NAG Participants Statistics

NAG 2000

( source : Quah Seng Sun )

NAG 2009

( source : GiLoCatur )

The above are the statistics of the participants for the NAG or National Age-Group of two different years.

Perhaps, many do not like statistics like the above. But for GiLoCatur such statistics or figures provide clear and real measurement for improvement or otherwise. What can we interpret from the above statistics?

U18 category has been dropped from the tournament. GiLoCatur strongly believes that it should be included in future tournaments.

Girls entries is still far behind the boys. Why? Are girls not good or smart enough for chess? Are girls not interested in the game? What should be done to encourage and attract more girls to play chess?

In about a decade, the number of participants increase about 150 players. GiLoCatur feels that such increase is still considered low. More efforts to promote and encourage Malaysian youngsters to play and participate in chess need to be done. Parents need to be influenced and encouraged to let and support their children to play chess.

One interesting fact about NAG winners is Sumant Subramaniam. In 2000, he was the first runner up in U8 category. And in 2009, he was the first runner up also in U16 category. And another interesting fact, other winners in U8 in the year 2000 were not participating in the year 2009. Why? Even GiLoCatur never encounters their names in local chess tournaments.

GiLoCatur is hoping the number of participants for the year of 2010 will increase dramatically. The tournament that is scheduled on 14th to 16th March 2010 will be held in Penang, not in Klang Valley like it used to be.