THOUGHTS OF A CHESS ADDICT

  Announcing the opening of the Tanglin CC Chess Club ! Thanks to the assistance of Mr Wee Siu Kee, the CM for Tanglin CC who has been most supportive of chess activities, we are able to secure the use of the Manga Room at Level 3 - 4 for the regular Tanglin CC practices. The Club shall open every Friday (so long as its not a public holiday) from 7pm to 9.30pm. Generally the CC is not crowded Friday nights unless there is a performance at the Hall. The room (picture above) can seat about 20 players and 4 accompanying persons.  At the moment there is no membership required, though in time to come this may change. We shall have the last 2 sessions for 2022 on 23 and 30th December. Sets and clocks are provided. 

Once again, the NAG came and went with its fair share of upsets and surprises. The Senja-Cashew CC Hall was a big venue that can house more than the reported 487 participants - if only the timing and notice was given earlier to the participants who would have required time to plan their schedules.  U14 My currently oldest student Ho Ray Ee finished 7rh out of   62 participants, while Wen Chen who joined me in June this year finished 19th.  Ray Ee has prepared well for this event chalking only losses to Satvik and Jaime. Wen Chen was unfortunate to lose to Jaime blundering a Rook when winning. He then went on to lose the 2nd game in the last day to Yu Bei Hao hence dropping to 19th. My assessment is that both players lack game experience in handling tense situations - which can be improved by playing purposeful blitz regularly. Blitz is often seen as a bad way of training but when used purposefully. there are good outcomes from it.  U12 Damien Tay and Ryan Heng had both completed their