Guam International

The Guam Chess Federation was accepted as member of FIDE at the 2011 Congress. With that out the way the next item on the agenda was to start hosting international events, and to get some of their players on the FIDE rating list. To do say they enlisted to help of the Oceania Chess Confederation, who helped them organise the 2012 Guam International. Following the format used by the Palau and Solomon Islands Chess Federation's, Guam invited 4 overseas players to join 6 local players in a round robin. The 4 overseas players were all from Australia, as was the tournament arbiter FM Brian Jones. The tournament proved that Guam already has a pool of talented players with Efren Manuel tying with Leon Kempen (AUS) for first prize, on 7/9. Tony Davis (Aus) finished in third on 6/9, with Antony Witt (GUM) on 5/9 in 4th place. The two other Australian participants, Gary Bekker and Tony Weller shared 5th place on 4.5. All the local players will get FIDE ratings from this tournament, which will then enable the Federation to organise more events involving local players. A full report of the tournament, including a number of pictures of the players can be found at the Asian Chess Federation website.