4 GREATEST UNSOLVED QUESTIONS IN CHESS

With best play, what will be the result of the game?



Some say the game is draw, like a tic tac toe game. Some say there is a win, a force win. I said who cares...don't ever let the truth get in the way of beautiful, artistic game.

Who is the strongest player ever?
Minus God and computers and aliens, Kasparov and Fischer are two heavy favourites and off course there are the like of Capablanca, Alekhine, Steinitz etc.However, I personally feel that Morphy is the strongest player ever. Ahead of his time, he almost could find no worthy opponent to beat!

What is the best format for World Chess Championship?
Challenger challenge the champion (by putting on the table loads of cash), via strong tournament, via unlimited games (as long as 5 wins), via 24 games, 12 games, 8 games, knockout format...it just keep changing year in year out.
For me, I personally feel the best format is the 80’s candidate/zonal with 24 games final, with no adjournment ofcourse.

When will Malaysia produce its first GM?
Grandmaster trainers (Gufeld, Ziaur Rahman) come and go, local talents come and go but Malaysia still yet able to produce its own chess GM.

Maybe, just maybe I should take this matter into my own hand and tried to get the title myself. Sshhh, here is the plan.

1. Winning that RM28M Jackpot.
2. Go and study chess in Russia, preferably with Kosteniuk or with Tania at India. I promise I will become a very good and obedient student!
3. Actively compete in some obscure GM circuit at some obscure places.
4. Once I got the ultimate title, quickly claimed the hadiah from Datuk Tan and then do a Fischer! Stop playing, get tanah from state government, enjoy the limelight...
5. Maybe after that i should started eyeing myself for that Datukship title.
6. Datuk Grandmaster Nor Ilhamuddin...hmm not bad!

Dream on Ilham you’ll never won that Jackpot to begin with.

OK, Let me tell you this little secret. I have won a lottery myself some 37 years ago. Warren Buffett called it ‘Ovary Lottery’. I manage to beat billions and billions of my fellow sperm for the right to be human. If i could do it then, i could do anything now!

THE SILENCE OF THE ...RATIONALITY

1. Like Dr Hannibal Lecter in thriller film, The Silence of the Lamb, people have many opinions about Rationality, some believe he* is genius and frank/analytical with his opinions...some of course believe Rationality is crazy blogger that is dangerous to society and should be keep under lock forever.

2. Who is Rationality? A fellow blogger believe he is Najib Wahab, a good friend of mine believe he is Kamal Abdullah, another blogger ( future Stanley Druckenmiller no less) believe he is Jimmy Liew, one generous soul suspects he is residing in Australia... For myself, i am pretty sure Rationality is not Nor Ilhamuddin and very good chances he is not Raymond Siew...ok, a good start there but still that left like 6.5 billion suspects minus 2.

3. Anyway who rationality is, is not important. It is his view that counts. I did not agreed with all his views and did not agree with his choice of words but still find his posting interesting, amusing, witty and well researched. I bet Rationality check and recheck all his postings and i bet most local bloggers wished they could write as well as Rationality and also wished they are not on the opposite side of Rationality's wrath!

4. To the best of my knowledge, he is the first local chess blogger that wrote in anonymous mode. In local political blogs, a very high number of them wrote anonymously (for obvious reasons). In local financial blogs also, a very high number wrote anonymously (Spin some analysis of one counter and immediately that counter move! ). Also notice that Rationality is also the first local chess blogger that disable comment on his posting and among rare few that did put any advertisement. His way of showing your opinion does not count and i did not do this for money. A rare breed indeed.

5. I only got two wishes to Rationality. First, continue writing and second (agreed with chess ninja) enable comment!, A mere opening like/dislike option is not enough!

6. His total silence, in a chaos chessic environment in which he normally excel, has been very deafening.

7. Last but not least, please continue writing Rationality.

*Rationality could also be a she also but ever since he posted that Guy Fawkes mask, lets label Rationality as a he.

REASONS NOT TO PLAY CHESS

Money is not good
In order to make a decent living from chess, you need to be extremely good, not only GM, not only Super GM but basically you need to be top 20 in the world.

Local tournament wise, to be the best in Malaysia is definitely not good enough. On average, first prize RM400. Let’s compare with say...memancing! (Golf will be overkill) First prize RM20,000! And in GP Joran they even have this Hadiah Utama, a cool RM84,000 in cash for overall winner. Ofcourse,in memancing tournament they start on time.

Torturous Tournament Format
In other sports, tennis dart etc if you are not good, you will lose in the first round and you can go home, you can still bragging to lose to champion and you will never know whether you are the most unskilled player around.

In chess, they have this torturing device called SWISS System and even if you lost, the tournament director will force to keep on playing and playing and playing with your fellow chess clowns. Worst part is, you cannot hide, this SWISS System will show to the whole world (thank you, Internet) with absolute certainty whether you are the most...what word to use here...you are the most ‘need to improve’ player.

Not a popular sport
Ask any hot actress, who she wanted to go out with, a top chess player or a top footballer? Enough said.

Wait a minute, on a brighter side, ask any hot actress who she wanted her daughter’s IQ to be inherite from, a chess player or a boxer? In this area we might have a chance!

Accused to be a spy/smuggler
This happen to me some 20 years ago. I played correspondent chess with Andrew Ooi, Masros Tukiran and few others. I was at boarding school in which all letters will be open by Puan Rosniyah (she is a big fan of Ludlum’s novels). She accussed me of devising a secret plan to smuggle cigarettes inside the school when she opened one of those letters that mentioned

3. Bb5 if 3. ...a6 then my move is 4. Ba4
If 3. ...Bc5 then my move is 4.c3


But still, whatever reasons are, we all love this beautiful game!

JUNIOR VS SENIOR: MY VIEWS

1. Raymond Siew, a prolific blogger mentioned about idea of a match between Senior team and Junior “for the rights to Olympiad". This idea, according to Raymond, has been put forward by a parent of National Junior durung train ride to S'pore.

2. I am all in the favor for the match between Senior and Junior to take place. It will be a great tournament, full of suspense, predictions, good games etc. I bet it will be even bigger than 2009 Malaysian Master, a tournament in which resulted in 3 local IMs to cover it in their blogs. The publicity will be good for chess, the result will be good in measuring the progress of junior against senior etc.

3. But let’s not put the rights to Olympiad at stakes. If junior wins (which honestly I don’t think it will happen against full strength senior team). Are we going to send a full junior team? Not a good idea…who is going to decide the line up, provide experience/guidance or strategy? This is no MSSM. Not to mention the effect of low ratings to the team, low seeding, low respect from other teams (suddenly every team is extra determine and extra confident to score a win against lowly rated Malaysia).

4. For Olympiad, the best line up in my humble opinion consisted of the mix of Senior and Junior. Ideally 4-2 (4 seniors, 2 juniors) or 3-3 (3 seniors, 3 juniors) though Malaysia is very much capable and always producing 3-2-1 line up (3 seniors, 2 juniors and 1 tourist)

5. While I love to see the match between Junior and Senior to take place, I doubt it will ever happen (unless someone willing to put up some serious money in this match) since there is so much for senior to lose and so little for them (senior) to gain. Say Senior won with the margin of 11-9 (Senior got lucky, junior not feeling well…), or maybe a decisive 16-4 result (Senior only strong against Junior, how come they cannot score the same result against Indonesian Team?) Senior can never win but very real chances of losing. Remind me of a joke about negotiation between America and Russia…when Russian said”what mine is mine, what yours is negotiable”. “what juniors have is juniors to keep, what seniors have is at stake and to be decided”

6. Also the way/scenario this ‘challenge’ is presented.
a. Junior just scored/contributed a lion share in Malaysia’s victory against Singapore.
b. Raymond mentioned via various postings that “the Seniors are no longer fighting”, “senior lost the fire”, “throwing game”etc
c. Hence, the challenge between senior and junior to represent Malaysia at Olympiad.

This type of challenge is not sounds like chess at all. This type of challenge is more suitable to boxing (to demoralize opponent etc) and we all know what happen to boxers after the match…

7. Raymond’s idea of junior chess training is also not realistic. Put top juniors for 3 or 5 days, no trainer required, junior’s combined knowledge will be enough. This idea works for team sport such as football, volleyball etc but for chess ?!...Chess is very much an individual and intellectual game. Knowledge you have is yours alone and not to be shared. Say if junior a discovered a flaw in Mas’ najdorf, or Mok’s modern…I don’t think he will share it with others. The knowledge is his alone. To me chess training among team mate is more to create camaraderie or team spirit, not to share secret or show weaknesses (your team mate today might exploit it tomorrow).

If I am not mistaken Kasparov once required all member of his team to sign an agreement not to reveal the novelties discovered during the training etc. All knowledge is for Kasparov alone. My point is chess training, without trainer will not work. To expect junior players to pool all their knowledge and chess secrets for the benefit of all team members is, realistically, not going to happen.

8. To sum it up. I support this type of match to take place (with no Olympiad place at stake, too hasty to be determined from one match/tourney) but disagree in the way these challenge is being presented.

AN EXAMPLE OF A GOOD TOURNAMENT SHOULD BE

2 days ago I took part in weekend tournament, 17chess club Open 2011 tournament which was organised by Syazrin ( Pengurusan Catur Ar Rahman ) and Max (17 chess club). Arbiter was Najib Wahab.

All in all for me this was a text book example of how a good chess tournament should be...though in my case, result wise, still a disaster tournament. 3rd disaster tournaments as pointed by Saprin...ok now at least i know Saprin do read my blog :)...

Why this tournament is a good tournament?

Lots of prizes
In main category the cash prizes is until 10th position and there are also prizes for best IPTA, best female, best junior and so on. As if this is not enough, they also have lucky draw (thanks to Stonemaster who generously sponsoring the lucky draw prizes) to ensure the contestant glued to witness the prize giving ceremony.

Few years back i entered these one tournament, let it remain anonymous. Entrance fee is RM30, Prizes? 1st RM150, 2nd RM75, 3rd chess book. I did asked the arbiter why so few ( and so kedekut...though this one i did not asked openly) prizes? Arbiter smoothly informed “oh, we want to teach chess player to enter the tournament not because of prize money but more for LOVE of the game” in front of him i silence but come on...who are you kidding? for love of the game my cxxk! Maybe you, organiser should first walk the talk and organise tourney with RM5 entrance fee...for love of the game...

Cheap entrance fee
Entrance fee is RM19 only. KL rate wise...very cheap though Terengganu’s even cheaper... RM10. Don’t know why the odd number of RM19, maybe even better is RM17 to reflect 17chess club...

Freebies to contestant
All contestant received a bottle of mineral water and a pack of tit bits (chocolate, candy etc)

Punctual
The tournament was punctually conducted. An exception to guaranteed at least half an hour late Malaysian weekend tournament syndrome.

Nice number of contestant.
54 players took part. 2 weeks before i took part in one tournament in which there are more than 100 contestants took part. No doubt a victory to organiser but actually a disaster to the contestants. First a warm tournament hall (arbiter needs to request player who has finished their game to emptied the hall, sorry but we paid to see the chess player in chess action...not to see chess player in smoking action outside) second, a packed toilets, third squeeze-in-time to see pairing and in my case... fourth, a disastrous result.

Drama
When Udani was defeated by Saprin, a race for first prize is wide open between Saprin, Fadzil Nayan and Udani...suddenly out of nowhere Abdullah undertook them all to finish first!

Friendly arbiter
With Najib as arbiter you can expect a smooth, punctual and friendly atmosphere of tournament. Unlike some arbiter who like to scream to contestant as if we are a bunch of kindie kids “SIT DOWN!! ALL PLAYER SIT DOWNNN!!...ALL PLAYER REPORT THE RESULT NOWWW!!!! NOWWW!!!”

After event event
Shortly after the tournament ended there is a blitz tournament being organized. Enough to get even the most chess-tolerance-player chess drunk!

Result upload to chess server.
Don’t we all loved it if the results are upload to chess server...we can see list of opponents one face, rating performance, initial seeding and so on.

Congratulations to all behind this for the tournament well organised.

REASONS TO PLAY CHESS

When asked what is the benefits in playing chess, questions that we, chess players, face from time time, i will normally reply as below:

Teach Planning Ahead
Chess teach mind to look ahead, plan ahead, maximise resources, set traps, avoid traps...a type of thinking needed to survive and succeed in work place. Chess also teach you to how to devise a plan to kill your opponent...very, very needed skill to excel in work place.

Teach Responsibility
Chess teach responsibility. You cannot blame others if you lose. You cannot blame the physical of opponent is bigger or stronger as a reasons you lose. (though some blame it on the ’attractiveness of opponent’ as a distraction. This one i don’t know), cannot blame it on unfair referee, cannot also blame it roaring cheer from home supporters...none in chess. You alone are responsible for the result of your own game. Simple.

Cheap
With only 10 bucks you can buy a decent chess set and start playing right away. You cannot do this if your sports are bicycle or go-kart or squash. In fact if you are very, very good in chess, you can play it even without chess pieces...blindfold chess! Nature way of awarding chess master. Nothing is cheaper than blindfold chess.

Age is not a barrier
Chess can be played by anyone from age 3 and infinity. Normal to see 7 years old girl fight as equal with 24 years man. You cannot see this in say...boxing. Which also mean that you can play chess forever.

Can make money
If you are good in chess you can make some money by competing in various tournaments. Not much but still good enough to cover for few rounds of McDs.

Teach time management
Chess teach you to plan and execute your plan within certain time frame. Varied between few hours to 1 minute each. Useful skills to face exam or project. As if that is not enough, in chess game there is also time management elements such as tempo, stalemate, zugzwang etc. Zugzwang !? what the hell is that...bring us to next reasons

Teach foreign language
From chess we know en passant (French) which mean special capturing of a pawn as if the pawn is moving only one square. Zugzwang (German) which mean all legal moves will lead into troubles. Allegro (Italy) which mean fast and so on.

Teach numbers.
From simple... Results ? 1-0, to medium... time controls? 3 plus 2 or strength ? FIDE 2205, to hard...Evaluation? Fritz 2.14 but Rybka 3.22. Sorry but if you are not chess player you don’t know how to decipher above answers. Chess game is now all about numbers . Of course the favourite Q & A in chess that involve number is Prize ? First RM300 only...this one everybody know and chess players learn to accept.

Next
Reasons NOT to play chess

EXPERIENCE

”Experience is the name we gave to our mistake” Oscar Wilde

If that is the case i guess i have many ”experience” in chess, especially when it come to my chess training regime.

Kasparov, the one who simply know everything that needs to know in chess, still trained for at least 6 hours during his chess camp.It is normal for other GM to train for 8 hours a day that i suspect consist of finding novelties, preparing for specific opponents, polishing tactics/endgames etc

Well, i also trained for 6 hours a day. My training diet consist of one hour at chesscube (chess 960), one hour reading blogs, another one hour at yahoo (blitz), another one hour pondering what to post on my blog next thinking who should i flame on the shoutbox bla, bla, bla, 6 hours already...

Jahangir Khan, squash legend that went undefeated for 6 years, fitness drilling consist of running half marathon on daily basis, 5 days a week.

For me, i have successfully jogging like once a month...

Yasser Seirawan once mentioned in his book Winning Chess Brilliancies that there is this Go school in Japan that required all the junior students to memorize 100 classic Go games before studying other aspects of the game...Go junior students...memorized 100 classic games...

In chess I remembered only that Morphy’s Opera House game...

But i know, i cannot be them just as they cannot be me...

”Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken” Oscar Wilde