THOUGHTS OF A CHESS ADDICT

As usual, its time to present the report for my student's performance for the year 2012. The 2011 report is linked here for those wishing to compare their previous year's performance. I am most heartened when 11 out of my 13 students who took part in 3 or more competitions last year achieved more than 30 pts increase in their ratings (one of my 2011 resolutions). What's even more heartening is that 5 of them had over 100 pts increase in their ratings for the year, excluding the one who had received his rating only in 2012.     Royce Tan (at left)  is my player of the year for 2012. Starting with me in Jan 2012, he has persevered having to relearn a new opening repertoire which took months to ingest and finally the results piled in towards the last quarter, with great performance ratings for the Penang Open where he finished 1st in the U10 category, the National Age Group 2012 where he was 4th and the recently concluded New Generation tournament where he was also 4th in t...

  I monitor my student's performances closely as a measure of my methods and approach to their game. This is the most tangible way of my own assessment as a trainer. Adjustments will have to be made should there be any signs of stagnation or even regression in a student's rating. Often that means either the student is unable to move higher due to tough opposition, or insufficient preparatory work is done before the tournament. Most of my students earned their ratings by participating in the Thomson Chess Club Championship as well as the National Schools Individuals in March. The 3 top scores are Mitchell Han (up 168 pts), Royce Tan (up 159 points) ,Lee Zhong Yi (up 103 pts) and Nicholas Low (90 pts). Others did reasonably well to move up by 50 odd points or more, except some setbacks like Joshua Ong who did not do well at the National Individuals. Chia Dan Peng was below par at the Thomson Club Championships, but his recent showing at the TCA Chess Tournament (performance ratin...

My afterthoughts on the recently concluded THOMSON CUP INTERNATIONAL tournament is focused on this topic. It comes as no surprise that the majority of the 103 players in the Silver Section were children under the age of 14, many even below the age of 10. As parents of young children, they would naturally want the chess-playing experience of their kids to be pleasant and memorable. Hence it would be a traumatic episode should the child face someone bigger than his size or older, as the prospect of winning quickly evaporates with the daunting resignation written on their minds even before the first move is made. Hence there was surprise that there are a few adults milling in between the rows of schoolchildren, metaphorically seen as vultures or predators preying on the innocent young players and depriving them of a much desired prize. My principle in hosting the THOMSON CUP tournament is firstly to uphold the sanctity of the rating. All chess players playing in a chess tournament should ...