Daily chess in Ipoh

Hi guys

Some of you have written in and asked for a place to play informal chess. Well we have one special place in Ipoh where chess enthusiasts meet for their daily dose of chess and tea tarik from about 5.30pm onwards. There you will find players of many skill levels, including former and current state players. That used to be about the only place to practise chess during the dark days when there were very very few tournaments in Perak.

It's along Jalan Gopeng, opp. Hillcity (called Pusat Limau Bali, selling pomeloes). It's the corner warong as you drive in. Gerai no.1

So go along when you get the chess itch. All are welcome.

Cheers

Raymond

Bercham Open

Hi everyone, there's going to be another competition in Bercham on the 7th of June sponsored and organised by the Persatuan Kebudayaan India Bercham.

It will be divided into 3 categories: Open, Under 16 and Under 12.
Time control will be 25 minutes per person

Click here for registration form & details

For additional information, you can contact:

En. Vasu - 017-5199586 ( PENGERUSI J/KUASA PENGANJUR )
En. Yunus - 013-3908129

Batu Gajah National Rated Event

Hi guys

Our AJK's, En. Kamaruddin & En. Kumar, have jointly organized this historical event: our first national rated event!

31st May 2009

Pssst..... Prize money for Open is RM 1,000. All prize money kindly sponsored by Pusat Tuisyen IKTIBAR!

Click here for details.

Historical cooperation with MCF & Unit Sukan

PICA's new president for development, Chan Swee Loon (NM) - paying off the man. If there was music in this blog, I would pipe in "Hail to the Chief".



Thank you Ustaz Rahman from Chess enthusiasts in Perak.

On the 16th and 17th May, the sub committee for education and training managed to hold an historical event. A swiss managers course for stage arbiters attended by 26 participants ( 7 from PICA and 19 from Unit Sukan ). For the first time in Perak history we held a joint event with MCF and Unit Sukan. To conduct this event required a huge paradigm shift in Perak chess culture....to get this off the ground we had many dialogues, with MCF, travelling up and down KL, phone calls and emails, many discussions with unit sukan and many discussions in the new committee and among individual committee members...even heated arguments! I say this is healthy for we are all for development and as a new team we are bound to have different opinions on how to do things and do it well. Now we can truly say Perak boleh and believe it! For now the people who want to get things done have a small "victory" over the nay sayers...One small step......to more cooperation.....

But as they say in chess, a winning position does not mean a win!!! As Tun Mahathir said recently over the Perak political fiasco, "people easily forget" So it's not over till the fat lady sings. Lets remain watchful and vigilent. Members included, exercise your voice. PICA is an NGO for the state of Perak, not a private club for the priviledged, selfish and jaded. Hold the new committee accountable.

Now we have a small team that can conduct swiss managers events...One more small step....

We were so excited that PICA is now holding another historical event. With our new found skills we are now holding our first National Rated tournament in Perak on the 31st of May in Batu Gajah. Check out the next posting for details....Another small step.....

Raymond Siew
Chairman
Education and Training committee
PICA

Welcome to Perak Chess Association's Official Blog

The new committee of PICA would like to announce our list of events for the year. The list is tentative and subject to change. Please write in to raymond@emasters.info for further information. To fully use this blog please also sign up at the sign up box so that you can be sent the special mailings that will be delivered to your email box. This is a double opt-in system and you will need to go to your email box after signing up and open up the email from us to confirm that you want to receive our mailings. If you just want to follow the latest postings of events in this blog, please click on the followers tab on the right hand side and you will be sent an email informing you of the latest posting.

31st May: Batu Gajah Grand Prix

30th May-3rd June: National Close

21st June: Clearwater Sanctuary

26th- 28th June: Camp Bakat

12th July: Sg. Siput Grand Prix ( Taken out of calender )

18th July: MBSSKL Invitational chess tournament

16th August: Syuen Grand Prix

28th August-1st September: Merdeka team event

14th-15th November: Perak Close

6th-10th December: National Junior

13th December: CRC Grand Prix

Raymond Siew
Chairman - Education and Training Committee
PICA

About Perak Chess Association

On the 15th of March 2009, a new leadership for chess emerged in Perak. After years of languishing, Perak chess found new life. Preceeding this a new PT negeri for Perak Encik Zaki Mahmood was elected. This set the stage for the people who were concerned about the state of Perak chess to come forward and change things.

At the AGM the members elected a new President Chan Swee Loon ( a former National Master ) to lead the way.

Here is our new line up.

President: Chan Swee Loon
VP: Yunus b Sharif
VP: Sukumaran a/l Ramachandran
Treasurer: Dr Yee Meng Kheong
Secretary: Kamaruddin b Samsuri

AJK's
Tournaments and development: Zaki Mahmood
Education and Training : Raymond Siew
Membership: Sukumaran a/l Ramachandran
Welfare: Mohd Harmain Mohd Amin

Others
Mat Zaki Yeop
Abd Ur-Rahman bin Mohamed Amin
Abu Bakar Martin
Mohd Johan Jamil

In our first committee meeting it was decided that PICA will attempt to work closely with MCF, Unit Sukan and all other chess bodies in Perak and to develop warm and close working relationships with them for the betterment of Perak chess. It was also brought up that this committee should be one where all members are working and contributing to Perak's chess development. There is a lot of work to be done to bring Perak chess to it's former glory.

The new committee also decided to create sub committees, each authorised to undertake their areas of responsiblity. This is revolutionary for Perak as until this committee, power was concentrated in the hands of a few. With this new beginning tremendous energy has been poured into the committee and it is our aspiration that we will be able to get the necessary work done.

This committe has also decided that Perakians will now be supported to all recognised National events and we have added the National Age Group and the National Juniors to our calender. From now on all Perak chess players will have the chance to pit for National Honors. The National Juniors are till age 20. National age group starts at under 8, under 10, under 12, under14 and under16.

Prior to this Perakians only enter the system from under 12, therefore finding themselves out gunned and out experienced by their counter parts. AJK Zaki Yeop has a program for players from 5 to 12 years old and we hope there are more events for this age group in Perak. And no more will people leave chess after under 18 with the National Juniors. A FIDE route will also assist our older players that still want to progress. Thus contributing back to Perak's pool of expertise.

We will also be arranging for courses for coaches, arbiters etc. to bring us up to scratch. Until our recent events we had no arbiters who could do swiss manager, a pre-requisite for national events, no qualified coaches in Perak. People just struggled along on their own with barely any state support, if any.

The new committee intends to change this with the support of all who love chess in Perak. We are also holding more tournaments in Perak with supporting organisers.

Thank you

Raymond Siew
Education and Training