Happenings At Malaysian Chess Festival Dinner

9 September 2010, Kuala Lumpur – The rest day of the Malaysian Chess Festival for the players of Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open 2010, the organisers had arranged a dinner which has held in the CitiTel Mid Valley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, 5th September 2010.

All the organisers, foreign players and local players were invited and officials of the chess fraternity were invited. GM Karpov, who had promised to come, however, did not make his appearance as he was busy attending a chess function in Angola. Nevertheless, his vice presidential candidate, Richard Conn of the USA was present as was Abdul Hamid Majid.

To read more of the happenings and what transpired, please visit Hairul’s blog or click here. The truth awaits you there!

GM Cao Sang Is Champion of DAT Malaysian Open 2010!

7 September 2010, Kuala Lumpur – GM Cao Sang is proclaimed the Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open Chess Champion for 2010! Cao Sang had 7.0 pts and 54 tie break points.

In second place is GM Zhou Weiqi of China who also had 7.0 pts and 52.5 tie-break points, and in third is IM Sethuraman S P of India with 7.0 points and 51.0 tie-break points. The top seed from India, GM Gupta Abhijeet fell to fourth placing with 6.5 pts.

Eight players were in the 6.5 points category that include GM Gupta, IM Nguyen VH, GM Wen Yang , IM Swayangsu,  Wan Yunguo of China, GM Smerdon David from Australia, IM Gao Rui of China, and GM Xu Jun of China.

Round 9 results shown below.

On the side: IM Jimmy Liew of Malaysia lost to GM Marat of Uzbekistan, Ronnie Lim beat IM Mok Tze Meng. GM Ziaur Rahman lost to GM Wang Li of China, GM Murshed Niaz of Bangladesh won agains GM Arun Prasad S of India, Ian Udani lost to WGM Huang Qian of China, GM Schebler Gerhard of Germany lost to FM Mahmud Syarif of Indonesia.

Besides congratulating the winners, news has spread that this year’s edition of the Malaysian Chess Festival might be the last! If so, then fireyrook would like to wish farewell to all contestants and sponsors who made this year’s Malaysian Chess Festival 2010 a wonderful success!

Let’s hope a new white knight will take up the shoes of Dato’ Tan Chin Nam who has announced his retirement from chess in a dinner during this year’s chess festival. You are sadly going to be missed very much by the Malaysian chess fraternity!

6 Players Jointly Leads In DAT Malaysian Open

5 September 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Here at the Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Chess Open 2010, the leaderboard shows six players who have the same five points from 6 rounds of play. The six players are Nguyen Duc Hoa (VIE), Wen Yang (CHN), Gupta Abhijeet (IND), Cao Sang (VIE), Zhou Weiqi (CHN) and Wan Yunguo (CHN).

The table below summarises the rankings of the top 28 players after round 6 of play with the nearest Malaysian being Ronnie Lim at 21 and IM Mok Tze Meng at 25, both with 4 points each :-

Today is a rest day for the three concurrent tournaments (Malaysian Open/Seniors Open/ Challengers Open) as the Age-Group competitions take control and centre stage for the whole of Sunday, 5 September 2010.

Round 7 of the Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Chess Open 2010 will commence on Monday, 6 September 2010, 9.30 am.

Chess Results Of Chess Festival

2 September 2010, Kuala Lumpur – This year’s three remaining chess tournaments of the Malaysian Chess Festival will now be on the internet’s chess-results.com.

Please visit the following addresses for the updates of the results and pairings up to 7th September 2010. Enjoy!

We are on Chess-Results.com !!

Check out the following links:-

• 7th IGB Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2010
• Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Seniors 2010
• AmBank Chess Challenge 2010

You may check out the following websites for further updates of the Malaysian Chess Festival 2010 :-

a. http://datmo.net;

b. http://malaysianopen.blogspot.com;

c. http://blog.gilachess.com;

d. http://setiachess.blogspot.com;

e. http://chessinmalaysia.blogspot.com;

f. http://datcchess.blogspot.com;

g. http://gilocatur.blogspot.com.

The three remaining chess tournaments are being played concurrently at the same time and I guess, the arbiters and organisers have their hands full for the next few days. Keep a close watch on the chess-results.com and the other related website and blogs for some updates!

ASTRO Merdeka Individual & Team Closing

2 September 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Last Tuesday, 31st Ogos 2010, on Malaysia’s Independence Day was held the closing and prize-giving ceremony for the ASTRO Merdeka Individual and Team events.

Here are some random pictures of the hour long ceremony with shouts of Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! and ASTRO!

 

Picture Gallery, 9th Round ASTRO Merdeka Team Rapid

31st August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Scenes of the 9th and final round of play for the ASTRO Merdeka Team Rapid Open Chess Championship 2010. Teams here include Young & Danger, Rusty Nails, SMS Gold, Klang Valley Koalas, Crusher, Young & Adult Union, Perak State Team, Klang Valley Kiwis, Petronas, International Rhapsody, Mamak the Sequel, Rorschach, Chesskidz Men’s Team and Bengal Tigers.

  
  
  
 
  

Final Round Pairings, ASTRO Merdeka Team Rapid 2010

31st August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – The final round to decide the line up of winners for the top 10 teams and other prize winning teams for Merdeka Team Rapid 2010. Best of luck to all teams. Hope you guys win!!!

Round 8 Merdeka Team Rapid Gets Underway!

31st August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Round 8 gets underway as Najib Wahab (pix below), the arbiter of the event, reminds the audience of the Chess Blitz at 2.30 pm today.

   

 

Najib Wahab, one of the arbiters of the Malaysian Chess Festival 2010, doing the announcements.

 

 

 

The Chesskidz Men’s Team playing on the left side of the picture. The team that is making waves in this current ASTRO Merdeka Team Rapid 2010. Their are the current leaders and set to win this tournament.

 

 

 

 

The school, SK Sabak Kota Baru (U16) left side of the table playing against SK Satria jaya, Kuching (U16) on board 32, round 8 of the ASTRO Merdeka Team Rapid 2010.

 

 

 

 

The Magic chess team, also making waves in this tournament is playing on Table No. 1 against the Chess kidz Men’s Team. Magic comprise of two brothers from Uzbekistan, 1 WGM from Kazakhstan and 1 from Malaysia (Abdullah Che Hassan).

 

 

 

On Table No. 4, International Rhapsody (left) playing against Klang Valley Koalas (Australia). Both teams are with a slim chance for top spot, if they win both rounds today.

Merdeka Blitz – Come And Have Fun!

31st August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Some words from the organisers of the Malaysian Chess Festival 2010.

The Merdeka Blitz event will be held today after the closing ceremony of the the ASTRO Merdeka Team Chess Championship. The entry fee is RM 30 and the event is open to all. A total prize fund of RM 1,100 has been allocated for 10 top finishers of the event with RM400 going to the eventual winner.

Time control for the Blitz is 5 minutes per player per game and it will be played over 9 rounds starting at 2:30 pm and is expected to conclude by 6:00pm.

The ASTRO Arena TV Crew will be covering the event today for a special show on chess...

Come and join in the fun!!!!

Picture Gallery, Malaysian Chess Festival 2010

31 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Here are a few random pictures over the last few days of chess action in the CitiTel Ballroom of the CitiTel Mid Valley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

Seen here include the ASTRO Ladies team, GM Marat, WGM Son Asia, IM Mas in the Individual Rapid, GM Saidali, GM Gerhard (Ger) and others.

  

 

 

 

  

Chesskidz Men’s Team Is Clear Leader!

30th August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – In the sixth round of the Merdeka Team Rapid, Chesskidz Men’s Team of the Philippines won emphatically over Uzbek Connection team on board 1. This propels the team to the top of the ladder and leading with 12 MP and ahead by 2 clear MP points over other chasing teams behind.

Meanwhile SMS Gold, the top seeded team this year, manages a 3.5-1.5 win over Klang Valley Kiwis in the sixth round and earns the right to meet Chesskidz Men’s Team in the seventh round.

In the seventh round of the ASTRO Merdeka Rapid Team, Bengal Tigers, the 9th seeded team, meets with Mamak, The Sequel team, the 14th seeded team on second board. While on third board, the Indonesian team called Bangka Belitung which beat Penang team in the sixth round, now meets with the combo team from Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-Malaysia, Magic. Magic managed to scrape a win over ASTRO Arena, the men’s team sponsored by ASTRO, which has a GM on its team.

Here are the seventh round pairings and sixth round results of the ASTRO Merdeka Team Rapid:-

First Round Results, Individual Rapid, Malaysian Chess Fest

28 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Here are the first round pairings and results of the Individual Rapid of the Malaysian Chess Festival 2010, Kuala Lumpur.

Picture Gallery of First Round, Individual Rapid

28 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Here are a few early pictures of the players during the first round individual rapid at the one day event at the start of the 11-day Malaysian Chess Festival this morning at the CitiTel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
 

 

First Round Pairings, Individual Rapid, Malaysian Chess Fest

28 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Here is a picture of the first round pairings at the start of the Individual Rapid to kick off the Malaysian Chess Festival 2010 being held at the hall of the CitiTel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. It is a 7 round Swiss rapid with a 25 minutes time control. There are about 106 participating players for this individual rapid event.

Malaysia’s Chess Fest!!!!

27 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – In today’s The Star Online, SS Quah discusses the upcoming Malaysian Chess Festival which will occur over the next 11 days of chess fest at the CitiTel MidValley Kuala Lumpur. He discusses about some of the stars that will be playing in the event and traces some of the past history of the Malaysian Chess Festival in his chess column. He highlighted some of the fears and worries of the organisers and the number of entries so far refutes these worries completely!

Please click here to read more.

One of the top rated Indian GM that will be coming to the Malaysian Chess Festival 2010 is GM Abhijeet Gupta (pix below).
 

Also in gilachess’s blog today, gilachess discusses about his discovery about an ex-World Champion Woman Grandmaster entering this year’s chess fest. A picture of GM Xu Yuhua, the WGM is shown above. Please click here to read more of gilachess’ writeup of her.

Chess Festival Update!

27 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Latest update from the organisers of the Malaysian Chess Festival 2010 which begins tomorrow, 28 August 2010 are as follows:-

“The number of players for DATMO is now 137 players.....
For the other events, Ambank has 38 players, ASTRO Rapid Individual has 76 players, ASTRO Team has 67 teams and for the Seniors section, there are 15 players. With Simul, Blitzes and the National Age Group event, we should have more than 1000 players in this year's festival.”

7th IGB Malaysian Chess Open, Malaysian Chess Festival 2010

26 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Here are the top twenty-three FIDE-rated ranked players that have registered for the 7th IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Chess Open 2010 that will start on the 31st August – 1st September 2010 at the CitiTel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. A total of 135 players have pre-registered for the event.

To see complete list, please vist http://datmo.net or click here.

Exhibition Booths Malaysian Chess Festival

25 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – As the approach to the Malaysian Chess Festival event gets nearer which will kick off this Saturday, 28th August 2010, the organising committee of the event is looking for those interested in selling items related to chess for booths to be set up just outside the playing hall of the CitiTel MidValley hotel.

For individuals, organizations or companies that are looking for to display and sell their chess sets, software, articles, books, paraphernalia, memento or gifts, may approach the organizer to set up sales booth during the Malaysia Chess Festival.

Booths may be set up outside the tournament hall (and other designated areas) for a minimum fee of RM 50 per day, or RM 300 for the entire 10 days.

Some of the more popular dates to sell items would be the 31st of August (during the closing ceremony of the 31st Merdeka Team Rapid and Blitz Championship), 5th September (during the National Age group event) and 7th September (during the closing ceremony of the Malaysia Open and Blitz event).

For inquiries, please contact Hamid Majid at +6019 315 8098 or aham@pc.jaring.my

Petronas Chess Tea Joins ASTRO Team Rapid

20 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – Latest news is that Petronas Chess Tea lead by IM Mas Hafizulhelmi, Malaysia’s highest FIDE rated player, has entered the ASTRO Team Rapid, which begins on the 29th August 2010.

At the moment, 64 teams have registered for the ASTRO Team Rapid, 56 players have entered for the ASTRO Individual Rapid Chess Championship slated for the 28th August 2010, 32 players for the AmBank Chess Challenge, and 117 players from 17 countries for the 7th IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open.

To read more, please visit the Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open blog and website.

Team And Individual Rapids, Malaysian Chess Festival

19 August 2010, Kuala Lumpur – The upcoming Malaysian Chess Festival 2010 is fast approaching. Individual and team composition for all the teams that have registered for the ASTRO Individual Rapid and the 30th ASTRO Team Rapid Chess Championship has been posted in the DATMO.net website.

Please go to http://www.datmo.net and click on the ASTRO Team Rapid Chess Championship page to view the full listing or click here.

The same website for viewing the full listing of the ASTRO Individual Rapid or click here.