Cambodian chess players hit new heights as Malaysian takes top prize

Chess players compete in the first Ly Hout Fide Rated Chess International 2022 on Dec 11. - PPP

PHNOM PENH (The Phnom Penh Post/Asia News Network): The first Ly Hout FIDE Rated Chess Invitational was considered a great success for Cambodia after six of its players finished in top placements and are now officially registered with the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and fully eligible to participate in international competitions in over 190 countries.

Although Vietnam and Hong Kong withdrew from the tournament, 15 players – 10 from Malaysia and five from Thailand – joined the competition. Among the 15 were those with the strongest ratings on the FIDE list and none of the 11 Cambodian players was favoured to win.

However, after two days of matches at the Ly Hout Condominiums, which ended on the evening of Dec 11, Cambodian chess players were not only able to beat some of their Malaysian and Thai opponents to win registration on the FIDE Rated list, but Hak Lambear managed to take second place and Men Seyha finished in fifth place overall.

Dy Chout, secretary-general of the Cambodia Chess Federation (CCF), spoke after the matches about the meaning of these results for the kingdom.

"We can say that this is a historic result for our Cambodian international players. The results exceeded the expectations of the federation as well as the organising committee.

"At first we just thought that for the Cambodian players, we could get some of them FIDE Rated, but it was beyond expectations that we won second and fifth place among all the participants, given that the Malaysians and the Thais who participated are already ranked on the FIDE list, but we managed to get our players FIDE Rated and finish among the top in the tournament. It is very exciting," he said.

After seven rounds of competition to find the winner, the youthful Malaysian chess wiz Fadzil Muhd Idraki took first place with cash prize of US$1,000. Second place went to Cambodia's Lambear with $700 in money prize and third place and $300 went to Malaysia's Ibnu Iwan Schani.

Fourth place went to Malaysia's Mohd Faizullah Aliah Diyanah Insyirah and fifth place went to Cambodia's Men Seyha, with the Thai players surprisingly shut out of the top five.

Lambear was already considered one of the most talented Cambodian chess players prior to his second place finish and now he and Seyha – along with Chea Sideth, Kong Sopheap, Ros Rithya and El Rozak – have all made the FIDE Rated list.

Making the FIDE Rated List is an important step because it means that the above six Cambodian players have been officially recognised internationally and they have full rights to participate in the international and world-class tournaments organised by the FIDE as players representing Cambodia.