37th Selangor Open Results

For the latest result on 37th Selangor Open , please visit here.

37th Selangor Open: Round 3 pairing

Please click on here for Rd 3 pairing.

Last call: 37th Selangor Open

For those who wish to be part of the oldest chess tournament in Malaysia but yet to pre-register yourself for the event.

Don't worry, you may do a walk-in registration tomorrow at the tournament venue (DATCC @ 4th floor, Wilayah Complex, KL) between 12noon and 1.30pm. A surcharge of RM 20 (as per advertised) will be imposed as late fee on top of the entrance fee.

(Source: CAS website)

CAS Closed on 23 May 2010 [National-rated event]

CAS is organising a Closed event for her members on 23rd May in conjunction with her annual general meeting (AGM) take will take place in the same venue.

At the point of writing, this event is the only rated event sanctioned by MCF for the month of May. So, CAS is calling you to take part in this event if you want to get your maiden National Rating (if you do not have one) or see your rating performance changes to reflect your current strength.

Not many organisers actually submit their event for rating purposes, but CAS is among the few organisers who support the national rating system and do submit every events organised by CAS for rating purposes.

For those who yet to join member, you can sign-up to become a member on the tournament day itself and will process your application on the spot. Alternatively, you may want to drop by DATCC, 4th floor, Wilayah Complex on this coming Saturday (1st May) between 10am to 4pm for membership enrollment. By the way, 37th Selangor Open, the oldest chess tournament in Malaysia, is ongoing at the same venue. You can watch some of the Malaysian top players in action.

For more information on CAS Closed, please click here to download the infosheet.

(Source: CAS website)

Facts on 37th Selangor Open Pre-registered Names

As of 25th Apr, a total of 91 players have pre-registered themselves for the upcoming oldest event in Malaysia. Among them, 39 players with FIDE rating (which represents 43% from the pool) and another 27 players with rated games. What this simple fact represents?

This is a 9-round tournament where a player has a 43% chance of meeting other player with FIDE rating which translate to 4 rated games on average. This is a good news to the other 27 players where majority of them will receive their maiden FIDE rating if can score some points from this event (provided he/she fulfils the min. 9 rated games requirement accumulate after completing the Selangor Open 2010).

What about the chances for the remaining players who still without an ID? Well, a player who can score a point from min. 3 rated games from an event will an ID with rated games. Since, Sel Open offers 4 rated games (average) it means all these players can start accumulating the 9 rated games as per FIDE requirement. This is a piece of super good news.

Do remember, games played against players who receive their maiden FIDE rating after this event do count as rated games. This further improves the chances of non-rated players to fulfil the min. 3 rated games played in one event. This is a piece of excellent news.

All in all, this event will see many players benefit either from getting their maiden FIDE rating or maiden FIDE ID.

(Source: CAS website)

37th Selangor Open: Pre-registration List

(Source: CAS website)

All participants will be given free bottles of mineral water during the tournament. One of the committee member just carry back 120 liters of water from one of the hypermarkets in town. The number of bottles to be made available for consumption will depends on the pre-registration list.

Based on historical data, 20 to 25% of the the pre-registered names will not turn-up on tournament day. So, CAS will accept the pre-registration list up to 100pax. [PRE-REGISTRATION CLOSED OFFICIALLY]

Here is the latest list of the pre-registered names as at 27th Apr 2010 (12am) as follow:

1. Syazrin Abd Rahman
2. Iskandar Danial Adam
3. Muhd Hafiz Mohd Hisham
4. Muhd Fareed Mohd Hisham
5. Mohd Hisham Hj Buang
6. Loo Swee Leong (ID: 5701945, 2162)
7. Wong Yinn Long
8. Saiful Azrin Besari
9. Pratik Vaidya
10. Saurabh Barve
11. Sri Kabelen Srimuralitharan
12. Mohd Radzif Shoib
13. Gerald Soh
14. Lim Chong
15. Derek Poon Guo Liong -pd100
16. Sim Chung Seng
17. Fong Choong Ee (ID: 5701031, 2013)
18. Fong Yit Ho (ID: 5702780, 2010)
19. Fong Yit San (ID: 5702640, 1856)
20. Jimmy Liew
21. Ooi Zhi Yang
22. Rizal Ahmad Kamal
23. Ethan Wong
24. Vinton Wong
25. Abdullah Che Hassan
26. Anis Fariha Saleh
27. Fikri Saleh
28. Ismail Ahmad
29. Mohd Saprin Sabri
30. Mohd Zain Omar
31. Shaun Quake Zhun Zian
32. Yeoh Li Tian
33. Ian Udani (ID: 5206243)
34. Muhd Effendi Ismail
35. Lim Zhuo Ren
36. Low Jun Keat
37. Low Jun Jian
38. Poon Jit Wai -pd100
39. Ee Sun Xin
40. Abdul Rahim Ramli (ID 5706327)
41. Muhd Asyraf Zakaria
42. Natasha Kavina Sundra Rajoo -pd100
43. Chong Kwai Kun
44. Norazman Ismail
45. Puteri Munajjah Az-Zahraa
46. Cheah Cheok Fung
47. Puteri Rifqah Fahada Azhar
48. Muhd Irfan Haqqim Azhar
49. Muhd Syakir Shazmeer Azhar
50. Goh Xin Yen
51. Lum Zhun Hoong
52. MarK Siew
53. M. Razief Hakiem Zaini
54. Muhd syazwan zulkifli
55. Muhd Amir Ridhwan
56. Paul Parimanam
57. Andrew Ooi Boon Seng
58. TANG KAR KHEi
59. TANG WEI KIT
60. Kamalarifin Wahiduddin
61. Mohd Khair Wahiduddin
62. Abd Khalid Musa
63. Haslindah Ruslan
64. Viknesh Viajantheran
65. NIK AHMAD FAROUQI NIK ABDUL AZIZ
66. Nor Ilhamuddin
67. Fong Mi Yen
68. Tan Ken Wei
69. Kamaluddin Yusof
70. Syed abdul rahman syed mohd
71. Ahmad Fadzil Nayan
72. Sahir Sarifdin - fide
73. Abdul Hadi Ramzani - vet
74. Amir Abdul Hakim Ramzani -18
75. Azhar Abdullah
76. Saharuddin Bin Mappa 5706823
77. Heng Fook Liang
78. Wan Mohd Fazli Wan Nawawi
79. William Lee Kah Howe
80. Nicholas Chan
81. Jax Tham
82. Amier Hamzah Zuhri
83. Mohd Azham Hassan
84. Ahmad Helmi Jaliluddin
85. Muhd Khairul Hafiz Hassan - 18
86. Hemant Sathish - 12
87. Emir Rusyaidi Ahmad Nazari - 12
88. Eric Choong
89. SUNIIL KALIVANAN
90. Mohd Zikri Mat Zaki
91. Mat Zaki Yeop
92. Muhd Taufik Azman
93. Abdul Haq Mohd
94. Roslina Marmono
95. Muhd Nabil Azman Hisham
96. Nur Nabila Azman Hisham
97. Nur Najiha Azman Hisham
98. Ashwin Shankar
99. Gokul Sajeev
100.Ananda

Thank you to all of you have pre-register yourself for the event. PLEASE ARRIVE AT THE VENUE BETWEEN 12NOON AND 1.30PM ON 29TH APRIL FOR PAYMENT, failure to do so will see your name delete from the pre-registration list and your place will be taken over by any walk-in participant.

MSS Selangor Chess 2010 Result

Based on the winners information I obtained from gilocatur blog as follow:

Among the pre-tournament favourites for U18 Boys who have made it into top six finishing are Muhd Nabil (KS), Muhd Syakir (KS), and Low Jun Jian (PP). Those who missed the boat are Nor Izzuddin (HL), Tan Chee Seng (KG), and Poon Jit Wai (PU). The 3 players who earn themselves in top 6 are Chan Sheng Yip (KG) at 4th, Ashman Raziuddin Aliff (PP) at 5th, and Muhd Abdullah Suhaini (HL) at 6th. There is at least 1 MSSM representative who had failed to obtain a top 6 placing.

For U15 Boys are pre-tournament favourites Fikri Saleh (PP), Roshan Singh (PU), Muhd Irfan (KS). The casualties are Low Jun Keat (PP), Mirnash Chandran (HL) and Tiang Chang Sheng (KG). Their places are taken by Tan Chee Wei (KG) at 4th, Sunil Kalivanan (PP) at 5th, and Zarul Izham Mohd Norain (HS) at 6th. This category saw one key player who represented Selangor in MSSM last year failed to make it into top 6.

For U12 Boys are pre-tournament favourites Mohd Fikri (KL), Tin Jun Hao (PP), Mohd Noor Azam (KS), Ethan Wong (PU), and Emir Rusyaidi (KG) who made it into top 6 finishing. The only casualty is Yee Jian Yang (PU) and the player who took over his place is Leong Zhi Chen (KG) at 5th.

For U12 Girls are pre-tournament favourites Puteri Rifqah (KL), Nur Najiha (KS), and Puteri Munajjah(KL) who made it into top 6 finishing. The casualties are Ee Sun Xin (PP), Anis Fariha (PP) and Zainoor Ikmal (HS). The remaining 3 places go to Chin Shun Yi (PU), Nurulhana Syuhada M Sulkifi (PP), Nur Anisah Salihin (KG). This category suffer the deadliest blow where 2 MSSM players who represented Selangor last year had failed to finish in top 6.

For U15 Girls are pre-tournament favourites Amira Syamina (HS), Nur Nabila (KS), Goh Xin Yen (PU), and Seri Aisyah (SP). The casualties are Vickie Hong (PP) and Dhanusya Chandran (HL). The girls who take over their places are Gan Xiang Han (KG) and Ainan Nuha Shamsul Anuar (KS). This category saw one key player who represented Selangor in MSSM last year failed to make it into top 6.

For U18 Girls are Winnie Hong (PP), Nur Mardhiatul Husna (GB), Leong Yee May (KG), Intan Asirah Darwis (SP), Amanina Husna A Ridzuan (KG), and Lee May Chi (GB). As I did not have the starting list for this group, I'm unable to compare whether is there any stronger player who has missed the boat.

From the results, it is likely (in my opinion) to see another round of selection via play-off among the top finishers to decide the Best of the Best players to be brought to Perlis for Selangor to defend the Overall title. From the list, the categories that may be exempted from another round of selection are U12 Boys and U18 Girls. [Updated 16th April 2010] Sources said top two players will qualified automatically, while players who obtained 3rd to 8th placing will involve in playoff. It's still early to finalise the list. Remark: Yeoh Li Tian did not play in the Final, probably he gets a direct entry into MSSM with his current performance.

MSS Selangor Chess 2010 In Action

The 2 days INDIVIDUAL Event will see around 240 players pitting against one another in 6 different categories where 6 players from each category will be chosen to represent Selangor in MSSM Perlis June 2010.

The favourites (at least on paper [National Rating] but listing is not ranked according to strength) for U18 Boys are Muhd Nabil (KS), Muhd Syakir (KS), Low Jun Jian (PP), Nor Izzuddin (HL), Tan Chee Seng (KG), and Poon Jit Wai (PU).

The favourites for U15 Boys are Muhd Irfan (KS), Low Jun Keat (PP), Roshan Singh (PU), Fikri Saleh (PP), Mirnash Chandran (HL), and Tiang Chang Sheng (KG).

The favourites for U12 Boys are Mohd Noor Azam (KS), Ethan Wong (PU), Mohd Fikri (KL), Yee Jian Yang (PU), Tin Jun Hao (PP), and Emir Rusyaidi (KG).

The favourites for U12 Girls are Ee Sun Xin (PP), Nur Najiha (KS), Puteri Munajjah(KL), Puteri Rifqah (KL), Anis Fariha (PP), and Zainoor Ikmal (HS).

The favourites for U15 Girls are Amira Syamina (HS), Nur Nabila (KS), Vickie Hong (PP), Seri Aisyah (SP), Dhanusya Chandran (HL), and Goh Xin Yen (PU).

On 15th April, a team event will be organised where the 10 districts will come together to compete against each other for the honour of BEST DISTRICT for the year 2010 in Selangor.

MSSD Chess In Selangor

In Selangor, there are 10 districts namely (i) Hulu Selangor (HS), (II) Hulu Langat (HL), (iii) Kuala Selangor (KS), (iv) Kuala Langat (KL), (v) Sabak Bernam (SB), (vi) Petaling Utama (PU), (vii) Petaling Perdana, (viii) Sepang (SP), (ix) Gombak (GB), and (x) Klang (KG).

Unlike KL, the geographical location between districts are far apart. It is not possible for any trainer to cover more than 5 districts on a regular basis (Special projects not counted). As for myself, I have students from 3 districts who have qualified themselves into the MSS Selangor Final which is currently ongoing from 12th (Arrival) to 15th April (Departure) at Sabak Bernam. The 7-round event is played on 13th and 14th April.

To qualify oneself from hot districts like PP, PU, KG, KS for Boys Category, and PP, KL, SP for Girls Category into MSS Selangor Final is an uphill battle for all participants. These districts either have too many good players competing against one another or have too many players taking part at district level (more than 130pax per category) where qualifying into top 4 is like striking all 7 numbers correctly in a lottery ticket, that alone is not enought if a person wants to claim the jackpot of super 1st prize where the 8th number must be correct too. Each correct number indicates each winning round.

The scenario mentioned above did actually happen in this year PP U-12 Boys edition. PP has many strong players and was reported to have 158 players vying for the top 4 position. A boy (D) won 6 rounds in a row and drew round 7 with the other boy (M) who also has a perfect score after 6 rounds. With the 7 rounds result, it looks like both players have sealed their place in top 4 BUT a twist just happened. D was pitted against another strong player (T) who had lost a round in the process. Unfortunately, D lost this game. While, M continues his form with another win to lead the field by 1/2 point over T and several other players who have 7 points.

The irony thing was at least 2 players who score 7 points actually had lost to D in the first 6 rounds and never meet with M or T in any of the 8 rounds. Just imagine if this is a 8-round competition, D will be eliminated from top 4 placing. Will this be a fair result?

Lets examine the 9th round, D was practically exhausted after battling the two strongest players in the field at Rd 7 and Rd 8. He salvaged a draw from a losing position in this round and got 7 points alongside with another 8 to 12 players (Final result was never published, so no one knows how many students got 7 points. Since, I too have other students who scored 7 points who did not make it into top 10 list. My guess was around 10 pax). He was rewarded with a 4th place finishing (No. 1 among the list of 7 pointers due to Bucholtz scoring), however he could easily missed it if other players (among them, is another student of mine, N, who finished at 7th place by losing the last round. N could finished 4th if he drew his last round and push D into 5th placing) were smart enough to fix a draw in their last game and pipped him by 1/2 point. There goes his chance of representing PP in the MSS Selangor Final. Luckily, this fixing thing never happen and the 3 strongest players in PP qualify. At the point of writing, all three of them are having 2 points from 3 rounds in MSS Selangor Final. From other reliable sources, the bigger boys in U18 (PP) were smart enough to draw the last round between themselves to qualify into top 4, and thus eliminating other boys in the process.

How can this problem be solved?
The Organiser must have enough rounds e.g. 158 players must have 8 rounds to get Champion accurately, 9 rounds to get top 2 placing accurately, 10 rounds to get top 3 placing accurately, and 11 rounds to get all top 4 placing accurately. This translate to Min. Round (8) + 3 which is also the ideal number of rounds for below 256 pax.

MSSMWP Zone Pudu (Primary)

Alongside with Putrajaya zone, this is the other zone that I did not have student competing at Inter-School level. The boys category is basically controlled by 3 schools with regular chess classes i.e. SJK(C) Salak South (SS) by Trainer K, SJK(C) Chong Fat Phit Chee (CF) by Trainer J, and Sri Garden (SG) by Trainer C.

CF has 8 boys qualify into the Final, followed by SS has 7 boys, then SG has 5 boys. Other strong individuals come from SK Seri Bintang Utara. The outlook for this zone is going to be a continuing tussle between these 3 trainers unless other schools invite other trainer to join in the fray.

For the Girls category, 4 schools namely SG, SK Perempuan Pudu 2 (PU), SK Bandar Tun Razak 1 (TR) and SK Puteri Pandan 2 (PA) were competing for the lion share where SG has 4 girls, PU (4), TR (4) and PA (3). Looks like the younger SG is going to rule this category for the next 2 to 3 years.

MSSMWP Zone Bangsar (Primary)

In this zone, 4 schools from the Boys category were competing against each other for the lion share of players who can qualify into the Final. These schools are Global Indian International (GII), Sri Cempaka (SC), SJK(C) Jalan Davidson (JD) and Methodist Boys (MB).

GII is the only school in KL that has chess includes into the School Official Curriculum which means all students have compulsory chess lessons. No wonder, this school has been excelling in chess for the last 3 years. This year, one-third of the boys' qualifiers came from GII.

SC has seen better results during the older days with the Koh's brother. The same goes to JD with the Low's brother. MB is relatively a new school in term of number of students involve in chess, the pioneers for this school were Albert Ang and Derek Poon who have moved to MB secondary school.

MB is the other school I take charge in KL. The school yet to reach her peak though with 2 national players among the ranks in the past. This year the school has 4 reps in the final, an improvement from last year. Alongside with private students among the other schools mentioned above. I have 6 boys from this zone.

As for the girls category. GII again dominated the scene with 6 girls qualified into the final. SK Bukit Jalil (BJ) will be a new force in making. We will see more promising results from them over the next 2 years. SK Bukit Damansara is slacking behind other schools with the departure of Natasha Kavina (a rep of KL to MSSM) into secondary section. Other notable schools in this zone are JD, SK Seri Hartamas, SK Bukit Bandaraya.

I believe this category will see a direct tussle between GII and BJ in next 2 years. As for myself, I only have one student for this zone. She too has qualified into the Final. Wish her all the best.

Next installment, Pudu Zone (Primary)

MSSMWP Zone Keramat (Primary)

This is probably one of the more competitive zone for the boys among 5 zones. This zone has many schools with proper chess development either all year round or some kind of intensive training projects prior to this event.

If Sentul has SJK(C) Kepong 2, then Keramat has SJK(C) Lee Rubber. The latter has National Women Master for 2009 Tan Li Ting as their U12 representative. She is the youngest ever NWM at age 11, elisped the previous record holder held by WIM Siti Zulaikha Foudzi who set the record in 1999 when she was 11 too. Few other girls from her school do get inspiration from NWM and benefits from the training.

As for the boys, they have a relatively strong team consisting Max Wong (U10), Ng Jen Sheng (U10), Dawson Tan (U12) and Dilwen Ding (U12). This team will be favourite to win the Boys Team title if there is a Team Category. These players are trained under rapid and blitz play which is a big advantage over SJK(C) Kepong 2 boys. However, the Kepong Boys alway did better (relative term) in the Individual Category due to the time control of 45min per player. Btw, Individual Category is the criteria for selection of KL players to MSSM (time control is 90min per player). Maybe this is the missing secret that puzzles Lee Rubber's Coach when comes to analyse the Individual result and more important What happens?

So, why am I writing this article? Well, I just want to share some insight on zones that I have students competing. Unlike Sentul zone, I do not teach any school in particular for Keramat zone and have 2 private students currently. As I recalled 2 years ago, one parent from Lee Rubber who is eager to see how best can she helps her son who just started chess not too long ago to improve in the game. Through word of mouth during NAG2008, she contacted me during the NAG as I was the Chief Arbiter.

Frankly, I'm the type who choose students to teach and many occasions I have to explain to parents on not wasting their money in private chess lessons if the interest is not great after 2 or 3 months. I'm a strong believer that timing is very important essense in life. Lets come back to these "new" students consists of Tan and his older brother, Ding, and Lee, they remind me very much of those earlier generation of Kepong 2 Boys when I started at SJK(C) Kepong 2 back in 2003. What's the similarity? The answer: Blitz player with good intuition for their age. I know I'm in for a "hell time" because these kids are aged 9 and 11 y.o. Why Blitz for a newbie? Fun, i guess. BUT there is no way they can be good in long term, just imagine going into a F1 race without actually knowing the fundamental of the car that they are driving.

Fast forward ......here today both players who can control themselves much better had finished as Champion and 2nd in U12 Boys category. Let see how far can these 2 boys go from here ........

Next installment, Bangsar Zone (Primary)

MSSMWP Zone Sentul (Primary)

This event started on 30th March and ended on 1st April. The Organiser begins to inform schools about 3 weeks before the event dates. It gave many schools ample time to do their own selection and submit a list of players to the event organiser.

In my profession of training, I teach one school only in this zone. This year selection process for me has been made easier without having to submit a list of 4 players (boys and girls respectively) to take part in the Team event. I heard the team event was scrapped in every zone in KL due to budget constraint. The same goes to the Final without Team event.

With the Individual event at play, I can give full concentration to all players who are in the School team squad without favours. Some may asks, what's the problem if there is a Team Category. Well, first of all the team always uses 25 min/player time control, while the Individual category uses 45 min/player. A player that is good in Rapid, may not be as good under 45 min and vice versa. I believe people who are familiar with chess will know what I mean.

Over the years, training has to be divided into 2 parts to accomodate different time control. It's a very difficult thing to implement on students especially they have to get adjusted to both speeds at the same time and some students end up just concentrate on 1 speed. That explain why a "relatively good" player can perform below par in the one of the time control of the same event. How this happen?

For those who still could not figure out the explaination, let me gives an example. Say, a runner is supposed to train for 400m and 800m run at the same time. He or she may not able to do well in both races, unless he or she is clearly way above other runners by standard (let us remove this scenario because it translates to non-competitive race). Chances of winning both races under competitive environment is very slim.

Without the team event in the fixture, how they had fared in the Sentul Zone Individual Chess Competition?

To start off, the school none other than SJK(C) Kepong 2 had sent 8 boys for U12B Category, 7 boys for U10B, 1 girl for U12G, 3 girls for U10G.

The results (extracted from MSSMKL blogsite) can be seen as below:



As from the result, we can see that the school made a clean sweep from 1st to 5th placing for U12 Boys Category, another clean sweep from 1st to 4th placing for U10 Boys, the lone representative in U12 Girls finished the event as Champion, and the other 3 new girls qualified themselves into the Final. Besides these 13 students, 2 other students also make it to the Final. This is the most impressive results (top finishing) ever recorded for the school as a result of single time control implementation.

Next installment, Keramat Zone (Primary).

MSSD fever has began .........

In the past 3 weeks, many schools are busy finalizing the namelist of their players in representing them in chess at Inter school competition or better known as MSSD (for Selangorians) or MSSMKL Zone (for City boys/girls).

Schools that have regular chess classes can leave the selection process to the Coach/Trainer. It's a pretty easy task for the school. While, schools that have no coach/trainer have to either call for a snap selection among students which is done over few hours (may not be a fair one) or just hand pick students who they know can play the game (usually favour bigger boys/girls, sorry to those strong players who just enter the school).

Many teachers think that U12 must be represented by 12 y.o. for a better chance of winning, the same goes to F3 students for U15, and F5/F6 students for U18. As to people who familiar with chess will know that this theory IS NOT TRUE. A classic example, Yeoh Li Tian (Selangor) at 10 y.o. can easily champ the Daerah U12, Sel U-12, and Nat U-12. With his current playing strength, he might as well become MSSM U18 champion and well he is just 11 y.o. Check him out in the ongoing KL Open 2010, he's definitely making a huge impact with a draw against IM and GM, and defeated elo 2370 player in his first 3 rounds. I hope anyone who read this article, please do your part to explain to others that Chess is not measure by physical built of a person. It's the % of brain utilised that counts (bigger head does not imply better utilization of brain).

Also, it is sad that many schools from few districts in Selangor are not aware of the Inter-school dates until the event was over. How about "relatively strong" players who may have left out in this process?

As the Hon. Secretary of CAS, I hope the Selangor District Organisers can give ample notification time to school to prepare their players for the event in future. As I know, many schools who aware of their respective district event had received notification ranging between 1 and 7 day. In this aspect, KL Schools Organisers have done a very good job. Kudos to KL.

Whatever it is, all things seem to be in auto-cruise mode and the show will continues to the next level i.e. MSS Selangor (13 to 15 April) and MSSMKL Final (early May). All the best to all qualifiers...............