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
