By KT Leong
On November 23, Yayasan Ipoh (YI) held their very first Chess Championship at the YI Convention Centre (YICC). This was done in collaboration with the Perak Chess Association.
A total of 97 participants had signed up to take part in one of three respective categories, which were the Under-12, Open and OKU (Persons with Disabilities) categories.
Yayasan Ipoh hopes that this event will promote the game of chess and instill discipline among our youth as well.
In order to enhance this first event, the Perak Chess Association also extended a special invitation to Mr. Arif Rahman Saragih, a Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) Master from Medan, Indonesia, to take part as a participant.
The tournament started with an inaugural speech by the CEO of Yayasan Ipoh, Dato’ Dr. Ramanathan, who was grateful that the event finally was proceeding as planned, after its month-long preparation.
Round 1 started shortly after the speech. A total of 6 rounds were played by the participants using the Swiss System.
A special exhibition match between the FIDE Master, Mr Arif Rahman and Manish A/l Dhanpal Rajkumar, an Under-12 Champion, was organised as well.
The first winner announced was from the OKU category; Lennard Lai Zhun Hoong, second place went to Ahmad Zubir Bin Mohd Yaakob and third place was won by Nur Zulhaqqimi Bin Nazeri.
For the Under-12 category, the first place winner was Manish A/L Dhanpal Rajkumar, second place went to M. Fadhil and Ting Te Yu Jordan won third place. Best Under-9 Boy and Best-Under 9 Girl were won by Ting Te Jun Justin and Arissa Husna Binti Abdul Jalal respectively.
Mr. Arif Rahman Saragih had won first place in the Open Category, which won him the Yayasan Ipoh Chess Tournament Challenge Trophy. Second and third place went to Ahmad Kamal Bin Rustam Affendi and Pramod Kumar A/L Narayanan. Ahmad Muzafar bin Ramli had won Best Veteran Award and Nur Adawiyah Binti Abu Bakar Martin won for Best Lady Award.
The tournament concluded successfully and Yayasan Ipoh had decided that it will continue to hold this event annually. Hopefully, future tournaments will see International Masters gracing Yayasan Ipoh, Perak and Malaysia.
