25 years ago
I had one of the most frightening moment when suddenly, 25 years ago, in year 1990, my school discipline teacher by the name of Cikgu Rahimi called me. (We, form four student of Sekolah Sains Dungun believed that Cikgu Rahimi actually wants to be a green beret Commando but his eyesight prevents him of becoming one, but still he is a commando... that camouflage as a teacher....dangerous)
When I was inside his room, Cikgu Rahimi appeared to be friendly , very friendly.
Just when I thought that he is playing good cop-bad cop roles to ask for some information about cigarette activities of student, he suddenly asked me whether I am interested to play chess with his brother (named Rahim Ramli) who will be staying at his house.
I immediately say “Yes!”
That’s is how I first know and met Rahim Ramli.
Rahim Ramli
But of course Rahim Ramli has played chess earlier than year 1990.
He first started playing chess in year 1972 (must be influence by Fischer vs Spassky match!) and used to play for Pahang during late 80s/ early 90s.
His second best moment in chess is in year 2000, at Terengganu open he beats many players such as Mok, Fikrul,drew with Agus Salim and so on and emerged second place.
His best moment in chess? That is something that will happen in future. So be careful ya! He is still hungry for chess success :)
His worst moment in chess? It is a bit irony...in what probably could be his best result in chess (he is doing a ‘Caruana’, scoring perfect 5 points from the first 5 rounds at Melaka Open few years ago), when suddenly he received a bad news that his beloved mother has passed away, immediately, he withdraw from a tournament that he is leading and went home.
As a person, if there is one word to describe him, it will be “careful” he is careful with what he said, careful with what he wear (always suavely dressed and shirt is nicely tuck in), careful with his appearance (well trimmed beard and moustache)
…and with tall frame and handsome face and his senior position at UITM Dungun, I believed that he must surely and ocasionally received that naughty letters or flowers from his admiring, female student (or maybe from his female lecturer colleagues too...J ) !
But not to worry Mrs Rahimi, Rahimi that we know is a very loyal person. He is loyal to the game he loves, he even loyal to chess opening he loves (French Defense, Ruy Lopez Exchange etc). He just never changed his style, his opening etc from the first time we know him. He is that rare chess player that just stick to the one he knows and comfortable with!
Other skills and interest
...and one thing (few things actually) special about Rahim, he is not just good in chess, recently discovered, he also good in other things such as cooking or emceeing a wedding!...cooking here is not referring to that occasional weekend cooking that we do influence by Masterchef series, cooking that Rahimi occasionally do is cooking for a wedding complete with that special ‘pengantin’ dishes! sorry, 'pengantin' cuisine is a more correct term to use!
He is currently a mathematic professor at Uitm Dungun. His loved for logic/mathematic is obvious. On and off , on whatsaps group, he will asked a logic question that is mind boggling...and recently Arshad posted a magic trivia on whatsaps group that by performing a series of mathematic operations, our age will be known (but somehow this is only limited to a person with aged below 100). Not long Rahim came up with a theorem that explained the trick...and improvised it by creating a series of Mathematic operations that could know the age of someone up to 10,000 years!
I suspect that should Rahim focused his energy on say...solving that haunting 300 years old Fermat’s Last Theorem (Guiness Book of World Record said it as most difficult mathematic problems), he could cracked it before Wiley’s did it in 1993.
...and his loved for fishing. Occasionally he will posted a picture of himself with big fishes that he caught. Guess that will be a story for another day.
Rahim is now a President for Terengganu Chess Association and i have to say that now chess activities is booming, exploding at Terengganu. Take last month as an example, every week, there is a chess tournaments being held at Terengganu with average first prize of RM300. Every week!
Chess Odyssey would like to take this opportunity to wish Rahim Ramli all the best in whatever he do (with usual frank remark, exception is when he play a game of chess with Nor Ilhamuddin) !