The Malta Chess Federation has announced its calendar of events for 2016.

The Maltco Championship cycle, consisting of three tournaments, kicks off with the Preliminaries on February 25.

This seven-round tournament is open to all those rated below 1800 and games will be held twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays.

The second phase – the Candidates tournament (also sevens rounds) – starts on July 11.

The top four players qualify to the Championship Finals. They will be joined by Malta champion Colin Pace and second-seeded Joseph Gauci.

The finals will be played between October 15 and 27.

This year’s Junior Championship, which also determines the U-16 and U-18 winners, will take place between July 1-3. The U-14 Championship will be staged in November.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that a series of U-16 Rapid Tournaments will be held in various schools every two months.

Also, a seven-round Open tournament – the Harry Camilleri Memorial – will be played over seven weekends, starting in April.

This year the 42nd World Chess Olympiads will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan (September 17-30). The MCF intends to send a men and women team to participate.

For more details, send an email to info@chessmalta.com or join the Chess in Malta page on Facebook.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.