Last weekend, 13 Malaysians took part in the Asian Online and Asian Juniors Online Juniors Chess Championship for Players with Disabilities held via TORNELO platform. The 6 rounds event was organized by the Asian Chess Federation via its Commission for Disabled Asia on the 8th and 9th December 2023.

For the Open Junior event, Loo Pin Xie took the Gold Medal after securing 4.5 points from 5 rounds to clear the field by half point in front of Kyrgyzstan’s duo – Nuradyl Zholdoshbekov and Tilegen Rakhatbekov at 2nd and 3rd spot respectively. 3 other Malaysians – Muhd Danish Ariff Mohd Afif, Abdur Rahman Mohd Afif and Muhd Syamil Azlee finished at the 10th, 11thh and 15th spot. 5 countries took part in the event with Iran fielding 7 players followed by Malaysia and Kyrgyztan both with 4 players, Vietnam with 2 players and Bhutan with a single player.

For the Girls Junior event, 6 players took part in the Round Robin event and Malaysia was represented by WNM Ainul Mardhiah Mohd Afif and younger sister Aishah Mohd Afif. After the dust settled, Ainul had to be contented with the Bronze Medal with Kazakhstan’s Tomiris Kurmanalina secured Gold and fellow countrywomen and sister Adel Kurmanalina took Silver.

The Open event was dominated by the Philippines players who swept all the podium spots with Darry Bernardo securing Gold, Menandro Redor taking the Silver, and Felix Aguilera with the Bronze. 22 players from 6 countries took part in the event with 6 Malaysian giving out their best to battle for the honors. Ahmad Nazmi Md Nizam was Malaysia’s best performer in 5th spot followed closely by Ardian Syah Muming in the 6th spots.

In the Women event, Malaysia was represented by a single player from 6 players that took part. After the dust had settled, Siti Syarifah Aibiddin missed the podium finish by finishing behind Bronze Medalist Maria Teresa Bilog of the Philippines. The event was won by WCM Deniza Kurmanalina of Kazakhstan with another Pinoy Cheryl A. Angot securing Silver.

The Malaysian official taking care of the team was Muhammad Khairi Jansar who is also the President of the Persatuan Catur Melaka.

CONGRATULATIONS to LOO PIN XIE for his awesome performance, and to the entire team for giving their best for the event. And thanks to Muhammad Khairi for managing and preparing the team for the event.