Positive note
CHESSBy QUAH SENG SUN
The Malaysia Chess Festival opened on a high note.
BY my reckoning, the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) has at least drawn acknowledgement from Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek that the Government could have done more for the game.
“This is a game that needs more publicity and aggressive promotion to bring in the fans,” he said when opening the Malaysia Chess Festival in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday.
As a first step, he said that his ministry would meet with the MCF to draw up a development programme.
“We shall have to take the initial step towards producing quality players for the future, including grandmasters, and we look forward to assisting the MCF in whatever way we can to promote Malaysia as a destination for chess,” said Shabery.
He was impressed by the good turnout at the chess fest which attracted about 600 local and foreign players as well as their families. The foreigners hailed from 21 countries, some coming from as far as Uzbekistan and Australia.
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Malaysian chess is doing great.
I have played in this tournament for the last 3 years. It is great! Lovely country, great food, friendly people. It’s a very well-organised event in a great venue – the hotel is within a large shopping centre, with all kinds of food and entertainment. Perfect place to bring a team of kids!
‘Malaysian chess is doing great.’
They are one of the rare countries in the world that has not even one grandmaster, and – no grandmaster in sight, either. Their job past 20 years has been done poorly.
Yup, just look at their website for chess and see very poorly done.