With many Online events being organized by FIDE and ASIAN Chess Federation including our very own Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF), and the many more independent organizers in cyber world locally and abroad, it is quite easy to miss out a few interesting events that are being participated by local Malaysians at the International level. One such event is the ASIAN University Online Chess Championship 2020 currently being hosted by Iran and participate by eight (8) Malaysian University students under the MASUM banner – as the event is being organized by the AUSF (Asian University Sports Federation) and ACF (ASIAN Chess Federation)
Coached by Mohd Ezmi Mahmood, playing for the ladies team are WIM Puteri Munajjah Az-Zahraa Azhar (UiTM), WFM Tan Li Ting (MMU), WFM Puteri Rifqah Fahada Azhar (UiTM) and WCM Nithyalakshmi Sivanesan (UPM), whilst for the men’s team, Malaysia is represented by IM Ooi Zhi Yang (Heriott Wyatt), Emir Rusyaidi Ahmad Nazari (Taylor), Amir Ghaazi Mohd Saprin (Politeknik Idris Shah) and Cheong Andre Kai Bin (UM). Ministry of Higher Education officers who are in charge of the event is led by Muhammad Faeez Mohammad Alias as its Head of Delegation, Zainuddin Hashim as the Team Manager and Saiful Bahari Ariffin as the Assistant Manager. Similar to the earlier World University Chess Championship event which Malaysia took part last month, all the players are gathered at Tenera Hotel in Bangi to play from a Hybird concept venue situated inside the same hotel.
Schedule of play begins with the Ladies event starting on 14th December with its Technical Meeting and the the final rounds to be completed today, 17th December 2020. Meanwhile for the Men’s event, the Technical meeting will be conducted on 26th December 2020 with the final day of play on 29th December 2020. The time control is 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment and the event offers both Individual and Team points (combined individuals) with the winner to be crowned as the Best University Nation in Asia.
With 3 more rounds to be played today, the Malaysia ladies team is currently placed 4th with 11 points behind Mongolia (14 points), Indonesia (12 points), and Iran (11.5) points. With 3 more rounds to be played to day, coach Ezmi Mahmood is confident that Malaysia will be able to improve its ranking and a medal in hand
Individually, WCM Nithyalakshmi and WFM Puteri Rifqah Fahada are Malaysia’s best performers – each with 4 points, in 7th and 9th position respectively. Both WIM Puteri Munajjah AzZahraa and WFM Tan Li Ting are a point behind in 19th and 21st placing respectively
Events are being played via www.chess.com platform and can be viewed by logging into the portal and keying in the players ID to follow their games. Full table of the events (with the players ID), can be found at http://chess-results.com/tnr542942.aspx?lan=1
Come and support our local Students in their aspiration to become the best in Asia!
#togetherwecan #kitajagakita #staysafe #stayhome
