Skip to main content

SOME GM STORIES

This month, I am in pensive mode so I thought I'd share a few interesting and funny GM stories before I start to lose them.

1995 - Eugene Torre was in Singapore and had just won the Asian Inter-Continental Rapid Chess Championships. I was his escort and tried to help him get some local goodies for him to bring home. The first was durian. I told him that it was forbidden to bring it onboard but he was relentless. So rather than dissuade him, we managed to find a durian seller who would pack it airtight so that no smell would be emitted. That done, he needed cash to pay. So we went to a money changer.

I introduced Eugene to him and announced : " This is Asia's first Chess Grandmaster! You must give him a better rate." To which the friendly Indian money changer replied : " Yes, he is Asia's first, but not first compared to India's Visawanathan Anand". Both Eugene and I were red-faced after his remark.

1992- We had just landed in Singapore and I spotted GM Daryl Johansen of Australia who was on the same flight. I had played him in 1978 in the Christmas Festival tournament held at RI hall then, losing in 34 moves. We exchanged greetings and I asked him if he remembered playing me then. He gave a long hard look before he blurted : " Reversed King's Indian, right?" I was floored. " How could you have remembered such a game? After 14 years?" I loved his reply:

" I REMEMBER ALL MY GAMES"

1985 - Miguel Najdorf was in Singapore in transit and gave a simul of 15 boards. He told us this story:

"I was playing in Saltojsbaden Sweden in the 1948 Interzonal. My opponent the next round was the Swede Gosta Stolz. He was sitting at the bar and he spotted me. He was already quite tipsy and asked me to buy him a beer. I thought to myself : Why not? He's going to get a hangover and that's alright with me. So I bought him one, he finished it real quick and asked for another. And another. Altogether I bought him 12 beers. He finally stopped, thanked me and went  to bed."

" The next day we sat down to play and in less than 1 hour I was totally lost! While I was sweating to try save my position, Gosta smirked and bent over: Draw? You can imagine my relief when he said that. But then he uttered after the scoresheets were signed :" Ah Miguel, I'll let you in on a little secret:.."

"NOBODY BEATS ME AFTER 12 BEERS!"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW TO PARK AND GET TO TAMPINES HUB

To get to Tampines Hub the best way from the Central and West, take the PIE and exit at 3B and drive towards  Tampines Ave 2. You can go via Tampines Ave 7 and join Tampines Ave 4, then turn right at the junction of Ave 5. There is less traffic on this route than if you are to come from the Simei Exit and up Tampines Ave 5. The  EW(2) line station  is also quite close. DT32 is not ready yet. As for parking, there is an open car park just after the Hub. Drive past the Hub, turn round the corner and you'll see the entrance on the Ave 5 curve. This is a coupon parking carpark and open-air (60cts 1/2 hr) and has about 200+ lots. The other place to park is across from the Tampines Hub at Block 858-864 which is open to public 7am to 7pm coupon parking. You can enter this carpark from St 83 Block 864 and navigate towards Block 859. If you go round till you see a green sign on your left, the road leads to the Drop Off and North Plaza Carpark entrance.  Proceed straight in to...

STUDENTS AT THE 75TH NATIONAL SCHOOL'S INDIVIDUALS

The playing Hall at OFS The 75th National School's Individuals 2024 created a record of 1606 registered entries, such that it was necessary to host the event over 2 venues. The Secondary U14-16 sections were held at Senja Cashew CC ( the original venue) while the other Primary Sections and the U-20 were at Overseas Family School.    This year saw record numbers in the U08, U10 and U12 sections with the U12 totalling 465 players, the U10 with 380. The tiebreaks were able to determine the Champion of each section where both the Open and Girls were competing together. For each age-category, 10 Zonal prizes were awarded to the North,South,East,West clusters as well as the non-MOE International Schools.  The U20 was won by Charlene Mak being the first woman to dominate the U20 Open section. Other interesting finishes was the 2nd U20 placing won by Yu Kaiyi from Compassvale Primary who skipped the U12 to play higher. My ex-students Ryan and Daniel Chan with Leonard Loh also pla...

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE

 December draws to a close, ending 2023 and some of my students' journey with me as coach. I had the pleasure to be involved in training Daniel Chan, Er Wen Chen, Timothy Lam, Asher Neo, Wang Yuhan, Toby Herman, Magnus Lim, Eden Harris Yong, Leonard Loh, Emma Lo, Kevin Ng, Damian Tay and lastly Ho Ray Ee, my longest student to stay with me for 6 years. Yes, this may be the largest group of students that left in my years of teaching. Some decided to move on to other trainers (a good sign, as they are seeking other paths to chess improvement) while most I had to end the relationship as coach due to low interest in the game after some months.  As for Ray Ee who joined me  in 2017, I am of course saddened that he is graduating from my fold but yet proud of what he has achieved. His results were consistent, often finishing well (NAG 7th in 2022, 9th in 2019, 4th in NSI 2018). He has also played in the Selangor Open this year , gaining 77 rating points while getting another 31 ...