High noon at Malaysian Championship

Friday June 12, 2009
High noon at tourney
CHESS WITH QUAH SENG SUN

It was a very tense national closed chess championship.

THE air-conditioning was turned up full blast but neither the players nor the spectators noticed. Instead, everyone was feeling warm under the collar. Reason? For the first time in the 36-year history of the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF), a four-player play-off had been forced in the national closed chess championship.

The afternoon’s drama was totally unexpected. For much of the national closed, Lim Zhuo Ren, holder of this year’s Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Malaysia under-18 chess title, looked like running away with the national champion’s title. He had taken the lead after the fifth round and was hanging tenaciously onto it.

Unfortunately, Lim’s game was completely torn to shreds by aggressive play from last year’s champion, Edward Lee.

In the meantime too, Lim’s nearest rival, Abel Yap, hit a brick wall, unable to take advantage of Lim’s self-inflicted difficulties. If he had won in the final round against Che Hassan Abdullah, the title could have been his instead.

So, with the win, Che Hassan drew level with Lim, Lee and Evan Timothy Capel at the top of the standings.

Capel scored an important win against an unheralded Che Aziz Mohamad Hezri.

With four players tied at the top of the standings, a play-off for the national champion’s title became inevitable, and it had to be held immediately.

It was anybody’s game in this play-off.

Lee was first off the block. Aggressive play netted him a point against Lim. Capel also won in the first round against Che Hassan. In the second round, Lim broke his duck by beating Capel while Che Hassan and Lee drew their game. So after the second round, Lee held a very slim half-point lead. However, the lead was thrown away in the third round when he lost to Capel. Che Hassan scored his second consecutive draw, this time against Lim.

At the halfway stage of the play-off, Capel was in the lead with two points, followed by Lee and Lim with 1½ points each and Che Hassan with one point.

Here is the full article.