Malaysian Junior players continue to shine at the international stage with the impressive run of Penangite Loo Pin Xie who secured the Silver Medal in the ASIAN Junior Chess Championship for Players with Disabilities which was held over the weekend from 13th to 15th August 2021. A total of 34 players took part in the event – 27 players in the Open category and 7 in the Ladies category, which was organized by the Asian Chess Federation. And to show how eager our Malaysian Juniors were in participating for this event, Malaysia fielded the biggest contingent with 9 players taking part – 6 players in the Open and 3 players in the Ladies. The Open event was played over 5 rounds Swiss but for the Ladies – as there were only 7 players, it was played over round robin format all play all.

Pin Xie started of well to earn 3 perfect points after three rounds of play but lost in the penultimate round against the eventual champion Armin Rahmat Pour of Iran. With Armin needing only a draw in the final round, Pin Xie’s valiant effort securing the win in the Round 5 could only earned him the Silver medal. In 3rd spot was another Iranian Abolfazl Kazemiyan Eski who also earned 4 points but losing out on tie break. Other Malaysians in the event were newcomer to the International scene – Dhanesh Gobinath in 12th spot, Amirul Shahmie Sharulizam in 18th, Muhd Adib Rusydan Suharman in 21st, and two more newcomers Tharssen Govikrishnan in 22nd spot and Wan Syahmirul Syahrul Adzman in 24th spot.

In the Ladies category, Malaysia’s Lim Yee Jin was the best performer ending in 4th spot behind Gold medalist R P Kanishri of India, Silver winner Dariia Kudainazarova of Kyrgyzstan and Sukanna Marufa Azad of Bangladesh with Bronze. Malaysia’s other performer in the event were newcomers Yoshni Ramakrishnan in 6th spot and Nur Fatihah Jasmi in 7th.

The Malaysian Chess Federation congratulates all winners and players and hope that more PARA athlete will continue to join the Federation in popularizing and developing chess for all walks of life and age group to a greater heights. We can only improve and therefore we shall and we should.

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