The Brunei Invitational IM Tournaments held from 25 July to 3 August 2010 at the Brunei Chess Centre in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei offered young local players a wonderful opportunity to be exposed to international competition with five foreign titled players, International Masters Oliver Barbosa, Nguyen Van Huy, and Duong Anh The, Woman Grandmaster Irene Kharisma Sukandar and FIDE Master Ramnath Bhuvanesh, providing the lessons!

And there was a much hoped for success for the Brunei Chess Federation with the encouraging performance of FIDE Master Yee Soon Wai who made visible progress as the tournaments went on, sensationally starting Invitational 2 with an upset win over top seeded International Master Barbosa, and despite suffering another unlucky loss to Woman Grandmaster Sukandar, received a pep talk from Deputy Minister for Culture, Youth and Sports Datin Hajah Adina binti Othman to draw a gripping last round encounter with FIDE master Ramnath (see attached photo) and finish with the six and a half points needed for his first and Brunei's ever International Master title norm.

The standout player was clearly young FIDE Master Ramnath Bhuvanesh from India, with already two International Master norms together with an enviable record in play against grandmasters, finishing equal first in the IM Invitational 1 and the winner of IM Invitational 2, in the process twice completing his IM title norm requirements and so he will certainly remember Brunei as where his International Master title was achieved!

Equally happy was Grandmaster Sukandar in making International Master norms in both tournaments but she will have to make one more and get her rating past 2400 to become an International Master.

From Brunei, in IM Invitational 1, local hopes FIDE Master Yee and Md Aliuddin were joined by their top woman Siti Nur Fatimah and a veteran in Hj Baharuddin and in IM Invitational 2, they were joined by 15 year old prospect Munir Azizi and yet another veteran in Leong Voon Choon.

IM 2 Final Standings:
1. Ramnath 7/9, 2-3. Sukandar, Yee 6.5/9; 4-6. Nguyen, Duong, Barbosa 6/9; 7. Md Aliuddin 3/9; 8-9. Munir Azizi, Ansari 1.5/9, 10. Leong 1/9.

The official website of the Brunei Chess Federation is at www.bruneichess.org.bn.