My Chess Life

APRIL 2011 RATING REVIEW

The rating review is back! This is where you know whether your rating changes or not. Although sometimes I feel that my effort is not appreciated - those reviewed not even bothered to see their rating change - but I continue anyway because I honestly hope that Kelantan players will use this review as a stepping stone for them to achieve greater heights in the chess.

Overall, there are a lot of changes happened in both ways - an increase of the January rating or a decrease. From my observation, the veterans, which include me, are heading a little downward. Myself, Farouqi, Nik Nazri and even Mas Hafizulhelmi had a slight rating decrease. The reason, IMHO, relates to our increased responsibilities outside the chess board. For me, at least, during the only tournament I entered during this rating period - the Kelantan Closed - I was worried about my wife's departure to KL which was delayed for 6 hours! (she was supposed to depart at 9 a.m. but the bus only departed at 3 p.m.) Now you may argue that this thing is not related to chess, but still, constantly on the phone while the tournament was still ongoing would become a distraction somehow, right?

The younger generation, on the other hand, are on the up. Some of them even shoot up the ranking, gaining more than 100 points! Muhd Faiz Zakaria, Siti Nur Afiqah Mohd Haslam (picture left), Wan Muhd Amirul and Muhd Izani Muhd Tarizi had an increase of +192, +140, +135 and +123 respectively to overtake even the likes of BadBishop and Mumtaz Muhammad. This is a very good trend and it should give them more confidence for the future. I played against Muhd Izani, Mohd Ahza Daisam and Alif Omar in the recent SMACH Open, and I found that their games were not that bad after all. Even though the opening mistakes were still there, a proper training with a proper coach will surely eliminate them. My advice - don't be lazy to study your own games to find the mistakes. This can be achieved by reading your score sheets or the tournament bulletin (For your information, the Kelantan Closed Bulletin will come out soon).

To conclude, I am clearly happy with the direction of where Kelantan chess is going right now. All that we need now is for everybody to support our very own chess association - Persatuan Catur Negeri Kelantan (PCNK). Everybody MUST gel together in one group and Kelantan chess will be strong, insha Allah.

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