Four Year Old Chess Princess Looks for Sponsorship

From Malay Mail Online
Nice move!
Puteri Rabiatul, 4, youngest to represent Malaysia in chess Hamzah Nazari
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 11:21:00

SHAH ALAM: Deep in concentration, eyes focused on the chess board, she makes her move but upon realising her mistake, groans loudly and jumps on the sofa, curls her legs beneath her and hides her face in her hands.

While not the usual reaction one expects from a chess player, her sudden loss of composure is not surprising — Puteri Rabiatul Adawiyah Mat Zaki is only four years old.

She is the youngest person to be chosen to represent Malaysia in an international chess competition by the Malaysian Chess Association. If financial assistance is forthcoming, she will compete at the 7th Asian Schools Chess Championship in New Delhi, India, from Dec 16 to 23.

However, her taking part is uncertain as her family is looking for individual or corporate sponsors to raise the RM9,000 she needs since the association is not able to allocate funds.

"Secondary or primary school students as young as eight have been selected before but this is the first time Malaysia is competing in the under-fives,” her mother, Raja Noraizah Raja Mahmood, told The Malay Mail at the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) building here.

Although children usually start playing chess at the age of six or seven, Puteri Rabiatul was sent to the Insofar Chess Academy for training at the age of three. She can beat children aged eight or nine.
Raja Noraizah said Puteri Rabiatul could recognise chess pieces since she was just one.

“I once asked her ‘which one is the knight?’ and she picked up the right piece. She had a pacifier in her mouth at the time," she said.

“We didn’t expect her to be able to play chess at such a young age. She does not merely play the game but strategises, knowing if a piece is safe or if it can be taken."

Puteri Rabiatul usually plays chess with her mother or trains at the Az-Zahrah Multi-Intelligence Academy (AMPAC Centre) in Bandar Baru Bangi or the Haris Bakar Group of Companies at the PKNS building here.

According to her parents, they suspect their child may be a prodigy or even a genius but they do not know for sure.

Even so, they are confident she could one day become an International Grandmaster in chess, if she continues to play regularly.

The family’s short-term goal is that Puteri Rabiatul could become the defending champion for the under-five category next year.

Those interested in sponsoring Puteri Rabiatul may call 012-3415030.

Malaysian Chess: Paralympics

From Bernama.com: August 14, 2009 16:57 PM Paralympic: Chess Squad Eyes Six Gold KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 (Bernama) -- The national paralympic chess squad is determined to collect six gold medals in the B1 (blind) category at the 5th Asean Para Games (KL'09), starting tomorrow. Chief coach Abdul Latif Mohammad said it was not impossible for the team to collect six of the 16 gold medals up for grabs in the category. "We have experienced chess players, among them are those who won medals in the Asean Para Games in Korat, Thailand last year," he told Bernama here today. Abdul Latif said among the promising chess players in the national squad are Mah Hassan Omar (silver medallist at the Korat Para Games 2008), Idris Mat Saman (silver, Asean Para Games Manila 2005), Muira Mukri (gold, Asean Para Games Korat 2008) and three newcomers Amir Shamsuddin, Liyanah Abdul Hamid and Teo Suat Mui.On the B2 (impaired vision) category, Abdul Latif said, it would be tough to win medals judging from the Korat games which was monopolised by the Philippines with six gold and two bronze medals."Still, it does not mean we are not capable for a gold medal in the category," he said.The chess squad comprises 16 players, competing in the B1, B2 and B3 (partially-impaired vision) categories.

Global Economy Impacts Sponsorship

We've already seen sponsorship withdrawn for two FIDE Grand Prix events for the elite players, but the real impact of the global economic melt-down is being felt most at the local level, in the cities, towns and villages where most chessplayers live and work. Friday March 27, 2009 Global impact CHESS By QUAH SENG SUN (From the Star.com - Malaysia) Sponsorship for tournaments in the balance. TWO months ago when I touched on the state of chess sponsorship in the country, I wrote about the possible effects that the global downturn could have on the local chess community. This would be a challenging year for chess. Money for organising events could slow down or dry out completely. It would be impossible for us to ignore the global downturn’s impact on chess. Since then, I’ve been receiving mixed signals. Yes, without a doubt, there are still sponsored chess activities going on, like last weekend’s Klang Parade chess tournaments. The Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) continues to be involved with their national age group chess championship and soon, we’ll see new events like the DATCC KL chess league and the national seniors chess championship. A few days ago, I was given some rather mixed news and it concerned one of the country’s very active chess associations. It’s not totally disheartening news so we don’t have to worry yet. The good news is that the Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) announced their annual state open championship for the end of next month. It’s the longest-running annual state championship in the country. But the not-so-good news is that for the first time in 30 years, there’s no sponsor for the tournament. As a result, this event will simply be known as the 36th Selangor open chess tournament. “For the sake of the survival of the longest running chess event in Malaysia, (the CAS) made a decision to continue with the event for at least this year. We are digging into our reserves and expect to fork out about RM6,000 of the association’s money to keep this tournament going,” said CAS secretary Lim Tse Pin. Lim added that last year’s tournament attracted more than 60 players but he hopes to get a greater turnout from the chess fraternity this time. “We hope to have at least 80 players coming to support the survival of this long-standing event,” he said. I would like to see our local chess players respond positively to this gesture. For a long while, there have been remarks that some among our senior players seem to have a mercenary streak in them. I’ve heard that they pick and choose the tournaments to play. They would be interested to play only in tournaments that offer attractive prize money. If the incentives were not there, they wouldn’t want to play and waste their time. Well, it is exactly times like this that we should be asking whether we play tournaments for money or for enjoyment. If we want to play for self-satisfaction where prize money is secondary, then please rally round to support the Selangor open when it needs us most. It’s the oldest-running and the longest-running chess tournament in the land, surpassing even the national closed championship. All of us should be aware of the great tradition behind the Selangor open and play our parts to help the tournament succeed. I should also mention that the days of good prize money may be over for now. In the next two years or so, be prepared for lower prize money as chess organisers try to pull through the difficult times. It’s either lower cash prizes or no tournaments at all, and the chess associations that adapt best to the changing economy will have the best chances to come out stronger. In this respect, I’m a little surprised that the CAS had not made more drastic restructuring to the prize structure of this year’s Selangor open. Last year, the cash prizes totalled RM6,400 but this year, the association is even offering slightly more to the winners: a total of RM6,750. Perhaps in a way it is to demonstrate to the local chess community that despite the challenges, chess life is still as close to normal. But the CAS knows that this cannot go on indefinitely. When the gravy train eventually stops, even they will have to adjust.

Queen Control

News about the recently-held Malaysian "closed" Women's Chess Championship, excerpted from full article: From TheStarOnline.com Friday June 20, 2008 Queen control Women chess players are a force to reckon with CHESS by QUAH SENG SUN I RECEIVED an e-mail during the weekend from a reader who signed himself off simply as Jefri. He was commenting on my coverage of the national chess closed championships which ended recently. I will just relate this pertinent part where he said: “Why was there almost no coverage of the women’s championship? You wrote so much on the men’s event but you only gave a brief mention of the women’s tournament.” Obviously, he was referring to this paragraph where I said: “The winner of the women’s event was never in doubt. Alia Anin Bakri was simply too good. She powered her way to win the national closed women’s championship rather easily.” Jefri, you are correct, of course. The women’s championship only got a one-paragraph mention last week but it was not because I had anything against women’s chess. If you have been reading this column closely in the past weeks, you would have seen that there was no slight to the women chess players in this country. In fact, I have written a lot about them. . . . [G]etting back to the women’s championship, Alia . . . won it almost at will. That was how good she was. The women’s field included two former women’s champions but in this event, they were against an irresistible force. Just consider this. As early as the end of the fourth round, Alia was already the sole leader of the tournament, a full point ahead of her closest rivals. In this round, she had beaten former champion Nurul Huda Wahiduddin. While her rivals struggled throughout the tournament, Alia simply breezed her way through her first five games. It was only in the sixth and seventh rounds that she eased off on the pedal and conceded two draws in succession. Still, there was a 1½-point gap between Alia and her closest rivals. For a seven-round event, 1½ points is a wide margin. It’s like the difference between the first and last runners in the 100m dash in athletics. Even then, the results could have been closer and less flattering to the winner. After her draw in the seventh round, Latifah Shamini Latib missed a good chance to be the undisputed runners-up. All that she had to do was to avoid a loss to the former national women’s champion, Khairunissa Wahiduddin. A draw would have been enough to guarantee Latifah sole second place in the standings but the wily Khairunissa showed why, despite her lack of consistency and form, she was a former national women’s champion and still a force to be reckoned with. At the end, there were six players who all ended up in shared second place. Initially, I couldn’t believe it that in a 20-player field, it was still possible to get almost a third of the players finishing joint second (4½ points each) but there you are, it happened right here, in Malaysia, in our own national women’s closed championship.