The NSI took place at Our Tampines Hub on 15 - 16 March 2025 - a huge venue, but deemed cramped owing to the record turnout of 1728 participants and twice the number of parents and accompanying persons. So big was the crowd that the escalators on Lobby A (closest to the tournament hall) broke down each day owing to the weight stressed upon them! Walkways were crowded with mats and every seat was occupied. Hopefully a better solution to the crowd can be found in terms of holding areas for the accompanying parents/persons, or to simply separate the Primary and Secondary sections as was done last year.
The report as follows:
U10
I had 2 students who took part, both joined my fold this year so they were relatively new in terms of OTB chess and did most of their chess-playing online. A few sessions of OTB sparring at Tanglin CC helped in Gabriel's preparation as he could manage the clock better. Luke had his OTB games at the SCF squad.
Both finished reasonably given that Gabriel played his first NSI and 2nd tournament of his life. Luke had some scary moments due to time trouble (he recorded his games to the last move and panicked). My instructions was to record only the first 15 moves so we can review how the game started. It is my firm belief that mistakes often happened in the first 12-15 moves so slowing down in the opening makes good sense. Both chose not to record on the 2nd day of the tournament and managed to win more games.
Clearly they would need to work harder on knowing the squares, from White's and Black's side of the board. Regular Coordinates training must be done to improve on this. Recording of games should never be seen as a chore as it should be part of a player's core skill in remembering the game and slowing down to think - the benefits of this cannot be stressed enough. Most of my earlier students had no problems recalling their games when they record them and it strengthens their visualisation too.
As to the qualify of their play, this would be updated after their review with me later in the week.
U12
ZiJun is my only U12 student this year. Started with me playing way too fast and lost many games on liChess. But I believe this NSI will teach him the value of slowing down. 4 pts for a first tournament is not a bad result, hopefully it will spur him to remind himself to slow down and look at his opponent's moves more than his. He is capable of better results if he can overcome the impulsive tendencies.
U14
I had a return student in Ethan who is now in RI. Given a tight schedule he has little time to work on his game, hence the suggestion to switch to system openings which takes less time to prepare and learn. He is happy with his 5.5 result, placed 86th (ahead of his starting rank 128th) in a field of 283 players. Gaining 25 rating points for his effort. Good job!
Andrius had 5 points and ranked 102th. He faced tougher opponents, met 3 of the top 30 players and lost. We will need to review the loss against Ethan Lam to determine the cause, as this game won may have propelled him to the top 100.
So I am resuminng lessons this year with Renee and picked up Ethan Lam, so I may then discover what happened in his game with Andrius. I am sure they are capable of better results if they commit themselves to the training regime that I set.
Stay tuned for the updates.
Comments
Post a Comment