THOUGHTS OF A CHESS ADDICT

Here's Shi Hao who scored 5/7  and came in 9th, while Hui Ling scored 6/7 and was third in her category.

Starting tomorrow 1 July Friday, Thomson CC Chess Club shall be running a weekly Friday Junior Endgame League. This is FREE and open to junior members aged 15 and under. RULES - Venue is the Chess Club Room on 3rd Floor, Thomson CC Classroom 03-05. Play starts at 8pm. - Each week, players get to play 1 endgame position with level material. Players toss to choose which colour they will be playing. - Scoring is 1 point for win, 0.5 for draw and 0 for loss. - Players who show up shall be paired with an opponent. Each player may play at most twice against the same opponent but with different colours. - Time Control is 30 minutes per side. - Recording is optional. - Prizes are awarded to the top 3 players who score the most number of points as at 30 August 2011. Interested members please send me an email to johnwong@pacific.net.sg stating your name, age as at 1 Jan 2011. If you are not able to come for that week, please sms 97985479 on Friday morning. This will help us in confirming opponen...

Just received the sad news that a dear old friend, Tang Kum Foo, or KF as I often called him, has died.  As I've known KF from my chess days back when he was SCF Executive Secretary in 1993-94 (and I the treasurer) to the days when he took over the Presidency in 1998, KF was always the cheery sort, never flustered. He was also one of the founding fathers of Intchess, with the aim of creating a vibrant professional chess scene in Asia having been involved in the popularising of chess in China in the early 90's. It was in 1996 that he achieved his IA title, putting to good use in chess organisation in Singapore and the region. KF and I shared many views on chess during  our friendship. However, he often lamented that the state of affairs in Singapore did not turn out the way he had wanted it to.Hence he departed from Intchess to pursue other interests but continued to monitor the chess scene. Many may not be aware but he was a top scholar having won the Colombo Plan scholarship ...

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 ...