Malaysia And FIDE-Rated Chess Events

 

21 February 2011, Kuala Lumpur – On Najib Wahab’s new blog called  The Chess Connections, Najib’s does an analysis of chess players in Malaysia in general and the availability of FIDE Chess Tournaments available in the country at large.

Here is a sampling of Najib’s analysis of Malaysian players’ participation in 10 chess events organised locally in the country.

Based on the 10 events, the following figures were arrived:

	EVENTS		TOTAL	MALAYSIAN	%
1	KUALA LUMPUR OPEN		111	20	18%
2	SELANGOR OPEN		71	70	99%
3	NATIONAL (OPEN)		94	94	100%
4	NATIONAL (WOMEN)		44	44	100%
5	MALAYSIA OPEN		133	26	20%
6	AMBANK CHALLENGE		52	42	81%
7	PENANG OPEN		71	42	59%
8	PENANG CHALLENGE		109	103	94%
9	GACC OPEN		110	69	63%
10	GACC (WOMEN)		50	28	56%
	TOTAL		845	538	64%

Based on the Jan 2011 rating list (for the period between November/December 2011), Malaysia was the most active country in the region with 84 of our players (or 29% of that 293 players that Malaysia has in the rating list) played at least 1 FIDE rated event.

A lot of the analysis is quite revealing about the status of chess in Malaysia itself and The Chess Connections’ blog post on Malaysia is simply very interesting and should put the MCF on alert on Malaysia’s future direction.

As First-GM blogger wants Malaysia to achieve our first International Grand Master sooner so that at least Malaysia can be proud of having one home-grown GM locally, therefore instituting a local FIDE Rated chess circuit with foreign players is uppermost and a priority.

Good standing foreign chess players with IM and GM titles would help push further the rating of the event higher and creates more opportunities for our local players to succeed getting either an International Master (IM) or Grand Master (GM) norm. In this regard, efforts by Excel Chess Academy to create a FIDE-Rated chess event locally at its own chess academy is commendable and would help the cause of chess in Malaysia further and create a further pool of FIDE-rated players. With a bigger pool, the chances of creating IM and GM players among Malaysians will increase.

All this analysis is good and should be made available to MCF officials for further understanding.

To read more of Najib’s analysis of chess in Malaysia, please visit this link here.

Fun Chess Facts

19 September 2010, Kuala Lumpur - Found on the internet some interesting information about chess. Please read on.

Fun Chess Facts:

• 
  
  The number of possible, unique chess games is far greater than the number of electrons in the universe! The number of electrons is estimated to be a mere 1079, while the number of unique chess games is 10120.
• 
  
  Chess is called the game of kings, because for many centuries it was played primarily by nobility and the upper classes.
• 
  
  The world's oldest known surviving complete chess set was found in the Isle of Lewis. The pieces are made from walrus tusks.
• 
  
  The rook is named from an Arabic word "rukh", meaning chariot. This reflects its ability to move quickly in straight lines, but not leap over obstacles. During the Middle Ages, when chariots were no longer in use, the rook was gradually modified to look more like the turret of a castle.
• 
  
  Some believe the word 'checkmate' comes from the Persian phrase 'shah mat' which means 'the king is defeated'.
• 
  
  Lewis Carrol's book Through the Looking Glass was based on a chess game. In the same way, Alice in Wonderland was based on playing cards.
• 
  
  The folding chess board was originally invented in 1125 by a chess-playing priest. Since the Church forbade priests from playing chess, he hid his chess board by making one that looked simply like two books lying together.