The Maldives Chess Association (MCA) is facing a full-scale credibility crisis after repeated schedule changes, unclear category rules, and lingering governance failures have pushed many teams to the edge of frustration.

The 2025 Inter-Office Chess Championship which is still scrambling to start tonight after multiple postponements has exposed deep structural problems inside MCA that players say have been accumulating for years.

These issues come on the heels of the 2024 Inter-Office eligibility scandal, which remains one of the most controversial administrative failures in Maldivian chess history. With two consecutive years of turmoil, many now believe MCA is facing a structural failure, one that can no longer be ignored.

2025 Inter-Office: A Logistical Mess

Teams paid around MVR 2,000 each to participate. Yet the tournament’s start date has changed three times within 48 hours:

• First announced: Sunday, 23 November 2025

• Then changed to: Monday, 24 November

• Then again to: Tuesday, 25 November

Players are calling the handling of this tournament chaotic, amateurish, and unacceptable for a national sports association.

Players from other islands have been forced to pay unnecessary extra accommodation costs, and several players with pre-scheduled travel plans can no longer participate. Morale is at an all-time low, with many offices now participating merely out of obligation, not enthusiasm.

Category Rules Make No Sense — And Participants Want Answers

For 2025, MCA introduced:

1. Civil Service Category

2. Organization Category

But players were stunned when MCA leadership allowed Parliament, Police, Customs, and other government bodies into the Civil Service division — despite the fact that their employees are not civil servants under Maldivian law.

Participants say this decision completely defeats the purpose of the category split and undermines competitive fairness which further proves the incompetence of MCA president Nooh Ali and his vice president Adam Nasih(Koky).

The chess community widely believes that this sudden and poorly structured category split did not come from MCA committees alone.
Instead, many participants say the concept and several related decisions  were reportedly influenced by Hussain Vishau Mohamed, who is frequently described as an unofficial adviser to incompetent MCA President Nooh Ali.

Although MCA has not formally acknowledged any advisory role, teams say that Vishau’s influence appears to extend into key decision-making areas.

Players argue that unofficial influence, unclear authority, and backdoor decision-making have now become major contributors to MCA’s governance breakdown.

The 2024 Eligibility Scandal: A Factual Breakdown of a Serious Failure

The frustration boiling over in 2025 has its roots in the very real and well-documented scandal of the 2024 Inter-Office Championship, where an ineligible team from M.X. Sign Pvt Ltd created one of the most embarrassing administrative episodes in MCA’s history.

The Players Fielded by M.X. Sign Pvt Ltd (2024)

• Ahmed Ashraf – former national player and controls 1 voting club

• Hassan Nasih (Thathan) – who reportedly runs Ghiyasuddin International School chess club and controls 1 voting club

• Mohamed Shamrooh – a FIDE Arbiter and then a civil servant at the Islamic Ministry

• Mohamed Raaque – controls 1 voting club and is married to Nuha Rilwan whose family controls many voting clubs

• Ibrahim Hisan

Why the Team Was Ineligible (Confirmed Through Documentation Review)

The tournament rules required:

• 4 permanent employees of the company

• 1 outside player

However, during appeals review:

• Pension records for the supposed “permanent employees” were not found

• Submitted salary documents showed amounts below minimum wage

• One player (Shamrooh) was a full-time civil servant, directly violating the rules

• The company itself was reportedly in the process of winding up at the Ministry of Economic Development

These facts, confirmed through the appeals process, clearly established that the team did not meet eligibility standards but they were injected in to the tournament by using influence which funnily happened after round 1 of the tournament.

Improper Reinstatement  After Round 1

In direct violation of accepted chess standards, the team — after being initially rejected was reinstated after Round 1 reportedly due to external influence.

Re-adding a team after rounds have begun is unheard of in serious chess administration and directly compromises tournament integrity. According to several participants, the fact that this occurred under the supervision of the chief arbiter, Nabeel, raised serious questions about his handling of the event. Many players felt that allowing such a violation reflected poorly on his decision-making and judgment as an arbiter, and it intensified concerns about the overall officiating standards within MCA at the time.

It was only after strong protest from top Maldivian players and a formal appeal that MCA was forced to remove the team again.

This incident left deep scars in the chess community and exposed how weak, inconsistent, and influence-driven MCA’s administrative processes had become.

Players also recall the shocking aftermath of the 2024 eligibility verdict. After the appeals committee formally removed the ineligible M.X. Sign Pvt Ltd team, participants say that two arbiters — Adam Nasih (who is now MCA Vice President) and Nuha Rilwan — abruptly left the event. What made the situation even more controversial, according to multiple witnesses, was that Nuha was serving as an arbiter in the same tournament where her then-boyfriend (now husband) Mohamed Raaque was a player on the disputed team. Many players describe the walkout as highly unprofessional, adding that the conflict of interest was glaring and should never have been allowed in an official event. This incident further damaged confidence in MCA’s administrative standards and highlighted the urgent need for proper governance, impartiality, and ethical boundaries within the association’s leadership.

A Leadership Crisis, Not a Coincidence

With two consecutive years of major failures — one involving eligibility manipulation, another involving chaotic scheduling and incoherent rules — teams now openly argue that MCA’s leadership has lost the community’s trust.

Participants are pointing directly to the current leadership under President Nooh Ali and Vice President Adam Nasih, saying that the repeated breakdowns are not accidents but symptoms of failed administration.

Across clubs, offices, and players, there are now loud and growing calls for leadership change to restore integrity and professionalism to Maldivian chess.