Sabah chess body to train youngsters to be world class players
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Chess Association (SCA) president Muammar Jurkarnain said SCA would be organising the KK City Junior Competition in February this year.
“Among the participants competing in this competition are students from China who will compete with our young talent chess players,” he said here yesterday.
Meanwhile, SCA organised a Sabah Chess Opening 2018 competition where the government sector played against the private sector at Oceanus Waterfront Mall here on December 30, 2017 to expose the game of chess to the public.
Julkarnain said the competition was not to see who was better in the game of chess but to expose this beautiful game to the younger generations.
“After the success of this competition in 2017, which was won by the government sector, we once again organised a similar competition for 2018 and this time it was won by the private sector.
“As this game is played by many people from all ages, our priority right now is to encourage parents and teachers to expose the game of chess to their children and students.
“As chess is an element of thinking beyond the box and beyond the logic, we believe it can help improve a child’s mind and intelligence to be a great thinker which may help them in their studies,” said Muammar when met at the recent competition.
Also present was Oceanus Waterfront Mall assistant manager of advertising and promotion Musa Yahya.
Muammar also said that 2017 was a historical year for SCA as the association managed to set up an academy to train potential chess players.
“We have 30 chess coaches at this academy and our priority is to train the younger generations to be a world class chess player,” he said, adding that the academy is located at Lot No 15, 1st Floor, Block C, Plaza Kingfisher.
Meanwhile, Ali Yusof, 30, a disabled who represented Sabah in the paraarchery, was among the 140 chess players taking part in the friendly competition.
“I play chess as a hobby and my friend brought me here today just to have some fun and I am very surprised that I won for the private sector,” he said with a smile.