2nd Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak Grand Prix Chess Championship Final - Sunday, 10th July

After a successful inaugural year, the Perak International Chess Association (PICA) continued the 2nd year running of the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng Perak Grand Prix Chess Championship 2011 which had started in April earlier this year. And after a series of tour as the event leg moves from one Perak major city to another - starting with Taiping, the stage for the Grand Prix final has been set for this Sunday, 10th July at Syuen Hotel in Ipoh starting with registration at 8:30am and Round 1 to start at 9:30am

Aside from the normal cash and medal prizes awarded to the winners in the open and category prizes, players who have accumulated points throughout the various legs also stand a chance of winning additional cash prizes for their consistent performance and "loyalty" in following the various legs organized.

Prizes for the Grand Final includes a RM600 cash prize for the eventual champion, RM500 for the runner up and RM400 for the third place finisher. Additional prizes are also given to the best U-16 and U-12 players for both boys and girls to encourage more youngsters to pick up this healthy and competitive mind sport.

Entry fees are kept at a minimal rate with RM25 for open players and a special lower rate for Perakians and Junior players provided the fees are paid before Thursday, 7th July 2011. An additional charge of RM5 is applicable to those who registered late for the event. The final Grand Prix championship is played over 7 rounds with a time control of 25 minutes to finish.

Players who are interested to take part can visit the PICA website HERE for more information or contact En. Yunus at 013-3908129. Completed entry forms can be faxed to 05-2419289 or email to slchan97@hotmail.com

FIDE Arbiter Seminar concluded successfully.....

The FIDE Arbiter Seminar concluded on Sunday with great success for all the participants involved. Whilst MCF target of achieving a 100% passes fell slightly short of its target, all the attendees agreed that they had gained a lot of knowledge, experience and valuable insights that were provided by the lecturers - IA Bunawan of Indonesia and IA Ignatius Leong of Singapore who is also the FIDE Secretary General. IA Leong hands on experiences especially in relating to his involvement and rationale in proposing some of the rules and regulations used by FIDE today provided an eye opener and depth for the participants as they now understand why certain rules and regulations were created and enforced.
The seminar was attended by 23 aspiring arbiters from all over the country - from as far as Sabah and Sarawak, including those form Kelantan, Pahang, Selangor, Penang and Perak. The biggest group were from Johor with 4 representatives. There were also 4 lady participants taking part in the seminar including MCF Vice President, Haslinda Ruslan, and Yip Chin Chin from Sarawak. The seminar also had one Filipino participant in Josephine Berago.During the 4 days session, participants were taught on the Swiss Pairing and the concept and methodology behind the system, FIDE Rules of Chess, Rating and Tournament Regulations including Title Regulation and tips and pointers on organizing and managing FIDE rated events.

In his closing speech at the end of the seminar, IA Leong was impressed with the active and lively discussions and debates that were going around between all the participants, including some which involved him as well. He commented that this was one of the better seminar he had conducted because of the input provided by some of the participants, and the level of interest and eagerness displayed by most of the attendees.

Local arbiter Najib Abdul Wahab came up on top of the class followed by IM Mok Tze Meng and Kelantanese Nik Ahmad Farouqi Nik Aziz. Other notable passes includes Khairunissa Wahiduddin, Haslindah Ruslan, Nik Azrihan, Hamdan Osman, Narayanan Krishnan and locals Collin Madhavan and Jax Tham. All who attended the seminar received a Certificate of Attendance given out by IA Leong himself.With the success of the FIDE Arbiter seminar, MCF is now in talks again with FIDE to conduct the FIDE Trainers Seminar and a similar Arbiter Seminar at the National level to create more competent arbiters who are interested to learn more about organizing, managing and running chess events and tournaments.

InSoFar Elite Final Postponed...

In view of the upcoming SMK Hillcrest event this Sunday (10th May 2011), the organizer for the InSoFar Elite Final has decided to postpone Sunday's edition to a later date to allow players to participate in the school event. The latest information gained from the SMK Hillcrest organizer is that the number of participants have already exceeded 350 players and there is a good chance that it will hit the target number of 500 players.

Come and support the event!