MALAYSIAN CHESS NEWS This article by Quah Seng-

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MALAYSIAN CHESS NEWS
This article by Quah Seng-Sun was originally published in THE STAR, a Malaysian newspaper, on 13 Mar 1998
Brought to you by Malaysia OnLine, http://www.mol.com

MALAYSIA'S LINE-UP AT ASIAN CITIES EVENT

With the Asian cities team championship due to start in little less than a month's time, the Malaysian Chess Federation has announced that there will be two local teams participating in the event.

Tentatively slotted in for the Kuala Lumpur team, which is practically the national team itself, are Mas Hafizulhelmi, Jimmy Liew, Mok Tze Meng, Lim Yee Weng, Ismail Ahmad and Mohd Azahari.

The players for the second team, representing Penang which won last year's Merdeka team championship state title, are Chuah Heng Meng, Yeoh Chin Seng, Goh Yoon Wah, Lim Chuin Hoong, Teng Wei Ping and Tan Hong Ghee.

In the event that any of them are unable to play, their replacements will be picked from the reserve list comprising Ng Tze Han, Ghalam Sani, Wong Ji Zing, Ng Ee Vern, Tan Wei Sin and Mohd Saprin Sabri.

According to the MCF secretary, Abdul Hamid Majid, the other countries that have indicated interest in sending their city teams to this event are Lebanon, Uzbekistan, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, India, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Hong Kong SAR, Qatar, Iran, Indonesia, Myanmar and Australia.

The Asian cities event is one of two events which shall be organised by the Malaysian Chess Federation at the Awana Genting Highlands Golf and Country Resort in Genting Highlands starting April 8.

The other event is the Asian women's chess championship. So far, Lebanon's woman grandmaster Eva Repkova and Uzbekistan's woman international master Memedova look almost certain to join the current champion, Upi Tamin Darmayana of Indonesia, and the previous winner, Bhagyashree Thipsay of India, in the line-up.

Malaysia's representatives in this event are tentatively Eliza Hanim Ibrahim, Samantha Lee and Roslina Marmono, while those on the reserve list are Eliza Hanum Ibrahim, Lim Jeannie and Nurulhuda Wahiduddin.

The Asian cities and the Asian women's events are sponsored by Resorts World Berhad. The Dubai Chess Club has also committed US$25,000 towards the cost of the Asian cities team championship.

The daily results of the two championships will be made available to Internet surfers who visit the official Asian cities homepage when the two events start next month. The address for the homepage is http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Stadium/6485/

PENANG HOMEPAGE

Internet surfers can also visit the Penang Chess Association's homepage which was launched earlier this week by the association's president, Dr Toh Kin Woon, who is also a Penang state executive councillor.

By a coincidence, both the PCA and the Asian cities homepages are hosted by the Geocities web server. The address for the PCA homepage is http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Stadium/2379/

Dr Toh, in a statement at the launch, said Penang chessplayers living overseas can now learn a little more about recent chess events in their home state. The homepage will also cover some national or international events that involve Penang chessplayers.

He said one of the first reports on the homepage touched on the PCA Canggih international open chess championship which the PCA organised last year in conjunction with its 25th anniversary. In later weeks, there shall be more interesting features added to this website.

PFS OPEN

The Penang Free School Chess Club will be organising their annual PFS open tournament on Mar 22 beginning 8am.

This is an eight-round event and it will be played in the school hall. Entry fee is RM5 per person if you register by the eve of the event, and RM7 per person on the day of the tournament.

There are eight cash prizes, and the first prize winner will receive RM200 and a challenge trophy. Trophies will also be given to the best under-10, under-12, under-15 and under-18 players.

Time control for the tournament will be 20 minutes per player for each game in the first two rounds, and 25 minutes per player for each game in the subsequent rounds.

Registration can be made on-line to pfsopen@usa.net or alternatively, anyone interested can contact Lim Lih Fong (tel: 04-228-5045) or Teoh Soon Siang (tel: 04-828-2382).

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand has won the Linares super-grandmaster tournament in Spain. In the final round on Monday, he comfortably held Vladimir Kramnik to a draw with the black pieces.

Gary Kasparov, who was looking for a win to boost his standings in the tournament, could not make any headway against Alexei Shirov and had to agree to a draw when their game ended after 17 moves.

The third game of the final round of the tournament between Veselin Topalov and Vassily Ivanchuk also ended drawn. Due to the tournament having an odd number of players, Svidler rested in this round with a bye.

The final standings: Anand 7 1/2 points, Shirov 7 points, Gary Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik 6 1/2 points each, Peter Svidler 5 1/2 points, Vassily Ivanchuk 5 points, and Veselin Topalov 4 points.

In the last two weeks, I had been recommending the official tournament web site at http://www.elpais.es/p/d/ajedrez3/1998/english.htm to readers with Internet access. There is, however, a more interesting unofficial site at http://www.ishipress.com/linares.htm.

This site gave a comprehensive day-by-day account of the tournament and although the Linares event has ended, it is not too late to visit it for a final round-up. My appreciation goes to meilin@tm.net.my for pointing me to this site.

Here are more interesting games from the event.

Alexei Shirov - Peter Svidler, Round 6

1. e4 c5, 2. Nf3 d6, 3. d4 cxd4, 4. Nxd4 Nf6, 5. Nc3 a6, 6. Be3 e5, 7. Nb3 Be6, 8. Qd2 Nbd7, 9. f3 h5, 10. O-O-O Rc8, 11. Kb1 Be7, 12. Nd5 Bxd5, 13. exd5 Nb6, 14. Bxb6 Qxb6, 15. g3 O-O, 16. Bh3 Ra8, 17. Rhe1 a5, 18. a4 Qc7, 19. Bf1 Rfc8, 20. Bb5 Bf8, 21. f4 exf4, 22. gxf4 Qb6, 23. Re2 Ne8, 24. f5 Nc7, 25. f6 g6, 26. Bd7 Rd8, 27. Be6 Re8, 28. Qg5 1-0

Vassily Ivanchuk - Vesselin Topalov, Round 7

1. e4 c5, 2. Nf3 d6, 3. d4 cxd4, 4. Nxd4 Nf6, 5. Nc3 a6, 6. Be3 e5, 7. Nb3 Be6, 8. f3 Be7, 9. Qd2 Nbd7, 10. g4 h6, 11. O-O-O b5, 12. Kb1 Nb6, 13. Na5 Qc7, 14. Bxb6 Qxb6, 15. Nd5 Bxd5, 16. exd5 Rc8, 17. b4 O-O, 18. h4 Rc7, 19. Bh3 Nh7, 20. Bg2 Rfc8, 21. Nc6 Nf6, 22. f4 Nxg4, 23. Bh3 h5, 24. Rhg1 f5, 25. fxe5 dxe5, 26. Rgf1 Rf8, 27. Nxe7+ Rxe7, 28. d6 Ref7, 29. Bxg4 hxg4, 30. Qd5 f4, 31. Qxe5 g3, 32. Qd5 Qb7, 33. Qxb7 Rxb7, 34. d7 Rxd7, 35. Rxd7 f3, 36. Rdd1 f2, 37. Rg1 fxg1=Q, 38. Rxg1 Rf3, 39. Kc1 Kh7, 40. Kd1 Kh6, 41. Ke2 Rc3, 42. Kd2 Ra3, 43. c3 g2, 44. Ke2 Rxa2+, 45. Kf3 Kh5, 46. Kg3 Rc2, 47. Ra1 Rxc3+, 48. Kxg2 Rc4, 49. Rxa6 Rxh4, 50. Ra7 g6, 51. Rh7+ Kg5, 52. Rxh4 Kxh4 0-1

Alexei Shirov - Vassily Ivanchuk, Round 9

1. e4 c6, 2. d4 d5, 3. Nc3 dxe4, 4. Nxe4 Nd7, 5. Ng5 Ndf6, 6. Bc4 e6, 7. Qe2 Bd6, 8. Bd2 Qc7, 9. O-O-O b6, 10. N1f3 h6, 11. Nh3 Ne7, 12. Ne5 c5, 13. Bb5+ Kf8, 14. Nc4 cxd4, 15. Nxd6 Qxd6, 16. Bf4 Qd5, 17. Be5 Nf5, 18. c4 Qc5, 19. Qf3 Qxe5, 20. Qxa8 Qc7, 21. Qc6 Qb8, 22. Qf3 Bb7, 23. Qa3+ Kg8, 24. f3 g5, 25. Ba4 e5, 26. Rhe1 Kg7, 27. Bc2 Nh4, 28. Rd2 Rc8, 29. Kb1 Rxc4, 30. Ng1 Rc5, 31. g3 Ra5, 32. Qd3 Ng6, 33. Bb3 Qd6, 34. Rc2 e4, 35. Qc4 Ne5, 36. Qc7 Qb4, 37. Rd1 Bd5, 38. Bxd5 Rxd5, 39. fxe4 Nxe4, 40. a3 Qb5, 41. Ka2 d3, 42. Rcc1 d2, 43. Rc2 Nd3, 44. Rcxd2 Rc5, 45. Qd8 Qc4+, 46. b3 Nc3+, 47. Ka1 Ra5 0-1

Copyright: Star Publications (M) Berhad. Thank you. Author: SSQuah

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