Good news for Chess Players…. FIDE Rated Hybrid Events will be the way moving forward

In its move to revolutionize Online chess via Hybrid mode, FIDE has approved for all Hybrid Online events to be eligible for FIDE Rated event equal to that of the traditional Over-The-Board (OTB) events. The interesting news can be found via FIDE website at https://fide.com/news/906

The Malaysian Chess Federation is delighted with this news as it has already successfully executed two (2) Hybrid events – unfortunately these were not rated, and looks forward to organize the 3rd Hybrid Online Open event which is scheduled to take place sometime in February. With PKP being extended to many states in Malaysia, the earlier date of 29th to 31st January had to be postponed to another date in late February – after Chinese New Year. And with the news by FIDE, the 1st National Hybrid Online Individual Open Chess Championship 2020 will be submitted to FIDE for it to be the first Malaysian Hybrid event to be rated.

Whilst MCF has already approved and accepted 21 Hybrid Centers to be part of the Hybrid community – the latest being CS Tuition Center in Sungai Dua, Pulau Pinang, and with the great news shared by FIDE, it is expected that many more Centers will start to request to be part of the local Hybrid chain. And with that, MCF will have to review all applications and Hybrid centers must abide by the setup rules and regulations before an approval can be given. MCF may also impose fees (to sign up as Hybrid Centers to ensure that regulations are met), and restricting independent organizers to use only MCF certified Hybrid Centers to execute their Hybrid events instead of everywhere and anywhere that they please.

Currently, the following are the active Hybrid Centers in Malaysia that MCF has approved for events:

MCF will announce the final date for the Open Individual Hybrid Online event later this month once the PKP situation can be assessed and stabilized