Important Summer Events

There are 2 big events taking place in Australia/New Zealand in the month of January. The first is the Australian Open Championship, which is being held from Friday 2nd January 2009 to the 11th January 2009. This is an 11 round FIDE rated Swiss (with norm opportunities, depending on the field) with a prize find of over $10,000. The organisers have extended the cut-off date for discounted entries to the 19th of December, and you can find entry forms (and a list of entries so far) at www.australianchessopen.com
The other big event is the 2009 Queenstown Chess Classic, which runs from the 15th to the 24th of January 2009, in the resort town of Queenstown, New Zealand. The prize fund for this event is a very impressive NZ$50,000, and the already sizeable field includes 11 GM's amongst the confimed entrants. Further details can be found at www.queenstownchess.com