KL Open and Young Talent Teams Begins

by Peter Long

The Kuala Lumpur Open and Young Talent Team Chess Challenge has officially started today with a technical meeting at 8 p.m. where a total of 82 entries have been confirmed, amongst which are 6 GMs, 7 IMs, 2 WIMs, and 5 FMs and 7 other titled players. Of the 58 entries in the Open from 11 countries, 27 are titled and 49 have FIDE ratings, a turnout that has successfully built on last year's inaugural KL Open Chess Championship.

GM Thien Hai Dao, (2542) Vietnam

In the KL Young Talent Team Chess Challenge, 4 teams of 6 players each, 3 under 14 years of age and 3 under 10 years of age, are playing using the Scheveningen System and they are Indonesia, the Serangoon Chess Club (Singapore), KLCA (Kuala Lumpur Chess Association) and Polgar Chess University Asia.

Held from 3-9 September at Shah's Village Hotel in Petaling Jaya, the 9 round swiss system tournament which is the flagship event of the KLCA boasts a total prize fund of 35,000 Ringgit (US$ 10,000).

Chessdom.com is official media partner of the event and will bring you daily results, standings, videos, and photos.

Official site: klchess.com

Top results round 1

1 Ismail Ahmad 2089 0 - 1 GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2589
2 GM Thien Hai Dao 2542 1 - 0 Lee Kim Han Edward 2089
3 WIM Mendoza Beverly 2060 0 - 1 GM Dzhumaev Marat 2532
4 GM Megaranto Susanto 2527 1 - 0 Neubronner Shannon Scott 2050
5 Foo Benjamin 2037 0 - 1 IM Vakhidov Tahir 2520
6 GM Iuldachev Saidali 2519 ½ - ½ Rahman Masruri 1987
7 WCM Sihite Chelsie Monica 1986 0 - 1 IM Bitoon Richard 2490
8 GM Nguyen Anh Dung 2454 1 - 0 Ferdiman Tersiman 1979
9 WCM Medina Warda Aulia 1950 0 - 1 IM Irwanto Sadikin 2429
10 IM Liu Dede 2419 1 - 0 Abedin Md. Jaynul 1947 1
1 WFM Dewi A. A. Citra 1931 0 - 1 CM Van Huy Nguyen 2414
12 IM Tirto 2407 1 - 0 Biswajit Bharadwaj 1920
13 Sathiyanarayanan R V 1822 0 - 1 FM Wahono Awam 2393
14 FM Chan Wei Xuan Timothy 2363 1 - 0 Dissanayake R.d.a.c. 1811
15 Lee Kai Jie Edward 1763 - - + Tolentino Rustum 2362
16 FM Pak Yevgeniy 2348 1 - 0 Wong Jianwen 1763
17 Chen I-Chen 1715 0 - 1 FM Mahmud Syarif 2347
18 FM Chan Yi-Ren Daniel 2340 1 - 0 Haslindah Ruslan 1698
19 M. Vivek 1661 0 - 1 CM Nguyen Hoang Nam 2329
20 WIM Muminova Nafisa 2320 1 - 0 Chan Yi Jun Timothy 1594
21 Abdul Wahab Najib 0 ½ - ½ IM Gokhale Chandrashekhar 2284

Top results round 2
1 GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2589 1 - 0 Tolentino Rustum 2362
2 FM Mahmud Syarif 2347 0 - 1 GM Thien Hai Dao 2542
3 GM Dzhumaev Marat 2532 1 - 0 FM Pak Yevgeniy 2348
4 CM Nguyen Hoang Nam 2329 1 - 0 GM Megaranto Susanto 2527
5 IM Vakhidov Tahir 2520 1 - 0 FM Chan Yi-Ren Daniel 2340
6 IM Bitoon Richard 2490 ½ - ½ WIM Muminova Nafisa 2320
7 Udani Ian 2241 ½ - ½ GM Nguyen Anh Dung 2454
8 IM Irwanto Sadikin 2429 ½ - ½ IM Shetty Rahul 2270
9 CM Neubronner Jarred 2220 0 - 1 IM Liu Dede 2419
10 CM Van Huy Nguyen 2414 0 - 1 CM Farid Firman Syah 2207
11 Legaspi Edmundo 2158 0 - 1 IM Tirto 2407
12 FM Wahono Awam 2393 1 - 0 Kalugampitiya R.S. 2131
13 Eng Andre-Jerome 2089 0 - 1 FM Chan Wei Xuan Timothy 2363
14 Mohamed Abdul Haq 0 0 - 1 GM Iuldachev Saidali 2519
15 IM Gokhale Chandrashekhar 2284 ½ - ½ Panggabean Hasian 2226
16 Rahman Masruri 1987 1 - 0 Abdul Wahab Najib 0
17 Dissanayake R.d.a.c. 1811 0 - 1 Ismail Ahmad 2089
18 Lee Kim Han Edward 2089 1 - 0 Chen I-Chen 1715
19 Wong Jianwen 1763 0 - 1 WIM Mendoza Beverly 2060

As with all KLCA events, the Kuala Lumpur Open and Young Talent Team Chess Challenge, is to support the development of chess in KL and Malaysia, and so is positioned as an event to provide International Master title opportunities for players from the ASEAN region.

In the Open, once again there is a large and comprehensive turnout from Indonesian neighbours and this year they have shown that they are good friends indeed of the KL Open with 17 entries represented by players from all over Indonesia and at all levels, amongst them Grandmaster Susanto Megaranto, International Masters Sadikin Irwanto, Dede Liu, and Tirto, FIDE Masters Wahono Awam and Mahmud Sharif, Candidate Master Farid Firman Shah, and so on.

Singapore has 10 players, led by FIDE Masters Timothy Chan Wei Xuan and Daniel Chan Yi-Ren (unrelated), both who are amongst their countries best young talent and genuine International prospects today.

Uzbekistan Grandmasters Saidali Iuldashev and Marat Dzhumaev are no strangers to Malaysia but the KL Open is new to them and they are for sure in the absence of their defending champion countryman Anton Filippov, and joining them is their National Champion, International Woman Master Nafisa Muminova. Of the six Grandmasters playing, Vietnam is contributing three - half the total! They have five players, three of which are members of the Vietnam National Team that was the big surprise of the Dresden Olympiad late last year where they were the top Asia team!

Grandmaster Nguyen Anh Dung was always coming together with Nguyen Van Nuy but it was a big surprise when one of their rising stars, young Grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son also asked to play and then Grandmaster Dao Tien Hai informed us he was just back to Vietnam and that he would be coming together with Nguyen Hoang Nam! So, from a planned event for International master title norms for the 2300 level players and opportunities to increase their ratings for others we had in one stroke become a Grandmaster event!

Last year the KL Open was a disaster for the strong Philippine delegation but it is a clash with a national elimination event that has seen a much smaller group this year, just four players (or officially five if including locally based Ian Udani who is a constant top prize winner at all Malaysian events), International Master Richard Bitoon, 2362 rated Rustum Tolentino, International Woman Master Beverly Mendoza, and National Master Edmundo Legaspi.
Notables from the other countries participating are Yevgeniy Pak, the young 17 year old Kazakhstan National Champion with many International Master norms already, and our good friend from Sri Lanka, Luxman Wijesuriya who recently agreed to a developmental partnership with KLCA and has started the ball rolling by entering two prospects, that of R.S. Kalugampitiya and R.D.A.C. Dissanayake.

Glenda Chen I-Chen is the sole entry from from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and we also welcome this brave young lady who is about to start a Masters program in University as the KL Open will indeed be a baptism of fire for someone who has not touched a chess piece in anger since the Dresden Olympiad in November 2008!

Malaysia of course is represented by both veterans and some young for the future. Ismail Ahmad is a seasoned campaigner as is Haslindah Ruslan and even Najib Abdul-Wahab who is usually an arbiter has joined in. Edward Lee, 16, and Tan Li Ting, 11, are National Champions and Wong Jianwen is perhaps the most promising young player to emerge recently.

source: Chessdom.com