This 20-year-old young yet bright chess player takes on the lead by creating history for Malaysia in achieving gold for the chess category!
During the competition yesterday, the international master came out top by scoring the highest at the end of 9 rounds of the all-play-all format using rapid time control.
Yeoh scored 9.60 points, which was almost tied up as the scoring point of Vietnamese player Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. However, our brilliant player managed to beat the previous SEA Games chess champion thanks to a better tiebreaker score! OMG!
Previously, Malaysia’s chess team had only won bronze at the 2011 and 2013 SEA Games. This is the first-ever gold medal achieved by Malaysia in the chess category.
Yeoh mentioned that he was not expecting to win gold for the SEA Games, especially since this was his very first appearance in SEA Games.
Plus, he added that he had only aimed to score for a silver or bronze medal.
Bravo!!! Kontinjen Malaysia
Emas Yang Ke 12 Dari Atlet Chess 🇲🇾♟Yeoh Li Tian Kategori Rapid Men’s #KontinjenMALAYSIA pic.twitter.com/HrwlmBkUa4— #TeamMALAYSIA 🇲🇾 (@AtletMalaysia) December 3, 2019
As quoted by Stadium Astro, Yeoh said that ‘It was very difficult because Vietnamese players won many games, so I also need to win a lot of games,’. Nevertheless, the young gold medallist definitely made Malaysia and the local chess community proud, as Malaysia has always lost to the defending champions from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Thank you Li Tian for bringing Malaysia a step ahead to the competitive game of chess and we are so proud of your achievements and success!
Header image: Berita Harian | The Star | gilachess
