The Championship is the final phase of the Malta Chess Championship cycle. The winner will be declared as the Maltese Chess Champion. Last year's winner Timothy Mifsud and runner up Colin Pace will be joined by the top four players of the Candidates tournament. The players are:

The tournament is organised over a double round robin system which means that all the players meet each other twice with different colours.

Round 1

In a Bc4 Najdorf, Pace eventually walked into a checkmate.

Sammut pushed just a bit too hard and obtained weak pawns. He tried to create counterplay by sacrificing a Knight (effectively for two pawns - three passed) but it was not enough. The game started: 1.d4 d6 2.Nf3

Stefan was in a drawish position against David in a Nimzo Indian and overextended himself in time trouble (10 mins for 20 moves).