2024 SUMMARY

 It has been a most evenful year, with the ups and downs that accompany every student I take. as I welcome Oscar, Brendon, Dennis, Zijun into the fold, we shall work towards improving everyone's playing level. There may be misses and hiccups understandably in competition which generally happens in the course of conditioning oneself to play competitively. The solution lies often in more over the board practice and dedicated study of material ,not relying solely on online games and review.

I say goodbye to Jacob, Qi Yi, Ethan Wee, Rafael Cheng, Renee Wong, Jayden Kok, Erwin Tang, Soon QiRui and Lucas Lim. Some left as PSLE beckoned while others have completed the set of lessons that I have prepared for them. All that remains is to practice and learn the materials given. Easier said than done right?

The takeaway that I get from 2024 is the performance of the students that I teach at the schools, notably Tao Nan and Henry Park. Both are GEP schools and naturally one cannot doubt the intellectual quality of the chess club students who joined the CCA. What separates the students therefore has to be the attitude towards competition. 

In the March NSI we see the trends emerging from crop of talents and the likely talents that will claim their place in the NST later. In the U8, Maris Stella is the school to watch having 3 players in the top 20. Tao Nan is impressive with 3 girls in the top 20 of the Girls U8 while Nortland and Rulang had 2. For the U10, ACS Junior dominates with 3 while Northland has 2 and Tao Nan only has 1. The Girls U10 is dominated by Northland with 3. Finally, the U12 section Tao Nan has 3, Northland 2. 

Hence it is a surprise that the Tao Nan U12 team did not do well in the NST losing out to ACS Junior and Sengkang Green. In the East Zone, the team secured 3rd. The Tao Nan U10 did themselves proud clinching 2nd (owing to a lucky last round pairing) overaking ACS Junior and River Valley. 

In contrast the Henry Park teams did not finish well despite given approximate materials to work on. So what truly matters in competition is not so much the quality of coaching but other factors need to be considered, such as having the correct attitude toward the game (playing one's best regardless of the opponent), dedication to practice (spending sufficient time to play outside of the CCA hours) and taking part in external competitions. One cannot hope for a good result unless time is consumed in the right areas. 

The biggest distraction facing students in chess improvement has got to be computer games. The time spent in playing these games could have been channelled into more practice and review of every chess game played. With a hefty workload in homework there has to be better time management. Chess demands quality study and play time to yield the best results.

Hence the students that did not perform to expectations in the National Schools Individual and National Schools will have to re-examine their priorities if they wish to do better in the new year or 2025 could well be a repeat of 2024. 

Clearly having a good study plan and STICKING TO IT helps.