The 2022 Vodafone Fiji Chess championship will set the standard to whoever wins to represent Fiji in the 2023 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship in Melbourne, Australia from January23-28.
Chief arbiter William Bennion said this was an important tournament because the top finishers in the open category would qualify in the Zonal championship.
The 2022 National Chess Championship will be played in under 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment per move format, whereby writing of moves will be compulsory for all players.
The 5-day event will be attracting a volley of ex-national reps such as Candidate Master (CM) Manoj Kumar, CM Ronald Terubea, Prashil Prakash, Women’s Candidate Master (WCM) Gloria Sukhu, Prashant Sarup, Provisional WCM Cydel Terubea, Provisional WCM Tanvi Prasad, Provisional FIDE Master (FM) Rudr Prasad and reigning National Champion, CM Taione Sikivou.
Other players who will be competing are Akash Sarup, Yash Maharaj from The University of the South Pacific (USP), and upcoming Under 18 players like Austin Koroi, Arnav Lal, Ayush Chand, Phillip Sukhu and Andrew Sukhu.
As many as 23 players are competing in the four categories. Bennion said defending champion Sikivou would work extra hard to defend his title.
“They are also looking at developing more young players for the sport,” he said.
“As we see, there is no doubt these youngsters are the future of any sport and we are fortunate enough to have some who are competing in this year’s nationals.
“We are planning to use this as a foundation to host more competitions for the Under 20 next year and towards the future.
“We are planning to increase the number of schools that will take part in the Chess competition next year in order to host primary and secondary national schools in the near future.”
The winner of the 2022 National Chess Championship and the 2022 National Blitz Chess Championship will walk away with a total prize pool of $3000.
