Penang Closed Chess Tournament 2007, First Half

Who is the Penang Chess Champion? This question is frequently asked by chess players in Penang especially the young ones. They, most probably, are looking for a local chess idol to learn or modeling from. This question is left unanswered for few years and fortunately, the wait is going to be over soon.

Penang Closed Chess Tournament 2007 has begun today(8 July 2007) with several purposes : 1. as a selection to represent Penang in Merdeka Chess Tournament, Kuala Lumpur
2. to “officially” recognize a Penang Chess Champion and
3. to answer the kids!

Upset of the day! Tan Khai Boon - Kee Zijia, 0-1, Round 1

See also Eu Hong annotate his lost against Evan at Blog.EuHong.NET.

This tournament is organized by Penang Chess Association (PCA) with Mr. Tan Hock Lye as the chief arbiter, while Mr. Tan Eng Seong is the pairing handler. The tournament is a 7 round swiss with 1 hour time control each. Tournament is to be played on 2 separate days, i.e. 4 rounds on 8 Jul and 3 rounds on 22 Jul. The Venue is at Residential Area Bayan Baru(RABB), Penang.                            

There are a few serious contender for this Penang Chess Champion title, among them are Tan Khai Boon, Anthony Liong, Peter Lim and Tan Eu Hong, who are the top 4 seeds and are already well known in Malaysia. However, let’s not forget Penang are very well in producing new upcoming chess juniors such as Tan Yik Ping, Lim Wei Kang, Gavin Fong, Thong Yung Chen Evan, Elgin Lee and Kee Zijia. They are capable of giving surprises or hard time to the top player.                                   

 And Penang also produces beautiful and yet strong chess playing female!!  

The tournament start off as per scheduled at 9am. The first round came as expected, i.e. some surprises and falling of seeded player : Top seed Tan Khai Boon has just been upset, by 11 year-old Kee Zijia while 10^th seeded Chua Kian Meng lost to 9 year-old William Lee. Underestimate? Who cares, the result counted!                             

Second round saw 5^th seed Gavin Fong lost to Lee Hsien Yang while Kee Zijia and William Lee cannot continue with their first round performance losing to Tan Yik Ping and Elgin Lee respectively. (William is not very fortunate to met his eldest brother in round 2) 

The battle of title become even more complex when Tan Yik Ping hold Anthony Liong, the second seed to a draw; while Evan(White) beat Eu Hong(Black) in the Anti-Meran Gambit of the Semi Slav Defence (Nowadays this line is regarded as "easily crossing the border of no turning back" for Black)

The last round of the day is by far the more “correct” one, with higher rated player is the winner. Peter Lim, the third seed, is the only player who scores 4/4. Half point behind is Anthony Liong and Tan Yik Ping. So who is going to be the Penang Chess Champion? It’s still too early to say but one thing for sure, the second half on 22 July will be a bloody day… in chess.

Standing After Round 4

Round 5 Pairing

About Author PS Lim is a chess enthusiast. He is also a successful coach in Penang, having produced two U12 Penang champions for two consecutive years in 2006 and 2007. Before becoming a coach in 2006, he was active in competitive chess for many years. His "retirement" from competitive chess has not stopped him from investing his time and efforts in the development of chess in Penang, especially in guiding young players to become successful chess players.