MCF Chess Rating: April 2014 Official Release

In this April 2014 release, there are 17,298 players. An increased from 16,778 chess players in Jan 2014. Of which more than 16,000 Malaysians in our chess rating database. A unique MCF Chess Rating ID contains 9-Alphanumeric ID was introduced in the October 2013 edition, please remember your MCF Chess Rating ID to facilitate registration process of National-rated Events. Please refer to here for more info.


Click here to download the complete list of MCF Chess Rating List.

Click here to download the MCF Chess Rating List of 12,040 Malaysian Male Players.

Click here to download the MCF Chess Rating List of 4,031 Malaysian Female Players.

MCF Chess Rating: April 2014 [Pre-release]

In the last 3 months, a total of 11 events were rated nationally. There were 1393 unique players who took part. Other events that did not meet the submission deadline on 31st March 2014 shall be included in April 2014 release.

The events that were included in the April 2014 release are listed as follows:-

 

1.      Johor Round-robin (FIDE rated)

2.      Air Tawar Rapid 2014

3.      18th GACC 2014 (FIDE rated)

4.      SUKIPT 2014

5.      National Closed Women 2014 (FIDE rated)

6.      National Closed Men 2014 (FIDE rated)

7.      Sabah Age-Group 2014 

8.      Selangor Juniors Open 2014

9.      MSSM 2014

10.   Perlis Open 1st Series 2014

11.   Kedah Open 2014

A copy of the rating changes for 1393 players in Q1 2014 can be downloaded from here. 

While, a copy of the Top 20 Most Improved chess players in Q1 2014 can be downloaded from here.

The complete version of MCF Chess Rating List shall be uploaded officially in the next post.

41st Selangor Open [FIDE-rated] (30th Apr - 4th May): Prospectus

Source: CAS website

CAS would like to announce the venue for this event @ DAT Chess Centre, 2nd floor, Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur. We are having difficulty in sourcing for an alternative venue since Jan 2014 when the regular chess place at 4th floor of this complex was forced to shut down when the leasing term expired.

It was very fortunate that the Complex is renting a makeshift venue on the 2nd floor for the use of National Closed, Selangor Juniors Open and upcoming Selangor Open. Without this arrangement, there is no venue for chess in Klang Valley.

Click here to get a softcopy of the prospectus.

In order to enjoy the RM 30 discount, payment must be made via bank-in to the Association Bank Account stated in the entry form by 21st April 2014 (Monday).
[Updated on 9th April, 6pm] Due to unforeseen circumstances, please don't bank-in into CAS Standard Chartered Acc. 794-1-4102906-2 (Persatuan Catur Selangor) with immediate effect until further notice. You may make payment on event day but there is no discount given. Alternatively, you may bank-in the discounted entry fee to Maybank Acc: 112223186563 (Lim Tse Pin) to enjoy RM30 discount. Mr Lim will transfer your payment into CAS account manually at the Bank. Scan the bank-in Slip / Capture a screenshot if performs via Online Banking [Take note: For bulk registration, payment for all players must be done in ONE TRANSACTION for easy reference]. Send the entry form together with the bank-in slip / screenshot to selangorchess@gmail.com

Snapshot of the prospectus

25th Selangor Juniors Open on 30th March 2014

Source: CAS website

CAS will kick-start the year with the 25th edition of Selangor Juniors on 30th March. This is the last National-rated event before next rating release to be used at NAG 2014. This event is very important to players (I) who would like to go to ASEAN+ Chess Championship but yet to fulfil minimum rating ceiling set by MCF; (II) who don't have a chance to play in any national rated event to have their rating changes in order to reflect their current chess playing skill for a better seeding @ NAG; (III) who don't even have a National Rating.

The event will be divided into 3 categories  i.e. Under-08, Under-12 and Under-16. The venue for the event: 2nd Floor, Wilayah Complex, KL. It is a make-shift venue that will be refurbished for the upcoming National Closed Chess Championship from 12th to 16th March.

There will be 15 prizes to be won by players in EACH CATEGORY. In addition, 4 players from the same school contesting in a same category can vie for Best Schools prize as well. All-in-all, there may be up to 57 prize winners in this event.

Due to limitation in venue space, CAS hopes players can pre-register early to avoid disappointment.

A snapshot of the entry form:-

Click here to download a copy of the entry form.

Who have pre-qualified into Malaysian Masters 2014 (Women)

The strongest 7 players based on 2013 MM performance that have formed the current cycle National Women Squad are listed below:-

1.      Camilia Johari [Ranked 7th in FIDE March 2014 release]

2.      Nur Nabila Azman Hisham [Ranked 3rd in FIDE March 2014 release]

3.      Puteri Rifqah Fahada Azhar [Ranked 6th in FIDE March 2014 release]

4.      Fong Mi Yen [Ranked 4th in FIDE March 2014 release]

5.      Nur Najiha Azman Hisham  [Ranked 5th in FIDE March 2014 release]

6.      Tan Li Ting [Ranked 2nd in FIDE March 2014 release]

7.      Nithyalakshmi Sivanesan  [Ranked 14th in FIDE March 2014 release]

All players listed above are eligible to take part in this year MM. However, only a maximum of 5 players listed above will be able to retain their places in National Squad 2014. Unless these players are willing to take part in National Closed and able to finish top 3 to guarantee themselves a place in National Squad just like Nabila, Rifqah, and Najiha did last year.  

The top 15 active players (besides players that are listed above) based on FIDE March 2014 release are:-

1.      Alia Anin Azwa Bakri [Ranked 1st in FIDE March 2014 release]

2.      Lee Lee Yin [Ranked 8th in FIDE March 2014 release]

3.      Renitha Narayanan [Ranked 9th in FIDE March 2014 release]

4.      Ruby Kwan Tszee Yung  [Ranked 10th in FIDE March 2014 release]

5.      Olivia Madhavan [Ranked 11th in FIDE March 2014 release]

6.      Nurul Najmi Bakar  [Ranked 12th in FIDE March 2014 release]

7.      Puteri Munajjah Az-Zahraa Azhar  [Ranked 13th in FIDE March 2014 release]

8.      Pavithranayagi Jayamurthey  [Ranked 15th in FIDE March 2014 release]

One player from the above list will be eligible to take part in this year MM. Alia has the first right to accept, followed by Lee Yin, Renitha and so on. Of course these players can also opt to play in the National Closed and try to qualify automatically into the National Squad by finishing top 3 in NC.

It will be interesting to see all these fifteen players come together in NC to pit their skill against one another and serve as prelude the MM 2014. Unlike the Men, this dream scenario can actually happen. If it happens, at least 70% among them will finish in the top 10 i.e. no one outside this name list can finish inside top 10 based on Malaysian girls elo rating historical data. Of course, this statistic will be distorted drastically if our inactive girls such as (8-time NWM) WIM Siti Zulaikha, (NWM) WCM Nur Shazwani, (NWM) WCM Roslina Marmono, (NWM) Khairunnisa Wahiduddin, (NWM) Eliza Hanum, WCM Wan Khye Theng among many others can make a comeback to the chess scene. All these girls have a rating higher than our 4^th ranked girl in the Active list.  

Who have pre-qualified into Malaysian Masters 2014 (Men)

The strongest 8 players based on 2013 MM performance that have formed the current cycle National Men Squad are listed below:-

1.      Lim Yee Weng [Ranked 4th in FIDE March 2014 release]

2.      Aron Teh Eu Wen [Ranked 8th in FIDE March 2014 release]

3.      Mas Hafizulhimi [Ranked 2nd in FIDE March 2014 release]

4.      Lim Zhuo Ren [Ranked 11th in FIDE March 2014 release]

5.      Wong Jianwen  [Ranked 14th in FIDE March 2014 release]

6.      Ng Tze Han  [Ranked 7th in FIDE March 2014 release]

7.      Fong Yit San  [Ranked 12th in FIDE March 2014 release]

8.      Ronnie Lim Chuin Hoong  [Ranked 5th in FIDE March 2014 release]

All players listed above are eligible to take part in this year MM. However, only a maximum of 5 players listed above will be able to retain their places in National Squad 2014. Unless these players are willing to take part in National Closed and able to finish top 3 to guarantee themselves a place in National Squad just like Aron, Jianwen, and Yit San did last year.  

The top 15 active players (besides players that are listed above) based on FIDE March 2014 release are:-

1.      Nicholas Chan  [Ranked 1st in FIDE March 2014 release]

2.      Yeoh Li Tian  [Ranked 3rd in FIDE March 2014 release]

3.      Jonathan Chua Jin Hai  [Ranked 5th in FIDE March 2014 release]

4.      Jimmy Liew Chee Meng  [Ranked 9th in FIDE March 2014 release]

5.      Marcus Chan  [Ranked 10th in FIDE March 2014 release]

6.      Leong Mun Wan  [Ranked 13th in FIDE March 2014 release]

7.      Francis Chin  [Ranked 15th in FIDE March 2014 release]

One player from the above list will be eligible to take part in this year MM. Nicholas has the first right to accept, followed by Li Tian, Jonathan and so on. This one player can only get his place in National Squad if he finishes among top 5 (excluding NC qualifiers). Of course, these players can also opt to play in the National Closed and try to qualify automatically into the National Squad by finishing top 3 in NC.

It will be interesting to see these fifteen players come together in NC to pit their skill against one another and serve as prelude to the MM 2014. However, it is only a dream scenario that is very unlikely to happen in view several players are living overseas. If it happens, at least 60% among them will finish in the top 10 i.e. 9 of them are inside top 10 based on historical data of Malaysian elo ratings.

Eligibility for 15th ASEAN+ Age-Group Chess Championship 2014

The National Rating Jan 2014 release can be used as the yardstick for eligibility of early registration before 1st April 2014 using criteria "5.2 Players from non-National Youth Squad" of MCF Selection Guidelines 2014. Click here for the tournament regulation on early registration. Any registration after 31st March 2014 using criteria "5.2 Players from non-National Youth Squad" shall be based on National Rating Apr 2014 release.

As for NR Jan 2014 release, there are more than 10,000 players aged 20 years or below. Of which, 1,500 of them have Year of Birth info. Based on this figure, the min. number of players who are eligible to participate in this event as follows:-

Under-8 = 37 pax
Under-10 = 42 pax
Under-12 = 47 pax
Under-14 = 59 pax
Under-16 = 42 pax
Under-18 = 32 pax
Under-20 = 19 pax

This give a total of 278 children among 1,500 children with y.o.b. known are ELIGIBLE to take part!

Just imagine how many MORE will also be eligible to go if the remaining 8,500 children y.o.b. can be identified.

All-in-all, Malaysia can easily have 500 children (perhaps 1,000) who are eligible to play in this regional youth event where MCF has identified it as Developmental Event for Children!

If your children can't qualify under such a nominal rating, please work harder in chess and take part in every National-rated event to fight for rating points! E.g., the period Oct to Dec 2013, there were 17 chess events that were nationally-rated.


If you are interested to take part in the 15th ASEAN+ Age-Group Chess Championship 2014, please write in to

Chairman The Selection Committee
Malaysian Chess Federation Suite
1.21, Level 1, Wisma OCM, Jalan Hang Jebat, 50150 Kuala Lumpur

Or email – kamaruddin33@yahoo.com and

c.c. to Tengku Ahmad Badli Shah Raja Hussin (tabs@pelaburanmara.com.my), MCF Hon. Secretary

c.c. to Mr. Gregory Lau (msianchess2010@gmail.com), MCF Asst. Secretary

c.c to Mr. Lim Tse Pin (tsepin@gmail.com), MCF Technical Committee Chairman   



Below are the clauses extracted from the MCF Selection Guidelines 2014 :-

D. GUIDELINES FOR APPLICATION AND PROCEDURES FOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR EVENTS

1. This clause applies to applications for selection for FIDE junior events such as the ASEAN+ Age-Group / ASIAN Schools / ASIAN Youth / Commonwealth Age-Group / World Schools / World Youth Championships that permit more than one person to be endorsed by their national federation to enter that event.

 2. A person will not be endorsed by the MCF to enter ASEAN+ Age-Group / ASIAN Schools / ASIAN Youth / Commonwealth Age-Group / World Schools / World Youth Championships UNLESS that person has applied to MCF.

3. Parents and guardians who require certain clarifications with regard to the MCF Selection Guidelines are invited to write in addressing to

Chairman The Selection Committee Malaysian Chess Federation Suite 1.21, Level 1, Wisma OCM, Jalan Hang Jebat, 50150 Kuala Lumpur

Or email – kamaruddin33@yahoo.com and

c.c. to Tengku Ahmad Badli Shah Raja Hussin (tabs@pelaburanmara.com.my), MCF Hon. Secretary

c.c. to Mr. Gregory Lau (msianchess2010@gmail.com), MCF Asst. Secretary

c.c to Mr. Lim Tse Pin (tsepin@gmail.com), MCF Technical Committee Chairman