DYTM RAJA NAZRIN SHAH INTERNATIONAL OPEN 2012

The latest chess 'Grand Slam'
In golf there are 4 tournaments that are considered as Majors ( US Masters, US Open, British Open and PGA Championship)

In tennis, there are also 4 tournaments that are considered as Grand Slam (US Open, Wimbledon, French Open and Australia Open)

In Malaysia chess, to me, there are also 4 tournaments that could be considered as The Major or The Grand Slam... Not in particular order, Selangor Open, National Closed, Penang Open, DATCC Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia Open and KL Open (or now known as DYTM Raja Nazrin Shah International Open)

Correction:Agreed with Najib (See comment below) that National Closed is best to be replace with Penang Open.



DYTM Raja Nazrin Shah International Open
While his three peers (maybe with exception of Penang Open) are...for lack of better word.... 'struggling' ( Financial/ Sponsorship problems...lack of strong players took part...change to unrated rapid etc), Raja Nazrin Shah Open is just getting stronger and stronger. For this year edition, they managed to rope in GM Sergey Tiviakov...a world class player and once a member of Russian Olympiad Team and former European Champion.

Of interest to me about this tournament are:

Lim Zhuo Ren

Seeded 33 and finished at respectable 34, he is a fighter with no draws. Resultwise, a bit of dissapointment here (especially after such a great Olympiad outing) because he did not manage to get the  IM norm and maybe lost some rating points here.

Lim Chuin Hong.

Malaysia flag bearer, seeded 24 and finished at 29. What an outing for him, after a steady win,draw, win, draw, win, draw...that put him among the leader...unfortunately, he lost his last two rounds game...sayang betul! a good doctor he is, he will surely find medicine to this and we can expect him to come back stronger in his next international outing.

Ng Tze Han

Former National Champion, he makes a comeback via this tournament, seeded 25 and finished 20, he is the best Malaysian in this event and shows that  he still did not lose any of his Caissa touch.

For record GM Tiviakov is the champ with 7 points out of 9, same point (but better tie beak) with GM Barbosa

Me

Initially plan to take part in this event but due to unfortunate cruel twist of last minute events resulting in me need to give this event a pass...sigh! :(

Last but not least

Congratulation to Peter Long who manage to again organising this event successfully...with string of elite players and sponsors... and a steady covering at international websites and Bernama too!  

Najib's report on this event here shows that almost who's who of Malaysian chess is there at the tournament...I'll surely missed this event.

Once again, congratulation Peter Long!