Selangor Open vs Sabah Open

Currently we are having two FIDE rated event  held simultenously .The 40th Selangor Open held from 26th  April - 1st May 2013 at DATCC, KL and   The Sabah Open which start from 27th-28th April 2013  at MRSM Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

The main different between both event is  Selangor Open use  the classical time control 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment where as the Sabah Open  use Rapid time control 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment.

In term of the line up, The Selangor Open has Russian GM Alexander  Fominyh ( 2454) (photo left) as the first seed  followed by Malaysian based Philipino - Ian Udani (2322) followed by  former Malaysian no.1 - IM Jimmy Liew (2287) who is recently retired  from his full time job.

Meanwhile in Sabah Open, many would be surprise to see the top seed is the  four time Selangor Open Champion (2004, 2009, 2010, 2011) - FM Nicholas Chan (photo right).

Why Nicholas who i believe is living in the Klang Valley choose to play in The Sabah Open instead of Selangor Open? Why play in Sabah  which  took  a  2 and 1/2  hour flight to  to cover the  1600 km distance instead of Selangor Open which is" right in front his house"?

Thanks to Muhammad Arshad who is in Sabah Open doing the live broadcast ,  Arshad  mention to me that Nicholas did actually come all the way from KL to play in the Sabah Open.

Who am i to question Nicholas choise  to play in Sabah. Probably he thought 4 is enough for Selangor Open and why not having some fun in Sabah - the land below the wind!