Titled Players in Malaysian Chess Festival 2009

Some important trivia.

In this year's edition of the Malaysian Chess Festival (MCF), there are 100 players in the Open and 45 playing in the Challengers section of the tournament. Out of the 100 players in the Open section, the titled players consist of 11 GrandMasters (GM), 10 International Master (IM), 9 FIDE Masters (FM), 2 Women GrandMaster (WGM), 3 Women International Master (WIM), 3 Women FIDE Master (WFM) and 1 Women Candidate Master (WCM).

In comparison with last year's turnout, this year is slightly lower. In 2008, MCF recorded 112 players in the Open and 53 in the Challengers section. Out of the 112 players in the Open section, the 2008 had its fair share of titled players consisting of 9 GMs, 10 IMs, 9 FMs, 3 WGMs, 5 WIMs, and 1 WFM.

However, one cannot help but notice the drop in the numbers. This may be due to the fasting month where a large section of the Malaysian muslim public has stayed away. Wherelse last year was played before the coming of the Ramadhan month. At the same time, the number of rounds played has been reduced from 11 to 9, largely due to financial constraints on the event sponsors. The world is also experiencing two important occurrences. One is the world-wide experience of economic recession and two is the pandemic of Influenza A(H1N1) across most countries in the world.

For someone new to the chess fraternity in Malaysia, this event is as good as it gets. The surroundings is fabulous in CitiTel, MidValley and the location is one of Kuala Lumpur's busiest shopping center located strategically at the cross-roads between K.L., Petaling Jaya, Cheras and Kajang. We hope that our foreign guests will take time-off to shop and visit some of Malaysia's interesting places while they are in town in Kuala Lumpur.