chess open in KL

It is now one hour after the official closing date of 16 March 2010, and not withstanding some appeals for extensions which we have agreed to (and also some doubts about a few players who are still struggling to get sponsorship to come), we can announce that we indeed have 119 participants and can even confidently say that the KL Open 2010 will have no less than 110 participants and perhaps as many as 130 participants.

And what an entry list we have – 12 GMs, 3 WGMs, 20 IMs, 2 WIMs, 15 FMs, and 7 WFMs - from amongst 63 titled players (if you include the 1 CM and 3 WCMs because they are not strictly considered as titled players).

Of course the star attraction is GM Hou Yifan (China) whom we cannot expect to be as relaxed during the tournament as she is in this Facebook profile photo of hers!

The clear favourite however must be GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Georgia) as the only 2600+ player, but besides GM Hou, he will also have to fight off other favourites like GM Thomas Luther (Germany), GM Ziaur Rahman (Bangladesh), GM Cao Sang (Hungary), GM Susanto Megaranto (Indonesia) and GM Saidali Iludashev (Uzbekistan).

Unsurprisingly Malaysia and India have 22 entries each and are closely followed by Indonesia with 21 entries (and it is anyone’s guess which of these will have the most number of participants when the games finally get underway), and there is a nice mix of strengths in the field with a total of 22 countries represented so we think (as the participants probably also do) that the KL Open 2010 has something to offer everyone.

With the staggering response to the KL Open, a number of participants have also been asking if there were other title events we were planning to organise in the very near future.

The KLCA is responding by proposing to hold the KL International Masters Challenge – both a GM-IM tournament and a WGM-WIM tournament - from 13-19 April 2010.

We have already gotten commitments from the required foreign titled players to make it possible and we know there will be no shortage of donor entries from amongst the foreign participants at the KL Open who would be only too keen to have the opportunity to play for international titles and norms.

I just hope that locals who meet the basic requirements will step forward too or we would be doing this to enable talent from other countries and not our own!

But those interested also need to understand that a rating of below 2200 is not really a rating for title purposes.

For the GM-IM tournament, the fee is RM 1,500 and for the WGM-WIM tournament, the fee is RM 1,000. This is of course to help cover the titled players fees, their expenses and perhaps even help towards organising expenses being subsidised by the KLCA.

Schedule

13 April

1400: Players Meeting & 1600: Round 1

14 April

0900: Round 2

15 April

0900: Round 3 & 1600: Round 4

16 April

1600: Round 5

17 April

0900: Round 6 & 1600: Round 7

18 April

1600: Round 8

19 April

0900: Round 9 & 1400: Closing Ceremony

date : 6 April - 12 April
vanue : Kuala Lumpur

pay the fee before 24 march or they will you 50 percent of the price

grand master (GM) -free
international master (IM) -RM 100
1800 - 2399 (FIDE RATING) -RM 150
1500 - 2799 (FIDE RATING) -RM 200
1300 - 1499 (FIDE RATING) -RM 250
1299 and below (FIDE RATING) -RM 300
do not have FIDE RATING -RM 350

THAT IS THE LIST OF PRICE