Young and Younger

The two OFA teams together with the President of the Penang Chess Association who was also the co-Chairperson of the Malaysia Chess Festival. Left to right: Vesyal, Chuah Heng Meng, Ooi Peng Seng, Ung Tay Aik, See Swee Sie, myself, Colin Chong, Liong Chian Min and Terry Ong

I spent five days at the Cititel MidValley at the beginning of this month but has since returned home. Main reason was to play in the Merdeka team chess tournament which was suspended in 2020 on account of the coronavirus pandemic, but this was only over two days. I stayed back in order to see the start of this year's Malaysia open and seniors open which were also non-starters during the pandemic. All these events and several more constitute part of the Malaysia Chess Festival.  

Anyone who played in the Merdeka team event would have heard that this year's Festival almost couldn't take place because despite a proposal and reminders sent very early in the year to IGB Berhad, the main sponsors of this annual Festival since 2003, the lack of response was proving very unnerving to those directly or indirectly connected with its organisation. But ultimately, IGB did say Yes to continuing with the Festival and so, here we are at the Cititel MidValley to continue with a fine tradition, just the way that the late Dato' Tan Chin Nam would have wanted it. 

I was part of the OFA team. Sorry, I meant to say the OFA contingent because this year, we had an overwhelming eight players who agreed to play in the Merdeka event. Very positive response from my OFA chess friends indeed. The only problem was that we had to burst our chess budget for this year which was spent on the entry fees, transportation and accommodation. I believe we are left with only RM90 in our budget. It won't be enough to pay the entry fee for even half a team at the Penang Chess League at the end of this year, but we shall cross that bridge when we get to it.

I named our two teams The Old Frees' Association (Young) and The Old Frees' Association (Younger), purposely refusing to call them as the A and B teams in order to provide a bit of confusion at the tournament. Indeed, if we had the resources for a third team, I would have called it Youngest in line with our nomenclature.

The players of the Younger team were not so better exposed as the Young team but at the end of the day, they almost stole the thunder from the Young. Both teams scored the same match points (nine points each) and only a tie-break separated the two. Young finished in 32nd position while Younger was 39th. In total, there were 70 teams participating in the Merdeka event. Among all our players, Tay Aik was the cracker and he took back a prize as the third-best player on the third board. Congratulations to him!

32. THE OLD FREES' ASSOCIATION (YOUNG) (Stat (RtgAvg:1662, TB1: 9 / TB2: 20)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1		Chuah Heng Meng	1800	MAS	5703000	0	½	1	½	0	0	½	0	1	3,5	9	1615
2		Chong Kam Yuen Colin	1364	MAS	35805587	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	4	9	1630
3		Ung Tay Aik	1505	MAS	35805498	0	1	1	½	1	1	1	1	1	7,5	9	1619
4		Quah Seng Sun	1977	MAS	5707099	0	½	1	1	0	0	1	½	1	5	9	1672

39. THE OLD FREES' ASSOCIATION (YOUNGER) (St (RtgAvg:1647, TB1: 9 / TB2: 14,5)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Games	RtgAvg
1		Terry Ong Liang Kheng	1800	MAS		0	½	0	1	0	0	1	½	½	3,5	9	1646
2		Ooi Peng Seng	1800	MAS		0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	5	9	1591
3		Vesyal Arulsyankar	1187	MAS	5739667	0	1	½	0	1	0	1	1	1	5,5	9	1644
4		Liong Chian Min	1800	MAS		0	0	0	0	½	0	0	0	0	0,5	9	1597

On a personal note, this year's Merdeka team event went better than expected for me. Scored five points from nine games but two of my losses were to better Filipino players. So with the five points coming from seven games against local players, this result cannot be too bad for me. It included a crushing win against a former five-time national women's champion in the fourth round when Young were paired against the Malaysian Chess Federation's national women's squad. Siti Zulaikha bt Foudzi played on the first board against Chuah Heng Meng and incidentally, she also played against Terry Ong in an earlier round. My most frustrating loss was in the sixth round when unpressured, I totally overlooked my opponent forking my two rooks and after which there was no redemption. I had a very lucky escape in the eighth round when a misplayed opening resulted in my opponent swarming all over my castled king. But once the queens left the board and further simplification followed, which included having to give up the exchange, I found myself in a comfortable position. My opponent offered a draw which I accepted immediately. Perhaps I should have continued since it was a position I couldn't lose and besides which, the loss consigned my team to losing the match. But at the time of playing, I wasn't aware of this nuance. A lesson learnt, maybe. The ninth round was comical. In an almost equal position - but I think I had the very slightest edge although it would be very difficult to win - my opponent offered a draw. Now, having learnt the lesson from the previous round, I stood up to gauge the positions in Chuah's and Colin's games and then sat down at my own. Seeing my indecision, my opponent suggested maybe we should continue playing. I could have held him to his offer of a draw but inwardly, I thought my little positional edge could still be converted into an advantage. However, this little episode left me a bit confused and I promptly lost two pawns in quick succession and perhaps the exchange too...I can't remember exactly. Now it was my opponent who became unsettled with this quick change of fortune and he sank into a deep, deep think despite being short of time on his chess clock. And what do you know...he lost on time and thus the game. Just like that! Another lesson to learn here? Hmm...