17th Malaysian Chess Festival 2022

 The 17th Malaysian Chess Festival 2022 has finally come to a close with the closing ceremony taking place on the night of the 11th September 2022 in the Grand Ballroom at Cititel Hotel, Mid Valley. All the players from the Open & Seniors category were invited while due to space constraints, only the prize winners from the Challengers section were invited. 

Many VIPs attended the closing ceremony, with notable persons being the Chairwoman Ms. Tan Mei Sian (a member of the Tan family who owns Cititel, Midvalley Mall, & the IGB Corporation Berhad), His Excellency Charles Jose (the Philippines Ambassador to Malaysia), Mr. Ng Kay Yip (Son of the late Dato Ng Chee Cheong & Datin Yee Wai Fong whose namesake rapid individual age group & junior team events are named after), Mr. Akhramsyah (President of the Malaysian Chess Federation) alongside members from the press corps. 

The ceremony commenced with the singing of the national anthem, followed by speeches, a short dinner, performances and lastly the prize giving. With the main theme of the event being the Year of the Women in Chess, the performances were conducted synchronously with the prize giving segment which included a mini fashion show by FA Ellie Emira (our founder, where the fashion show doubled as her graduation show from Diploma in Fashion Design), song performances by members of the organizing committee, a diabolo show by respected arbiter, Jing Khai as well as a dance performance by a group of talented dancers from K-Generation club of Taylor’s University! 

The prize giving segment started with the Challengers section, followed by the Seniors, & lastly the Open. The Challengers section was championed by 17-year old, Ng Jun Fung Isaac, tallying at 7.5 points out of 9 and winning RM2500. In the Seniors section, the champion was International Master (IM) Angelo Young from the Philippines, also with a score of 7.5 points out of 9 and winning RM4000. The open section was topped by the defending champion from the last edition in 2019, Grandmaster (GM) Novendra Priasmoro of Indonesia steamrolling at 7.5 points out of 9, winning a grand prize of USD4000!!! This was in spite of a first round setback which proved to be his only defeat as he cruised to a whopping 7.5 points over the remaining 8 rounds.

We wish the utmost of felicitations to all winners and extend our sincerest gratitude to everyone for participating in this year’s Malaysian Chess Festival! We extend our boundless appreciation to our kind sponsors as well, The Dato’ Tan Chin Nam Foundation, IGB Corporation Berhad, Cititel Mid Valley Hotel, Mr. Ng Kay Yip, FIDE, & Astro in helping to make the event a notable success! With absolution for a better future, we hope the tradition of the Malaysian Chess Festival remains unbroken for the many years to come!

Note: Pictures from the Festival are still being sorted out, which will be posted in the coming days. But do enjoy pictures from the Malaysian Chess Festival page first, and also Andrew Ooi aka GilaChess! 

Malaysian Chess Festival page : https://www.facebook.com/mychessfestival/

Andrew Ooi aka GilaChess : https://www.facebook.com/gilachess

#mychessfestival #malaysianchessfestival  #chessmalaysia #malaysiachess #malaysiachesstournament #chess #chesstournament #chessevents #chessmalaysia #chesscom #chessmaster #chesscompetition #queensgambit #fidechess #chessboard #chesslife #chessday #chessplayer #chessislife #chessisfun #chessmate #chesstime #arbiter #chesslovers #lichess #chesslover #chessqueen #chessclicks #chessclicksbyellie #Checkmate