Of GACC Event - End of Round 6

After the conclusion of Round 6, Muhd Syazwan Zulkifli of the host university University Malaya, leads the pack with 5.5 points out of 6 games - with the last round valuable point coming in from his victory over Kelvin Wee of Nanyang Technological University of Singapore. His sterling performance have also help to catapult the University Malaya team back onto the top spot at 15 points, sharing the podium with National University of Singapore who have also amassed the same number of points. Nanyang Technological University of Singapore is in 3rd place with 14.5 points, equaling Universiti Putra Malaysia at 4th place, also with 14.5 points. 

Last year's best Malaysia performer - Islamic International University of Malaysia is currently 5th with 14 points, sharing the spot with Universiti Teknologi Petronas. IIUM suffered a blow when its top player and top seed of the event, Ahmad Fadzil Nayan suffered the cruel "NOKIA gambit" lost to Calvin Chong of University Malaya on Table 2. On Table 3, Geeneish Sivalingam of Universiti Teknologi Petronas lost to Sri Lanka Isuru Alahakoon whilst on Table 4, Universiti Sains Malaysia's Looi Xin Hao overcame strong resistance from Wang Guanyu of National University of Singapore to register his 5th point of the event. On Table 5, Indian national Santhosh P of National University of Singapore went one up against Lawrence Teoh of Naitonal University of Singapore. 

Tomorrow, Sunday will be the off day for the players and the event will resume on Monday at 9:00am with Round 7

For Round 7 pairing, Table 1 will see leader Syazwan with 5.5 points facing off against Isuru Alahakoon who is half point behind at 5 points. On Table 2, a pair of 5 pointers - Looi Xin Hao and Santhosh P will meet to decide who will move forward to inch closer to the pole position and on Table 3, the last of the 5 pointers, Calvin Chong will play against Kelvin Wee who has 4.5 points following his Round 6 loss to Syazwan.


The team standing after Round 6:

 Individual standing after Round 6

 

Spectators, players and teammates taking interest in the game between Syazwan and Kelvin which was won by the former

Players analyzing and playing chess at the lobby outside the playing hall

Bank Rakyat is the new and proud main sponsor of the GACC 16th edition 2012

Entrance to the playing hall - decorated by a welcoming signature board in the form of 2 black knights

 

Of GACC Event - Day 3 Round 6

At the conclusion of Round 5, Islamic International University (A) regain its stature as the country leading academic institution chess team after amassing 13.5 points from 5 rounds. Led by ASIAN Amateur Champion Ahmad Fadzil Nayan, IIUM leads the 2nd and 3rd place team, Nanyang Technological University and National University (A) - both teams are from Singapore, by half point. Previous team leader and host University Malaya is at 4th place with 12.5 and Universiti Teknologi Petronas trails another half point behind at 5th place with 12 points. Another team with 12 points sharing the 5th spot is University Putra Malaysia (A) led by its captain, Chek Kin Keuw.

At the start of Round 6, leaders Syazwan of Universiti Malaya and Kelvin Wee of Nanyang Technological University both with 4.5 points, will fight it out on Table 1 to perhaps earn the right to be the sole leader of the event. At Table 2 to Table 5, eight players with 4 points each will battle it out to inch closer to the leaders with Fadzil Nayan of IIUM facing Calvin Chong of UM on Table 2, Geeneish of UT Petronas against Isuru Alahakoon of E-Soft Computer Sri Lanka on Table 3, Wang Guanyu of National University of Singapore (A) against Looi Xin Hao of University Sains Malaysia on the next table, and the pair of Santhosh P from National University of Singapore (B) against Lawrence Teoh of Nanyang Technological University of Singapore on the 5th Table. 

 Team Ranking:

  

Individual Ranking:

Top Table Kelvin Wee of Nanyang Technological University Singapore against host player, Muhd Syazwan Zulkifli of Universiti Malaya

4 ladies battling it out on Table 13 (Ruby of UPSI against Nor Atiqah of UTEN) and Table 14 (Marsyitah of UPM "A" against Norhaida of IIUM "A")

Sole German representative - Moritz Ivo Will of UPM "B"

University Teknologi Petronas player, Geeneish Sivalingam, playing on Table 3 against Isuru Alahakoon of ESoft Computers Sri Lanka.

 

Of GACC Chess Championship - Day 3

Some interesting "facts" - if I may call it so, about the 16th edition of the GACC event. Apparently the prize fund offered, and the number of sponsors for the event increased for this year's edition yet, it was not able to attract more participants to play in this event. The fact that the GACC event has always been held towards the end of the year may have got something to do with it as this is the first time it being organized in the middle of the year due to changes in the Malaysian Universities academic calendar year. And also, the fact that there was no GACC event held last year (it misses the entire 2011 - again due to the changes in the calendar) may have caused some foreign universities to conclude or assume that the event has been discontinued ergo, they did not prepare for it i.e. both financially and time wise. But of course, if everything works well, the event should get back on track for next year's 17th edition and with what most universities and players have missed in this year's edition - the increased prize fund, the fabulous playing venue and the "never cease to amaze" hospitality and efficiency of the Tunku Bahiyah College students and organizing committee in managing this event - many universities will come back with a vengeance next year, and if they decide to elect me again as the Chief Arbiter, I look forward to continue being a part of this annual event.

And also, as far as I can remember, this is the first time that a Malaysian player - Ahmad Fadzil Nayan of Islamic International University of Malaysia, is being seeded as the number one player and after round 4, another history was made with another Malaysian player - and host university player Muhd Syazwan Zulkifli of University Malaya - leads the event with a perfect 4 points out of 4 rounds. And to put icing on the cake, University Malaya team is also leading the team category with 11 points, sharing the top spot with another surprising but refreshing team from University Teknologi Petronas who seems to have outshined last year's best Malaysian team in Islamic International University of Malaysia. Whilst the number of teams and players may have dwindled, the spirit of competition, excellence and the quality of games and sportsmanship shown continues to remain at a high.

After several team came forward to raise concern about the Combined University Team, the organizing committee decided to disband the team as it did not meet the basic team formation rules and regulation. And for the first time in the event recent history, host team University Malaya is leading the event with 11 points, sharing the top spot with University Teknologi Petronas - the most impressive turnout from a relatively "new" team in chess.

The game between Isuru Alahakoon and Lawrence Teoh ended in 125 moves and was decided as drawn following the 50 move rule

Ramone Kok of University Teknologi Petronas - an impressive performance with 3.5 points out of 4 rounds, half a point adrift from the leader Muhd Syazwan, and sharing the 2nd spot with 7 other players

Leader Syazwan of University Malaya against top seed Ahmad Fadzil Nayan of Islamic International University at the start of Round 5. Game ended in a peaceful draw

The ladies at the top - Ruby Kwan of University Perguruan Sultan Idris (left) and Noratiqah Mohd Niza of University Tenaga Nasional (right)

Eddy Kwan anxiously looking over his daughter's - Ruby Kwan, game handling the black pieces, against Philip Goh of National University of Singapore. Both Ruby and Philip has amassed 2.5 points from 4 rounds

For more pictures of the event, please visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chess-Malaysia/168231673260531

For results and updates on the pairings and rankings, please visit http://www.chess-results.com/tnr76587.aspx?art=2&rd=5&lan=1


 

Of KASUGI Chess Event

Of course, the talk of the town now is definitely on the upcoming KASUGI Team Chess Championship and like every chess player in town (and around the country), this is dubbed the event of the year - for local stalwarts. Team events are rare especially on such a big scale like this because the only Team event that most players are looking forward to play would be the Merdeka Team Tournament. And with a dangling carrot that worth more than RM40k, the KASUGI Team event is fast making the recognition and being the event to play for in 2012.

I was also hooked on the fact that this could be an event that I can play in (instead of being the arbiter - somehow or rather I only have one in a billion shot to be part of the arbiter's team) henceforth, I started my hunt to get players to form a team with me. Well of course, most players have already been "recruited" by fellow players and with me being known more for my arbiter duties rather as a player, my search is a bit more challenging since most players that I know have already formed their own team. But, Khairunnisa called me up and decided that we maybe able to put up an Arbiter's team for the KASUGI event and voila!.... I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. But still, only hald the work is done.... I still have to find 2 more players for the event.....

And in the midst of asking players here and there, my sisters (with the help of my aunt) dropped me a bomb - "let's do a pre-puasa family gathering" and picked the same weekend to make it happen and whoooshhh.... there goes my chance to play. I relayed the bad news to Nisa and her first YM message to me was "Aiseh!" Sorry .... In such a case, chess losses out to family....

But, if I am back to KL on the second day of the event, I will definitely drop by at Cititel and I do look forward to do my usual blogging and FACEBOOK news, and capture that worthwhile moment for everyone to see.

To all the teams participating - All the best!

Of GACC Chess Championship - 16th Edition

It was a late call for me from Gregory to become the Arbiter for the 16th GACC Chess Event organized by the UM 2nd College Boys but, I took the offer gladly because it is one of the better events in the chess calendar that I would like to be a part of. For one thing, the 2nd College boys (and girls) are rather efficient and effective at organizing the event. This is the 3rd year that I have been with them and they never cease to amaze me with their almost clock work precision in getting the events organized. The camaraderie and teamwork is astonishing hence, running the event with only a single arbiter is a breeze! The only setback with this years event was the lack of participants with only 68 players in total - 19 girls and 49 boys. And most of the participants are local university players with noticeable absences from Russia, Iran and to a certain extent, China and Philippines. 

Although the usual suspects from Singapore (Nanyang and National University) are here, and a couple of players from Sri Lanka, the international flavors continue to fill the GACC event with individual foreign students studying at the universities that are taking part coming from India, China and Indonesia.

GACC runs a very unique event where players take part in individual event but the scores that they have accumulated will contribute towards the University's final team tally to win the Team category. For this year's event, due to the low number of participants, both the men and women will play in a single event and this adds a bit of twist as the ladies need to compete with the guys to earn points. In the 16th edition, 11 university teams have registered with University Petronas, University Sains, host University Malaya and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore sending a team each and Islamic University, IUM Foundation, University Putra and National University of Singapore with 2 teams each. A combined team made up of the two Sri Lanka players, local UPSI and UM players set up the 11th team for the event.

The event has completed its 3rd round earlier today with 7 players leading the pack with a perfect 3 points each. Currently at the top of the leader board is Kelvin Wee of Nanyang Technological University followed by Wang Guanyu from National University of Singapore and Isuru Alahakoon of E-Soft Conmputer College Sri Lanka rounding up the top 3 spots. Muhd Syazwan Zulkifli of University Malaya is in 4th place followed by Looi Xin Hao of University Sains Malaysia, Lawrence Teoh of Nanyang and Zhuo Ruofan of National University of Singapore.

Top seed Ahmad Fadzil Nayan of Islamic International University suffered a slight setback after drawing his game with Ruby Kwan from Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris and both are trailing half point from the leading pack with 2.5 points each.

For the team standing, Combined University Students are leading the event with 9.5 points followed by Nanyang Technological University with 9 points and sharing the 3rd place with 8 points each are National University of Singapore and host University Malaya.

Team Standing after Round 3

Ruby Kwan created a stir when she drew with top seed Fadzil Nayan. Post game analysis showed that she could have won her game if she had pressed further

Isuru Alahakoon of Sri Lanka squeezed a win in the longest game of the 3rd round

Syazwan Zulkifli of University Malaya currently in the leader's pack after amassing a perfect 3 points out of 3 rounds

The top 12 boards battling it out in the wonderful Dewan Tunku Canselor