Malaysia’s first chess grandmaster
By Quah Seng Sun – (former chess columnist of The Star, 1980-2012)
Long regarded as the country’s top player, Yeoh Li Tian was born in 1999 and burst onto the local chess scene as a six-year-old when he took part in the Under-8 boys’ event at the ASEAN+ Age-Group Chess Championship in Jakarta in 2007. He finished a credible fifth. Two years later, the late Dato’ Tan Chin Nam arranged for the young prodigy to undergo a month-long special training stint in Beijing under the guidance of Chinese grandmasters.
Dato’ Tan was no ordinary supporter of the game. As the founding president of the Malaysian Chess Federation, he was the driving force behind organised chess in the country. Over the decades, he poured substantial personal resources into the sport, believing deeply in its potential to cultivate discipline, intelligence and global recognition for Malaysia. His vision brought in international tournaments, attracted global talents to Malaysian soil, and nurtured local hopefuls like Yeoh and many others. Even after his passing in 2018, his legacy continues to shape the game here.
Yeoh’s development was swift and impressive. He became a FIDE Master in 2015 and an International Master in 2017. In doing so, he followed in the footsteps of earlier Malaysian trailblazers: Christi Hon, the country’s first FIDE Master, and Jimmy Liew, who became Malaysia’s first International Master in 1984. But the grandmaster title had eluded Malaysians for decades. It was always close, but never quite there, until now.
In 2015, Yeoh [photo Malaysian Chess Federation] won the Malaysian national championship and he successfully defended his title in the following year. Those back-to-back wins cemented his status as the nation’s strongest player, and from that point on, he was widely seen as the best hope for a grandmaster title.
In 2017, Yeoh won the FIDE Zone 3.3 Championship in the Philippines, finishing ahead of several established grandmasters and international masters. That victory secured him his first grandmaster norm. Later, at the Bhopal International Grandmaster Chess Tournament where he faced a wider field of foreign players, he finished second. His rating climbed steadily, crossing the crucial 2500 mark in September 2018 and peaking at 2530.
By then Yeoh was studying Accountancy at Imperial College in London. During his winter break he made a short trip to Stockholm for the 2018/2019 Rilton Cup. Although he finished 17th, his performance was strong enough to earn him a second grandmaster norm. At the Dubai Open in 2019, he had a chance to secure his third and final norm. He needed just one point from the last two rounds, but managed only half a point. The opportunity slipped away.
After that, Yeoh turned his focus toward completing his degree. When he returned to Malaysia, he represented the country at the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi in 2022. In the final round of the tournament, a draw would have earned him his third grandmaster norm. But a win would bring Malaysia an historic gold medal in chess. Faced with a difficult choice between personal glory and honour for the nation, he chose the latter. He pressed hard for a win, overreached and lost.
That disappointment lingered. Yeoh turned his attention to his professional career and postgraduate studies. Chess took a back seat. Yet it was clear the fire hadn’t gone out. Meanwhile, a younger generation of players like Poh Yu Tian and Kavin Mohan was rising through the ranks, and whispers began to circulate: was Yeoh going to let his two grandmaster norms go to waste? Would someone else overtake him to claim the honour of being Malaysia’s first grandmaster?
In my blog commentary last September, I wrote that the race was on to see who would be the first Malaysian grandmaster. But I also said I didn’t believe we had seen the last of Yeoh Li Tian. I was sure he would return to chase that elusive final norm. More than anything else, I hoped my words would provoke a response: don’t let those norms go to waste.
And I was right. In December 2024, Yeoh returned to the international chess scene, taking part in the Singapore International Open. Though he finished in a modest 24th place, it was a good test of whether he still had the mental strength to compete not just against his peers, but also against the rising generation.
Since then, he has been preparing for a comeback. A new partnership between the Malaysian Chess Federation and ChessHub Sdn Bhd, offering RM 200,000 in annual sponsorship for five years, has made possible the ChessHub–MCF First GM–IM Invitational Tournament, held in Kuala Lumpur from 28th July to 3rd August 2025. It may not have been the strongest tournament on paper, but it will go down in history as the event that finally gave Malaysia its first home-grown chess grandmaster.
Yeoh Li Tian receiving the winner’s prize from Malaysian Chess Federation president Akhramsyah Muammar Ubaidah Sanusi and ChessHub chairman Dato’ Ismail Hamdan
As of now, Yeoh has fulfilled all requirements for the title: he has achieved three grandmaster norms and his rating has surpassed the required threshold. The official submission to FIDE is pending and final ratification by FIDE is expected to follow in due course. But for all practical purposes, Yeoh Li Tian has done it. The long wait by the Malaysian chess community is over.
About the Writer
QUAH SENG SUN first cut his writer’s teeth at the National Echo, a now defunct newspaper in Penang, prior to joining the banking industry in 1977. While at Ban Hin Lee Bank, he played a crucial role in developing the country’s shared ATM network. Later, he joined the Internet-based recruitment company, JobStreet.com, as the content manager. During his spare moments, he was a freelance writer and his chess columns in The Star newspaper spanned some 32 years and contributed much to the development of the game in the country. After retirement, he returned to his life-long passion of writing. He is the author of two beginner’s books on chess, aptly titled Catur in 1991 and Taking Up Chess in 1995, and co-authored Fidelis in 2012, which was a commemorative book by The Old Frees’ Association. Quah is the author of Let the Aisles Begin in 2016 which traced the 200-year history of his alma mater, Penang Free School, Ten Thousand Prosperities in 2011 which covered the story of Ban Hin Lee Bank, and Centenary in 2013 which celebrated the 100th anniversary of The Old Frees’ Association. He is an International Arbiter since 2000.
