Sukan Kerja Raya 2008

The 2008 Sukan Kerja Raya which were held from 23rd - 25th July 2008 at the Stadium Hang Jebat, Melaka has concluded today . KESAS chess team ( coach by me ) finish 4th place behind the winner CIDB followed by PLUS (2nd) and MTD (3rd) . This is our 3rd participation in this bi-annual events. In 2004 we finish 6th place and in 2006 - 4th place. Although our team repeat the 2004 result , we show great improvement by beating stronger team such as Kementerian Kerja Raya(KKR) for the 1st time . KKR always beat and finish ahead of our team but this year we beat them 3-1!. We nearly made an upset in the final round with a possible 3-1 or 2.5-1.5 win against the defending champion - CIDB but a few mistake in the crucial moments cost us and finally we were down 1-3 by the eventual winner.

The KESAS team, standing from left :Shahbudin, hairulov ( coach), Saharuddin, Rizal
sitting from left: Meor, Razif, Fadhil and Annuar

As a coach, i was quite satisfied by my players performance because they show great improvement since i trained them from 2002. They create many surprising individual results . In the last two edition ( 2002 and 2004 ) we were quite a heavy underdog and top 3 places is always a fight amongst the top teams (CIDB, PLUS and KKR). This time the top team face a surprising resistance from KESAS. I hope we can do better in 2010. Insyallah.

Below are the photo reports .

Stadium Hang Jebat

The tournament hall is in The Stadium Hang Jebat

The tournament hall had a little "pleasant distraction" - a view of live football game !




Do you remember my previous post about Chinese top GM Wang Yue secret weapon- the tiger balm, which he used with a great effect during the 2008 Baku Grand Prix.

GM Wang Yue with his secret weapon - tiger balm...

...and show how to use it....

The weapon is use worldwide now, see photo below.

Who used the green Tiger Balm at Sukan Kerja Raya?

It's the PLUS first board player (left) using it !

Round 6 : KESAS versus PLUS

KESAS and CIDB shaking hands before their last round encounter

Mr. Zaidi Salleh from Melaka the chief arbiter is checking the pairings