Of Myrmidons and Mystery Men

The Merdeka rapid chess open team tournament ended yesterday, and while our two Old Frees Association teams didn’t win anything, we were still glad to be part of it. The OFA Myrmidons finished in 43rd place while my OFA Mystery Men ended up 53rd. Still, our presence was more about taking part and supporting an event that’s been going strong for 42 years.

It was quite hilarious. We arrived at the tournament hall and discovered
that the table cloths were also similarly coloured! Someone else commented
that this was also the colour of a local fast food chain. 

This year’s tournament looked like one of the more successful editions in recent memory, with 93 teams in the Open section and another 61 in the Junior section. It was quite a crowd. Finding the venue at the KL Gateway Mall was the easiest task but the bigger challenge was finding our way to our AirBnb accommodation. Some stayed at the Gateway Residences while others at the Gateway Premium Residences, two completely different locations at opposite ends of the Mall. It was more than a bit of a maze, having to walk outside, around the mall's building, to find the entrance to the Premium Residences, but eventually everyone got there. 

The organisers had secured a wide open space on Level Two of the Mall itself, which worked well enough, except for one big drawback: the lighting. It was dim and made it hard to read the digital chess clocks properly. Hopefully that gets fixed if there’s going to be a 21st Malaysia Chess Festival next year. So far, I haven't heard the organisers conclusively calling it a day yet and thus, I am hopeful that we shall return to Kuala Lumpur for yet another year for this event.