In the 15th Penang Heritage City International Chess Open 2023 that concluded on the 22nd of December 2023, the rise of teens of South East Asia was truly apparent. Besides local favourite FM Poh Yu Tian, the other regional juniors that shone during the event included 17-year-old Indonesian IM Arfan Aditya Bagus, 14-year-olds Ivan Travis Cu and Sidabutar Uriel Noah Oloan besides Uzair Shahar of Malaysia. Edwin Lam Choong Wai reports. | Photos: <a href=https://www.facebook.com/PenangChess/">Penang Chess Association’s Facebook page</a>
The Covid pandemic in the last two years have led to a chess boom online, and the young guns have benefited the most from having ‘extra time’ on hand due to being at home a lot throughout the years 2020 and 2021. They seem to have done well to widen their learnings of the game, making large gains on the rating scale. Edwin Lam Choong Wai, chess enthusiast and coach, has a suggestion how FIDE should handle this. We would be interested to hear you opinion on the subject.
December was typically a busy month for chess all over the world. While the world watched in awe at the world’s top, top exponents battle it out in the final month of the year 2022 to try and stop Carlsen’s dominance in the World Rapid and Blitz championships, there was no less excitement over the chess board in the classical format in other parts of the world. One was the return of over-the-board version of the Penang Heritage City International Chess Open, after the Covid-imposed hiatus in the past three years. Report by By Edwin Lam Choong Wai.