The first event for the Malaysian Chess Festival is the Astro Merdeka Team event and it turned out to be a record breaking event. 148 teams participated meaning a total of 592 players are taking part in the team event.
Usually with a huge crowd including observers and chess players like this, there is problems arising from disputes, crowd control etc but for the first day of the event, all was well and things went very smoothly.
The team event is usually dominated by the Philipino teams but this doesn't stop the local Malaysians from participating en masse.
