Penang has a unsung hero.
His name : Ahmad, Muhd Saiful Asyraf but everyone calls him Saiful.
Title: FA (FIDE ARBITER) since 2023
He is often seen in all Penang Chess Tournament since back in 2016 and overlooked as his job is in the background.
He is the chess support for Penang Chess Tournament, making sure the broadcast equipment like DGT boards are all set up and working smoothly.
Live broadcast of chess games are in his purvue. Many of the main events have live video as well as live broadcast of the chess board games which Saiful alone is responsible.
The many years of experience handling live broadcast covers use of live streaming software such as OBS, DGT chess boards as well as the recent idChess live broadcasting systerm.
The last two event Saiful handled is impressive. For Penang Open 2024, there were 10 boards broadcasted live for all the rounds which is a record for the event.
He then went to Johor to broadcast the same number of boards (10!!) for the Johor Chess Festival 2025. Needless to say this is a record for the number of live games broadcasted in Johor.
It’s a herculean effort to broadcast live chess games as I tried that before doing it for just one live board. It was really tiring making sure the software all worked and the live broadcast started on time as well as knowing how to handle erros and technical problems which inevitable would crop out in the middle of the game and how to solve them. I already felt the pressure for one board live. Imagine doing it for 10 boards!!
I noticed that he doesn’t just handle the major tournaments like the EAYCC, Penang Open, and Johor Open, even the small weekend tournaments in Penang and nearby tournaments is handled by Saiful. He is so adept at broadcast even these small weekend tournaments would have at least one board broadcasted live. That certainly add prestige to tournaments the would have gone unnoticed.
And of course, this is my limited view of Saiful as a chess broadcaster and doing serious injustice to him as I am sure his job in the Penang Chess Association encompasses way more than just broadcasting. If you know, leave in the comment section what I missed out on.