The New Campomanes Legacy
By Unknown - February 22, 2012
In the run up to the last FIDE election, incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov spent quite a bit of time in the ASEAN region, usually to promote chess in schools but ultimately he made a promise of USD 100,000 a year for 10 years to each of the ASEAN National Chess Federations to organise a Campomanes Memorial. Being the homeland of the late former FIDE President Florencio Campomanes, the Philippines was naturally the first country in line and the full amount of USD 100,000 was used for the prize fund (although having a women tournament too was a nice gesture)! Last year something changed when Myanmar hosted it because the prize fund was just USD 10,000 and I personally saw how the organisers struggled with the organising expenses (they did a great job anyway) and later I remember that a GM event also called a Campomanes was also held there. Malaysia seemed to be the next beneficiary when the inaugural Historial Melaka International Chess Festival was recently announced becase headlini
Crowded International Calendar in April and May
Without looking too hard, it certainly seems that April and May will be very busy times for the leading players (and quite a few others too) in the region. So after consultation with MCF and the sponsor, I have now moved the DYTM Raja Nazrin Shah International Open to 17-23 September 2012 and these dates have also taken into account the fact that the Olympiad will be from 27 August-10 September. From 7-12 April it looks like Brunei is going to have an International Open and of course we all know that from 13-19 April there will be the 12th Bangkok Chess Club Open. Congratulations to MCF for putting together a brand new event, the Melaka International Chess Festival from 20 April-1 May which is headlined by the Campomanes Memorial, a FIDE Rated Rapid with a prize fund that I think we will have to thank the FIDE President for! What is more important is for the Melaka Open to be a huge success and so continue as an annual event, joining the Penang, Selangor, Terengganu, Sarawak