Deputy Prime Minister gives chess a publicity boost
Picture courtesy of Encik Ahmad Shafruddin (CAS President)
With all the attention to results and games I almost forgot to mention something important.
Chess got a big boost in publicity, thanks to our Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Media coverage for chess is very little in Malaysia with only Quah Seng Sun’s fortnightly Chess column being the exception. Major newspapers, TV3 and Astro reporters were at opening ceremony of the Malaysian Open on Tuesday officiated by the Deputy Prime Minister.
Here’s what Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said about his father, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein :-
Malaysia’s second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein was an avid chess player and had defied doctors’ order against travelling to attend a chess championship in Penang.
So the Deputy Prime Minister’s father was a chess fan.
Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak himself knows how to play the game but has not played the game since his school days because he does not have the time for it anymore.
Still, on behalf of Malaysian Chess fans I have to salute and thank the DPM for taking time out of his busy schedule to make the opening ceremony of the Malaysian Open a big media event.
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