SIMUL vs THE VISUAL IMPAIRED

Last Wednesday, on the 10th of November 2010, I was being honoured to be invited by the MPM (The Paralimpic Council of Malaysia) to represent the 'SIGHTED' in a chess match versus the 'BLIND' or shall we call "VISUAL IMPAIRED'. Most of the visual impaired player were known to me as I had been involving coaching them chess, by invitation (not regularly) from time to time since Manila Para Games 2005. This event is actually held to get the media attention of the sponsorship by JACTIM to the MPM.

I discovered that, Fadli (a.k. SM) and Faisal Zakaria, Asmah Hambadley, Haslindah Ruslan, Latiff sifu and his son Zaimi were already there at the time of my arrival.

I played against 4 players and in round 1 I won 3 (against , Hj Majid and Abd Rahim) and succumbed to Hj Shaharudin Sidek after without thinking snatch his Queen which led to an instant mate. Then we played again for the 2nd round with the colour reverse, except that there was a change on Board 1 when Ramalik played on board 1 with white while the other 3 maintains their status quo as the challengers with colour reverse. The game were stoppped before the ceremony, but as I, Ramalik and Abd Rahim continued, the games favoured me on the 3 boards while the other board against Hj Shaharudin Sidek (again!) remains unclear.

Below are the games :









Using the braile chess sets and playing against 4 visual impaired players with the clock ticking (1 hour time control) is not an easy task, but this is a way to get quick attention in order to promote chess. I wish to play more simuls for chess promotion, from a state to another state if given an opportunity just to promote chess, not only to the school children, but also to the society at large.

Here are the rest of the games in round 2









As for other perspective coverage of this event, please see here

TRAINING FOR THE VISUAL IMPAIRED KL TEAM

I was being contacted by the Melaka Paralimpic squad a few months ago, requesting me to fulfil the task as the coach of the Malacca's paralimpic squad. However, since then, no news had been heard. No contact, no sms and no letter. In fact, it was me who tried to make some calls and sent some sms but to this point, I had received no reply.

Meanwhile, the KL team had been contacting me very recently. At first, I asked the KL manager, Rosham to liase with the Malacca's team first as regards to my position. After 2 weeks, where there is no progress and as time is already crucial (the Malaysian paralimpic games shall start on the 21st of November), I had agreed to coach the KL players. To my surprise, most of the KL palyers (the visual impaired) are already known to me, Mat Idris, Ramalik, Mahadzir, Mah Hassan, Amir and Sariah are among the players in the squad.

I had the feeling that, KL may have very good chances to clinch many gold medals, as long as somebody must stop Nur Feiqha at the board. Naaturally, I would have to make some special antidote for the female KL team to face her.

The training session is conducted at the cafeteria of the Malaysian Association for the Blind at Brickfield. The training sessions is scheduled on every Saturday 2.00pm - 5.30 pm and Sunday 9.00 am - 12.30pm