It was a celebration of sorts for our National Junior players – Anderson Ang Ern Jie and Poh Yu Tian in the Open U12, and WCM Sim Jia Ru in the Girls U16 at the FIDE World Cadets and Youth Chess Championship 2021. The National Juniors trio qualified for the next stage of the Cadets & Youth Event which will now proceed to the Top 16 knockout stage to be held at the end of August to be in contention as the World Champion of their respective age category.

For the U12 Open Category, both Anderson and Yu Tian had good starts clocking high scores in the first 3 days of play to end within the leading pool of top 20 players in the field of 201 players from 78 countries. While the eventual winner Azadaliyev Jahandar breezed through the event with a perfect 10 for 10, the battle for the next 9 qualification spots was seriously fought between the rest of the field. For the Malaysian Juniors. it was Poh Yu Tian who maintain his striking distant for the top spot, but at one point, Anderson also made his mark when he managed to rise to the occasion to secure the third spot after 8 rounds of play with Yu Tian 5 spots behind in 8th place. Another Malaysian player, Lai Hong Jun also managed to secure the 16th spot on the 4th day of the event but did not manage to maintain his strong performance faltering in the last 2 rounds.

At the end of the event, Poh Yu Tian secured the 2nd spot with 8.5 points – winning both is last 2 rounds, with Anderson in 5th place after securing a win and a draw in the final day of play. Both repeated their last year’s performance when they qualify for the knockout stage with the only difference being that last year, Anderson was in the U10 age bracket but now, he is in the same age group with Yu Tian who also qualified for the knock out stage. Both players performed well in the knock out stage and manage to continue their excellent run to the top only to lose in the Semi Final rounds. This year, we hope that both players will either equal the feat or exceed their previous performances and with that, Malaysia’s historic top finish in a World level junior event. Good Luck Anderson and Yu Tian.

For the Girls U16 event, another celebration as WCM Sim Jia Ru did well to finish in 8th spot – which is equal to her starting rank for the event, to qualify for the knock out stage. Similar to the boys, Jia Ru maintain her strong performance in the event and was always within contention for the top podium finish. This would be a historic feat for our Malaysian lass as none of our players had qualified for the knock out stage when the even was first held last year. Congrats WCM Sim Jia Ru and all the best to you in the final rounds.

Two other Malaysian girls – Ong Zhiwei and Farihah Nur Aisyah Mohd Azman, also competed in the field of 110 players from 52 countries with both ending the event in 57th and 76th spot respectively. Both players put up strong performances to end with 5 points for Zhiwei and 4 points for Farihah.

Once again MCF wishes the best of luck and all the success to our National Junior players – Anderson Ang, Poh Yu Tian and WCM Sim Jia Ru, in realizing their dream to be the best players in the World!

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