THOUGHTS OF A CHESS ADDICT

Please note that the Chess Club will be closed on 3, 10 and 24 May. We will resume from 31 May.

The dates for the Thomson Cup International Chess Tournament 2013 will be on 25-26 May 2013. We have decided not to FIDE rate the tournament, however it will be SCF rated. The entry form link to SCF here

The SCF April rating list has just been published.  For this quarter, the top performer is Lee I Shiuan who has been studying with me since 6 Jan 2013 this year. I had revamped his opening repertoire to allow his strengths in the endgame to shine, while curbing his urge for sacrificial fancies which were most times unsound. This brought about an increase of 86 pts, mainly based on his good performance at the Hong Bao Rapid and National Schools' Individuals. He has been diligent and followed my instructions, generally a good student.  Others have chalked up close to 30 rating points, which is meeting the targets set for the year. There were 3 new students which made their debut in the April list. I will monitor their progress from now on. To slip 20 rating points is a small warning sign which should not be taken lightly. Jaryl has just started changing his repertoire so he will need some time before he gets to winning his games once he familiarises with the moves. However, I feel th

Think of it...just think of it. We had Karpov and Kasparov in Singapore in 2010, its been 2 years since. Would it not be nice to see Anand play Carlsen in Singapore?? It would still be cheaper to do this than the entire Olympiad, in my opinion. I am sure Anand would not object as it beats playing in his hometown in Chennai where the pressure mounts up. I remember the last time he did well on World Championship matches was against Dreev in 1990. When it was held in Sanghi Nagar, he collapsed. So it would be better if Indian resources were to support the venue outside of India, if he wishes to have less pressure on him to win. The Norwegian funds that backed Carlsen would of course prefer it to be in Europe, but Singapore being neutral territory (plus Carlsen has never been here) and being the new financial capital of Asia, it would seem possible to persuade Carlsen to play here. This would be a good angle to pitch the project to the Singapore Tourism Board, where the match would gain in

For those who do not need to sit for tests or exams, here's a good FIDE rated tournament near home that you can consider participating in: http://malaysianchess.blogspot.sg/2013/03/40th-selangor-open-fide-rated-prospectus.html    for more details.

I met Chia back in the days when I was a student in RI in the late 70's, visiting the National Chess Enterprise store on Killiney Road shopping for chess books. He was also writing for the Singapore Chess Digest under the name of Unknown Bobby, where  he annotates games for the magazine. I guess he picked that name because he, like Fischer, hates draws. In fact, during the final game in one Queenstown Club championship, he was so disgusted by his opponent offering him a draw at every move that he got up and resigned the game. His gruff voice barked " You  like to win so much, win lah!" and stormed off. It was perhaps his uncompromising stance at the chessboard that he fell short of the vital point in achieving the norm at every IM tournament he took part, which eluded him in his quest for IMship. Chia has his own brand of humour few would comprehend. He once advised me, after I've lost to Michael Siong my once nemesis, how to beat him. "You know he loves to get u