Peter Long on Chess

Sensibly deciding to have a quiet evening at home on New Years Eve, I just noticed that FIDE has published the FIDE Rating Lists for January 2014. Thanks to their participation in Asian Cities, we already know that our current No. 1 Nicholas Chan has now been back as an active player while young No. 3 Yeoh Li Tian took the opportunity to get past 2300! Sandwiched between them is No 2. Mas Hafizulhelmi who braved India and returned with 10 points less. Masters champion Lim Yee Weng (No. 4) has no rated events since winning while his fellow national team members Ronnie Lim (No. 5) and Ng Tze Han (No. 7) have played both the Malaysian Open and Penang Open. After enjoying an almost uninterrupted series of good results and often commendable performances, young National champion Aron Teh had his first (small) ratings set back at the World Youth Championship but remains No. 8 ahead of veteran Jimmy Liew on No. 9. By virtue of participation, respectively, Jonathan Chuah (No. 6)

For me, the results of our representatives at the World Youth Chess Championship that just concluded in Al Ain is confirmation once again that we are a amateur chess nation and that we should be happy with this and perhaps for the Malaysian Chess Federation to accept it as reality and perhaps to start to plan accordingly. I (and many others) have for several years now provided an analysis which showed how as our kids grow up they become less and less competitive on the world stage and that is fair enough given that all kids are bright with unlimited potential at an early age and over time various environmental factors begin to kick in (especially school demands not to mention growing up distractions such as computer games and social media). And I am not going to talk about the need for systematic coaching with the right trainer. U-18 Our current national champion and co-winner of the Malaysian Masters is Aron Teh and if hype would have it, great things would be expe

Gens Una Sumus I am looking forward for a 2014 more like what I have enjoyed in previous years barring a 2013 that instead became one of constant and often unpaid national service. First up was to develop and conduct a National Arbiter Course at the National Age Group Championships in February, something which I repeated at the Inter State Team Championships in September. In March/April, against my better judgement I also accepted appointment to Head the MCF Technical Committee and by June/July I was more than happy to give up that position together with that of FIDE Delegate. Of course one key initiative was the organising, sponsorship and running of a revamped Malaysian Masters, a round robin FIDE rating and title tournament where our women were not forgotten. Then it was hoped that the design of the championship would introduce a new chapter for Malaysian chess - transparency in national team selection, proper training and support for our national players and targets se

Enjoying a day out in the park with two of my very best friends in Vietnam, GM Nguyen Ang Dung and IM Nguyen Van Hai.

Oops, Singapore with two players, and newcomers Laos also took part... but it also seems that Brunei and Cambodia did not make it. More pertinent perhaps is that it seems that in all forms of standard chess, the professionals of VIE, PHI and INA are clearly ahead of the rest and that MAS and SIN, perhaps now also being joined by rapidly emerging THA and MYA, are in the second group.

I was honoured to be a guest at the birthday celebration hosted by GM Tahir Vakhidov and it was double the reward when despite not remembering when I last played chess, I somehow managed to stumble to first place at the Sunday blitz (final event of the year) held later that day at the Brunei Chess Centre.

Heavily favoured defending champions Fong Yit San and Tan Li Ting lived up to their seedings to easily emerge as repeat winners at the National Junior Championships held at the 35th Floor of City Square in downtown Johor Bahru. Neither had any real trouble but Li Ting perhaps went one up on Yit San by winning a round to spare as opposed to his one point cushion! I was very impressed by the talent from Johor (even if they are at the start of a long journey) as they have a promising future because it is clear things are beginning to pick up down south with so many of their young players enthusiastically analysing their games together after each round while their more experienced competitors from the rest of Malaysia largely prefer to waste their time playing computer games. On paper their was a possibility that one or two others would make a breakthrough but largely that did not happen. Whatever their current limitations, more than anyone else (and one reason why they are cha