Wednesday 9 November 2016

2017 Oceania Zonal

The 2017 Oceania Zonal is a little over 2 months away, so if you are planning to play, time to get organised. This year the tournament is being organised by the New Zealand Chess Federation, and will be held in Auckland from the 14th to the 20th of January 2017.
There is an Open Zonal and Women's Zonal, both running over 9 rounds. As with previous Zonals, there are direct titles on offer (International Master title for the winner, FM title for 66% and CM title for 50%). The winner of each Zonal will also qualify for the 2017 World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Full details of the tournament can be found here. I played in the 2011 Zonal in Rotorua and found it enjoyable, if a lot of hard work. New Zealand is always nice to visit at that time of year. At this stage there seems to be plenty of Australian players making the journey across the Tasman, so if you want a relaxing week of playing international chess, this should be the tournament for you!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Does the Women's Zonal winner qualify for World Cup 2017, or for Women's Championship 2018(?)?

Also, the World Cup got moved to Batumi except for the finals (see FIDE Baku decisions).