Chess observations

I have an invitation to attend the closing ceremony but unfortunately,
I won't be able to accept it this year

In the last few editions of the annual 10-day Malaysia Chess Festival, I had made it a point to travel down twice to Kuala Lumpur for the event: once to participate in the Merdeka rapid team tournament with my chess friends from The Old Frees' Association and a second time to attend the closing ceremony. Not this year though. I am unable to travel down to KL for the closing. Thus, I shall be missing out on the excitement of the last day's play in the main Malaysia Open event. 

Who shall be the new Malaysia Open champion? As I write, the tournament is taking a breather between yesterday's fifth round and tomorrow's sixth round. The competition at the top is still wide open but I am very happy to see one of Penang's top players, 14-year-old Poh Yu Tian, a FIDE Master, still holding his own against the main contenders. I shall continue cheering for him and urging him forward in his quest to get a first International Master norm. I hope he gets it from this tournament.

The main problem of playing in only the rapid team tournament is that one gets too engrossed in one's own games until there is no time to observe the goings-on during each round. As every player is required to play all nine rounds, there is no opportunity for anyone to sit out during a round.

Luckily, or unluckily enough, I had a meltdown in the eighth round which left me enough time to wander around the tournament hall and take a few snapshots of the participants on the top boards.

On the right are the Penang "A" team, led by Wong Yinn Long on the first board, Poh Yu Tian on the second board, Tan Jun Ying on the third board and Ooi Zhi Yang on the fourth board.

The PKM Parlimen Shah Alam team which comprised, from right, Yeoh Li Tian, Nicholas Chan, Marcus Chan and Nik Farouqi

Another look at Penang's top two players, Wong Yinn Long in the foreground, and Poh Yu Tian in the background. Both of them, together with Tan Jun Ying, are also playing in the main Malaysia Open tournament

A chess pasar malam

I should mention that concurrently with the Merdeka rapid team tournament, there were other junior chess events going on as part of the Malaysia Chess Festival. Thus outside the tournament hall, it was a real pasar malam situation with parents and family members setting up camp while their children were competing. As pictures speak louder than words, I shall let these pictures do the talking. Who says chess is not a popular game?