Cash awards for Mercantile chess winners

CHESS: The Mercantile Open Chess Championship 2007 will be held on Sunday, December 2 at the Auditorium of Lions Activity Centre, Vidya Mawatha, Colombo 7.

This tourney will be an individual event run according to the Swiss System and the number of rounds will be announced shortly before the tourney starts. A team will consist of 3 players and a reserve.

All Mercantile organisations are eligible to enter any number of teams. The tourney will be played as an individual Swiss System tournament.

Prizes at the tourney: "A" division (team): Total of Rs. 25,000 will be awarded among the winners. The champion team will receive the Championship Trophy, gold medals and certificates with Rs. 10,000 cash awards. 1st runner-up team will receive silver medal, certificates with Rs. 5,000 cash awards. The 2nd runner-up team will get bronze medals, certificates and Rs. 2,500 cash awards.

The individual awards in the "A" division - the Champion will receive Trophy and a gold medal, certificate and Rs. 3,000 cash award. The first runner-up: silver medal, a certificate and Rs. 2,000 cash award and second runner-up will receive bronze medal, certificate and Rs. 1,000 cash award.

The best female chess player will receive gold medal, certificate and Rs. 1,000 cash award.

In the 'B' division (Individual/Team), there will be trophies for the champions and the medals will be awarded to the first three places. All will receive certificates.

All entries should reach Mrs. Suneetha Wijesuriya, General Secretary, Mercantile Chess Association, 22/1, Megoda Kolonnawa, Wellampitiya on or before Friday, November 30.

An entry fee of Rs. 1,000 per team and Rs. 250 for each individual entry will be charged.

Scoring system: One point will be awarded to a winning team, half a point for a draw and there will be no points for a loss.

The total points scored by a player will be considered to find the winner of the event where the total points scored by the best three players of the team will be considered when finding the winning team.