GiLoCatur's Humble Opinion - Part 2

Kelantan Closed (KC 2011) Chess Championship was held several days ago. The champion had emerged from about 100 Kelantanese chess players. Syabas and tahniah to Nik Ahmad Farouqi for being able to win over the defending champion, Syed Azizi Abdul Rahman during the play-off after both of them tied with 6.5/7 points. Congratulation and kudos to the PCNK's committees for successfully organizing the championship.

GiLoCatur is very happy that the Kelantan state chess association has become active in chess tournaments and events. But GiLoCatur is not very happy for the fact that GiLoCatur's beloved Selangor state chess association has become inactive in chess. Many local chess players particularly the Selangorians are eager to have chess allegros that the state chess association used to organize. The last one was held more than seven months ago.

GiLoCatur is happy because three of the four Kelantanese chess juniors that being highlighted in this blog a couple of weeks ago (here) took part in the KC 2011. They are Nik Muhammad Haziq Najmuddin, Muhd Faiz Zakaria and Fatin Nor Sahariah Abd Jalil. To have the continuity in their rating review, GiLoCatur would like to look at their performance in the tournament in terms of rating. GiLoCatur hopes that they do not mind being reviewed and focussed here. GiLoCatur also hopes this review will motivate and encourage them as well as other Malaysian chess juniors to improve their games especially in terms of the national ratings.

As per below tournament profile, Haziq played against two higher-rated and five unrated opponents in the KC 2011. He did not manage to win over the two rated opponents as well as losing twice against the unrated participants. Having the 33rd starting rank, with 3/7 points Haziq was placed 58th and had the rating performance of 1246, minus 8 points than his latest national ratings.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Faiz had a good tournament after managed to earn more than 200 points. Initially ranked 32nd with MCF ratings of 1256, he managed to take points from two higher-rated opponents. In the second round, he upsets the 7th seed whose ratings is 1589. Had he win over the other two 1500-rated players, his tournament ratings performance would jump higher. Syabas Faiz and keep it up in other rated chess tournaments. Practice more and keep learning.

As for Fatih, she played more or less to her ratings strength. The defending champion who was her 3rd round opponent may be still hard to beat. But with great efforts of more practice, more chess coaching, more chess books reading and studying, and more chess tournaments participating, she will be able to move up the ratings ladder. Nothing is impossible. Nothing is beyond reach. She only lose to one unrated player in the final round. It is either the unrated opponent is actually a strong player or she was out of steam. Stamina is very important and crucial for a chess player. Physical exercise must not be neglected.

GiLoCatur hopes that they will take part in the National Age Group (NAG) championship next month. Hopefully, PCNK does not only sponsor its representative to the National Closed, but also the juniors to junior chess tournaments like the NAG. Or maybe it can assist in chess coaching. Yes, it is not easy to get the fund but we the Malaysian chess community needs to strive for the bright future of chess in the country. GiLoCatur is very positive that PCNK is capable of doing so since it has "GOMO KELATE GOMO" spirit he ... he ... he ... Betu dok Badbishop?

GiLoCatur's Humble Opinion

GiLoCatur feels happy to read the Rating Review of the Kelantanese chess players made by Cikgu Jijoe in his blog here. He is very concerned for the ratings dip especially by the state's chess junior players. Rating review is the first step to ensure chess standard and quality to improve in every state of Malaysia. Next steps shall be planned, devised, addressed and implemented to avoid rating points drop to happen. Such effort should be followed by other states chess community especially MCF in order to improve and better the chess standard and quality in Malaysia.

Let GiLoCatur share some analytical insights relating to the Kelantan chess juniors. Hopefully, this will trigger further discussion and study on Malaysian chess junior players for one main objective - to improve the standard and quality of our juniors performance.

For all the four Kelantan juniors (2 boys and 2 girls) who experienced national ratings drop ONLY played in ONE nationally-rated chess tournament which is the NJCC for the 2011 JAN MCF ratings. So, it is very important for them to make good and enough preparation for such tournament. Otherwise, their national ratings will be affected significantly. GiLoCatur hopes they will participate in many more rated events to have more consistent ratings.

Even for that ONE rated event, their performance is not that very bad as GiLoCatur sees it. Let's see below.

Seeded 54th with Oct 2010 ratings of 1285, Nik Muhd Haziq won both his games against unrated opponents in the 2nd and 5th round respectively. Even he managed to win against one higher-rated opponent in the 6th round. In order for him to improve his ratings, he should had won his last two 1300-rated opponents which ratings gap is relatively small. By the way, he dropped 31 rating points from 1285 to 1254.

For Muhd Faiz Zakaria, he just lost two out of five lower-rated opponents. For sure, his 7th round opponent had participated in many more chess tournaments than him. GiLoCatur strongly believes that Faiz can challenge both 1300-rated and 1400-rated players if he can participate at least three to five tournaments in a month or if he can spar once a week against stronger players. Maybe PCNK can set the sparring activities for Kelantan juniors like him?

Fatih lost only to two lower-rated opponents - Latifah Syamimi and Zainoor Ikmal Maisarah. Syamimi is a strong player actually and if not mistaken was once MSSM KL player. She is the elder sister of Kaiyisah. While Maisarah, eventhough just 8-years-old, has participated in several international chess tournaments like ASEAN and World Youth. In fact, she (Fatih) won against Nur Farihah Aminuddin, a strong player and among the latest top 20 most improved ratings in the sixth round. So, her performance is not that bad GiLoCatur thinks. She just lost 27 points for her national rating points.

As for Norazlisa Ramli who had MCF rating of 1323 in October 2010 losing one game to unrated opponent and another to Zainoor Maisarah, She had lost 62 points in a single rated tourney, to 1261.

The above is only humble opinion and analytical observation of GiLoCatur. GiLoCatur really hopes that all the Kelantan young players are given the chance and opportunity to play many more rated chess tournaments to shine and show their real talents. GiLoCatur also hopes that they will take the opportunity to participate in the coming Kelantan Closed event since it will be a nationally-rated tourney.