No they are not! Here I just made a new blog:

I could not understand why there'd be a big 2 day rapid tournament in Sabah until someone alerted me to the fact that there is also a National States Chess Championship (formerly known as the Interstates) Team event.

Details :-Malaysian Chess Federation , Sabah Chess Association and the Sabah Chess Academy is organizing National States Chess Championship (previously known as Interstates) at the Likas Square Apartment Hotel from 1^st to 3^rd August 2018.
Two sections :-

• Open
• Women

Total 6/7 rounds, with a single game for each round, Swiss system for Teams. The time control is 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.
Team composition:
4 players + one reserve/captain (optional).
Package:
3 days staying at the apartment hotel including breakfast, lunch and dinner for 5 persons.

Contact persons:-

1. Mr Chi Yin Phin
   Email: chiyinphin@gmail.com
   Phone: 0128279991
2. Mdm Joeanne Lee
   Email: soon_ee80@hotmail.com
   Phone: 0128030533
3. Mr Sophian A. Yusuf
   Email: sophian@malaysiachess.com

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/CkCiJw5Sp9D2

Taken from : http://sabahchess.com/v1/index.php/national-states-championship-2018/schedule.html
Cash Awards
8.1       Men Team Category
8.1.1                Gold                RM 3,000;
8.1.2                Silver               RM 2,000;
8.1.3                Bronze             RM 1,000.


8.2       Women Team Category
8.2.1                Gold                RM 3,000;
8.2.2                Silver               RM 2,000;
8.2.3                Bronze             RM 1,000.
So it is a big event. The "Sabah Chess Festival" that lasts almost one week. Quite costly too at RM 2500 per team but that includes accomodation for all the team members at the Hotel.

P/S:- Thanks to Wee Zhun and Ahmad Muzaffar for alerting me to this event.

Will not be there but will keep an eye on chess-results as the event progresses.

This has always flown under the radar for me primarily because it's in Sabah which strangely otally feels like another country to me. But today, I took a look at the tournament details and was surprised how big the prize fund was. USD 1500 for first prize!

Also suprising is the format - 25 mins + 10 second increment which makes it a quick 2 day tournament. Well probably not so surprising seeing how crazy Malaysians are about rapids (GilaRapid!).

With this kind of prize fund the question on most chess player's mind is why not make the tournament longer. Especially since it's Sabah and it should be a good tourist spot, Well I guess if it's a formula that works and organisers like it then who wants to mess up a good thing :). In addition, even though it has short time controls, the tournament gives free entry to GM, IM and WGM as well as free accomodation. (a good thing too as then accommodation fees is minimised with only 2 days!)

Wish I had a chance to witness how this tourney is run and the chess personalities it will attract. Should be interesting to blog about. Maybe next year..

Again, thanks to Kaushal Khandar for sending in the game.

The local one or two day events in Malaysia is getting so popular we are seeing a chess tournament almost every weekend!





With the fast growing popularity of chess events like these I think the time is ripe for a good mobile phone app that will do the following:

1. List all upcoming events so that it's hard to miss any tourney that a chess enthusiast is interested in.
2. Easy pre-register for participants from their phone
3. Registration is thru Facebook account as that will have a "karma" points attached to it so that without payment, a pre-registration account can be known as a consistently "trusted" one (i.e. registered and no cancellation) or a low trusted account (consistently cancelling pre-registration).
4. Support the 'old fashion way' of bank in and show proof by letting the app take pictures of deposit slips and attaching it to the online entry form submission.
5. Confirmation for participation for their entry and if possible to see the size/total participation updated periodically.
6. An easy to fill web form for organisers to get their tournaments listed.
7. Automated pre-registration details available to chess organisers online.

Ibnu Iwan Schani wins the ICE Challenge 5th Series at Institute of Chess Excellence with a score of 6.5/8.

2nd place with the same score but lower tie break is Wong Kah Hing.

3rd place is Cheang Weng Chuing.

Veteran Abu Kasim Kamar Dani took 4th place.



Details:-

Abdullah Che Hassan won the one day tourney at Metropoint Kajang on Sunday (22/6/2018) with 6 wins and one draw.
70 players took part in this event.

Details:-

Tournament
MetroPoint Complex Kajang Open July 2018

Date
22/07/2018

Venue
Kajang, Selangor

Detail
MetroPoint Complex Kajang Open July 2018
Date : 22 July 2018
Time : 9:00am - 6:30pm
Venue : Kompleks Metro Point 1/2 Jalan Jelok 6, Kajang, Selangor

Category: Open & U12
(Note: Paid Registration for U12 have reached 50. Fee for U12 is now RM25. While Open still available slot for RM30 at the moment)

i) Submit the following form
ii) Make payment before dateline to RHB  26258600003642  CMC EMPIRE
iii) Whatsapp to proof of payment to 0183889900 together with participant(s) names before dateline.
Note: For internet banking. Please enter your phone no in the detail in the fund transfer

Dateline: 20 July 2018
8:00pm

Online  Registration Page here

Sim Jia Ru won Silver for the main classical U13 Girls Asian Schools (Sri Lanka) event as well as Bronze for blitz event under the same age category.

She brings home a WCM title for her efforts.


Overall Malaysia medal tally :-
1x Gold,
2x Silvers
1x Bronze

The 14th Asian Schools Chess Championship was held in Kaluthara, Sri Lanka.


Blitz Crosstable (click here if you cannot see it)

One of the reason I've stopped playing chess is because of health. For someone who calls himself "GilaChess" that is a pretty significant. It's not like I have a serious heart condition which forces me to give up chess  but I've seen too many chess friends suffer and many even passed away.

Just like cigarrettes it is a silent killer and many afflicted will not acknowledge that chess is bad for them.


I tried to bait some chess friends with a FB post above. You can read the comments to decide for yourself if the "defence" that chess is not unhealthy is convincing or not.

Here are the reasons why I feel chess is bad for health:

Sedentary Game

You sit for hours staring at the chess board. Unlike other game or sports there is no physical activity involved except thinking. Thus, it does not encourage its practioners to be moving about. For the really serious, they can sit for hours without getting up. Sure there are the nervous ones that get up after every move. But that's just walking in a crowded hall that is filled with breathing chess players. Hardly healthy. E-sports gives the image of someone sitting at the computer for hours without a break and extreme cases have reported people dying from it. Though less extreme, Chess shares some of these features too.

Competitive Anxiety

I played against a friend in a tournament over 10 years ago and was surprised when I shook his hands, they were trembling. He won. But the stress of pushing for the win must have been enormous even though it was just a one day weekend tournament. This friend suffered heart failure years later. I cannot attribute that chess is the cause but my feeling is that if you have heart problems, competitive chess does not positively contribute to your health. Again, I admit this depends on the person. The exception is one who  take the game lightly and see it as a relaxing activity. Then again, personally I don't know such happy-go-lucky chess friends.


My observations during 2014 Malaysian Chess Festival:

So will I ever play chess again?

I know I sound like a broken record saying this.

Chess used to be rewarding in terms of the said mental health benefits, pleasure of playing and money. So the simple reason for giving it up is all the factors mention is now gone or reduced substantially.


GilaChess.com used to bring in revenue that made blogging for chess pretty doable as it covered basic stuff like my travel expenses, food and then some. That all went away when Exabytes blew up my website.

Then there is health. Playing chess is super stressful and at my age, it is definitely does not help with my blood pressure and other issues.

So both playing and blogging about chess take a hit.

The latest blow is my Youtube  Partner status has been revoked. Being a Youtube partner means I made money from the chess videos I posted on Youtube. Granted it wasn't much as my viewership is not high but it was encouraging as the more videos I made the more pennies (literally it is pennies!) I get. So there was incentive to make more interesting videos.

Google has since changed their requirements to be a partner which is unfair considering I already qualified before.

From Google FAQ:


It's 1000 subscribers AND 4000 hours of watch time which I do not have. And achieving that number is pretty hard considering chess viewership is in Malaysia.

So am I retired from chess? Again - the answer is not quite yet. I am semi-retired but that will be changed to fully retired if my last source of income Google Adsense (revenue from people reading my blog - meaning you!) is also revoked. At least the good news is that I'm already exploring other non-chess subjects which has more eyeballs compared to chess.

Still all is not doom and gloom for my blog. Will try more video blogging (vlog) as I have not given up yet to be partner again in Youtube. I will still go to chess tournaments when invited. Also I am still interested in the programming aspect of chess like writing scripts from chess-results, installing lichess in Malaysia and a DGT system replacement/alternative.

survey service

P/S: Choose only one lah. If you have multiple places to play, just choose your favourite or the one most often you go to.

WFM Tan Li Ting won the  2018 Women Malaysia Championship convincingly with a 1.5 points lead over her nearest opponent. Here is the interactive crosstable and standings.

Click here if you can see the table.

The 2018 Malaysia Chess Championship (formerly called the National Closed) ended quietly for me because I wasn't there :) and the only update I got was from Facebook and Chess-results.com. Even at MCF official website nothing is posted!

Anyway, here's the new interactive table to show who played who played whom and the final standings:-
Click here if you cannot see the crosstable.

DATE	15TH JULY 2018 (SUNDAY)
VENUE	Concourse Area, Ground Floor, The Summit Subang USJ
ORGANISED BY	THE Summit Subang USJ & MVP MARKETING SDN. BHD.
EVENT MANAGED BY	DATCC & White Knight Academy
ELIGIBILITY	UNDER-08 CATEGORY: MUST BORN IN OR AFTER 2010; UNDER-10 CATEGORY: MUST BORN IN OR AFTER 2008; UNDER-12 CATEGORY: MUST BORN IN OR AFTER 2006; UNDER-16 CATEGORY: MUST BORN IN OR AFTER 2002.
ENTRANCE FEE	RM 40/=
METHOD OF PLAY	SIX (6) ROUNDS SWISS
TIME CONTROL	25 MINUTES EACH TO THE FINISH
RULES & REGULATIONS	FIDE LAWS OF CHESS PLUS SUPPLEMENTARY REGULATIONS.
TIE-BREAK	(I) PE (IF APPLICABLE), (II) SOLKOFF (W.P.), (III) SONNERBORNE BERGER (S.B.), (IV) PROGRESSIVE SCORE (P.S.), (V) WON GAME.
ARRIVAL OF PLAYERS	10:00 – 10:30	ROUND 3	13:20 – 14:10
ROUND 1	10:50 – 11:40	ROUND 4	14:30 – 15:20
ROUND 2	12:00 – 12:50	ROUND 5	15:40 – 16:30
LUNCH BREAK	12:50 – 13:20	ROUND 6	16:50 – 17:40
		CLOSING CEREMONY	18:00
PRIZES	UNDER-8 / UNDER-10 / UNDER-12 / UNDER-16
1st	RM 150 + Medal + Certificate
2nd	RM 100 + Medal + Certificate
3rd	RM 70 + Medal + Certificate
4th – 5th	RM 40 + Medal + Certificate
6th – 10th	RM 20 + Medal + Certificate
Most Promising Girls (1st – 5th)	Medal + Certificate
Best School (Gold, Silver, Bronze)	5 X Trophy + Certificate

Enquiries: Mr. Wong (012 – 358 5911) OR Mr. Jimmy Liew (019 – 657 1628) OR En. Hamid Abd Majid (019 – 315 8098).

Please register before Closing Date on 6TH JULY 2018 (FRIDAY) at http://whiteknightacademy.com/7th-summit-junior-registration. 

Any registration after closing date shall be charged an extra RM 20 as late administration fee (subject to availability of seats).

Supplementary Tournament Rules and Regulations

1. This event is open to all children who qualify for the 4 respective age groups.
2. The FIDE Laws of Chess apply, supplemented by these tournament rules and regulations.
3. The Organizing Committee reserves the sole right to accept or reject any entry without explanation. The Committee may also, at its discretion, limit the number of participants on first-come-first-serve basis to accommodate space or other organizational constraints. We will refund such rejected entrant(s).
4. All participants must play 6 games in the said event regardless of their results from earlier encounters. The participant with the most accumulated points after these 6 games is declared the winner.
5. All participants must report to their respective section 20 minutes before the start of Round 1. Failure to do so may result in immediate disqualification from the tournament. Failure to play in any round will result in immediate disqualification unless prior notification was given to the Chief Arbiter. Entry fees under such circumstances are not refundable.
6. The time-control for each player shall be 25 minutes to-be-finish, i.e., players must complete all their moves within their allotted time. In the event of an inconclusive result within this allotted time, the player whose flag falls first is deemed the loser. There is no walkover period for this tournament.
7. The winner of each game is responsible for submitting the correct results to the Arbiter table. In the case of drawn games the player playing White holds this responsibility.   
8. The loser of each game is responsible for rearranging the pieces on the chessboard. In the case of drawn games the player playing Black holds this responsibility.
9. We expect all participants and parents to conduct themselves sportingly. The Tournament Director reserves the right to remove any individual deemed a nuisance or undesirable.
10. To qualify to compete for best school prize, the particular school must send a minimum of 4 players for the category.
11. The decision of the Tournament Director, Chief Arbiter and Arbiters with regard to the running of the event is FINAL.

Players from as far as Seberang Prai took part in this event like Ching Kim Lye.












 You can find more pictures including those of the winners of this event on ICE Challanger Facebook Page.

from chess-results.com:-


This is curious to me as the ICE series seems to be a relatively small local tournament and the fact that it can attract any foreign participation is amazing.

I am told all 5 filipinos taking part are students from STI West Negros University, Philippines. They are even accompanied by a coach!

Filing this post under "Chess Culture" as clearly Philippines chess culture is way different from ours.  Their commitment to chess is definitely stronger. Malaysians would never send a group of people under one University to play in an under-1600 event.

Kudos to Philippines for supporting our Malaysian event and kudos too ICE challenger series for having attracted foreign players!

Only found out about this tourney after seeing a picture of a friend posted on Facebook.

I think this is the 3rd series that sees players of raing below 1600 compete.

Had breakfast at a nearby curry leaf restaurant just before the start of the tourney at 9am.


Arrived 15 minutes early and joined the waiting queue but they opened just 8 minutes just before 9am - just in time for players to settle in and start.


Before the atart of Round 5...





Some pictures.



Trophies!


Top board

Asking chess friends to help contribute to this.

 I am not at the current on going Malaysia Chess Championship 2018 but would like to create a blog recording anything interesting from the event particularly pictures.

So if you want to share your pictures just hastag them #mcc2018 to indicate you want to share your pictures to the public.

Thanks!!

P/S:
As most of you know, sharing things on Facebook is nice and all but things get lost and buried after some time. A blog is a good place to archive events like this. I have other Malaysian chess events like these archived since 2009!

The website MCC2018 :-

http://mcc2018blogspot.com