Malaysia's newest chess international master

I congratulate Mok Tze Meng, Malaysia's latest chess player to achieve the International Master title. He got his third norm from the IGB Arthur Tan Malaysia open chess tournament which ends today at the CitiTel MidValley Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. He was beyond words, preferring to shake my hands and grinning from ear-to-ear.

He got his first international master norm at the Penang masters tournament in 2000 and his second norm at the Manila SEA Games in 2005. Now, all that is required of him is to raise his Fide rating to above 2400 points and the title should be his.

I was talking to Dato Tan Chin Nam earlier and he mentioned that Mok will get his RM5,000 reward for his title achievement. He had been promising this reward to Malaysians who could achieve the international master title since 1974 and he said that he would still give it to the next three Malaysians. And after that, the reward will end. In the meantime, the reward of RM30,000 for a local grandmaster is still up for grabs.

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