A Look At Malaysia's (Active) Women FIDE Rating List

Today is the first day of the new year, 2012.

For some Malaysian chess players, surely they are happy because some of them get their FIDE ratings and other some of them gain rating including Anis Fariha and his elder brother, Fikri. Even though the rating gain is not that much BUT it is a good start to improve further in the new year.

Let's check on the new Rating List for the Malaysian women (active only) published by FIDE in its website. As GiLoCatur observed, the number in the list has increased from 28 to 33. Four Malaysian girls just got their FIDE rating. Well done for their effort and determination. This is good for Malaysian chess especially in the women section.

Who are the they? 

1. Norhaida Hussin (1683)
2. Siti Aisyah Sabirin (1602)
3. Chuah Yi Ning (1540)
4. Kelly Lim Pei Ying (1456)

source : fide.com

But the rating of our ladies in GiLoCatur's opinion is generally low. Malaysia does not have any women grand master (WGM), not even an International Master (IM / WIM). (GiLoCatur : inactive players not included). Malaysia has only TWO WFMs and THREE WCMs. 

How about if we compare with our neighbouring ASEAN countries. We are so far behind Vietnam. There are 85 active women players in the FIDE rating list. Vietnam has 4 WGMs and at least 10 WIMs. How about Philippines? Sorry, no data available in the FIDE website. Don't know why. Indonesia? Singapore?

The list for both Indonesia and Singapore is about half of Malaysia. To be exact, Indonesia has 15 active women chess players who are FIDE-rated while Singapore has 14. But our top female chess player will only be at the 8th spot in the Indonesian list. Meaning, Indonesia has more higher-rated female players than us (Malaysia). So, it is important to the Malaysian chess community to work towards improving the ratings of our female chess players. This feat will not be achieved if our female chess players do not participate in rated chess tournaments, RIGHT? How to make them play or participate in more rated tourneys? One answer is to have more local rated (FIDE, GiLoCatur means) chess tournaments.

GiLoCatur hopes more and more Malaysian ladies and girls will get FIDE rating in 2012. And all the rated Malaysian ladies and girls will improve their rating as the highest as possible. Let's all the chess parents, chess authority (MCF), chess associations, chess coaches, chess clubs and ofcourse, chess players work hard and make it happen.

"MAJU CHESS UNTUK SEMUA"