An Excellent Start By Nur Shazwani Zullkafli At The Universiade

Pang Hwei Yih in the first round

Chess kicked off yesterday (Monday, 15th August) morning at the 26th Universiade Games being held in Shenzhen, Guandong, China. Two rounds played in the individual event for both the Men and the Women. Who are the Malaysian players in the two events? In the Men's section, there are Au Yoong Yow Loo, Ian Siah Jun Ren, Ahmad Fadzil Nayan and Looi Xin Hao. While in the Women's section, WCM Nur Shazwani, the daughter of Cikgu Zul and Cikgu Sufiah, is the leading player ranked 32nd out of the total 63 participants. The other Malaysians are Norhaida Hussin, Pang Hwei Yih and Felicia Woon Hui Fei.

Nur Shazwani (in Dec 2008)

Nur Shazwani (above picture) played excellently in the first round against the top seed from Ukraine, Mariya Muzychuk (below picture, FIDE 2469). Having elo ratings more than 400 below her opponent, Shazwani shows the "MALAYSIA BOLEH" spirit to score her first "sweet" one point. In the second round, she drew playing black against Slovakian WIM named Zuzana Borosova who has elo ratings nearly 300 higher. Today at 9.00am, Shazwani will play white at table 11th against Turkish WIM, Yildiz Betul Cemre. GiLoCatur hopes Shazwani will keep her excellent performance so that chess will give Malaysia medal.

Mariya Muzychuk from Ukraine

In the first round, all the four male Malaysian chess players were defeated by their respective 2500+ GM opponents. In the second round, only Xin Hao did not manage to win over his unrated opponent. The other three managed to win against their respective unrated opponents. Hopefully, all the four of them can give their heart out performance and have commendable results.

In the Women's event, only Pang Hwei Yih is still scoreless. Felicia had a walk-over win in the first round while  Norhaida had a draw in the second round. Come on Malaysian young ladies! Play your best ever chess matches in the first ever Universiade appearance. ALL THE BEST!