Zhang Zhong has comeback win in Malaysia

By Andrew Ooi 

The Malaysian Chess Festival ended with a record number of participants for its six events held during the ten-day event from 12 September to 21 September. Representatives from nineteen countries participated in the various events, and scenes of a packed hall outside the Kuala Lumpur Cititel Mid Valley hotel tournament hall were a common sight almost every day.

Picture by Khong Wai Cheong

The most notable difference in this year’s Malaysian Chess Festival were the China chess talents who were missing for the first time in the ten-year history of the festival for non-chess related reasons. The task fell to GM Zhang Zhong, former Chinese, but is now playing for the Singapore Federation. Still it was no walk in the park for Zhang Zhong in the record turnout for the Open section with 130 participants.

Zhang Zhong came back from a dreadful start and took clear first

He was held to a draw in round one by the much lower rated CM Ahmad Fadzil Nayan and things looked desperate after a loss to GM Shyam Sundar in round 5. However, GM Zhang Zhong bounced back with wins all the way to the end and clawed his way back to the top spot. In the final round he met Chinese GM Zhao Jianchao and had to win since a draw would deny him the championship win due to his poor tiebreak. Yet win he did!

GM Zhang Zhong is the 11th Malaysia Open Champion

FM Le Tuan Minh finishing in second place and gaining a GM norm in the process

GM Shyam M Sundar of India took third place

Like China, India is not short of young talents. 16 year old IM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan
finished 7th in the Open section.

Indonesian top Grandmaster Susanto Megaranto playing against up and coming compatriot
IM Farid Firman Syah. Megaranto finished in tenth place while Farid finished eleventh.

Aside from the Festivals three major tournaments, there was also the
Challengers section which usually is dominated by Filipinos. This year
was historic as it was won for the first time by a Malaysian, Syakir Syazmeer.

Indonesian Susanto Budhi was the oldest player in the festival, and
here receives his prize for the best player above 75 (Senior section). He is 76.

Lee Mei Yan is new to big events like the Swensen Age Group but that didn’t stop her from
becoming the U14 Champion

She got her WGM title last year. WGM Medina Warda Aulia was (and still is) Indonesia’s
youngest WGM gets the second best Ladies prize.

GM Laylo Darwin, now a regular face at the festival finished in fifth place

WIM Gong Qianyun, proves that coaching the junior players hasn’t dulled her chess strength.
She takes the prize for Best Ladies in the Open section finishing 6.0/9.

Best Malaysian – Sumant Subramaniam

GM Alexander Forminyh is the champion for the Senior section with 7.5/9

Malaysia's first International Master Jimmy Liew finished second in the Senior section

Overall Under 10 champ for both boys and girls section, Diajeng Theresa Singgih, who incidentally
is the little sister of WGM Irene Sukhandar Kharisma

The tireless Tournament Director Encik Hamid Majid who has been involved in all eleven of
the Malaysian Chess Festivals is instrumental in all the tournaments held for the ten-day festival

Picture of winner with author cum photographer of this article, Andrew Ooi who maintains
the Malaysia chess web portal Catur.org.  Picture by Khong Wai Cheong.

Video reports by Vijay Kumar

Video report of the sixth round

Impressions and report of round seven

Impressions and report of the final round

The blitz tournament and prize ceremony (starts at 25:35)

Final standings after nine rounds

Click for complete standings

Links Official tournament site You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.