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Friday, June 18, 1999 Chess Sting of a veteranBy Quah Seng Sun IN THESE days when we keep hearing of young players winning local chess tournaments, it comes as a pleasant surprise to see the trend being bucked by our foremost veteran chess player, international master Jimmy Liew. Earlier this month at the Royal Selangor open tournament, Liew demonstrated how senior players like him could still deliver a vicious sting when the occasion warranted it. In this tournament, which was the Chess Association of Selangor's (CAS) showcase event, Liew emerged as the champion with a score of seven points from nine games. Actually, Liew had tied with two other players, Wong Zi Jing and Fikrul Saifuddin, but he had by far the best tie-break owing to a fantastic start to this tournament. Among his victims were Ismail Ahmad, Julian Navaratnam, Ng Ee Vern and Khor Shihong, while players like Mok Tze Meng and Wong Zi Jing could get no more than a draw from him. Unfortunately, Liew's good performance in his first eight games was spoilt by a loss to Fikrul Saifuddin in the final round. But then, of course, it did not really matter any more because the first prize of RM1,200 was already his to take. Wong Zi Jing won the second prize of RM800 as well as the special prize of RM300 for being the best CAS player in the 50-player field. Fikrul Saifuddin won the RM600 third prize. Four players finished with a score of 6.5 points each. Julian Navaratnam collected RM450 as the fourth prize and RM200 as the second-best CAS player, Mok Tze Meng won the RM350 fifth prize and RM100 as the third-best CAS player, Ng Ee Vern collected RM300 as the sixth prize and RM50 as the fourth-best CAS player, and Gerald Soh took home the RM200 seventh prize and RM50 as the fifth-best CAS player. In addition, Soh also won the best under-16 prize. Ismail Ahmad and Agus Salim scored six points, and they won RM100 each. Uzbekistan Fide woman master Angela Khegai, who stopped by in Kuala Lumpur while enroute to Singapore, scored 5.5 points to take the RM100 10th prize and the best women's prize. Five other players - Khor Shihong, Sergey Kaymov of Uzbekistan, Jonathan Chuah, Mustafa Kamal and Cheah Eu Gene - also scored 5.5 points and they were each given RM50. Tan Kiat Tat was the only unlucky 5.5 pointer to miss a prize. The best veteran's prize was given to Ramli Bahari, and the best under-12 prize went to Wong Zi Chuang. Chung Ling in the lead AFTER two rounds of the ninth Bayview Chess League which began two Sundays ago, Chung Ling High School "A" has taken a significant lead in the Premier Division with 6.5 points. In the first round, CLHS "A" whitewashed its "B" team 4-0 while in the second round, CLHS "A" chalked a narrow 2.5-1.5 victory over Penang Free School "B". Its two nearest rivals are Penang Free School "A" and Chung Ling Old Boys Association which have five points each. Old Frees Association has four points, Chung Ling High School "B" three points, St Xavier's Institution, Pessca and Penang Free School "B" 2.5 points each, and International College one point. International College, led by Ooi Chern Ee who is back on holidays from the United States, has played one match less because of a bye in the first round. The Division One results saw Penang Free School "C" taking a big lead after it followed up a 3.5-0.5 win over its "D" team in the first round by thrashing Hewlett-Packard 4-0 in last Sunday's games. The Penang Development Corporation has 5.5 points and Dell Computer "A" five points. Closely bunched together are Hitachi, Chung Ling High School "D", the MSSPP Girls, Penang Chess Association Novices and Chung Ling High School "C" which have four points each. Both Hewlett-Packard and Penang Free School "D" are languishing at the bottom with one point each. In Division Two, Chung Ling High School "E" is in the lead after handing Penang Free School "E" a 4-0 drubbing in the second round. Union High School is in second place with five points following a 4-0 victory over the Penang Free School "E" team. The Penang Chinese Girls High School and Dell "B" are jointly in third place with 3.5 points, while PFS "E", MSSPP Juniors and Chung Hwa Confucian School have three points each. The Penang Free School "F" has one point. The third round of the chess league will be played this Sunday at The City Bayview Hotel's revolving restaurant after the official opening ceremony at 9.45am. The hotel is sponsoring the use of its premises for the weekly games.
Up NextNational allegro circuit THE Bank Pertanian Malaysia-sponsored national allegro chess circuit continues with two more legs to be staged early next month. The first will be the Kedah leg which will be played at the Kolej Tenaga Nasional, Universiti Utara Malaysia in Sintok on July 3 while the second will be the Perlis leg which is scheduled to be held at the Sekolah Menegah Putra in Kangar on July 4. Because the two events will be held on consecutive days, it will enable many outstation players to take part in both tournaments. Accommodation for the outstation players can be arranged either in Sintok, Changloon or Kangar but the organisers must be informed early. Entry fees for each event are RM10 for members of the Perlis Chess Association, Kedah Chess Association, Bank Pertanian employees, women, under-12 and veteran players, and RM15 for the others. The total cash prize for each of the legs is RM1,500. The bulk of this prize fund will go to the main winners while RM500 is set aside for the minor winners. The winner of each leg will qualify automatically for the Grand Prix final in October. To register, contact Abdul Latiff Mohamad ( 013-301 0204) or Aziz Osman ( 04-938 6584). Perak tournaments THE Perak International Chess Association will organise the fifth leg of the Perak inter-school team tournament circuit at the Sek Men Kebangsaan St Michael in Ipoh tomorrow. This event is open to all schools in the state. Registration for this event starts at 8am in the school. For enquiries, call Christopher Choong at 05-321 0150. The final leg of the Perak inter-school series will be held on June 26 at the Sek Men Kebangsaan ACS in Ipoh. For more information on this event, call Chin Kin Wai at 05-242 9592. Meanwhile, the third leg of the circuit was played on May 22 and it was won by the Sek Men Kebangsaan Sultan Yusoff. The school had emerged second in the first two legs earlier in the year. Four-day fest THE Malaysian Chess Federation and the Seremban Parade are jointly organising a four-day chess fest which will be held over two weekends in the Seremban Parade. For those not familiar with the place, the Seremban Parade is located opposite the railway station. All games will be played in the concourse area of the shopping centre. Cash prizes amounting to RM2,000, hampers, trophies and other prizes in kind will be given to the winners. On July 17, the organisers will hold the Seremban Parade blitz tournament which is an 11-round event. The registration of players will begin at 1pm, and the tournament will run from 2pm to about 7pm. There will be five cash prizes. Entry fee is RM10. The next day, the six-round Seremban Parade age-group tournament for under-12 and under-16 players will start at 9am. There are three cash prizes for each age-group as well as special prizes for the best girl players. Entry fee is also RM10. On July 24, the Chess Challenge continues with the Seremban Parade junior (under-20) open tournament beginning at 9am. Cash prizes will be given to the top three winners and the best under-12 and under-16 boys and girls. Entry fee is RM10. The last event will be the Seremban Parade open tournament on July 25. The top 10 winners and the best under-16, under-14, under-12 and girl players will all receive cash prizes. The entry fee for this final event is RM15 except for under-12 players who need to pay only RM10. According to the organisers, only a maximum of 100 players will be accepted for each event. For registration or more information, call Jessie or Jay at 06-764 8282 or fax: 06-761 9177.
Quah Seng Sun's chess articles are archived at (http://www.mol.com.my/qss) or (http://come.to/my.internet.page). Readers can write to him at: Chess |
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Copyright © 1999. Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. (Co No. 10894-D) All rights reserved. |
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