Malaysia’s First Chess Grandmaster: Yeoh Li Tian’s Historic Triumph
Malaysia has reached a historic milestone as it celebrates 25-year-old Yeoh Li Tian becoming the nation’s first-ever Chess Grandmaster. The Petaling Jaya native clinched the prestigious title at the MCF GM-IM Invitational Chess Championship in Kuala Lumpur, held from July 28 to August 3, 2025. Li Tian clinched the first place with a performance rating of 2600+, thus securing his final norm and the GM title.
To put things into perspective, Yeoh has joined an elite group of fewer than 2,000 Grandmasters worldwide. The Malaysian has come a long way, from facing none other than Viswanathan Anand (India’s first GM) at the FIDE World Cup in 2017, at the age of 18, to now finally becoming a Grandmaster at 25.
Only a few months after playing Anand, Yeoh managed to cross the 2500 Elo barrier, but it took him 7 hard years to collect his remaining 2 GM Norms. The Malaysian has portrayed exemplary perseverance and hard work. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the precision with which Li Tian sealed the game that won him his title – a surgical conversion of 2 bishops vs. a bishop and a knight endgame that arose from the Caro-Kann:
