A few days ago I was contacted by Igor Goldenberg who said that there is a good likelihood that a venue will be found by the Elwood organizers. We at the Melbourne Chess Club only want to see an event happen over that weekend and in the case of Elwood being able to organize the event, we would step aside and let them do that.
In the time since we decided to organize the tournament in the absence of any details from Elwood, we have secured the participation of 2 GM’s who we would hope could equally play an Elwood weekender as an MCC weekender. We also have a number of sponsorship deals being negotiated, but nothing is definite yet and there is the possibility that any agreed sponsorship could be redirected to another tournament. We also have been in contact with some overseas players who would be interested in coming over for a 9-round FIDE rated tournament. Unfortunately, these will be lost assuming the Elwood organizers decide to run their tournament as a 7 rounder.
The MCC committee next meets on July 8th and then we will have to make a decision about our event. If the Elwood organizers have announced details of their event, we will reschedule our event. However, if no announcements have been made, then we will have a tough decision to make.
Good luck to Igor, and any assistance we can give, we will.
|