Last Thursday, the wife and I headed down to Kuala Lumpur for a few days to spend some time with our daughter. While we were there, I also took the opportunity to check into the Cititel Midvalley to play in this year’s Merdeka Open team rapid chess tournament. I was part of one of the three teams entered by The Old Frees' Association. Now, let me tell you, my chess game has gone downhill so much that I reckoned the safest place for me was on the lowest fourth board of the third OFA team! Even then, I only managed to score four points out of eight games—a 50 percent score, nothing to shout about.
Like I said on Facebook, mistakes in chess are a given, just like in life, and last week’s Merdeka team chess event was no exception. Two games lost on time, one because I missed a pawn, which ended up costing me the game in a slow, painful endgame grind, and the final one was simply forgetting I had a hanging pawn! That’s how it goes — that’s chess, and that’s life. But don’t worry, I’ll keep plodding along. Got too many mates in the chess world continuing to cheer me on!
The Merdeka Open saw 70 teams in action, most of them local, but there were also a few ad hoc teams with players from different nationalities. The eventual champions had a rather quirky name: Nasi Lemak Laksa or Roti Canai, while the runners-up were Dasmarinas City. Since the Nasi Lemak team claimed the overall top prize, the best Malaysian team award went to Penang. Shah Alam Selected took second place, and our very own OFA Argonauts Penang snagged third place. Yes, our first team made it to the podium!
The challenge with having such a large group of players is trying to get everyone together for a group photo. There’s always someone missing, so we ended up taking several pictures at different times, hoping to capture everyone. Those pictures are included below.
The Merdeka team event was just one of nine tournaments under the Malaysia Chess Festival, now in its crucial 19th year. The festival’s main highlight is the Arthur Tan Malaysian Open, and for the first time ever, a Malaysian player is topping the rankings! With no players rated above 2450 on the FIDE rating list — I had people asking what has become of them, the 2500s and 2600s players that the festival could attract in the past, and I've no answer — Malaysia’s newest International Master, Poh Yu Tian, at 2430 finds himself in the unusual limelight of being the top seed in a senior tournament. As I write this, the fifth round has begun, and true to form, Yu Tian is leading the 72-player field, playing at the top table. As a fellow Penangite, I should give him a proper cheer and wish him all the best!
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