Commonwealth and South African Open Chess Championships

Commonwealth and South African Open Chess Championships
Information and videos by Vijay Kumar

Chess South Africa on behalf of FIDE and the Commonwealth Chess Association organizes the 2011 Commonwealth & South African Open Chess Championships. The Championships run from Saturday 25th June 2011 until Sunday 3rd July 2011.

The playing venue is at the Emperors Palace Hotel Casino & Convention Resort in the City of Ekurhuleni in Gauteng, South Africa. Guaranteed total prize fund is R205 000 = aprox 20.000 EUR.

The Championships include the following three individual events:
- The 2011 Commonwealth & South African Open Chess Championships (Main event)
- The 2011 Commonwealth & South African Open B - section
- The 2011 South African Open Blitz Chess Championships

The South African Open Blitz Championship 2011 was played on 25th June and England's GM Gawain Jones convincingly won the title with a crushing 9/9 score. Second is Indian hope IM Grover Sahaj with 8.0 points.

The Open events continue with massive participation of 388 players in the Main Event and 324 in the B Section. Full player lists are bellow. Enjoy the videos from the opening ceremony and first two rounds.

More information on the official website

Commonwealth & South African Open Chess Championships (top 10 seeds):

1 GM Short Nigel D ENG 2682
2 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2604
3 GM Jones Gawain CB ENG 2596
4 GM Lafuente Pablo ARG 2555
5 GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2526
6 GM Smerdon David AUS 2520
7 IM Harika Dronovali IND 2520
8 IM Huschenbeth Niclas GER 2502
9 IM Grover Sahaj IND 2485
10 GM Laxman Rajaram IND 2446