The dress code fiasco involving a 12-year-old chess player in a knee-length dress might not have happened, if the chess competition she took part in last month was held in Penang.

Penang Chess Association (PCA) chairman Lee Ewe Ghee said there is no strict dress code for chess competitions in the state.

“We organise many competitions like the Penang Chess Festival and Penang International Chess Open. We only tell officials and players that they must be smartly attired at all times in the playing hall.

“But we don’t pay particular attention to it. We just hope nobody turns up in slippers,” he told a press conference at Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s Komtar office today.

Lee said no chess player had ever been disqualified over their clothes in Penang.

He noted that some competitions in Malaysia had stricter dress codes, like the National Schools Chess Championship run by the Education Ministry for over 20 years, but players should be told of dress codes beforehand.

Lim said the issue was an embarrassment to the country because international media such as the BBC and Washington Post had picked up the story.

“It gave a negative impression on Malaysia. Chess players don’t look at their opponents when they play. Their eyes are on the board, not on their opponents’ clothes,” he said.

The girl’s coach posted on Facebook and claimed that she was pulled out of the championship in Putrajaya by a Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) official.

The coach claimed that the official had found the girl’s dress to be too seductive, while the child’s mother demanded an apology over the incident.

The official caught in the controversy, Sophian A. Yusuf, who had been facing all sorts of accusations and even threats on social media, had since explained that he was not even at the competition venue when the incident took place.

It was also reported that the girl withdrew from the National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017 herself and was not forced to do so. – May 2, 2017.