THOUGHTS OF A CHESS ADDICT

1981 It was the year when ACS was dominating the InterSchool Team chess scene the last time in the 80's in the Under 18's. RI's Under 16 team won the National School's Team Championship U16 trophy, the U14s also did well. From 1982 till 1988, RI then swept the top honours in the National Junior and School Team Championships each year, with the exception in 1985 when CJC took the Under 18. Another photo from 1984: What was the secret? The mentorship that Soh Kok Hong (on extreme left) and I (6th from right) provided, coming back to our Grange Road RI every Saturday afternoon in helping with the training of the boys during these years that made the difference. The bond between us and the boys gave them the necessary confidence to do their best and return with the titles. One of my methods was to have the boys focus their games onto an empty chessboard and I would throw a book in the air that will hit the floor with a loud thud. The student that got distracted would be ...

I had a chat with a former student of mine, who's very passionate about chess. He lamented that he was not getting his results in spite of spending a lot of time playing chess, that his playing strength was stagnating. Many years ago, it happened to me as well. I could not get past players 150 rating points above me. I could not figure out what seemed to be wrong. My routine of solving problems, reading as many books as I can get my hands on,playing in tournaments did not yield any breakthrough. I lost thread of the game especially in the late middlegame and endgame. It took a lot of soul-searching to decide what was wrong. In the 80's I was mildly teased by stronger players, including IM Tan Lian Ann, that I was the best player in Singapore for the first 20 moves (mainly because of my opening knowledge). I realised that he was hinting that my chess fundamentals was not well laid and that I should review them first before anything else. Following the advice, I stopped reading o...

Someone sent me an interesting article by Adam Khoo about our kids: "Unfortunately, I have found that more and more young Singaporeans lack this hunger for success. Instead, they like to complain, blame circumstances and wait for others to push them. Some hold on to the attitude that the world owes them a living. I shake my head when I see local kids nowadays complain that they don't have the latest handphones, branded clothes and games. While I acknowledge that the kids of today are much smarter and well informed than I was at their age (my 4 year old daughter can use my Macbook computer and my iphone), I find that they lack the resilience and tenacity they need to survive in the new economy. Some kids nowadays tend to give up easily once they find that things get tough and demand instant gratification. When they have to work first to get rewards later, many tend to lack the patience to follow through." It appears that our next generation may have lost the hunger ac...

What does a world-famous trainer like Mark Dvoretsky have to say about the choice of openings for a chess player? ‘Your choice of openings should be made primarily in accordance with your own tastes and style of play. This rule may sound obvious, but all the same it is quite easily broken,even by strong players’ Now if a player is usually afraid of giving away pawns or pieces, or is scared of complications, is it then possible that this player will be able to confront positions laden with tactics and be comfortable in them? In his book Opening Preparation, Dvoretsky recounts how he once gave advice to a quiet sober-minded player whose openings were that of fashionable and sharp variations like the King's Indian and Sicilian. In other words, the choice of opening depended not on his own taste but that of the coach. He advised the player to switch to quieter openings by playing 1 d4 instead and that player's results were better as he was better adjusted to the positions that ar...

Here's what I found at the SCF website lately: "The Singapore Chess Federation announces its National Junior & Youth training game Programme 2010, which shall promote best opening play as White and best defense/counterattack as Black. The “Open Sicilian”, starting with 1.e4! c5! 2.Nf3!, followed by 3.d4! cxd4! is regularly played by leading International Grand Masters, who consider it as practically the best modern way to play for a win by both White (with 1.e4!) and by Black (with 1… c5!). Then again, White’s best practical options remain with the “Open Sicilian”. 1.e4, followed by 1…c5, further followed by the Open Sicilian, ensure asymmetrical and dynamic positions at the very start of the game. On their way to the top, World Chess Champions benefited – mostly from these. In an effort to nurture and promote Singapore Chess Lions into Roaring Lions , starting at the Developmental level of our Training Pipeline, trainees shall intensively practice, by their own choosin...

As more and more schoolchildren get interested in the game of chess, parents are naturally intrigued why their young'uns are taken to the standing pieces on top of black and white squares. Most parents do not know the game and are helpless when answering questions about chess from their kids.Hence they are unable to tell what is required for a child to play the 16 pieces. Many thought that learning the rules of chess will do. It's just plain madness, I tell you. Wonder if you should let your children turn the ignition of your car?? So here's where a good trainer can help, in my humble opinion. A newbie is one who admires how the pieces are shaped and stacked and not how they move. For them, chess trainers have to make them learn the moves of the pieces and get them to enjoy it too. Then its time for them to know how to switch the King and Rook around (castling), check the King, tell the difference between CHECKmate and STALEmate. That took a lot of time in my last student...

If you are reading this for the first time, welcome. I am John Wong, a chess enthusiast for 34 years. I started teaching the game when I was 18 and turned chess trainer since 2003 when I was retrenched. It has been a good 6 years, where I have been receiving students of all ages ( from 6 to 60) and temperaments. During my 34 years of involvement in chess, I was once active in organising chess, having been involved with running chess tournaments, being in several positions in the Singapore Chess Federation during 1987-1998 and a brief return in 2003-4. My involvement in the National Junior Training Team in 1987 taught me valuable lessons when working with talented chess juniors then. As for journalism, I was also active then in the publishing of the Singapore Chess Digest back in 1986-87. I also wrote several articles for the SCF, the last being the obituary of Prof Lim Kok Ann who was a mentor and elder. As for chess, I do think I am widely read, having 400 or more chess books in my li...