The Boys category for the Asian Schools Chess Championship 2021 concluded late yesterday afternoon – a week after the Girls category ended a week ago. Overall, while our Girls may have performed slightly better than the Boys, it was a commendable outing for our youngsters as for many, this is their first outing donning the Malaysian colors at an International event albeit being done online.

The Boys event – with more than 530 players taking part in the 6 age categories offered, were clearly dominated by India with Iran a distant 2nd, followed by other countries such as Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Indonesia. India A took the Team Gold Medal for U7, U11 and U15 with India B taking the U9 category, Uzbekistan A the U13 Category and Iran A in the U17 category.

Breaking it down by age group – as each country is allowed to win only 1 team title, India A took the U7 Team Gold Medal, followed by Iran A for Silver and Philippines A for Bronze. On the individual performance, India swept the top three spots with Avirat Chauhan taking the Gold, Aarush Bathula the Silver and the Bronze to Advij Upadhyaya. Malaysia’s best performer was Yap Ray Jin in 25th place and Wong Nico Joseph a spot behind. For the team performance, Malaysia A finished in 9th spot.

For the U9 age category, India B secure the Team Gold Medal with Mongolia in 2nd place and Iran A with Bronze. India’s Apaar Saxena also took the individual Gold medal followed by Taipei’s Chen Jun Wei and another Indian player – Aryaman Gangully in 3rd place. Malaysia’s best finisher was Mohana Raj Dharvindra Raj in 14th place with 6 points followed by Praneal Balan (photo below left) and Mohd Ismakhaizuran Khomisajie in 25th and 29th place respectively – both with 5.5 points.

The U11 category attracted 102 players and after the smoke cleared, it was the familiar India A securing the Gold with Iran A the Silver followed by Bronze medalist Kyrgyzstan. Individually, Iran secured both the Gold and Silver medal with Movahed Sina and Gholami Armin, and India taking the Bronze through Goutham Krishna H. Malaysia’s best performer was Anderson Ang Ern Jie (photo top right) with 6 points to secure the 11th spot – the highest rank for a Malaysian player, followed in a distant by Lee Yun Rui in 24th place with 5.5 points

Uzbekistan A secured the Team Gold Medal for U13 category with Iran A and India B at 2nd and 3rd placing. Malaysia A finished 8th in the Team tally with Malaysia B at 13th place. Ernest Yek Zu Yang was Malaysia’s best performer with 6 points in 14th place out of 95 participants. Poh Yu Tian a spot behind in 15th place also with 6 points. Another Malaysian player Genivan Genkeswaran is in 23rd place with 5.5 points. Mohammad Akbarabadi Hossein of Iran secured the Gold Medal in the individual race with Sahib Singh of India winning the Silver and Bakhrillaev Bakhrom of Uzbekistan earning the Bronze.

U15 age category attracted the most players with 103 participants. India A bagged the Team Gold Medal followed by Indonesia A and Iran B completing the podium finishers. Malaysia ended their campaign in 11th spot for Team A and 18th for Team B. India also swept the top 3 individual medals with Pranesh M, Shubh Kapur and Harshad S repectively. Malaysia’s best performer was Kedahan Darshan Revinthran who scored 5.5 points in 20th place followed by Koay Yu Hang, Cheah Zong Ze and Muhd Emir Rasyid Emran in 36th, 42nd and 44th place – all with 5 points each.

The U-17 category attracted 80 participants from 16 Asian countries and after final round ends, Iran A, India B and Philippines A secured the Team Medals in the respective order. Individually, Batbold Nyamsuren of Mongolia secured the individual Gold with Bosagh Zadeh Alireza of Iran in 2nd spot and Soham Kamotra India in 3rd. Team Malaysia A ended their event in 8th place followed by Team B in 12th place with Loo Pin Xie securing the 12th spot with 6 points, Koay Yu Zhe in 20th spot with 5.5 points and Kumar Aditya Ram in 30th spot with 5 points.

The Malaysian Chess Federation wish to thank all the players, coaches and parents for making the event a success, and for their cooperation and support in rallying our players to perform their best. MCF also wishes to thank HOD Nik Ahmad Farouqi and Iwan Schani for job well done in preparing and mentoring the players in their tournament journey and experience. MCF hopes the players will continue to improve and forge their way toward success and development in their chess playing career.

All in all, it will be another busy month in August with the Cadets and Youth clocking off today at 3:00pm Central European Time (10:00pm Malaysian) for the U10 Boys and U18 Girls Categories, and the Online Olympiad to kick off later next week as well.