Malaysian Women In Chess

When I am writing this, it is already known that the first Malaysian Woman Masters final shall be held very soon and it is between Alia Anin Azwa and Nur Nabila Azman Hisham. I had met Alia twice in the local competition. It was a draw in our first encounter and I won the second one quite nicely despite it was a rapid game in Merdeka team tournament. Meanwhile, I had never faced Nur Nabila across the board, but his father, Azman Hisham is one of my good friends at chess.

I have some fine recollection against the women players in Malaysia. I had beat IWM Irina Gorshkova (She is actually an Uzbekistan. The encounter took place in Terengganu Open 1997), NWM Nurul Huda, NWM Khairunnisa, NWM (at that time) Siti Zulaikha. However, I suffered a defeat in the hand of WCM Nurshazwani and only managed to draw gainst her in the second encounter. Against NWM Roslina Marmono in the recent DATCC 2nd league team tournament ended with a draw. I used to beat her sister Mardiana Marmono, a few years back.

Some other names need to be mentioned here are Zeti Ajemi, Samantha Lee, Haslindah Ruslan and Hazuin Hussain, whom I used to beat all of them. If the chess enthusiast may remember, Effaliana (the sibling of Effalini) is also one of the most bitter rival in the early days of my chess career (if I can so call it a career).

However, during the prime time of some of notable names such as IWM Audrey Wong, Seto Wai Ling, Geraldine John Putra, J.Punithavathy, NWM Eliza Hanum, NWM Eliza Hanim; despite having been in the same tournament (some of them) I had never faced them across the board and therefore there is no recollection of their games against me.

I also used to train several female chess players when I was at the University (UIAM). Most of them are no longer in contact with the chess pieces. Some of them are Azrina Torman, Amal Farhah, Faizah Khamis, Salizatul Aizah, Nadiaa Zamil, Nurul Hikmah and Nurhaliza Zainal. However, only Mumtaz Muhammad (sibling of Mizan Muhammad) had the real chance to become the NWM when she had the crushing winning position against Siti Zulaikha in one of the National Closed series a few years back (She lost the game at the end). The last news was she had safely delivered a baby. I think, hoping her to re-emerge into the local scene is something next to impossible.

I also used to coach one of a KL players (MSSMKL) Shalini, privately.

And in the latest female pupils are from the OKUs. They are Nur Fieqha, Norain Fatihah, Athirah, Nini, Aqilah Syahirah, Intan Juliana. Of course not to forget, I did share my knowledge (not directly coaching) with the coaches of Para games KL09 athletes; Roslina Marmono and Asmah Ahmad Hambadley.

- To be continued with my games against the very best female chess players-