The 2nd Iraq International Chess Championship is taking place on 6th-13th March at Baghdad, Iraq.
The tournament will be a 9 round Swiss open with a time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game and 30 seconds increments from the first move.
Zafer Abdel Amir Mazloum is the organizer of the event.
Georgian GM Merab Gagunashvili is the first seed. Among the 57 participants, there are 25 titled players, including 5 IMs and 11 FMs.
Participants:
| 1 | GM | Gagunashvili Merab | GEO | 2592 |
| 2 | IM | Al-Zendani Zendan | YEM | 2369 |
| 3 | IM | Shalamberidze Akaki | GEO | 2366 |
| 4 | IM | Al-Saffar Araz Basim Mohammed | IRQ | 2354 |
| 5 | IM | Kaabi Mejdi | TUN | 2347 |
| 6 | FM | Ahmed Ali Layth Ahmed | IRQ | 2339 |
| 7 | FM | Bakr Jwan | SYR | 2325 |
| 8 | IM | Iyti Basher | SYR | 2292 |
| 9 | FM | Salih Akar Ali Salih | IRQ | 2282 |
| 10 | FM | Abdulwahhab Ahmed Abdulsattar | IRQ | 2277 |
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Why so weak?