The long awaited and troubled FT Classical Chess Championship – which has been rescheduled from November to December to February and to April, will be reschedule again to June 2021 with a bit of changes to the playing format.

Since the event now has been rescheduled to take advantage of the mid year school break, the event will be stretched to nine (9) rounds starting from 3rd June (Thursday) with the final day to be played on 7th June (Monday) which will also be a Public Holiday to celebrate the birthday of the DYMM Yang Di Pertuan Agong which falls on that day.

All the other format remains the same i.e. time control, tie break, playing system including the entry fees for the event

Should the COVID19 pandemic resurfaces, or the ruling on public gathering and events organizing are not allowed, or has certain limitations, the Malaysian Chess Federation will shift the event to be completed via Online Hybrid format where players will have to play their games from an approved Hybrid Center. While the full online format (playing from home) can also be considered, this format is yet to be accepted by FIDE for it to be FIDE Rated as such, MCF may have to refund some of the entry fees as the charges to FIDE would not be applicable.

Registrations will be reOpen sometime in May, and will close on 27th May 2021 – 1 week before the event, at which point MCF would have declared and confirmed if the event would proceed via OTB or Hybrid Online or Full Online by 20th May 2021.

New added information about the event will be published sometime in mid April as MCF Committee intends to focus its effort towards completing the MCF-KUPTM Hybrid Online Chess Championship 2021 which is scheduled for next weekend. In the meantime, those who wants information about the event, or those who have signed up earlier and would like to get a refund, kindly write an email to mcfsecretariat@malaysiachess.org and attached the proof of payment (for the FT event) and provide the bank name, bank account number and account name for the payment to be completed. If the account name differs from the player’s name, please describe the relationship between the two.

MCF apologizes for the continuous delay in executing the event, and hope the community and players appreciate and understand the current pandemic situation that is impacting the event.