Tuesday 18 February 2014

How to Enter the KL Open

(The KLCA team before our underperforming team mate Sumant's unforgivable defection to Selangor! - we of course have forgiven him and welcome him to play in the KL Open!)

It is unfortunate this year is an Olympiad year so most of our top players have already told me they needed to save their leave to try and qualify (National Closed and/or Malaysian Masters) and then to be able to actually go (and they worry of having to find more time off work should there be centralised training).

We are however trying to work with the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) to see how the younger players still in school might be able to play but even so, there is both MSSM and National Closed in March and National Age Groups in April too!

But let me be clear that we have never refused a proper and qualified entry. I have only (and perhaps too often) had to turn away really desirable players when I could not pay them the professional fee expected or to give them the conditions they needed to financially ease their participation. We have also had on occasion had to limit the number of lowly rated and unrated players so that others playing would have a fair chance to make title norms.

So let me now state what our position is regarding participation:

1. It is not a right unless you are a registered player with KLCA in good standing and we also take the position you cannot be in a fight with other organisers and certainly not with the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) and any of its other state membership.
2. Can also get MCF to ask for you if you are indeed a national player, in the past we have even waived entry fees for such requests when a case is made.
3. But end of the day, just follow the rules: you have to enter yourself and it pays to be nice (I believe that is the norm when someone wants something), so write in politely (my email is peter@thefidetrainer.com), then it is really hard to refuse and we might even try to go out out of our way to find a way.
4. To badmouth, demand, and then running to others to make an exception? That makes it quite impossible.

The chess community is small, whether locally, regionally or globally, and so I have accepted many entries via Facebook, E-Mail, even SMS, on good faith from people with good track records and/or with standing in chess (ex top player, official, current national player, foreign international titled player, etc.). The fact that many chessplayers have such difficulty filling up entry forms is another story altogether!

But after doing this for over 25 years and being involved in over 150 international and national events of every type imaginable, I know only too well (as do my equally experienced arbiter colleagues) where there will likely be trouble and it is clearly our responsibility to preempt where possible and that has applied even to many other country "superstars" in multi-sport events where the World Chess Federation (FIDE) does not have the biggest say! Of course the measures taken to protect the integrity of an event and to ensure a good experience for the participants are many and varied.

On this note, I am of course remembering to happily accept the new and of course completely welcome entries of six more players, two local young talents in Fong Yit San (current National Junior Champion) and his older brother Fong Yit Ho, our first Singapore entry in Cyrus Low, IM Moulthun Ly from Australia, returning Kazakhstan IM Kirill Kuderinov and GM John Paul Gomez of the Philippines. 

Sunday 16 February 2014

KL Open - Update of Entries (16 February 2014)

(IM Liew might beg to differ but all eyes will be on young Yeoh!)

Time for an update - we have now reached 64 players, with 35 titled (more than half!), and representing 14 countries. Our target is still 80 (even if we can probably squeeze in 100) and as expected a number of regional national chess federations are in contact to reserve places for their representatives.

Personally I was more than happy to accept the entry of 15 year old Yeoh Li Tian, our third ranked player who made a comfortable breakthrough past the 2300 barrier last year and who we all hope for even more success in 2014, perhaps finally collecting the Malaysian Closed Championship title and also making International Master title norms!

For those still asking, details of the venue/hotel can be found at www.olympichotel-kualalumpur.com/.

Again, a reminder that entry fee for all other than grandmasters is USD 100, eligible Malaysians only pay RM 200 and for KLCA representatives it is just RM 150.

Grandmasters
1. Sergei Tiviakov
2. Niaz Murshed
3. Richard Bitoon
4. Nguyen Anh Dung
5. Vladimir Lazarev
6. M.R. Venkatesh
7. Deepan Chakkravarthy J.
8. R.R. Laxman
9. Neelotpal Das
10. Vaibhav Suri

Woman Grandmasters
11. Bhakti Kulkarni
12. Bhagyashree Thipsay
13. Irine Kharismar Sukandar
14. Medina Warda Aulia
15. Anda Safranska

International Masters
16. Oliver Dimakiling
17. Rolando Notle
18. Jahongir Vakhidov
19. Aleksander Wohl
20. Arghyadip Das
21. R. Ramnath Bhuvanesh
22. S. Satyapragyan
23. Aleksander Wohl
24. Bogdan Borsos
25. Dede Lioe
26. Jimmy Liew

Woman International Masters
27. Chelsie Monica Shite
28. Upi Damayana Tamin

FIDE Masters
29. Haridas Pascua
30. Nelson Mariano III
31. Aravindh Chithambaram
32. Ram Aravind L.N

Woman FIDE Masters
33. AA Dewi Citra
34. Swati Mohota
35. Savant Riya

FIDE Rated Players
36. Luu Duc Hai
37. Vu Phi Hung
38. Ngo Thi Kim Tuyen (F)
39. Nelson Villanueva
40. Jelvia Calvelo
41. Azarya Jodi Setyaki
42. Diajeng Theresa Singgih (F)
43. Hendry Jamals
44. Aris T.L.S.
45. Ferry Ferdiansyah
46. Martin Greenwood
47. Mark Vucak
48. Md. Anisuzzaman Jewel
49. Ibrahim Parvez
50. Rana Chowdhury
51. Egor Eliseev
52. Andre Shukin
53. Poompong Wiwatanadate
54. Thanadon Kulpruethanon
55. Akash PC Iyer
56. Tesjawinin Sagar (F)
57. Siya Rajenda Sagar (F)
58. Kavisha S Shah (F)
59. Ismail Ahmad
60. Prabhaharan Rajendra
61. Lim Kian Hwa
62. Tan Li Ting (F)
63. Yeoh Li Tian

Unrated
64. Michael Cheong