As usual, the Under-14 attracts the largest crowd with a combined of 106 players. While, the Under-23 categories have 25 players only. This is the first national-rated event in Malaysia to be implementing the Revised Laws of Chess. Among the changes from 1st July 2014 is a player shall lose the game in the 1st occurrence of an Illegal move.
Pre-Tournament favourites as follows:-
Under-14 Boys
| 1 | Lye Lik Zang | 1838 |
| 2 | Emir Rusyaidi Ahmad Nazari | 1735 |
| 3 | Cheah Eason | 1646 |
Under-14 Girls
| 1 | Nithyalakshmi Sivanesan | 1724 |
| 2 | Sim Jia Ru | 1543 |
| 3 | Melanie Koo | 1518 |
Under-17 Boys
| 1 | Dilwen Ding | 1804 |
| 2 | Chew Wen Da | 1779 |
| 3 | Subramanian Sivanesan | 1720 |
| 4 | Tan Yong Zhao | 1712 |
Under-17 Girls
| 1 | Rosamund Koo Wei Xin | 1774 |
| 2 | Ho Chen Ee | 1416 |
Under-23 Boys
| 1 | Tan Wei Hao | 1796 |
| 2 | Liew Ken Yew | 1763 |
Under-23 Girls
| 1 | Elizabeth Hoon Thien Li | 1317 |
| 2 | Teong Bol Man | 1012 |
Round 1 just concluded a moment ago with 5 players lost by default based on the new rule on Illegal move.
