Pictures of Kuantan Team Open

KCC is the tournament leader until round 5 where they meet Setia Chess Kuantan. Setia trashed these local fav 3-0 with NM Kamal leading the pack.
Pic on the right - is the promising youngsters team TEMPO fought hard against the well known veterans - TARIAN UNGGAS lead by Pakcik Shukor from Temerloh. I still remember this team way back in the late 80s where they won in style during the Kuantan Team Closed chess championship back then.


Team PAWN STONE vs MMU - both team put their best players on the board, the tournament regular Abd Khalid Musa against an Iranian player Hamid Reza - MMU student.
Pic on the right - as you can see on left is Pakcik Majid one of Kelab Catur Kuantan's AJK. He used to play under the flag of Polis Hutan (now no longer existed coz no more communist to fight) during the Kuantan Team Closed in the late 80s and early 90s. Now he is an active trainer for the Sungai Isap community.


3 trio of siblings - the daughters of our AJK, Cikgu Fakri. One of them qualify to MSSM this year.
Pic on the right - is the promising girls, one of them if continously play may become the next National Player.


The scene from the back. These kids played their best through out the rounds, ages ranging as young as 7 years old. These are the next generation of chess in Kuantan.
Pic on the right - on the left is BIZWORLD the first board player is Suwardi Andri Sidek a former Pahang state player, used to play chess in the same time as I am. A very talented player indeed but unfortunately seldom play in outside event. His team was up against SMART, comprising of kids ranging age of 13-14 years old that i bet next year will dominate the U-15 MSSD event.


On the right is UMP player - NM Zarul Shazwan leading the team. NM Zarul fought well to deserve the best board prize with 7/7 and 100 % performance.
Pic on the right - the total 60 teams took part for 1st Kuantan Open Team 2009.


The helpers that voluntarily helping. Thanks so much!

Kuantan Blitz Open 2009

After the Team event, while waiting for the result we had our Blitz Open at the same place. Many seems to be excited as this was our first Blitz ever had. 74 players participated in Blitz.. many wanted to join but we had to close the registration at 11.30. With such a huge support from the fans, our next Blitz will be a format same like the Malaysian Open Blitz that I took part last August.

The favourite for the Blitz is of course NM Zarul Shazwan, as he is a frequent player that plays a lot of this games in KL. While others were juz a regular player. Our local favourite to win the Blitz as he once beat NM Zarul during the friendly match held late last year is Sulaiman Johari, but he too failed to stop NM Zarul from clinching the Blitz Champion title this time around.

The champion goes to NM Zarul Shazwan, Second goes to NM Kamal Arifin and third goes to Sulaiman Johari. I was surprised to see NM Kamal on the second spot, coz i know he is not a Blitz player, his style of play suited for a longer time control, but in a Blitz who would've thought the outcome.

Result 1st Kuantan Open Team 2009

Finally... the result is out! Sorry to fans out there that have been waiting for the result for days now.

Honestly when we had our Kelab Catur Kuantan meeting to form Persatuan Catur Kuantan, we had our discussion to have our first event for the year. The team event has always been in our mind as it was last held in Kuantan in the year 1995 ( I think!). So, I bet not many youngsters out there actually knows how to play in a team. As it has been our motto at the Kelab to have different event in a year. We may have Rapid event, Team event, Blitz event, or perhaps Classical event.

Our first task when we choose Team event is to identify the limit of team to participate. And since the chess sets and clocks is limited to us (as we had to borrow some from Malaysian Chess Federation - Thanks a lot Greg for the sets), so we decided that only 60 teams on a first come first serve basis were allowed to participate. As the closing date approach in, many and many teams registered to play, and to my surprise it is our pride to announce that we had reached our target of 60 TEAMS!!!

The Kelab main objective is to do an open event but the prizes will be given by category, we feel this is the best way the ensure that the senior players can share their experiences with the juniors and show them the right way to play chess (this was how I became National Player, I learned from the experienced player while playing against them). Lucky for us, many understood this (though I noticed few disagree).

There are still a huge gap between the seniors and the juniors, but I do see the a little change this year. I am happy to see that many of the youngsters that play on that day, play better chess than the year before. If more and more tournaments were to be held in Kuantan, more and more talented players will arise. Well, that is what we believed in and it is our goal to have more quality games.

My sincere thank you as a tournament director to NM Zarul Syazwan, NM Kamal Arifin, NWM Nurul Huda, Mohd Khair, Kamal Azmi, Sulaiman Johari, Abdul Khalid Musa, Ali Akbar, Suwardi Andri, Suwardi Aris, Hamidi Taib, Abdul Majid, Shukor Mustafa, Asman Amin and many more that participate in the tournament and share your widest experiences in chess with the juniors. Thank you!

Thank you to the players that came all the way to the tournament, the team from Temerloh led by Norazri Malek and Pakcik Shukor, the team from Rompin led by Cikgu Zamri and cikgu Muhamad Deraman, the team from UMP led by NM Zarul, team from MMU led by Kumaraguru, team from MRSM Muadzam, Pekan, Kuantan and etc.. Thank you!

Also a deepest appreciation to my students and the parents that has helped me through out the tournament, Puan Aida, Puan Sathia, Bazli, Danish, Cikgu Fakri, Susanti, Hanis, Haris, Aslam, Hisham, cikgu Rohani and the helpers of SMK Sungai Soi. Thank you for all the support, that made my life a sunshine all the way for the two days! My appreciation also goes to my siblings, the sponsors and last but not least TO ALL THE PLAYERS, THE PARENTS, THE FANS for supporting the event, "tanpa anda siapalah kami"!

We shall meet again in May!