MAKSAK 2009 Report

The MAKSAK Catur, Dart and Karom ( short form - CD-Rom !?) 2009 was held from 17th-18th July 2009 in Kota Bharu Kelantan. This annual goverment team tournament use 45 minutes time control .
This year attracted many strong and well known players such as NM Kamal Ariffin, Ismail Ahmad - former World Police Champion, Hashim Jusoh, Rizal Ahmad Kamal, Abang Reduan, Lim Kian Hwa, Morsin Ahmad, Abdul Rahim Ramli, Mohd Zambri Syarif and many others. 14 teams compete in this year edition . There is few regular teams who didn't participate for e.g Selangor and Kedah. Sabah has not send team for years meanwhile Labuan occasionally played but unfortunately not for this year. I hope in the future all state must participate in this annual tournaments.
The playing venue is at Kelantan Trade Centre . This team tournament was held in two days ( 17th and 18th July). The first day is preliminary stage where teams were divide into three groups ( A,B,C). Top two team of each groups plus one team which is the best 3rd placing team from all group proceed to the winner's pools in the next day ( 18th July). The rest played in the loser's pools.
Below are the teams who proceed to winners pools and loser's pools
Winner's Pools
1. Kuala Lumpur ( 12 points)
2.PDRM (10.5 points)
3.Pahang , (10 points)
4.Terengganu , 10 points
5.Sarawak 9.5 points
6.Perak 9 points
7.Johor 8 points
8.Kelantan 9.5 points
Loser's Pools
1. Negeri Sembilan (14 points)
2. Melaka (13.5)
3. Perlis (11)
4. Pulau Pinang (9)
5. Penjara (8.5)
6. Armed Forces (4)
Favourite team and the defending champion - Terengganu, past winners - Kuala Lumpur and Sarawak didn't have serious problems to proceed to the winners pools. Honestly speaking, during the preliminary stage, i sense that the defending champion -Terengganu who won the previous two edition ( 2007 and 2008) will have a tough time this year because they regularly drops points to others . In previous years they usually wallop majority of the teams and won narrowly or draw against the two top seed - Kuala Lumpur and Sarawak. PDRM anchored by former World Police Champion and National player - Ismail Ahmad, surprisingly emerged as the group C champion. I noticed that Ismail has managed to improve his teams strength although his players are not generally known in local chess scene.
The most impressive team in my opinion is Pahang. This year they missed their top gun - NM Ng Ee Vern - last year best board winner for board 1 who is also a former national champion and national player. However they managed to beat the defending champion Terengganu 3-1 and ended in 3rd place.
Kelantan also ended impressively especially in the last round when they beat Terengganu 3-1 to finish as the last medal winner ( 4th place). In the final round, Terengganu was really pressured because they have to win 4-0 to have a slim chance to retain their title. To make matter worse, they also need to win at least 3.5- 0.5 to secured the 2nd place and topple Kl to third place. However the pressure was so high and they eventually collapsed 1-3 to their neighbour - Kelantan. This help Kuala Lumpur to win the second place !

The Armagendon Match!

The crucial final round match - Kelantan(left) vs Terengganu (right) !

A background about the armagendon match ( Terengganu - Kelantan) . My team - Kuala Lumpur(KL) received a bye in the last round and we have to wait and watch (horribly) the other teams playing. Sarawak choose to slow down their engine by securing "safe" points against Pahang so KL was guaranteed at least - third placing. To finish in the 2nd place, KL need the "help" from the host- Kelantan to "steal" at least one points from Terengganu. This was help by knowing that Kelantan was also in the mood of winning the final match because they need to win to end as the medal winner.
Before the final match start, we secretly meet Kelantan top board player - Azizul Mat Daud and "sponsored" him with Power Root Isotonic Drink. Azizul - a GM ( Gua Musang ) player is my old friend and my teamate- Rizal Ahmad Kamal "padawan". They both played for UIA years back.

Azizul Mat Daud (photo above) in his last round game against Hashim Jusoh (Terengganu) . The Power Root Isotonic Drink on his left was sponsored by Kuala Lumpur !

Abdul Rahim Ramli ( Terengganu)

Another interesting story is that my teamate - Rizal Ahmad Kamal mistakenly sponsored the same drink ( Power Root) to - Abdul Rahim Ramli - Terengganu 4th board player. He beat Nik Nazri Nik Hassan - Kelantan 4th board player to collect the only point for Terengganu in the last round!
However losing 1-3 is too much that Terengganu drop into 5th place and failed to finish as a medal winner. I recall the same fate experience by my team (KL) who finish on the 6th place in 2007. Terengganu will surely make a post moterm and shine back next year.
Below is yours truly "blunderful life" game which occur on round 5.

Hairul (KL) vs Morsin Ahmad (Sarawak)

MAKSAK 2009 (Winners Pool) Round 5, 18.7.07

Black last move 29...Rcf8 ( see diagram below) is a force one because i was threatening the desicive 30.Rxf7 . In time trouble, i had less then 5 minutes, i miscalculated a combination thinking that i have a nice force checkmate.

30. Rxf7+ ?? what a blunder. I was dreaming a nice checkmate which was not there. 30...Rxf7 31.Rh7+ Kxh7 32.Qxf7+ Kh8 33.g6 Rh4! and there is no checkmate on h7 and i resign in few more moves. Looking back on my 30th move, my teamate pointed to me that i missed the simple defensive yet clear winning move - 30.b3! and after white move his queen with 30...Qc5 white reply with 31.Na4 attacking the queen and black will lost his rook on d4 and the game ! What a missed.

Yours Truly (left) vs Morsin Ahmad (Sarawak)

I will publish more games and photo in part 2 - stay tune !

The Best Board Prize
Here are the results of best board prizes:


Board 1: Ismail Ahmad (Polis Diraja Malaysia)
Board 2: Lim Kian Hwa (Sarawak) photo above
Board 3: Mohd Hezri Che Aziz (Negeri Sembilan)
Board 4: Morsin Ahmad Bahari (Sarawak)
Board 5: Izaruddin Ahmad (Pahang)
Board 6: Kamaral Arifin Ishak (Pahang)
Thanks to Mr. Md. Arshad, Full results for the winners pools is as below:-

Ranking crosstable

Rk.	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	TB1	TB2
1	SARAWAK	*	3	2	2	2	3½	3	3	18,5	11
2	KUALA LUMPUR	1	*	2½	2	2	2½	3½	2½	16,0	10
3	PAHANG	2	1½	*	2½	3	1	2	2½	14,5	8
4	KELANTAN	2	2	1½	*	3	1	1½	3½	14,5	6
5	TERENGGANU	2	2	1	1	*	3½	2½	2	14,0	7
6	PDRM	½	1½	3	3	½	*	1	2	11,5	5
	JOHOR	1	½	2	2½	1½	3	*	1	11,5	5
8	PERAK	1	1½	1½	½	2	2	3	*	11,5	4

Annotation:
Tie Break1: points (game-points)
Tie Break2: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)
source : chess-results.com