First Friday IM norm tournament to begin in Malaysia

by Sagar Shah - 02/09/2017

The First Saturday tournaments in Budapest, Hungary have been highly successful. A lot of top players have made their IM and GM norms over there, most famous being Fabiano Caruana. But there was nothing of that sort in Asia where players from India and the surrounding countries could play in a Round Robin event and fight for their norms. Now, Peter Long's Institute of Chess Excellence along with Malaysian Chess Federation has organized the First Friday Round Robin IM norm tournament from 6th to 11th of October in Kuala Lumpur. Here are all the details.

First Friday IM Tournament will be held from the 6-11 October 2017. This will be a ten player round robin tournament - three International Masters and seven candidates for titles and norms - and played at the Institute for Chess Excellence in Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia. This will help young and budding talents to fight for their IM norms.

The address of the Institute for Chess Excellence in Kuala Lumpur

The ICE has world class infrastructure and you can see more pictures of this institute in an article that was published on our newspage a few days ago

Schedule:

6th October will be the arrival date for the players and the player's meeting will be held on the same evening. Play will be two rounds a day at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily, from 7 to 10 October, and the final round will be held at 9 a.m. on 11 October.

Time control:

The time control will be 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with a 30 seconds increment from move one.

Entry fee:

Entries will be on a first come first serve basis and those interested may contact peterlong@aol.asia - the entry fees will be staggered and dependent on the player's FIDE rating as at 1 October 2017.

<2150:	RM 2,000 / USD 500
2151-2200:	RM 1,500 / USD 375
2201-2250:	RM 1,250 / USD 313
2251-2300:	RM 1,000 / USD 250
2301-2350:	RM 750 / USD 187
2351>:	RM 500 / USD 125

Peter Long, the Secretary of Malaysian Chess Federation, is the organizer of the First Friday tournaments in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. If you wish you submit your entry write to him at peterlong@aol.asia

Speaking to ChessBase India, Peter said, " The IM norm tournaments will be held on the first friday of every month. The next one will be held from 3rd to 9th of November. There will be GM norm events held on a quarterly basis. There are also plans to host legs of norm events in Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia in the future. I am looking forward to the participation of Indian players at the First Friday tournaments."

ChessBase India Power can help you with all your travel arrangements for the tournament. If you are interested to play at the event then please contact us for the flight, hotel, visa and any other logistical arrangement that needs to be made.

Contact for accommodation and travel:

Hotline: 09106908500, 7878783264 (10 a.m to 8 p.m.)
WhatsApp: 7878783264
Email: accommodations@chessbase.in

Update:

Seven players have already confirmed their participation. They are:

1. IM Mas Hafizuelhelmi (Malaysia)

2. IM Neeraj Kumar Mishra (India)

3. IM Nay Oo Kyaw Tun (Myanmar)

4. Kumar Gaurav (India)

5. D. Gukesh (India)

6. B. Sekar (India)

7. S. Jayakumaar (India)

Three spots left for the first "First Friday" tournament!