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 played in the U20 (Ryan Chan pictured below).

The results of the students (ex in orange)  as follows:

Name                            Category                    Result                   Placing

Ong Qi Yi                     U08                            7.0/9                      13/196

Tang Erwin                   U10                            6.5/9                      40/380

Jayden Kok                  U10                            5.0/9                      150/380

Jacob Tan                     U12                            4.5/9                      209/380                     

Lim, Lucas                   U12                            6.0/9                      97/465

Kyan Heng                   U12                            7.5/9                      8/465

Rafael Cheng                U12                           6.0/9                      79/465

Ryan  Heng                U14                             5.0/9                    93/257

Jireh Ting                   U14                             7.0/9                    6/257

Damien Tay                U14                            4.5/9                    142/257

Ho Ray Ee                  U16                            6.0/9                    26/203

Daniel Chan               U16                            6.0/9                    20/203

Yu KaiYi                    U20                            8.0/9                     02/105

Ryan Chan                 U20                            5.5/9                     24/105                     

Leonard Loh              U20                            4.0/9                     60/105  

On the whole the students fared well, as most scored 5 points and above in a larger field which was spread rather unevenly pending on the age-category. I suppose this is the rationale why the SCF chose not to look at the ratings per se to determine the allocation of the students to the various NJS groups but to use the assessment as a better means of determining strength.

The chief failings for those not doing well are : insufficient attention paid in the opening moves from 1-12 (leading to loss of initiative or even loss of material) and playing too fast. Most of my students who recorded their moves from 1-12 managed to slow down and avoided major mistakes in their games. Those who did well (6 points and above) were well drilled in their openings and secured good positions to outplay their opponents. As rapid time controls do not allow much experimentation, it is best to play what one knows well - and be alert to tactical possibilities to win material. Time management is crucial when one gets in trouble - using the time spent to get out of trouble is usually not the best way. Better yet is to use the time to spot problems before they happen. 

For that I can only recommend one watch the Time management videos by NM Dan Heisman on Youtube. 

Thanks to the arbiters and helpers who fronted the daunting task of managing 1600 school-children during the 2 days of competition, plus the beautiful pictures of the event taken by Uncle Kwang of Lightbox Productions.