The 2024 calendar for MCF in 2024 is slowly taking shape with a many event dates and venues confirmed. In short, one more new event for kids will be introduced, with the revival of another event that has been long missing from MCF calendar.
MCF will also continue the two(2) new events that it had introduced in 2023 – The National Seniors Chess Championship, and the National Seniors Rapid Chess Championship, and with the success of the Eastern Asian Juniors and Girls Chess Championship by Sabah Chess Association, MCF is hungry to do more.
2024 will kick off with MCF’s Annual General Meeting that is scheduled for the 4th February 2024. Next come the National Juniors Chess Championship which has been brought forward due to the request by many state teams preparing their SUKMA selection and preparation. The event will be held from 16th to 18th of February 2024 in AEON Mall Ipoh Klebang. However, the 2024 Juniors Champion (Open/Boys and Girls) will only be offered the opportunity to represent Malaysia at future events in 2024 as the official rep for Commonwealth has already been selected and offered. Registration for the National Juniors will only be opened by tomorrow – please be on the lookout in MCF website.
MCC 2024 is also being brought forward – to be organized one week after Hari Raya, in view of the current Olympiad year where teams need to be registered by May 2024. This year’s Olympiad will be held in Budapest, Hungary and the top three players from the MCC event – both Open and Women category, will earn automatic slots in the National squad. The MCC was initially planned to be held in one of the Northern states but, may be brought to the South.
The new event introduced for 2024 is the Malaysian Interschool Chess Championship 2024 – an event to select the best Primary and Secondary school team, with the champions to be offered the chance to represent Malaysia at the World School Team Chess Championship. The revived event is the National Corporate Chess Challenge a.k.a Labor Day event which was once an event organized annually among companies for the right to brag as the best chess company in Malaysia.
Following the success of the Interstate Chess Championship organized by Perlis, Persatuan Catur Pahang has agreed to host this year’s edition from the 31st of May until the 3rd of June. With SUKMA just around the corner, this event would serve as the final warm up game for many teams prior to battling it out at SUKMA’s first ever chess event in Sarawak.
MCF is also eyeing at least 2 more International events – the EASTERN ASIAN Youth Chess Championship (tentatively to be held in August) and the World Amateur Chess Championship (tentatively in November) which will couple the 100 year FIDE Celebration.
Similarly, MCF is also looking to celebrate its 50 year anniversary in August 2024 as the formation of MCF was realized at its first Committee Meeting chaired by the late Dato Tan Chin Nam on 4th August 1974, succeeding the Chess Association of Malaysia (CAM). Interestingly enough, Malaysia also hosted the 50 year FIDE anniversary in 1974 in Penang with FIDE President – Dr Max Euwe, attending the program.
In short, 2024 will be a very busy year for MCF and the team looks forward to getting more people to assist in making 2024 a great chess year for Malaysia. MCF Secretariat continues to seek young, creative, resourceful and passionate chess enthusiast to volunteer and learn as part of its team to help manage the many activities planned for the year. MCF also welcomes sponsors and donors who would like to explore many marketing and expansion opportunities with chess as the preferred sports of choice. Sponsors and Donors will definitely be acknowledged and advertised as partners to MCF with their names tagged in every event held for the year.
