Masters of the game

CHESS By

QUAH SENG SUN

ssquah@gmail.com

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Kudos to Malaysia’s two new international masters.
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NEW Year’s Day brought some mixed news for the Malaysian chess scene. I don’t like to use well-worn clichés but anyway, the good news should come first and it is that two new International Masters were confirmed by the World Chess Federation last November.
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Lim Yee Weng achieved his three IM title norms at the Turin Chess Olympiad in 2006 and two of the Malaysia open tournaments in 2007 and 2008.
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Last September, we knew that Mok Tze Meng had been awarded a provisional IM title pending his rating points jumping above 2,400. Well, his title has now been confirmed.
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The other player who now also has a confirm­­­­ed IM title is Lim Yee Weng. His application to Fide was made in November 2008 after he had achieved his three IM title norms at the Turin Chess Olympiad in 2006 and two of the Malaysia open tournaments in 2007 and 2008. At that time, Fide agreed to the application but made his IM title conditional upon his rating rising above 2,400 points. He did achieve this subsequently and the title was finally confirmed in last November’s rating list.
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Good for the two of them because they had put in a lot of hard work to get their titles.
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As it stands right now, Malaysia has five international masters.
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Jimmy Liew was the first to achieve this title so there is always a special place reserved for him whenever this subject of international masters is raised locally. Mas Hafizulhelmi was our second player to gain this title and he also has a special place in Malaysian chess because after all these years, he remains our strongest player.
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Apart from Liew, Mas Hafizul, Mok and Lim, our other international master is Wong Zijing who is unfortunately inactive because he’s totally caught up with his studies overseas. Hopefully, we shall be able to see him return to active chess duties sometime in the future.
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The bad news is that, suddenly, I discover that Malaysia’s name has disappeared from the Fide list of member nations. For that to happen, it can only mean one thing: that the Malaysian Chess Federation’s (MCF) membership standing with
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Fide has not been regularised in the past one year. The MCF has been such a long-standing member of the world body since 1974 (even longer if we consider the days of the old Chess Association of Malaysia, which was the MCF’s predecessor) that it is embarrassing that this should happen.
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New level: Mok Tze Meng, who was awarded a provisional International Master title pending his rating points jumping above 2,400, has finally achieved that.
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Unfortunately, such delistings do happen once in a while even to more active chess federations. The least that the MCF should do now is to take steps to rectify this hiccup as soon as possible.