44th Liberty Bell Chess Tournament in Philadelphia from Jan 13

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hello everyone,

Here is the latest chess tournament calendar update via www.chessdom.com. The 44th Annual Liberty Bell Open will take place over the Martin Luther King weekend from January 13-16, 2012, at the Sheraton City Center Hotel, Philadelphia. The event has a $20,000 projected prize fund with $14,000 guaranteed.

The event has 9 sections: Open, Under 2300, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500, Under 1300, Under 1100 and Under 900. All sections are 7-round Swiss tournaments having 4-day, 3-day and 2-day schedules to play in.

Prizes $20,000 based on 320 paid entries, else in proportion, except minimum 70% of each prize guaranteed. In 2006 to 2011, the tournament had over 320 paid entries each year and the $20,000 projected prize fund was increased in proportion. In 9 sections.

Open Section prizes: $1700-1000-500-300-200, 1st clear or on tiebreak $100 bonus, top Under 2400 $800. FIDE rated.

Last year four players tied for 1st in the Open Section, GMs Alex Shabalov and Sergey Kudrin, IM Marc Esserman and FM Farai Mandizha, who each finished with 5½ points. You can access the official website at this link.

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