The Malaysian Chess Federation conducted its first ever official online chess trial event which was competed by 8 teams from Penang and Klang Valley area earlier today. The mini event was held over 4 rounds with a time control of 10 minutes + 2 seconds increment. The event was managed using a different organization concept that combines online chess platform with offline pairing system using Swiss Manager where team maintain their respective board order – just like in any normal team event.
The event started at 9:00am with players gradually begin logging into the zoom meeting application to hear the event briefing by the Chief Arbiter – FA Najib A Wahab. Although Round 1 started slightly late from the scheduled time of 9:30am, the remainder of the rounds started right on time as per the scheduled shared with all the participants. The final round also concluded as scheduled at 12:20pm with the organizers conducting a one hour post mortem meeting to discussed some of the issues and challenges that were faced during the session. Throughout the event, all players are required to use the webcams on their smart devices to allow the arbiters to monitor their laptop screens and their table surroundings.
While most issues were resolved or overcome with workaround solutions to ensure the event can continue as planned, the Online Team agrees that a more concrete method of organizing can be worked out once the authorities such as KKM, KBS and OCM, have issued a more solid guidelines on how indoor sporting events can be organized moving forward post CMCO. MCF has also prepared an alternate proposal on how it will conduct national level online tournaments in the future which is more practical in mitigating cheating issues while at the same time, adhering to social distancing requirements, avoiding mass gathering, and enforcing all health and safety protocols. If the proposal is approved, MCF is set to run another trial event to understand the viability and challenges that the new concept may present during a real tournament.
Once everything becomes clearer, MCF plans to run its first ever National Inter State/Team Online Event sometime in early July followed by a National Level Individual Chess Championship soon, both of which will offer attractive prize fund for the eventual winners.
The Malaysian Chess Federation would like to thank the Penang Chess Association led by Madam See Swee Sie and assisted by ES Tan and PS Lim, and En Mohd Saprin Sabri, for their assistance, dedication, and input in making the event a success.
Full results for the trial event can be found at http://chess-results.com/tnr528326.aspx?lan=1
