Peter Long on Chess

The father of Malaysian chess, Dato' Tan Chin Nam, born 18 March 1926, has passed away on 21 October 2018 at 93 years of age in his home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Since 1974 Dato' Tan had been at the helm of Malaysian chess - for many decades he the President of the Malaysian Chess Federation while also being its biggest patron - and from 1986 to 1990 also served as FIDE Deputy President for Asia and then from 1990-1994 as a member of the FIDE Executive Board. Not many people today know that it was Dato' Tan who originated and introduced Rapid Chess to FIDE and to the chess world. The FIDE and Asian events he brought to Malaysia are simply too many to list, and include a World Championship Match, Interzonals, World Youth U-16 Olympiad and numerous Zonals, the only one missing was perhaps the World Chess Olympiad, and even today it is because of his vision that we have the region leading Malaysian Chess Festival for 15 years now and still counting. D

Malaysia is ranked 83rd in the World, and was seeded 107th at the Batumi Olympiad. We finished 93rd (tied 82nd-101st with a group of 20 teams on 11 points, a 50 percent score). R1: Loss: 0.5-3.5 vs Belarus, Europe/Ex-Soviet R2: Draw: 2:2 vs Afghanistan, Asia/Middle East R3: Win: 3-1 vs Kuwait, Asia/Middle East R4: Loss: 1-3 vs Madagascar, Africa R5: Win: 4-0 vs Saudi Arabia, Asia/Middle East R6: Loss: 1-3 vs Mongolia, Asia R7: Win: 3.5-0.5 vs Libya, Africa/Middle East R8: Win: 3.5-0.5 vs Botswana. Africa R9:  Loss: 1-3 vs Canada, Americas R10: Loss: 0-4 vs Belgium. Europe R11: Win: 3-1 vs Malawi, Africa

4 th ASEAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS (OPEN/WOMEN) 2018 Regulations 1. Organization Organized by the Myanmar Chess Federation under the auspices of the ASEAN Chess Confederation. 2. Eligibility Only players from the ASEAN member Federations can participate. ASEAN Open Champion will be awarded a 9-game GM norm, in case of tie, up to first three will be given IM Title; similarly, 9-game WGM norm and WIM titles for women will be awarded. 3. Schedule Subject to the number of players, the system shall be between 9 rounds Swiss / Round-robin. 20th December: Arrival   Technical Meeting at 20:00 hr. 21st December: Opening Ceremony - 09:00 hr.   Round 1 - 10:00 hr.       22nd December: Round 2 - 09:00 hr.; Round 3 - 16.00 hr. 23rd December: Round 4 - 14:00 hr. 24th December: Round 5 - 09:00 hr.; Round 6 - 16.00 hr. 25th December: Free Day 26th December: Round 7 - 14:00 hr. 27th December: Round 8 - 14:00 hr.

Men With four rounds to go, Malaysia is in a large group of teams on 7 points and tied 79th to 104th. Our actual current ranking of 86th outperforms our seeding of 107th with the team playing to their "real" ratings against opponents between 2100-2200, a level of competition we are used to. The luck of the draw gives us Botswana next, a team seeded 116th which is even lower than we are. Women The Malaysian women came to the Olympiad ranked 68th and on 9 points, are now in a group 24th to 43rd. Li Ting on top board and Nithya on last board are outperforming their ratings while the rest are playing to their normal level. We play 76th ranked Tajikistan and with a win can break into the top group for the next round.

Once again we have the monthly ranking of our players according to FIDE (World Chess Federation) and it is particularly relevant given it is coming out during the World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia. Why? Well, because its as indicative as it can be of the current level of the teams we have sent to participate in this global event that takes place every two years.  Starting with the men, we can see that two are in the top ten, one is in the top twenty (or top fifteen if you prefer to measure like that), another is just outside the top twenty, and one who is not shown because he is not 2000+ is ranked 90th.    With the women is much easier to understand, all five are in the top ten including the first, second and third ranked.