NAG 2008: Pre-tournament Analysis

The pre-tournament favourites for each category based on their
National Rating March 2008 release is as follow:

1. Under-8 Girls >>> Puteri Rifqah Fahada from Selangor (1368) > She has been given the top billing (de facto) as defending champion. The 2nd seed is Nithyalakshmi Sivanesan from Negeri Sembilan who is 50 rating points higher at 1418 rating, while the 3rd seed is Nur Faqihah Aminuddin with 1292 points.

2. Under-8 Boys >>> Tan Yong Zhao from Kuala Lumpur (1328) > He is 1 rating point higher than Danish Hamzah Al-Hadi Noor Akbar. He is also from Kuala Lumpur. While, Muhd Zulfikri Sulkifly of Selangor is the 3rd seed.

3. Under-10 Girls >>> Wendy Tan Li Ting from Kuala Lumpur (1558) > Her rating is even higher than last year champion (Nur Nabila Azman Hisham who has moved up to Under-12). Both 2nd and 3rd seed also from Kuala Lumpur, namely Nurul Aina Akmar Rohizan and Chua Yee Ler.

4. Under-10 Boys >>> Yeoh Li Tian from Selangor (1611) > Our latest prodigy who is placed 4th in the world in Under-8 category last November in Turkey. His nearest rival is Muhd Aziz Farhan Noor Akbar from Kuala Lumpur, a new star in the making, with 1575 rating points. The 3rd seed is Mohd Faizal Roslan of Kuala Lumpur.

5. Under-12 Girls >>> Nur Nabila Azman Hisham from Selangor(1643) > She is simply stronger than anybody in her category. Pavitranayagi Jayamurthey from Kuala Lumpur and Hoh Tjin Hui are seeded 2nd and 3rd respectively.

6. Under-12 Boys >>> Daniel Iskandar Arif Noor Akbar from Kuala Lumpur(1584) > He is likely to receive a fierce challenge from Low Jun Keat from Selangor and Tan Wei Hao from Kuala Lumpur together with 3 other challengers whose rating is less than 100 points away.

7. Under-14 Girls >>> Alia Anin Azwa Bakri from Malacca (1669) > She is the defending champion for this category. Her nearest rival is Amira Syahmina Zullkafli from Selangor and Latifah Kaisyah from Kuala Lumpur.

8. Under-14 Boys >>> Muhd Syakir Shazmeer Azhar from Selangor (1685) > He will be facing an uphill task to dend his title because two other players namely Muhd Nabil Azman Hisham and Low Jun Jian have rating higher than him. Both are Selangor players, too.

9. Under-16 girls >>> Nurul Akila Rohizan from Kuala Lumpur (1549) > She is likely to receive fierce challence from 4 other contestants. Latifah Syamimi and Nurul Atiqah Rohizan will be the 2nd and 3rd seed respectively. All Kuala Lumpur players.

10. Under-16 Boys >>> Lim Zhuo Ren from Kuala Lumpur (1876) > He is defending the title he won last year and expected to receive fierce opposition from the top 9 pre-seeded players. This category is also the most interesting category to follow.

Top seed for the Championship: 5 Contestants from Kuala Lumpur, 4 Contestants from Selangor, and 1 Contestant from Malacca.