Amir Faiz Amirul is a Malaysian chess player. He is the youngest Candidate Master of Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation (FIDE) in Malaysia's history. He earned the title of Candidate Master at age 7 years and 5 months. Despite finishing level on points with the winner, he emerged as a Runner-Up on tie-break in the 10th Asian Schools Chess Championship in 2014 which was held in Washington High School in Taichung, Taiwan.
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Chess
Born on the 3rd of March 2007, he shares his birthday with his mother, Fariza Zakaria. At 5 years and 10 months, Amir Faiz finished 4th in the 2013 National Age Group (NAG) chess championship organized by the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) in UTP Tronoh, Perak. He qualified for the Malaysian youth/junior team three years in a row between 2013 and 2015, finishing 4th in 2013 at Perak, 1st in 2014 at Selangor, and 3rd in 2015 at F.T. of Kuala Lumpur.
Amir Faiz bin Amirul represented Malaysia at the World Youth Chess Championship (2013, Al Ain, UAE), Asian Schools Chess Championship (2013, Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka, and 2014, Taichung, Taiwan), ASEAN+ Age Group Chess Championship (2014, Macau SAR and 2015, Singapore) and Asian Dragons Chess Championship (2014, New Taipei City, Taiwan). He is Malaysia's youngest qualifier for the WYCC. At 6 years and 9 months, Amir Faiz represented Malaysia at the WYCC in Al Ain, UAE.
His international achievements include 8th in Blitz at the 9th Asian Schools Chess Championship 2013 (Sri Lanka), Team Bronze in Blitz at the 15th ASEAN+ Age Group 2014 (Macau) and Silver in the 10th Asian Schools Chess Championship 2014 (Taiwan).
Amir Faiz also represents the F.T. of Kuala Lumpur state team at the national level Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Malaysia (MSSM) Chess Competition. At the 2014 MSSM held in Kuching, Sarawak, aged 7 and the 2016 MSSM held in Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan aged 9 he was the youngest medalist in the competition. He is also the 2016 MSSWPKL U10 Champion, 2014 U9 Champion and the 2015 U10 Runners-Up(on tie-break), as well as the Bangsar Zone U10 Champion for 2015.
As of 31st July 2016, CM Amir Faiz have won more than 10 individual titles in Malaysia in the 4 states of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
Fencing
In 2015, he took up fencing. On August 23, 2015, Amir Faiz Amirul in his first ever fencing competition he'd participated in won the event, a U8/U9 foil mixed event organized by Touch Fencing in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. In December 2015, he reached the Quarter Finals of a U10 foil competition in F.T. of Kuala Lumpur.
The Ysparks International Fencing competition 2016 held in Singapore was Amir Faiz's first international assignment for fencing. He qualified from his pool into the last 64 and made it to the 1/16 round. Earlier in the year Faiz emerged Runners-Up and Bronze medalist in the Touche Grand Finals and SKTTDI Invitational foil events respectively. He also qualified from his pool to the last 64 of the MFF GP3 U12 foil competition and made it to the 1/16. 2016 was also the first year Faiz competed in the sabre event and he qualified for the Quarter-finals in his first ever sabre event held in KL.
Badminton
2016 marks the third time in as many years that Faiz represents his school i.e. Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (1) Kuala Lumpur in a new game. This time it is badminton after chess in 2014 and fencing in 2015. He took part in the Singles category of the U10 event at the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (MSSWPKL) Bangsar zone badminton competition held in February 2016.
Media
In 2013 and 2014, Malaysia's national TV station TV3 interviewed Faiz. In May 2014, he was featured in a TV3 children's program, Bananana.