Kuala Lumpur Open 2009Grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son from Vietnam lived up to his top billing by winning the KL Open 2009 with an impressive 7.5 points from 9 games and RM 10,000.
In second place, half a point behind on 7 points, was Indonesian Grandmaster Susanto Megaranto whose victory over Grandmaster Dao Tien Hai of Vietnam to earn RM 5,000 almost made up for two disasters in earlier rounds against less fancied opponents while Uzbekistan Grandmaster Saidali Iuldachev proved be a comeback kid with a strong finish to score 6.5 points for sole third place and RM 3,000.
Sharing 4th to 8th places and RM 1,000 were Dao, Grandmaster Marat Dzhumaev and International Master Tahir Vakhidov of Uzbekistan, Candidate Master Nguyen Hoang Nam from Vietnam, and International Master Richard Bitoon from the Philippines.
But perhaps the happiest were Nguyen Hoang Nam and Candidate Master Farid Firman Shah from Indonesia earned their first International Master title norms.
Of the locals, Edward Lee was the best performer with 5 points with Wing Jianwen, Najib Abdul Wahab, and Mohamed Abdul Haq a point behind with 4/9.
With 80+ participants from 11 countries (including 6 Grandmasters and 7 International Masters from a total of 27 titled players), the media friendly KL Open (which has perhaps set new standards for organisational excellence in the locally) can be considered to be a big success!
KL Young Talent Teams
As expected, Indonesia proved a convincing winner of the KL Young Talent Team Challenge with 38.5 points from a possible 54 with Singapore edging PCU Asia for second place.
Individual standouts were Luftu Ali (Indonesia), Joel Chan (Singapore), and Aziz Farhan (KLCA) in the under 14 section and Mohammad Firmansyah and Novendra Priasmoro (Indonesia) and Ryan Ow (PCU Asia).
The KL Open & Young Talent Team Championship 2009 was organised by the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association with sponsorship from the Malaysian Intellect Development Foundation and Masterskill University College of Health Sciences.
