GACC 2008

Today i drop by at Dewan Tunku Canselor, University of Malaya to watch the 3rd day of the 13th Rakan Muda GACC International Inter-Varsity Chess Championship 2008 held from 29th Nov – 6th Dec 2008. This annual tournament is organised byTuanku Bahiyah Residential College , University of Malaya with the collaboration of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia under the auspice of the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF)

The Tournament Backdrop. Click the photo for bigger view.

I have fond memory for this tournament because i have played 3-4 times during the 90's with University Putra Malaysia (UPM). If my memory serve me well, the first edition is open to all university in ASEAN countries and used the name Grand ASEAN Chess challange (GACC). Later years, the organiser open the tournament to Asian countries and changed the tournament name to Grand Asia Chess Challange . After showing great succes every year, they decide to open it to all University in the world.

However the organiser still used the name GACC although the "A" is not relevent anymore because it's now open to all internationl university not ASEAN or Asia only. This is probably because for loyal followers of this tournament, GACC has been so well known that changing the name to something else like GICC would probably be quite "weird"

Round 6: GM Amir Bagheri (2490) (left) in action

This year tournaments include participation from university from Iran, China, India, Philipines, Singapore and the host country Malaysia. 5 titles player played in the Open section. ( 2 GM, 1 IM, 1 FM and 1 WIM) lead by the top seed - GM Amir Bagheri (FIDE 2490) from Iran. Others title players is Iranian - GM Shojaat Ghane (2408) and IM Morteza Darban (2392), Indonesian - FM Andrean Susilodinata (2254) and Chinese - WIM Gong Qianyun .

The host country were lead by NM Zarul Shazwan (2085), Rizal Ahmad Kamal , Chan Tze Wei ,Tan Ken Wei (1937), Lim Kwan Pin , Pok Wern Jian (2098) , Ahmad Fadzil Nayan and others.

Round 6 : Rizal Ahmad Kamal (left) in action

My friend Rizal Ahmad Kamal who is taking study leave from his job to further study in UKM, took time to play . I was quite disppointed to see that there's no "best veteran prize" in this tournament because i think he has a good chance to win it.....:)

NM Zarul Shazwan (left) in round 6. He beat IM Darban Morteza in round 3 !

Thanks to Andrew Ooi for sponsoring the tournament official site which contains update, info and photos about this year tournament.

Below are one of the "masterpiece" from the tournament. It's a game between the top seed GM Amir Bagheri against the Chinese WIM Gong Qianyun.


WIM Gong Qianyun (2240)- GM Amir Bagheri (2490)
GACC 2008 (Round 4), 02.12.2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 0–0 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 d6 8.Bb3 g5 9.Bg3 is the normal continuation and probably correct as it was suggest by the GM Killer - Mr Fritz 11 but Qianyun have different idea 9.Nxg5!?!

a brave move from a WOMEN International Master ! 9...hxg5 10.Bxg5 Bxf2+

Probably the "male GM" feel challange by the "women IM". Not to be outdone, he delivered his own sacrifiece which however "not approved" by the GM killer - Mr. Fritz 11 who suggest better move 10...Bxg4 with a clear advantage 11.Kf1? 11.Kxf2 Nxe4+ (11...Ng4+? Double attack is a blunder after 12.Qxg4 Bxg4 13.Bxd8 Raxd8 14.Nd2) 12.dxe4 Qxg5 13.Re1 followed by 14,Kg1 - castling manually is an interesting idea. 11...Bb6 12.Qf3= White threatens to win material with Qxf6 12...Kg7 13.Ke1 Planning Rf1 next 13...Kg6 14.Bh4 Bg4 15.Qg3 Qd7 16.Bxf6 Kxf6 17.h3 Be6 18.Qh4+ Kg6 19.Qg3+ Black can't do anything better then accepting the draw ½–½