Exclusive Pictures from Macau Games 2007!!!

Here are pictures taken by team manager Haslindah during the MAIGOC 2007. Thanks to her for the pictures!


Siti Zulaika in action


Haslindah (far right) with Asian Chess president - Sheikh Sultan


Ibrahim, OCM Officer - Dato' Roy, and Zulaika's father.


Our future GM, IM Mas probably smiling for the bronze he won later on


Enjoying the view perhaps?


Pictures of officials


Zulaika and Haslindah


OCM - Dato' Roy


Picture taken just before the departure to Macau, with Air Asia AK51 at LCCT.


Opening ceremony


Opening ceremony


Malaysian officials


The mascot...

International Women and sports Conference 2007

On 30 & 31st oct 2007, I went to Berjaya Times Square and convention centre for the International women and sports conference 2007. I represented Malaysian Chess Federation for the event, together with Sufiah, zuraiha, Latifah and Esther.

There were approximately 300 delegates at the event, most of Malaysians women, representing various walks of life especially in sports. Others were delegates from Arabs countries, Bangladesh, India, Algeria, etc. We have speakers from Brazil, USA, UK, Australia and Europe.

It was a very interesting event, and it opened m y eyes to things that relates to women.

How many women involves in sports and later on turn to coaching after retire.. I think I am the few of those women. How many of us really care about sexual harassment? Or even self defense?

Hmm.... things to think about, right?

I'll post the pictures from the event soon!

Blitz MAIGOC 2007

The individual blitz was won by both from India. Koneru Humpy won the gold for the women's category, while Sasikaran won the gold for the men's category.

Murtaz Kazhgalyev of Kazakhstan won the silver and Bu Xiangzhi and Ehsan Moradiabadi from Iran won the bronze for the Men's category

Zhu Chen of Qatar won the silver, Sukandar Irene (INA) and Pham Bic Ngoc (VIE) won the bronze in the women's category.

Malaysians' - Mas Hafizul was in the 13th place, and Siti Zulaika finished 6th place.

In the blitz team event.
The China team won the 9-round Swiss Macau Asian Indoor Games Blitz Team Championship on Saturday with India winning Silver and Kazakhstan the bronze.

Malaysian team finished 5th with 20.5 points! not bad at all!


Last round beat India 3-1! Mas won against Sasikaran, Anas won too aginst Arun Prasad, while Siti drew with Koneru Humpy and Syazwani also drew with Harika Dronavalli

We also won against Indonesia 2.5 - 1.5. Mas drew with Utut Adianto, Anas lost to Susanto, Siti won against Sukandar Irene, and Syazwani with against Evi Lindiawati.

Men's & Women's Individual Classical Chess MAIGOC 2007

Zhu Chen


Ni Hua

(Pictures taken from MAIGOC website)

Ni Hua of China and Zhu Chen of Qatar won the individual championship for men and women, in classical chess at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau. Ni Hua scored 1.5-0.5 against Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan who won silver while Zhu Chen beat Hou Yifan of China with the same score who won silver. Winning the bronze medals were Harika Dronavali and Siti Zulaikha of Malaysia in the women`s. Mas Hafizulhelmi of Malaysia and Gundavaa Bayarsaihan of Mongolia won the bronze medals for men.

Individual Clasical Men's & Women's 2007

Both Mas and Siti lost to their opponent 2-0. Mas lost to Ni Hua, while Siti lost to Hou Yifan.

Today 1/11/07, Zhu Chen will play against Hou Yifan, and Ni Hua vs Kazhgaleyev.

So, it means that before the Blitz game start in the next day, Malaysian will have a full rest day today.

Rest well people.. May tomorrow you guys fought the hardest!! Have fun sight seeing in Hong Kong!

Mas's Game at MAIGOC 2007

More news on the team classical

http://www.fide.com/news.asp?id=1494

Team Classical Malaysian Team at MAIGOC 2007

IM Mas Hafizulhilmi and WIM Siti Zulaika made it to the semi finals of the team classical! What a joy for Malaysia.. This is the result that we have been waiting for! The least that we could do, isn't it? Bronze Medal is confirmed!

There are four players made it to the men's classical, which are Batchuluun Cagmed (MGL), Kazhgaleyev Murtaz (KAZ), Mas Hafizul and Ni Hua (CHN). Mas Hafizul is playing against Ni Hua.

For the women's semi final, Harika Dronavalli (IND), Zhu Chen (QAT), Hou Yifan (CHN) and Siti. However, siti will be playing against Hou Yifan.

Our Team Classical made to the 4th place! not bad man! We got 16 points out of 6 games.. (check out my previous info for the results). Only half a points separate us from the bronze medallist! (If.. and if.... well, if won't work in real life)

Gold was won by China - 18.5 points, Silver - India 16.5 points, and Bronze - Vietnam 16.5 points.

Team Classical Result

http://chess-results.com/tnr8545.aspx?lan=1

Team Classical Chess

Lim Yee Weng has finally arrived in Macau for the Team Classical match.

Other countries has fielded their strongest players for the event. Ni Hua, Xu Yuhua (women's world champion), are expected to play. Wesley so, is expected to play for philippines. And also other players from Kazakhtans, and etc...

In round 1, Malaysia vs Chinese Taipei. We won 4-0. Lim Yee Weng played for board 2 of the team, meaning that Anas is taking a rest for the event.

In round 2, Kazakhstan vs Malaysia. We lost 1.5 - 2.5. Lim Yee Weng won against Anuar Ismagambetov, while Siti drew with Maria Sergeyeva. Not bad guys!

In round 3, Malaysia will play against Japan. Hope we can win this one! Good Luck!

Team Classical Chess

Women's Individual Rapid Chess

The result can be found out at

http://www.maigoc2007.com/php/other_reports.php?lan=en&id=1805

Men's Individual Rapid Chess

The result can be found out at

http://www.maigoc2007.com/php/other_reports.php?lan=en&id=1740

Malaysia's Team Performance at Asian Indoor Games

in Round 3, Malaysia lost to Philippines 0-4. That is not what I predicted!

I know deep in my heart that Malaysia will lost to Philipinos.. But not without total lost! Something must be going wrong somewhere?

In Round 4, Malaysia was paired against Nepal, and as we all assume, we won 4-0, that is a result that made us bounce back on track...

In Round 5, Malaysia vs Mongolia. We lost to 1-3. One point was secured by Siti Zulaika where she won against Yanjiv Batzaya. And there she comes to rescue the day!

In Round 6, Pakistan vs Malaysia. We won 2.5-1.5. Mas drew with Gillani Tanveer, Anas lost to veteran Mahmood Lodhi, while the ladies both won their games.

The total score for Malaysia, 6 points from 6 rounds of play and finished 12th placed from 20 teams.

What do you guys think of their performance?

In the meantime, Gold was won by India, Silver by Vietnam, and bronze by Republic of Iran. Where is China? China with 8 points was place fifth.

Result's of Team Rapid Chess

The results can be found out at

http://www.maigoc2007.com/php/other_reports.php?lan=en&id=1739

Result Macau Asian Indoor Games 2007

I've just received the results of Malaysian players at Macau Asian Indoor Games 2007 from Team Manager, Haslindah Ruslan.

Round 1 of Rapid Chess started today at 9am - 10am : Malaysia vs Maldives
Our IM Mas won his game, FM Anas drew, while IWM Siti and NWM Syazawani got themselves a bye. The total score for first round = 3.5 points. Good points for a start!

Round 2 of Rapid Chess at 10.30 - 11.30am : Indonesia vs Malaysia.
IM Mas lost to GM Susanto Megaranto, FM Anas lost to IM Irwanto, IWM Siti lost to Irene Kharisma and NWM Syazwani drew with Evi Lindiawati. Total score for round 2 is 3.5 - 0.5 points.

Total Point so far after 2 rounds for Malaysia is 4 points.

I do hope Malaysia can gain more points in the coming more rounds to go, because I still believe there is still room for improvements. Good luck!

Round 3 will start at 2.30-3.30pm : Malaysia vs Philippines.
IM Mas will play against GM Rogelio Antonio, FM Anas vs Rolando Nolte, WIM Siti vs Perena and NWM Syazwani will play Sherie Cua.

Hope they can gain points from this one. Based on the line up, Philippines is a strong contender, but maybe the ladies can secure full points.

More result will be posted soonest!

Olimpiad 1990 at Novi Sad, Yugoslavia

In 1990 I make my first international debut at the 29th Chess Olimpiad in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. It was a nice moments for me, being among the best players representing their countries. Seeing for myself in Live top players of the world at that time on the top board!.. I made an impressive performance there, placing 8th in the world for board 4! Hey, not bad! considering that was my first tourney...

Now, presenting one of my games at the Olimpiad:

Macau - Indoor Games 2007

Malaysian team for Asian Indoor Games 2007 will be leaving to Macau on 25th Oct 2007 with AirAsia at 1.30noon. The technical meeting for the event will start at 8pm. First round for the event at 9am for standard team game. (Info given by Haslindah Ruslan - Team manager)

I wish them the best of luck! and bring home something guys!!


FM Lim Yee Weng


IM Mas Hafizul Hilmi Agus Abdul Rahman


FM Anas Nazreen Bakri


NWM Nur Syazwani Zulkafli


IWM Siti Zulaika Foudzi

Newspaper's Clippings

Hairulov effort in compiling Malaysian chess history, makes me going through my family collections of chess newspaper's cuttings. Interesting that i found out so many news about chess, with names that hardly mentioned nowadays. Well, in this part one edition - I'll start will the familiar faces.... here it goes;

here is the newspaper cutting of Mas Hafizulhilmi at a very young age

I saw Mohd Kamal Abdullah mentioned in stonemaster.biz shoutbox the 24hour tourney, well here it is.

Ooi Chern Ee too made it big in the world junior event

But Mas got no. 5th under - 10 world junior event in 1991 at Warsaw, Poland.

Mas were nominated for the Tunas Harapan MSSM award in the year 1991 representing Kelantan, he however won the title in the year 1992.

This was taken in the year 1990. Where we saw Audrey lifted the NWM title for the first National Closed (W).

And we have the new World Chess Champion 2007!!

Picture taken from www.chessbase.com

And we have the new World Chess Champion 2007!!
I never guess that Anand will be the truly one. I know that Anand's is exceptionally skillfull and will be the champ, but I would never thought that he will actually pull it through!!
Well done!! and kudos to asia for making a mark in the world chess. Anand is not just the first Asian to do so, but he is also the world no. 1 ranking and the world champ! The last that did that was Kasparov (even Kramnik wasn't in the first ranking by rating, when he was the champ).

I am happy that Anand is the one, he deserves it more than anyone else (besides Kramnik la..).
Because he has it all, the oscar, the world no. 1 spot, etc... but never the one and only unified World Chess Champion... And he did that with style! Being the only player undefeated in the double round robin tournament (Yeah, Kramnik suffered a set back when he lost to Morozevich!).

But at the same time, I feel sad for the Kramnik is not the champ. Coz he sure need to prove something... But then again, things aren't going as we planned it. Kramnik is a strong when it comes to one to one game, but in this double round robin thing... who knows... It is an upset for fans to see him drew in games with just 13 moves of play..

Congrats to Anand!!

And Life Goes On ....

The Malaysian Chess Festival 2007 has ended, but the spirit of chess is always high among players.

Now we are all waiting for the world championship match at Mexico starting 12th September. Who will be the next world champion?

Fans are betting for players like Anand, or Kramnik to defend the title. But who knows, maybe unexpected Grishuk or Morozevich will come out the best to win the title!.. But in my heart, my bet will always be Kramnik. The next shot if not Kramnik, I think Morozevich will do. If he did win, then the world will have something to say. Maybe he has the inconsistency of playing previously, but who knows this time he prove the difference!

Kramnik, if he win it, then he prove to the world that he deserve the title years ago, when he held it under the different chess association (and that was when he won against Kasparov in the year 2000).

And honestly speaking, I can't wait for the event to start.

Ramadhan Month has come again this year. And we will start fasting thursday 13th September 2007. Poor me, my first day of Ramadhan will be at the hotel, coz, I'll be outstation to KL during the first and second day of Ramadhan. (what perfect timing??!!!#@# It is just great!!!).

I will be busy with my family during Ramadhan month and bit tired too (with all the houseworks). Therefore no chess classes for one whole month. I'll do my marketing for my new students after Raya. I will also be busy with my chess training starting now on. To prepare for next year event. I hope I can do well in chess. Did I mentioned that I now have a coach? not just that I also have a sifu that will give me advise upon asking (that will do)...

And because of that, I need to be hardworking. So, that I can catch up before the next year event started. But before that, I hope I can play in this year M'sia - S'pore match. Just to see if my training is ok or not!

I don't just want to do well, I want to excel too... :-))


Oh! no, I'd just announced that to the whole world.... (hahaha)


The truth is, I am not in the chess scene to compete for top spot, or something like that(I am too old for that la), I just want to play a good game, and share a good game too. That's it. For me it is not the matter of winning or losing a game but the matter whether I put all the effort in playing my best game ever. I don't really bother much about the score, enough that I know myself, I had played a better game. Hmm.. that isn't much to ask for, right?!

To All Chess Fans, my friends, my family, coach and sifu (you guys know who you are),

Selamat menyambut Ramadhan Al-Mubarak! :-))

50th Years of Merdeka

MERDEKA! MERDEKA! MERDEKA!

This year mark the 50th annivesary of our Independence day. From the bottom of my heart I am always touched by the day... 31st August every year.


If it weren't because of the freedom that we now lived in, I don't think we could play chess so, freely and peacefully like today. Maybe only those from the elite "org putih" group or the royalty will have that luxury.

So, honestly, I feel blessed by what we have achieve today and grateful too. Even if it is so little to count for.

To all Malaysians, especially chess players, chess fans out there, happy merdeka day...

Merdeka!!!!

Macau - Asian Indoor Games 2007 Players

Congratulations to those that were selected to play in Macau, for the Asian Indoor Games this coming October 2007! Hope you can make us proud! Good Luck!!

To WIM Siti Zulaika, NWM Nur Syazwani, FM Lim Yee Weng, FM Anas and IM Mas Hafizulhilmi. Do all the best you can, and may that best is the best we could hope for!!

Jia you! Jia you!

To Team Manager, Haslindah safe journey there ok!

Youth for World Junior Chess in Turkey

This are Malaysians that will represent Malaysia in the coming World Junior Chess in Turkey this year. Good Luck to all of you! May you guys bring interesting results!!

Merdeka Standard Winners

Penang team

Second place - Selangor A (Marcus, Mark, FM Lim Yee Weng, FM Mok TM and FM Nicholas Chan)

The champ ASTRO team taking photos with the VIPs including dato' Tan and Sieh Kok Chi from MOM (the players - FM Ooi Chern Ee, WIM Siti, Ismail Ahmad, FM Anas and IM Mas)

Siti with board prize medal

Persatuan Catur Putrajaya rep

Sixth place winner

Selangor B

Bad Brother team

Merdeka Standard Junior Winners

Board Prize Winners

Terengganu Junior rep

Selangor Generasi 9 Team

Penang Junior

Selangor Generasi 8 - The Junior Winner

Pictures from the recent Merdeka Standard 2007

Here are pictures taken by me during the recent Merdeka Standard. I can't take pictures of all players and team due to space constraint.. So here are few. Enjoy!


PCP Perlis Team

Kuantan Knights on the right

The Champ - ASTRO Team on the left

Kuantan knights again

Crowded isn't it?

FM Mok vs NWM Roslina

Don't underestimate her la Mok..

Reasons why I am not playing In Merdeka Standard

This is the my god daughter! her name is Nik Mariam... Well isn't she cute! She is a daughter of my best friend, Muzlita Aini. This is her first baby. She was borned on 28th July 2007. And she is one of the reason why I am not playing in this year Merdeka Standard 2007... hehehe.. (she is too cute to say yes to Merdeka la..)

Muz and I have been friend for 19 years now! She is the only person that doesn't play chess but can listen to every word about chess without even complaining of boring. She is also the shoulder to cry on, when I had my down moments in chess or in life. And even after all the years of my absent in chess, when I talked to her again about chess, she can still remember the names of Saprin, Maliki, Haq, Roslina, even the cute IM Mas Hafizulhilmi. The one that we both adore so much... He is kind of like our kid brother.... hehehe

The other reason is, my dearly friend and sis, Kak Tun is going to Mekah for this whole Ramadhan month. We haven't seen much of each other, and during merdeka is our first meeting in KL for this year. That is because I am too busy with chess this year. Buzy with coaching, tournaments and works.

I wish her a safe journey there and a safe journey home...