Seremban Parade U18 & U12 Chess Tourney

GiLoCatur was too tired last night and fell asleep during the halftime of Chelsea vs Manchester City match after being out to the Seremban Parade Chess Agegroup from 7.30am until 8.30pm. Therefore, no blogging activity last night.

Today after going to Section 6 wet market and having "branch", GiLoCatur has lots of blog updates to do. First, GiLoCatur wants to share the results of the Seremban Parade Chess Open. Actually, the tournament is divided into two on two days - yesterday and today. Yesterday is for age group competition - Under 18 and Under 12 categories. Today, the Open category is on-going. Hopefully, GiLoCatur can get the results to publish in the blog.

At first, GiLoCatur did not plan to go since Anis has a camp organized by her school to attend, and it wasn't a scheduled outing for Fikri. But somehow Fikri called on thursday night asking to pick him up from the hostel since his school decided this weekend is an outing.

So, GiLoCatur decided to bring the boys to the tourney to keep up their chess momentum. By the way, Fahim needs more and more exposure for his debut in the coming NAG in penang. As for Fikri, GiLoCatur does not expect too much from him since he already had a sparring session and moreover needs to study for his exams next week.

We arrived at around 9.00 am at the venue of the tournament. Since the shopping complex is not open yet until 10.00am, we went out and drove around Seremban town. Fahim had his photographing session near the Wisma Negeri. When reached back at the tournament venue, many participants and their accompanying parents were already there. The tournament for the age group categories attracted more participants than the organizer had expected and targeted. It is a good sign for chess in Seremban particularly and Negeri Sembilan (N9) generally. PCNS, the acronym for N9 Chess Assoaciation or its Malay "Persatuan Catur Negeri Sembilan" needs to take this opportunity to develop and promote chess. Surely, it does not have the privilege like what CAS and KLCA have where parents are very supportive and already developed their chess children.

Click at the picture for larger view.

In Under 18, there was a total of 48 players participated. Few of them are from outside Seremban like Syakir and his younger brother Irfan from Kuala Selangor, Fikri from Shah Alam, Fairuz Hamizah from Kedah and Kok Wei Tze, the player who beat Abg Bro at MMU Open recently, from Melaka.

The Top 10 final ranking list :

1. Muhd Syakir Shazmeer
2. Fikri Saleh
3. Kok Wei Tze
4. Fairuz Hamizah
5. Muhd Irfan Haqqim
6. Mohd Syamir Baba
7. Hazim Zulkifli
8. Mohammad Najmi Mohammad
9. Gan Soon Kian
10. Surenther

Syakir from Sekolah Sains Kuala Selangor - the champion for U18 category who won all his six rounds including Fairuz Hamizah, one of the Women Masters participants, and Fikri Saleh of Shah Alam.

Click at the picture for larger view.

In the Under 12 category, 51 players participated including several of them from outside Seremban like the Puteri sisters - Rifqah and Munajjah from Jenjarom Kuala Langat, Fahim from Bukit Jelutong Shah Alam, Noor Azam and his younger sister, Maisarah, from Rawang and Sirajuddin from Kedah.

Sirajuddin Munawir from Kedah had emerged champion for Under 12 age group by scoring the perfect six points from six rounds.

The Top 10 final ranking list :

1. Muhd Sirajuddin Munawir
2. Puteri Rifqah Fahada
3. Puteri Munajjah Az-Zahraa
4. Ryan Lee
5. Amirul Hakeem
6. Nurul Amirrah bt Noor
7. Sumedha Anne
8. Mohd Noor Azam
9. Aw Zhing Yip
10. Zainoor Ikmal Maisarah

The pictures of the tourney can be accessed at GiLoCatur Fan Club facebook here. You need to be members to view them.