One small step for MCF but a great leap for Chess!
The Malaysian Chess Federation led by President Akhramsyah Muammar Ubaidah Sanusi made an official visit to the Ministry of Education in the hopes of reigniting collaborative work with the Ministry to pave the way forward for chess development in the country. The MCF team was greeted warmly by the Pengarah Bahagian Sukan, Kokurikulum dan Kesenian, En. Zainal Abas at his office in Putrajaya which was also attended by Puan Rabitah Razak who is the officer in charge for Chess at the department. Aside from President Akhramsyah, MCF team that joined the visit included Secretary – Najib Abdul Wahab, Treasurer – Emran Mohd Tamil, and Committee Member – Muhammad Firdaus Ismail who is also the President of Persatuan Catur Putrajaya
The meeting started on a good note with both parties agreeing that there is a need to establish a good working mechanism between the Ministry and the Federation. Some of the items discussed revolved around enhancing MCF collaboration with MOE on how to further improve chess in Malaysia starting with recognizing MSSM champions as possible National representative to Asian and World level events including accrediting MSSM as a FIDE rated event. The session also discussed the possibility of organizing a National School event to select the champion to represent Malaysia to Russia for the White Rook Chess Championship organized by the Russian Chess Federation, and the possibility of introducing chess training program for teachers at the Teacher’s training colleges to prepare them as chess teachers at the schools levels. 
Both the Ministry and the Federation also reached an agreement that moving forward – similar with the same exercises that MOE has established with other national sports body, all applications to organize a National or International chess events by an independent organizer will now be channeled to MCF for support and approval.
The 1½ hour session ended at about 11:10am with further discussion to take place between MOE and MCF in ensuring that enhanced cooperation and development can be executed to improve chess in Malaysia.
