You win some, and you lose some – a fitting summary of the mixed outcome for young Malaysians who participated in the recently concluded ASIAN Zone 3.3 Youth Chess Championship 2022. We did well in the U18 age categories but had to struggle in the other lower age groups competition.

The surprise of the day came in the form of Ong Zhi Wei who secured Gold in the U18 Girls category, beating 21 other contenders for the top spot. Ranked 14th at the start of the event, she did well at the onset of the event by winning against the 4th ranked player in the first round and never looked back from then on. Although she lost her final two rounds, it was enough for her to hold on to the lead (via tie break) to claim the top spot. Dang Minh Ngoc and Vu Bui Thi Thanh Van – both of Vietnam, rounded up the podium spots respectively.

In the U18 category, although he had led most of the way in the event, it was enough for Poh Yu Tian to hold to his Bronze medal having similar points with the leaders only to lose on the tie break. Our Malaysian players did well in his category with Loo Pin Xie securing the 4th spont, Anderson Ang Ern Jie in 9th place and Yeoh Yuan Hui in 15th place. Considering that both Yu Tian and Anderson are only 12 years old but participating in the higher age group category, that by itself is already an indicator of their potential strength in the years to come. For the U18 Open category, the champion was Nguyen Hyunh Minh Thien of Vietnam with Tisado Jamyl Dilan securing the 2nd spot.

Other notable finishes by our young squad were Rajendran Kartikeyan – 7th in the U10 Open category, Cheah Austin Weibin – 8th in the U12 Open category, Yap Ray Jin – 11th in the U8 Open category, Cheah Zong Ze – 11 in the U16 Open category, and Ain Insyirah Rosli – 12th in the U12 Girls category.

A total of 508 players took part in the online event with Vietnam having the most players (and winners) at the event with 252 young patzers. Host Philippines had the second highest number of participants but a long way behind at 102 players and Singapore with 49 players. Malaysia is next with 47 players taking part.

MCF CONGRATULATES ALL PLAYERS for taking part in the event and participating to the best of their abilities. MCF hopes that many more youngsters will pick up chess a their sports of choice, and that many more will aspire to compete in the various chess events held – online or Over-The-Board, internationally or locally, to help improve and increase chess popularity at every level throughout the country.