Peter Long on Chess

  I recently got the following exciting email from my good friend Vijay Kumar and we will certainly be looking to promote Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia too:   Dear Peter Indian TV Network will telecast of the 4 Highlights of 30 mts each of the 3rd K L OPEN 2010 on its DD Sports Channel . The telecast will be available in 48 countries of Europe, Middle East and South East Asia on FREE TO AIR  thru PAS 10 satellite I have also put this news on my website :  www.liveteleshows.net Vijay Vijay Kumar IBS [Retd] Fmr Chief Producer TV News & Sports "DOORDARSHAN" Indian TV Network Chief Editor: www.liveteleshows.net

To date three of the five most popular international English language websites has carried the KLCA’s press release on the 3rd KL International Open Chess Championship and we are grateful for their recognition and support.   www.fide.com   www.chessdom.com     www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com   During the KL Open itself we hope these friends and a few others who are setup to do so will provide regular coverage – we are now putting in place all that is needed to supply articles, interviews, photos, games and even video - and we know that once the KL Open is over many will also publish reports.

As of today, a week after the official closing date, the 3rd KL Open Championship for the Raja Nazrin Shah Challenge Trophy has attracted a record 121 entries from 21 countries including 64 internationally titled players! The grandmasters include top seed Mikheil Mchedlishvili from Georgia who immediately after is slated for a match against anotehr participant, Indonesia’s No. 1 Susanto Megaranto, 16 year old vice women’s chess champion Hou Yifan from  China, many times German chess champion Thomas Luther, “new local” Ziaur Rahman from Bangladesh, Hungarian-Vietnamese Cao Sang, and veteran Saidali Iludashev from Uzbekistan. It is indeed a playing field with some depth, the 16 Grandmasters having 24 International Masters, and 20 FIDE Masters for company. See www.klchess.com for the latest!

With the staggering response to the KL Open, a number of participants have also been asking if there were other title events we were planning to organise in the very near future. The KLCA is responding by proposing to hold the KL International Masters Challenge – both a GM-IM tournament and a WGM-WIM tournament - from 13-19 April 2010. We have already gotten commitments from the required foreign titled players to make it possible and we know there will be no shortage of donor entries from amongst the foreign participants at the KL Open who would be only too keen to have the opportunity to play for international titles and norms. I just hope that locals who meet the basic requirements will step forward too or we would be doing this to enable talent from other countries and not our own! But those interested also need to understand that a rating of below 2200 is not really a rating for title purposes. For the GM-IM tournament, the fee is RM 1,500 and for the WGM-WIM tournamen

The Advanced Parachute WGM Tournament to be held from 7-14 March 2010 gets underway today at Uni-Resort in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh. After a 10 hour bus ride from Dhaka in a luxury bus through beautiful and often spectacular countryside, the participants which include GM and IM hopefuls (L-R in photo above) Veronika Minina (RUS), Dhyani Dave, Kiran Monisha Mohanty (IND), Shamima Akter and Tanima Parveen (BAN), were still all bright and sparky and very much looking forward to the games starting the following day. The full list of participants can be found at: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr31218.aspx?lan=1 Organised by Six Season Chess Tournaments, this is the first of tournaments planned monthly by Grandmaster Niaz Murshed to provide title and rating tournaments for Asian players and there will be a GM event following this WGM tournament from 14-22 March 2010.

So far the KL Open this year has been won by players who have gone on to make a name for themselves but I think more importantly have continued to be friends of our small event! For example Previous winners Anton Filippov and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son are today 2600+ grandmasters and with every prospect to reach  the 2700 level. This year we have upped the ante a little, from an event planned with veteran GMs playing and giving IMs every chance for a relatively easy norm, to a rather strong tournament. Some of the grandmasters playing this year are not only very strong players and Saidali Iludashev is not only a frequent and familiar visitor to Malaysia but a legend in Uzbekistan. Iludashev plays uncompromising chess, was a top player in his time, and today can be proud to be looked up to by the young talent in his country as their teacher and role model. He has kind agreed to stay on for a week after the KL Open (13-19 April) as a guest of Polgar Chess Asia so as to be able