Grandmaster Sivuk Vitaly who last won the previous Johor Open in 2019 is sharing the lead going into the last round with Grandmaster Priasmoro Novendra. Both have 6 and a half points after 8 rounds.

In clear 3 place is GM Nguyen Duc Hoa who has 6 points. Following closely from 4th to 10 place respectively are IM Yeoh Li Tian, IM Harikrishnan A Ra, FM Banh Gia Huy, GM Barsov Alexei, GM Bui Vinh, FM Kurniawan Muhamad Agus and IM Sadikin Irwanto.

 

Please understand this post is not meant to make fun of this player (or any other player!) as by Round 4 today I was also feeling the stress and tiredness of the Penang Open 2022 (and I'm only doing the blogs and taking pictures). 

Top 7 boards for the Penang Open is live. Click here to view the live chess games.

 My room mate is FM Yeap Eng Cheam and I jokingly asked him when I saw him whether he beat GM SIvuk Vitaly whom he was paired against in Round 2. I thought he was joking he replied "Yes". He wasn't joking. He didn't just beat any GM but this year's Penang Open top seed and playing the Black pieces too.

 

Hurry!  You can save if you register early for the Johor Chess Festival. 

As incentive for registering early Johor Chess Festival is giving 20% discounts for people registering on October and 10% discounts for registering in November.

Here are the details:-

Payment received within October (20% discount)

Open Category – GM > FIDE 2400/IM > FIDE 2300/Above FIDE 2300; Free of Charge
Open Category – FIDE 2200-2299 (Non-JCA member); RM240
Open Category – FIDE 2200-2299 (JCA member); RM160
Open Category – FIDE 2000-2199 (Non-JCA member); RM320
Open Category – FIDE 2000-2199 (JCA member); RM240
Open Category – FIDE 1800-1999 (Non-JCA member); RM480
Open Category – FIDE 1800-1999 (JCA member); RM320
Open Category – FIDE Below 1800 (Non-JCA member); RM640
Open Category – FIDE Below 1800 (JCA member); RM400
Challenger Category – FIDE Rated (Non-JCA member); RM280
Challenger Category – FIDE Rated (JCA member); RM240
Challenger Category – Unrated (Non-JCA member); RM360
Challenger Category – Unrated (JCA member); RM280

Payment received within November (10% discount)

Open Category – GM > FIDE 2400/IM > FIDE 2300/Above FIDE 2300; Free of Charge
Open Category – FIDE 2200-2299 (Non-JCA member); RM270
Open Category – FIDE 2200-2299 (JCA member); RM180
Open Category – FIDE 2000-2199 (Non-JCA member); RM360
Open Category – FIDE 2000-2199 (JCA member); RM270
Open Category – FIDE 1800-1999 (Non-JCA member); RM540
Open Category – FIDE 1800-1999 (JCA member); RM360
Open Category – FIDE Below 1800 (Non-JCA member); RM720
Open Category – FIDE Below 1800 (JCA member); RM450
Challenger Category – FIDE Rated (Non-JCA member); RM315
Challenger Category – FIDE Rated (JCA member); RM270
Challenger Category – Unrated (Non-JCA member); RM405
Challenger Category – Unrated (JCA member); RM315

  

2017 Malaysian Chess Festival Dinner and Prize Giving event. Not just a strong supporter and patreon of the strongest annual event in Malaysia, Dato' Tan Chin Nam is an avid player. 

Even a year before his passing, here he is having a game against Russian Grandmaster Alexnader Forminyh with the late Grandmaster Sergey Kayumov looking on - all oblivious of the prize giving and show presentation on stage.

 

 

 Malaysian Chess Festival - Challengers Winners' List

 

 

Four players lead in the 2022 Malaysian Open

After 3 rounds of the Malaysian Open, 4 players are leading the event with perfect 3 out of 3 scores. 

 Register Online Here.

 

 It's black. Good luck everybody !!

    While most people would one a single room when given a choice of sharing or not, I feel a little favouring more to having a room mate. For all my 15 years being involved in the Malaysian Chess Festival there was only 2 instances where I had no room mate. The main attraction of the chess festival is to meet chess friends and not really chess itself. It's a once in a year type event.

This year sadly it's another one where I am without a room mate. So this is my chosen room mate taken from my home balcony. All my plants died during the pandemic except some cactus-like succulent and this Indian Borage plant. It's a survivor so it's an apt choice I think.

Besides that, the leaves of this plant has been a saviour to me when I had long bouts of coughing (before the pandemic ok? so not Covid!). It stopped the coughing almost immediately. Just boil the leaves and drink like a tea. 

 Arrived at Cititel and kicked myself for not arriving earlier. It's Merdeka day and the Mid Valley car park is packed ! Thankfully managed to find a place but relatively far away from the hotel. Still took 2 trips to move my big bags over and this is the room set up.

Malaysians still make the highest number of participants but only just. Indonesia almost overtook Malaysian this time. It's a little disappointing the number of Malaysians have dropped compared to before the pandemic in 2019. I feel more Malaysians should take advantage of chances of meeting strong players and chances of increasing ratings or even getting norms. Countries like India, Philippines and Indonesia are certainly keen on doing this.