SHAH ALAM - The national chess squad brought glory to Malaysia by dominating two categories at the Asian Dragon International Invitational Chess Championship at National Taiwan University, emerging as overall champions.
Malaysia's representative, Haziq Nasruddin, displayed a champion's mentality by defeating the host player, Pu Yu, scoring the highest total of 8.5 points in the ninth round of the Under 16 Category.
The Open Category saw a thrilling final match where national player Iwan Schani Ibnu had to put in a tremendous effort to defeat his opponent, Jerry Chang from the United States (US).
The annual championship, organised by the Chinese Taipei Chess Association (CTCA), saw participation from 34 participants from Macau, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, US and the host, Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Chess Team Delegation head Noor Hafiz Mohd Nor considered the excellent performance of the national squad as also being contributed by the introduction of chess at the Malaysia Games (Sukma) Sarawak 2024 next Aug.
Additionally, he explained, the Digital Chess Community Empowerment programmes also had a positive impact on the development of new talents.
He said that the victory was also important in preparing the national team for the FIDE World Amateur Chess Championship in Greece this coming Oct.
"I also want to thank the various parties who have greatly supported the preparations for this championship, especially the Youth and Sports Malaysia Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF), the Malaysian Community Empowerment Organisation, the Communications Ministry and the Department of Information,” he said.