MCF earlier endorsed 10 junior players to represent Malaysia in the above Championship. Selection was based primarily on top placings in the respective National Age Group held earlier this year, and on a case by case basis the strong performances in this year's Royal Selangor Open and DATMO as deliberated and approved by MCF Committee.The Championship ended last Friday. In the Open Section Yeoh Li Tian in the Under-10 Open Category scored a commendable 7 points out of 11 rounds in a field of 90 players. The best performance from this Malaysian hope was beating No. 7 Nguyen Ngok Minh Tri of Vietnam. His final 14th position is the highest achieved by the Malaysian contingent this time round.
In the Girls' Section Alia Anin Azwa playing in the Under-14 category scored 6 points to be placed 29th position out of 79 players. Her best performance was probably despatching her higher rated opponent in round 8, WFM Efroimski Marsel (FIDE 2052) of Israel.
Nur Nabila in the Under-12 who also scored 6 points and placed No. 27 in the Championship showed a glimpse of her potential beating 20th place Tereshechkina Maya (FIDE 1961) of Russia.The other 7 results are Aron Teh (U-10) with 6 points, Elgin Lee (U-12) 6 points, Muhammad Shakir (U-14) with 4 points, Justin Ong (U-16) with 4 1/2 points, Puteri Rifqah (U-8) scoring 6 points, and Nur Najiha and Camilia both playing in the U-10 category collecting 5 points each.
On the Championship, India topped the table winning 4 out of 12 individual Gold medals on offer, followed by Croatia with 2 Golds. Amongst the Asean countries only Vietnam secured an individual Gold medal in the Open Under-8 section while Indonesia managed a Bronze.
Ref: FIDE and vietnamchess websites.
