Of Pesta Sukan Kementerian Kewangan - Final Day

"Doing the Nadal" - 2011 defending champion BSN secured the title again for the second consecutive year, biting into their gold medal - just to make sure that it is real!!!!!

It was a nail biting finish - with 4 teams vying for the top spot. Host Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (KWSP) with 22.5 points going into the last round, defending champion Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) at 22 points, 2010 winner Kastam DiRaja Malaysia (JKDM) with 21.5 points, and the surprise team of the event Suruhanjaya Sekuriti (SS) also at 21.5 points. 

To ensure an outright win for the event, KWSP will have to score a convincing 6-0 win to put their worries to bed but in their way is SS led by untouchable dynamic duo in Yeoh Thean Jern and Azman Hisham Che Doi on board 1 and 2. Out of 6 games that he has played, Yeoh won 5 games and drew 1, and on board 2, Azman has made it a perfect score in all his 5 games. For KWSP, expecting that their top two boards will lose in their final encounter, they know that further slip ups on the bottom boards will definitely diminish their hope to secure a win - unless of course Bank Simpanan Nasional lose their game to Bank Negara Malaysia which is rather unlikely. In the end, it was a 3-3 draw between KWSP and SS on table 1 which gave KWSP a total point of 25.5 and SS tallying 24.5 points.

On Table 4, another top spot contender in JKDM is hot on the trails of KWSP and BSN. Except for their surprising (and demotivating) 1-5 loss to SS in round 3, JKDM has won all their games and amassing the most match points surpassing that of KWSP and BSN as the two teams game points are much higher than JKDM. Had the event is based on match points, JKDM would surely have sealed the victory in round 6 but alas, its the game points that will be counted first. After the smoke cleared, JKDM won 4-2 and their game points matched KWSP at 25.5 points. Tie break wise, JKDM has the higher match points (in fact, they recorded the highest final match points at 12 out of a possible 14) and they had also beaten KWSP in Round 1, therefore giving them the upper position above KWSP. So what happened on Table 2 between BSN and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)?

BSN changed their strategy slightly for the last round, matching Ros Azman Shah in the veteran spot to overcome BNM scoring machine in Lau Kah Heng, who recorded a perfect score of 100%. Having no more chance to win any team prize, BNM decided to rest their highest scoring player to secure the board prize and played their reserve player in the veteran spot. It was clearly no match for the much seasoned Ros Azman who sealed the point quickly on Board 6. On Board 1, Abang Reduan scored a walkover when BNM player failed to appear after the waiting time. BNM managed to steal the first point from their lady player Haslinda Hitam who outplayed BSN lady player Adriana Chin. Another loophole that BNM could have manipulated was the Veteran spot but BSN Dr Ridzwan did well to hold his game and secured another point for BSN. Aziz Jaffar of BSN was matched against BNM Nazreen Ghani and again, it was a clear win for the veteran BSN player. On board 2, there were a glimpse of hope as BNM Aimran Yahya did well to gain an impressive attack against BSN Zaiasron Yahaya, but the former overlooked a counter attack move by his opponent and with that, BSN hammers the nail on the coffin to give itself their second consecutive chess title for the annual meet.

Although Suruhanjaya Sekuriti put up an impressive performance in this year's edition, most notably their 5-1 thrashing of Jabatan Kastam DiRaja Malaysia, it was not enough to get a placing in the event but, it is almost clear that the team will definitely look forward to next year's event and claim their rightful place within the Kewangan chess circle which has been always been dominated by BSN, KWSP and Kastam.

On a happier note, for teams that did not win the top 3 spots, at least one player from each team took a "token" from the event by winning at least one board prize for their team. Bank Negara Malaysia Lau Kah Heng won the Board 1 prize, Azman Hisham of Suruhanjaya Sekuriti won the Board 2 prize, Mohd Sulkifly of Perbendaharaan won the Board 4 prize, Khairul Nizam of Jabatan Penilaian won the Board 8 prize and both Board 9 and Board 10 went respectively to Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri Norazri A Malek and Zulkifli A Malek.

Full table of board winners and team winners are as follows:
The final team standing for the event after completing the 7th round:

Despite tying KWSP to a 3-3 score, it was not enough for Suruhajaya Sekuriti to snatch the top 3 spots

Amassing 12 match points better than any team in the event but, due to the lesser game points collected, Kastam had to settle for second place

The best board trophy up for grabs

Azmnan Hisham did well to score 5 points out of 5 games to record a perfect 100% score on Board 2 for Suruhanjaya Sekuriti. Seen here, Yeoh Thean Jern (SS Board 1 player) taking the best board trophy on behalf of his boss!

Host and 2010 Champion KWSP in 3rd place

Kastam hosted the event last year and came fourth, and improved their position to runner up in this year's edition