Merdeka Chess Team Standard

The 2-week long Malaysian Chess Festival ended yesterday with the conclusion of the Merdeka Team Standard event. There is good participation from players from all corners of the nation, who came in conjunction with the 50th National Day celebration. Congrats to ASTRO team for winning the Open Section in blazing fashion. They were in the lead most of the time. Kudos to Malaysian Chess Federation for the meticulous organising, especially the Malaysian Open which attracted a myriad of grandmasters and international masters from 15 countries (see news coverage under Chessbase). Rather than wait for the news to arrive on my breakfast table, I decided to make my own small contribution. Here's some photo sharing:










For me, chess is a form of pleasure and enjoyment. This is just part of life, though, which needs to be continuosly balanced up by being a responsible citizen and a free thinker. We must strive to reject all forms of imbalance, which will always appear in the real world. Just as in a chess match there are all sorts of imbalances that we have to sort out, ranging from the obvious material imbalance to pawn structure (isolated, doubled, backward pawns etc), relative strength of minor pieces, control of vital squares/files, advantage in space, lead in development and finally who has the current initiative.

Recently, a study done by a team of psychologists revealed that contrary to public opinion, chess does surprisingly involved a series of risk-taking behaviour quite similar to activities like rock climbing, sky diving and bungee jumping. The only reason why the public do not see it that way is because chess is the ultimate invisible game to the spectators. One do not see the emotionally tense battle going in the minds of two great players. Of course, rarely, like myself who is not as agile as before, I do doze off a little during (and not in between) matches!

Seriously, chess can be a very creative game if one sees it with an artistic mind, instead of just relying on memorizing 15 to 25 move long opening theories which is a favourite approach by experts and amateurs alike including me. Of course there is a lot of hard work where one has to deal with a position in a systematic manner, but apart from top level chess, the game still provides ample fun. Especially so when a single last move represents the magical end point of a brilliantly thought out combination several moves preceding it. Sometimes, one may be surprised that an insignificant pawn can turn out to be the saviour in a mating attack against the fortress.

Garry Kasparov, recently wrote a book titled How Life Imitates Chess. I think sometimes chess imitates life. And life can be hard. In a difficult situation, one will have to look for whatever tactical resources available to stay in the game before calling it a day.