares in the ending.
Concerning the opening, many Malaysians back in the 1970s were already memorising the latest main lines of the trendiest openings. They were not, however, studying openings for understanding. As Black, I discovered that offbeat mixer debuts such as the Budapest Defence and Albin Counter Gambit cut a wide swath; and as White, the infamous Danish Gambit never once failed to confuse surprised opponents. Indeed, I played a Danish in the final round of the 1980 Selangor Open, defeating Indian master Ajai Choudhry, who would win the tournament the following year.
As for endings, fast times limits hit Malaysia 10 years before they came to bedevil the West. Most Malaysian players, I discovered, had never once in their chess career sat down to play a long, difficult endgame with slow secondary time controls. This absence of serious endgame practice showed over the board and helped this writer to save and even win several lost positions.
Still, I can testify that by 1980, winning a game against a good Malaysian player was no easy feat. My sense is that the early Selangor Opens, like the “playing fields of Eton”, were a training ground for young talent. Not only did the very best Malaysian players gather to test one another, but they also had the opportunity to meet foreign talent.
The list of winners of the first several Selangor fixtures includes Indonesian international master Dr Max Wotulo (three times), Filipino international master Luis Chiong and Russian attacking master K.K. Ivanov from the Soviet Embassy. Then, in 1983, English international master David Goodman would compete on the playing fields of Selangor. He imparted some valuable lessons, winning the tournament by a record margin of 1.5 points, scoring 8.5-0.5 (Mohd Noor Yahya got the draw).
The 1978 Selangor Open stands out as the strongest in the long series. Participants included IMs Chiong Rico Mascarinas from the Philippines; GM-to-be Murray Chandler from New Zealand; and IMs-to-be Craig Laird from New Zealand and Rafiq Khan from India.
The Malaysian contingent contained every top player except for Choo Min Wang, a two-time national champion and Malaysia’s first internationalist. I think Jimmy Liew’s supine loss to Mascarinas in this tournament, when compared with his hard-scrabble defence against strong American master Arthur Wang in the 1983 Selangor Open, tells a lot not only about his personal advancement but also a rising tide of tournament toughness that raised the level of most Malaysian chess ships.
To read more about the 40th Selangor Open 2013, please click here.
10 April 2013, Kuala Lumpur – The Chess Association of Selangor has had a long history of organising the Selangor Open since 1974 without missing any year in between. The upcoming 40th Selangor Open 2013 will be held from 26th April till 1st May 2013 at the DAT Chess Connections, 4th Floor, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur.
This is your chance to participate in this rich history of past winners among them Jimmy Liew, Nicholas Chan, Peter Long, Mok Tze Meng, Nor Azmi Mohd Nor, Mohd Kamal Abdullah, Lim Yee Weng, and Mohd Saprin Sabri and many others. The last Selangor Open winner was IM Rolando Nolte of the Philippines who won it last year in 2012.
The long role of honour of past champions of the Selangor Open is shown below:-
SELANGOR OPEN PAST CHAMPIONS (1974-2012)
1. 1974 Woo Beng Keong
2. 1975 Dr M.A. Wotulo
3. 1976 Dr M.A. Wotulo
4. 1977 Dr M.A. Wotulo
5. 1978 Lius Chiong
6. 1979 K.K. Ivanov
7. 1980 Jimmy Liew
8. 1981 Ajai Choudhry
9. 1982 Jimmy Liew
10. 1983 David Goodman
11. 1984 Christi Hon
12. 1985 Jimmy Liew
13. 1986 Jimmy Liew
14. 1987 Jimmy Liew
15. 1988 Jimmy Liew
16. 1989 Mirabeau Maga
17. 1990 Mok Tze Meng
18. 1991 Mok Tze Meng
19. 1992 Jimmy Liew
20. 1993 Peter Long
21. 1994 Norazmi Mohd Nor
22. 1995 Mohd Kamal Abdullah
23. 1996 Mok Tze Meng
24. 1997 Mok Tze Meng
25. 1998 Lim Yee Weng
26. 1999 Jimmy Liew
27. 2000 Eugene Torre
28. 2001 Mohd Saprin Sabri
29. 2002 Fikrul Saifuddin
30. 2003 Mok Tze Meng
31. 2004 Nicholas Chan
32. 2005 Anas Nazreen Bakri
33. 2006 Tjin Hau
34. 2007 Lim Chuin Hoong
35. 2008 Lim Yee Weng
36. 2009 Nicholas Chan
37. 2010 Nicholas Chan
38. 2011 Nicholas Chan
39. 2012 Rolando Nolte
To read more about the 40th Selangor Open 2013, please click here.
(source of past winners of Selangor Open: Lim Chong’s notes)
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