MERDEKA Rapid Open Team Chess Championship 2008 - Day 1

I drop by at the 28th ASTRO MERDEKA RAPID OPEN TEAM CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2008 which start today at the Ballroom, CitiTel Midvalley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. 5 round were schedule today and tommorow will features the remaining 4 rounds. MERDEKA Rapid Open is part of the 2008 Malaysian Chess Festival. This year saw many GM's, IM's and other title players turn up to play in this "warm-up" tournaments before the " real" tournament DATMO 2008 start on monday.


Below are the photo's report of day 1.

Uzbekistan GM Saidali Yuldachev

GM Saidali Yuldashev(2520) is playing board 1 with team GOLDIS BERHAD . The team line up is 2nd board - GM Marat Dzuhamev ( 2549), 3rd board is Pinoy - Ian Udani - unrated but local weekend tournament champions! 4th board - Malaysian - Khor Shihong. This team is leading the tournaments after round 3 and they seems to be the favourites to win this event !

Indonesian GM Susanto Megaranto (left) with his teamate FM Mok Tze Meng (right) in round 4

GM Susanto Megaranto is playing 1st board with team Glory Knights which have the average players ratings = 2275. His teamate is Malaysian FM Mok Tze Meng ( 2308) board 2, Malaysians - Faizal Andin (2oo5) 3rd board, Lim Zhuo Ren ( 1871) 4th board and Indonesian FM Sebastian Simanjuntak ( 2256) as the reserve.

Klang Valley Kiwi (left) !? draw against 17chessclub (right) in round 4

There's some interesting teams such as the Klang Valley Kiwi's which have 80% caucasian players in their team and ony one Klang Valley player - the chessbase columnist - Edwin Lam. It's a fun idea to combine Klang Valley with the Kiwis !?


Sadly to say, i'm not able to stay untill the end of the 1st day event so i' don't have the results but try your luck with this two site gilachessblog and MalaysianChessFederationBlog

NM Yeoh Chin Seng (left) playing 3rd board for PERCAWI ( Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory Chess Association) show that he still got the touch when he beat WIM Siti Zulaikha (right) from ASTRO Squad in round 4

Paul Spiller - President of New Zealand Chess Federation (left) and Edwin Lam is next to him

The above "shy" GM is GM Zhang Zhong (FIDE 2632) - a former China top GM. Now he play for Singapore . Next to him is his beloved wife and STRONG player - WGM Li Roufan ( FIDE 2425) - who play board 2. They play with Malaysians - Yap Eng Chiam ( 3rd board) and Mohd Khair Wahiduddin ( board 4) photo right for team -Mixed Assets !

Aussie and Kiwi's players is the frequent supporter of Malaysian Chess Festival for several years. Among the notable face is 61 years young ! - FM Brian Jones ( photo below).

Aussie- FM Brian Jones (left) and Kiwi's- Robert Gibbons (right)

American - Carl Haessler (FIDE 2147) playing 3rd board for team - Wah Seong Group

Malaysia first National Champion - NM Choo Min Wang is playing in board 4 for team Wah Seong Group.

My friend - Shamsul Bahrin ( Sam) play for 17chessclub. We will play together for Nusa Mahkota team in the MERDEKA Open Team ( 30 August - 1 Sept 2008)

ASTRO Women team ( left) head by WCM Nur Shazwani Zulkapli versus AsliMAS (right) headed by NM Kamal Ariffin in round 4

I'll be posting the remaining photo reports from time to time ...stay tune for update !