05-06-2009 chess

From Malaysia Encyclopedia

It's all about chess for Korchnoi

Chess By QUAH SENG SUN

Never a world chess champion, Viktor Korchnoi nevertheless lives for the game.

AMONG all the chess professionals, there is only one I know of who can truly claim that chess is his life. He’s not even a world chess champion. He came close to becoming one in 1978 when he lost what was to be known as the Battle of Baguio.

I’m referring, of course, to Viktor Korchnoi, a chess grandmaster from the former Soviet Union who is now a Swiss citizen and a hugely respected world senior chess figure.

From his youth until today, Korchnoi, 78, has done nothing but play chess. Twice, in 1978 and 1981, after defecting from the Soviet Union, he challenged Anatoly Karpov for the world title and lost.

In 1974, he played Karpov in the final of the Challenger matches and again lost. Karpov went on to be crowned as world champion after Bobby Fischer forfeited his defence of the title.

Consummate chess player: From his youth until today Viktor Korchnoi has done nothing but play chess. After 1981, Korchnoi was never able to reach the same heights in his chess career again. Nevertheless, the fire burns strong in him and he continues to compete regularly until today. In September last year, he won the 16th world senior chess championship. It was a befitting recognition for a man who has spent his whole life in the game.

In 1978, Korchnoi wrote Chess Is My Life which chronicled the challenges in his life, his struggles with the chess establishment in the Soviet Union, his defection and a small collection of games. A few years ago, he retold the story of his life in a new edition of this book.

Many other professional chess players have claimed that chess was their life. At various times, people like Karpov, Kasparov and Kramnik have said it too. But then, Karpov and later, Kasparov, were also dabbling in other things, like politics. Karpov was a member of the old Supreme Soviet Commission for Foreign Affairs and president of the Soviet Peace Fund, while Kasparov is retired from competitive chess and is today an opposition figure in the new Russia.

In Malaysia, we do not have professional chess players. It may be too simplistic to say that because there are no professional players here, none of our chess players can claim their lives revolve around the game, but it’s true.

Chess for all of us here is a game, a hobby and an interesting pastime – maybe a more passionate pastime for some – but assuredly, chess is not everything in our lives.

But while some of us less passionate ones were spending the last few days doing things other than playing chess, the more passionate were participating in the national closed chess championships in Kuala Lumpur.

The championships have ended and I should have some results for you next week but for the moment, let me just say that there were 54 players in the open section and 22 players in the women’s section.

Of course, the numbers could have been better but I suppose the Malaysian Chess Federation cannot complain, seeing how details of the championships were announced rather late.

Regular readers will remember how I’ve often griped about defending champions being unwilling to defend their titles at the national closed championships. This year, I got a very pleasant surprise: both of last year’s champions – Edward Lee and Alia Anin Bakri – chose to play.

It took a lot of guts to play and it showed that they were willing to defend their titles. For this, I salute them. They brought that extra something to this year’s championships.

By the way, our chess players can certainly learn a lot from sportsmen like Rafael Nadal. When he was knocked out of the Paris tennis open on Monday, was he disappointed? Naturally, he was. But he let the moment pass. He accepted that one day, he would lose at this tennis Grand Slam event.

“I have to accept my defeat as I accept my victories,” he said and added, “I have to keep a cool head to try and analyse what I did wrong. I need to learn and you learn more when you lose than when you win. I need to work on those points on which I wasn’t good and from there, try and do better for my next tournament. So this is not a tragedy. This is sport.”

Now, this is wisdom that should apply to any game, chess included.

Up next

Penang heritage city open

Penang Chess Association (PCA) is organising the Penang heritage city international open tournament at the Dewan Sri Pinang, George Town on June 10 to 14.

This is an individual event with two groups of play: an open section and a Challenger section for players with Fide ratings below 2000 or national ratings less than 1750. The event will be played as a nine-round Fide-rated tournament with a time control of 90 minutes per game with 30 seconds added on for each move played.

Titled players – grandmasters, international masters, Fide masters and national masters – get free entry into the tournament. For the rest of the participants, the entry fees are RM50 for Fide-rated players, RM150 for PCA members and RM180 for non-members. The entry fees for the Challenger section are RM30 for Fide-rated players, RM50 for PCA members and RM80 for non-members. To register, contact Tan Eng Seong (012-429 9517 or estan64@streamyx.com) or Tan Eu Hong (012-488 2133 or euhong@euhong.net).

Ole-Ole chess

The first Ole-Ole Shah Alam chess tournament will be played at the Ole-Ole Shopping Centre on June 13. Entries close on June 11. Only the first 100 entries will be accepted. For entry forms, contact Roslina Marmono (013-394 5690 or email: mychessdiari@gmail.com)

Tanjung Karang open

The one-day Tanjung Karang open tournament will be played at the Dewan Orang Ramai Kampung Sungai Gulang Gulang in Tanjung Karang, Selangor, on June 14. Entry fees are RM10 for players below 12 and RM15 for others. Closing date for entries is June 12. For enquiries and registration, contact Faizol (012-202 9271), Faizal (017-362 6034) or Azhar (012-679 6193).

Quah Seng Sun can be contacted at ssquah@gmail.com.