23rd Selangor Juniors Open Chess Pre-Tournament Highlights

Today the Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) continues to organize another two categories namely Under-12 and Under-16. A total of 61 players turned-up for the event as compared to 77 on last Sunday when Under-10 and Under-14 took place. The Association has expected a lower turn-out around 50 players due to another Nationally-rated Chess Tournament that caters for Adults with subsidiary prizes for Children that took place within KL-vicinity. So, it was a relief to see the final number was 61 children taking part. It was learn that the other event had attracted 49 players.

From CAS perspective, having two tournaments on the same weekend within the same vicinity area is not a good thing for chess organisers. This kind of tournament clashes scenario actually dated back to 2005 and has became a usual affair in the past 5 years.

Will it benefits the Chess Organizer? YES / NO.

Will it be good for the Chess Community in long run? YES / NO.

Can an authority like MCF starts to enforce a blanket-ruling on "No more than one chess event on same day within same vicinity"? YES / NO.

If yes, will any chess organiser who is not affiliated to MCF follows MCF ruling? YES / NO.

Time to ponder!

Lets come back to the per-tournament highlights of the Under-12 and Under-16:-

1. In Under-12, two Penangites had registered themselves for the event after a successful outing last weekend where 8 y.o. Ng Shi Yang had emerged as Champion and Tan Jun Ying at 4th in Under-10 category.

2. The event saw Mr. Sivanesan from Negeri Sembilan brought his two children to compete in Under-12 (Nithyalakshmi Sivanesan) and Under-16 (Subramanian Sivanesan). Both children were seeded second in their respective category.

3. Several primary school boys who did well in Under-14 last Sunday had returned back to play in the Primary school category. While, two others namely Bausch Koh Sian Kuan who was placed 4th in U-14 and Tan Yong Zhao at 8th placing in U-14 have continued to challenge the bigger boys and girls in today's event by taking part in U-16 category.

4. In Under-16, we had witnessed several players like Low Jun Keat, Iskandar Danial Adam, Ee Sun-Xin-G, Vinton Wong Hsien Loong, and Lee Guang Yang who had represented Selangor in MSSM 2012. Others notable players like Cheong Jie Yao, Daryl Wong Cheng Lim, and Lee Zhi Wei also took part. So, what is the carrot to attract such a crowd? The answer: The chance to be part of Selangor Generasi-10 championed by NWM Nur Nabila Azman Hisham in upcoming Kasugi Team Junior Chess Championship 2012.