It’s rare stories like these that makes me proud of Malaysians:-
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THOUGH she is visually impaired, Nur Feiqha Mohd Halil, 14, does not let her disability get in the way of what she loves — playing chess.
The student of English College, Johor Baru has been playing chess since she was nine years old.Nur Feiqha’s early chess experience encompasses occasional matches with her brother using computer software. The coach at Princess Elizabeth Primary School in Johor Baru had recognised her talent and encouraged her to develop it.
“Since Princess Elizabeth Primary School is for the blind, we mostly played chess online. We also have a special chessboard for the blind.
“Half of the squares on this chessboard are raised for the blind to feel the location of the pieces,” says Nur Feiqha at the recent Masterskill/OCM National Age Group Chess Championship 2008 for youth held in OCM Sports Arena, Kuala Lumpur.The event was supported by the Olympic Council of Malaysia. It was to select players for the Asean/ Asian & World level age group chess championships and was co-organised by Masterskill College of Nursing and Health (Masterskill) together with the Malaysian Chess Federation, Asean Chess Confederation and the Ministry of Education.
At the championship, Nur Feiqha was acknowledged for her talent by Masterskill president Datuk Seri Azureen Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah.
Final Exam hd Nur Feiqha’s most unforgettable tournament was when she won two gold medals at the 4th Asean Para Games 2008 in Thailand. She received RM5,000 in the individual and group categories respectively.“I am planning to buy a laptop with that money and use it to write poems, short stories, lyrics and play chess with JAWS, a popular screen reader which supports Braille.”
Some online chess games software can be used by visually-impaired users, because it can be fully controlled by the keyboard and has a voice feedback.
The user-friendly software gives Nur Feiqha the flexibility to download her favourite songs from the Internet.
A chess champion she may be but Nur Feiqha’s biggest challenge is to compete with normal students in her class.
She plans to be an author.
Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Features/2190161/Article (By SHYLA SANGARAN)
Check out pictures of her in Flickr
I hope she will use her new computer to blog about chess too 
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