MSSM 2010 @ Perlis - Selangor Ches Contingent Departure

It is less than ten hours that the 2010 MSSM Chess Championship will kick off in Kangar, Perlis. The Selangor chess contingent which is also the defending overall champion had arrived in Kangar on Saturday night. The contingent went early to have one day rest after a long bus journey.

Both the players and officials gathered at JPN, the state education department, in Section 4 Shah Alam to join other teams like the cricket team, softball team, tennis team, ping pong team, rugby team and sepak takraw team. The chess team will be joined by the tennis team heading to Kangar whereas the others will head to their tournament venues.

Below are few photos taken by GiLoCatur before the "Red and Yellow" chess contingent that include two of GiLoCatur's children started their journey to the most northern state of Malaysia. They will camp for a week to join chess players from other states in the scholastic MSSM Chess Championship.

GiLoCatur would like to wish Best of Luck to the Selangor chess contingent. Play all your heart out to win another honor and glory. We, the parents, will always pray for the success and victory achieved by the state contingent.

Burger King Sparring Is Back!

After a long layoff, the "Burger King Chess Sparring" is back! Last Friday GiLoCatur brought Fikri and Anis to the Burger King at Section 13 Shah Alam for the chess sparring session. It was the first time for Anis. Who were there in the session? Four of the 17ChessClub core members were. Syed, Sahir, Max and Ng6 who had been missing the sparring session for quite sometime. In the sparring session, three strong Malaysian local chess players came to join the session. Who were they? They were Haq who just participated in the MASUM chess tournament, Abdul Salam and Zaidan. Haq just led his UKM chess team to win bronze medal for both the Men and Ladies teams. "Syabas" and "Tahniah" to him.

A mini blitz tournament of four rounds was quickly organized. GiLoCatur opted not to participate. Instead, GiLoCatur prefer to be just the pairing manager. :) Who won? Unfortunately it was not Haq, the top seed. It was Zaidan who won all his four rounds including against Haq.

Sahir (left) versus Max (right)

Syed (left) versus Haq (right)

Ng6 (red shirt) versus Zaidan (yellow shirt)

Salam (left) played against Ng6

So, is it going to be another session on next Friday night, 11th June? GiLoCatur hopes it would be eventhough GiLoCatur-self most probably will not be in town.

Malaysian Juniors at 11th Asean+ Age Group Chess Championship

Today is the first day of the two-week long school mid term break.

For Malaysian chess community especially the juniors, they have already been busy playing in chess tournaments. While all the Malaysian chess players who will represent the fourteen states are heading to Kangar Perlis for the MSSM Chess Championship, seven (GiLoCatur : actually eight players. 7.30pm) Malaysian chess junior players started their first round game this morning in the 11th Asean+ Age Group Chess Championship in Subic Bay, Philippines.

They are :

1. Muhd Faqih Aminuddin
2. Zainoor Ikmal Maisarah Mohd Noor
3. Nur Faqihah Aminuddin, Amier
4. Amier hamzah Mohd Zuhri
5. Mark Siew Kit-Tze
6. Edward Lee Kim Han
7. Muhd Tariq Amru
8. Lim Win Sen

(GiLoCatur : TQ to someone who had notified GiLoCatur about Lim Win Sen who is also participating in the tournament playing in the Open 14 category.)

While Faqih, Maisarah and Faqihah are making their maiden appearance in the international chess tournament, the others have already had some international experience.

Below is the summary of the total participants in the event, not a very good turnout in GiLoCatur's opinion maybe due to financial reason. GiLoCatur notices that even the Philippines players are not so many.

Muhd Faqih of SK Bukit Jelutong

Zainoor Ikmal Maisarah

Nur Faqihah, the elder sister of Faqih

Amie Hamzah

What are their first round results played at 9.00 am today?

All the three debutant players could not manage to overcome their opponents. Maybe they are still nervous facing chess opponents from different countries. GiLoCatur believes such is a very important and crucial exposure to them. GiLoCatur hope their parents - Cikgu Mohd Noor and Cikgu Rosimah will guide and motivate their kids to keep on playing and performing well in the tournament.

Amier Hamzah who is playing in the Open 10 category and both Mark and Edward who are playing in the Open 20 category won their first round games. While another former Selangor MSSM player, Tariq, who also participate in the Open 20 section drew his first round. They will play the second round tomorrow afternoon at 4.00pm.

GiLoCatur would like to wish best of luck to all them. Stay focus on the game and do not feel afraid and intimidated of the opponents. Play your best game ever! Make MALAYSIA proud. YOU CAN DO IT!

2010 MSSM Chess Championship

Thank God It's Friday (TGIF)!

The school mid-term break will begin after the school session completes today. The mid-term break is two-week long. For most of the school children, they should be very happy because they can have a family vacation either local or abroad, they can visit and stay with their grandparents at kampung, they can play games all day long, they can wake up late, they can surf and socialize on the net and many other reasons. For some of them, they will participate in the MSSM like chess and tennis that will be held during the whole next week in Kangar, Perlis including GiLoCatur's kids. But before that, they need to complete their examinations that will end today.

Fikri, GiLoCatur's son, cannot wait for the event. He had been trying to represent Selangor for two years. Finally, this year he manage to do so after championing his category during the MSS Selangor Chess Championship held in last April. So, he will be on board with the Selangor chess contingent that will start their six-hour journey from Shah Alam to Kangar early tomorrow morning. Surely, not only him but also GiLoCatur and wife will be nervous and anxious for the MSSM event.

Would GiLoCatur be at the venue of the tournament too like last year when it was hosted by Selangor in Klang? Would GiLoCatur cover the MSSM event? Let's wait and see to find out. LOL!

In the late 70's, actually, GiLoCatur represented the primary school named SKST or Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Tengar in the Sabak Bernam district chess competition. In 1979, it was held in SK Sekendi and in 1980 it was held in SK Dr Abdul Latiff. But GiLoCatur did not manage to represent Sabak Bernam to the state chess championship. Ofcourse, GiLoCatur and other teammates were lacking in chess knowledge, materials and competition. One of the reasons is that GiLoCatur's home town is located very remotely in the northern part of Selangor. Even after 3 decades, Sabak Bernam chess players are still far behind than most other districts like Petaling, Gombak, and Kelang. Luckily, GiLoCatur's children are staying in Shah Alam where many chess tournaments are close by. GiLoCatur would like very much for the remote districts like Sabak Bernam to excel in chess.

Chess MSSM 2009 Champions

In 2009 edition, the Selangor chess contingent that includes GiLoCatur's daughter managed to be the overall champion. The contingent won four gold medals, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes. It excelled in Under 12 category where three golds, 1 silver and 2 bronzes were won.

Gold medals - U12 Boys Individual (Yeoh Li Tian), U12 Girls Individual (Nur Nabila Azman) & Under 12 Girls Team

Silver medal - U12 Boys Individual (Mohd Irfan Haqqim)

Bronze medals - U12 Girls Individual (Chew Ee Wen) & U12 Boys Team

The other gold medal was won by Under 15 Boys Team spearheaded by Mohd Nabil Azman while another silver was achieved by Under 18 Boys Team led by Geeneish Sivalingam.

The jubilant Selangor chess contingent

The MSSM 2009 Chess Champion

Ulu Tiram Chess Tournament at Today's Mall

Have most of you ever heard of Ulu Tiram in Johor? How about Today's Mall? Surely for GiLoCatur, it is the first time that GiLoCatur ever known and heard. Why mention about them?

Actually, on last Sunday (30th May 2010), there was a chess tournament organized and held at Today's Mall located in Ulu Tiram. After checking with Mr Google, GiLoCatur found out that Ulu Tiram is a town located about 18 kilometers to the north of Johor Baharu or simply known as JB.

Based on the chess blog of Dr Nasrul who was one of the participants, about 40 chess players participated in the event that has three categories - Open, Intermediate and Novice. Not a very bad number for GiLoCatur. GiLoCatur always believe that the number can be much better provided that the organizer send flyers to the nearby schools. Promotion is very very important especially banners, buntings and via the media like local radio station and newspaper. It is a very challenging act to attract the Malaysians for a non-popular sport like chess.

GiLoCatur is hoping that the chess tournament organizers in this country will not give up for the "not so good" turn out in their events. Post mortems must be done to improve the attendance in the future. All the Malaysian chess community must be united to make CHESS successful and be on top in Malaysia. PROMOTION, PROMOTION, & PROMOTION!

Poor Turn Out In The DATCC Dream Team Chess Weekend

From several chess blogs, GiLoCatur found out that the DATCC Dream Team Chess tournament held during last weekend - 29th & 30th May 2010, had a poor turn out. Only four teams came to play meaning only 16 chess players were participating including the arbiter.

Lack of publicity is said to be one of the main reasons for the poor turn out. If this is true, it shows that the local chess blogs have very big responsibility and role in the Malaysian chess. One of the main reasons GiLoCatur believes is that it is the examination week. Most of the schooling chess players are busy studying and preparing for the exams. Furthermore, many of them are attending MSS state centralized training held during the weekend including Selangor state team that is being held about 150 kilometers or more than two-hour drive from KL. For the core IPT chess players they are participating in the MASUM tournament. (GiLoCatur will write further about MASUM Chess later.) Several other Malaysian juniors were attending the First GM chess training at Excel Chess Academy.

But for GiLoCatur, keep up the momentum by having continuous chess tourneys. Four teams is good enough. GiLoCatur is very happy because 17ChessClub keeps active to participate in the local chess tournaments.

Not yet read about the DATCC Dream Team Chess Tourney report? Click here or here to know which team is the champion.

Where GiLoCatur Had Been?

It has been a while for the last update. Almost a week.

Where GiLoCatur had been? Been very busy? LOL ... Actually, it is right to say that GiLoCatur had been busy with work commitment, family commitment and etc etc Since it was a public holiday last Sunday, GiLoCatur had been busy going back to hometown in Sabak Bernam.

Normally, when going back home town, GiLoCatur and wife will be busy with our plantation farms. It is very challenging in fact to manage plantation farms especially to manage the hired workers. But GiLoCatur gets to do what GiLoCatur has to do. Enough with that.

While at hometown during the long weekend, GiLoCatur and wife had visited our elder kids - Fikri and Anis, who are attending the centralized training for the MSS Selangor. The training which started on Friday, 28th May is held in Sabak Bernam, a two-hour drive from Shah Alam. It will end today. It is pity to most of them because while having training they also need to study and do revision since it is an exam week. When they get back to their schools they have to sit for the exams as well as the papers they miss to sit. What a sacrifice actually for them.

True enough, in order for the Malaysian youngsters to succeed and excel in their respective sports they need to sacrifice a lot. Unlike their peers, they have to sacrifice their weekends and public holidays either for training or participating in tournaments. Sometime GiLoCatur feels pity on them especially to both Fikri and Anis. Am I as a parent pushing them too hard to excel? Am I as a parent taking their childhood joy and freedom? But as the common saying, "NO PAIN, NO GAIN".

Check It Out! Malaysian Chess Blogs One-Stop-Center

(GiLoCatur Photo)

Most Malaysian chess community know who is in the above picture. He is non other than Andrew Ooi aka Gilachess. For GiLoCatur, he is the sifu, otai and pioneer of the Malaysian Chess Bloggers. He has been contributing a lot to the chess blogging in this country.

What is his latest significant contribution? A one-stop center for about 30 Malaysian chess blogs or websites. Check out the one-stop center with the theme of "ALL THE MALAYSIAN CHESS NEWS IN ONE PLACE" here if you don't want to miss any blog update.

WELL DONE ANDREW!

BE CAREFUL!, PASSWORD SCAM ALERT

GILOCATUR TERIMA EMEL DI ATAS DALAM GMAIL INBOX. SEKALI PANDANG NAMPAK MACAM ASLI (GENUINE). TETAPI JANGANLAH "TIPAH TERTIPU". GMAIL SESEKALI TIDAK AKAN MINTA PASSWORD DARI PENGGUNA. MEREKA BOLEH DAPATKAN DARI DATABASE JIKA PERLU.

KENAPA PERLUKAN MAKLUMAT PASSWORD? KENAPA TIDAK TANYA MAKLUMAT DAN INFO2 YANG LAIN? KENAPA GMAIL TEAM PERLUKAN MAKLUMAT DARI PENGGUNA JIKA DATABASE MEREKA BERMASALAH? FYI, GMAIL ADA TECHNICAL TEAM YANG BERKEPAKARAN DAN BERKEMAHIRAN SANGAT TINGGI. SO, JANGANLAH ANDA TERPEDAYA.

APA YANG PERLU ANDA LAKUKAN? ANDA BOLEH IGNORE ATAU BUAT TAK KISAH SAHAJA. JIKA ANDA RAJIN SIKIT, BOLEH BUAT LAPORAN KEPADA PUSAT BANTUAN CYBER999 YANG DIKENDALIKAN OLEH CYBERSECURITY MALAYSIA.

Untuk hubungi CyberSecurity Malaysia,

laman sesawang : http://www.cybersecurity.my

telefon : 1-300-88-2999

emel : cyber999@cybersecurity.my

SIAPA CYBERSECURITY?

CyberSecurity Malaysia adalah agensi di bawah Kementerian Sains, Teknologi dan Inovasi yang bertanggungjawab dalam aspek keselamatan siber dan menggalakkan keselamatan Internet di kalangan pengguna di Malaysia.

Klik di sini untuk maklumat dan info lanjut.

Nak tahu berapa statistik insiden penipuan internet di Malaysia tahun lepas?

... Pusat Bantuan Cyber999 telah menerima sebanyak 3,564 aduan mengenai insiden penipuan dalam internet iaitu meningkat 68 peratus aduan berbanding tahun sebelumnya.

GiLoCatur yakin angka tersebut akan bertambah berkali-kali ganda seandainya semua rakyat Malaysia prihatin untuk membuat aduan. Untuk berita lanjut, klik di sini.

Jika anda perlukan maklumat lanjut tentang perkara berkaitan dan cyber security awareness, sila ke laman sesawang CyberSAFE. Sebagai contoh, kepada semua parents yang perlukan tips untuk mendidik (educate) anak-anak tentang keselamatan bila menggunakan internet, link berikut - TEACH YOUR KIDS ONLINE SAFETY dan berikut, pasti amat berguna sekali dan diperlukan.

BE SMART! TAKE CARE YOUR & YOUR KIDS SAFETY IN THE NET!

Lagi URL berkaitan :

http://ms-my.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=334098323478&topic=19208

DATCC Dream Team Chess Weekend - 29th & 30th MAY 2010

Don't worry! The above team is NOT "The Bangkok Red Shirts"!

But they are the famous Shah Alam's 17ChessClub gang.

Would they participate? Could they become the DATCC Dream Team Chess Weekend Champion? ONLY THEY HAVE THE ANSWER!

Received below email from Najib Abdul Wahab, the DATCC Program Manager/Coordinator, about 5 hours ago. Another chess event coming up during a long weekend at the end of this month. You can download its Microsoft Word document here.

Dear Chess Friends….

Please upload, disseminate and share the information with fellow chess players

FYI, 28th May (Friday) is Wesak Day so it is a long weekend – a good time to get outstation players to come to KL and participate in the event

TEASER

“DATCC will be organizing the DATCC Dream Team Chess Weekend during the Wesak Day long weekend at the end of the month on 29th and 30th May (Saturday/Sunday) to complete the variety of events that it has to offer to the chess community in the country. In line with its status as the premier chess centre and organizer in the country, the Team Event is one of the main activities organized by DATCC aside from the Individual Rapid events, Blitz, DATCC Commercial League, etc, including co-organizing the “Learn Much Better Chess with GM Ziaur Rahman” program.

The DATCC Dream Team Chess Weekend is open to teams of 4 players and seeding will be based on the team players National Rating average. 4 main prizes are up for grabs in the open section with 3 additional category prizes for the 1Malaysia Team, Junior Team and Ladies Team

- 1Malaysia Team is a team comprising of different races and at least one player of the opposite gender

- Junior Team is a team comprising of players who are all below 15 years old

- Ladies Team is a team comprising of all female players

All players in these 3 categories must be Malaysian Citizen.

In order to qualify for the category prizes, each category must have at least 3 teams participating.

The time control is for the event is 60 minutes per player per game (to finish) and the tournament shall be played over 6 Round Swiss Pairing system. Team will be paired based Match Points and the first tie breaker shall be the game point

Teams can register early or by 9:00am on Saturday, 29th May and the first round to start at 10:00am, immediately after the registration concludes. 3 rounds of play is scheduled for Saturday, and the next 3 rounds, is scheduled the next day, Sunday 30th May starting at 9:00am

The 4 main prizes and the sectional prizes for the event are as follows:

Champion : RM 700

Runner Up : RM 350

Third : RM 200

Fourth : RM 200

Section Prizes:

.Best 1Malaysia Team : RM 150

.Best Junior Team : RM 150

.Best Ladies Team : RM 150

(Section Prizes must have at least 3 teams playing in each section)

The entry for the event is RM 120 per team for all teams.

For further inquiries on the event, or if you wish to request for the entry form, please contact Hamid Majid at 019 315 8098 (aham@pc.jaring.my) or Najib Wahab at 016 338 2542 (najib.wahab@chess-malaysia.com. For fax correspondence, please use 03 4024 4337”