THOUGHTS OF A CHESS ADDICT

As usual, its time to present the report for my student's performance for the year 2012. The 2011 report is linked here for those wishing to compare their previous year's performance. I am most heartened when 11 out of my 13 students who took part in 3 or more competitions last year achieved more than 30 pts increase in their ratings (one of my 2011 resolutions). What's even more heartening is that 5 of them had over 100 pts increase in their ratings for the year, excluding the one who had received his rating only in 2012.     Royce Tan (at left)  is my player of the year for 2012. Starting with me in Jan 2012, he has persevered having to relearn a new opening repertoire which took months to ingest and finally the results piled in towards the last quarter, with great performance ratings for the Penang Open where he finished 1st in the U10 category, the National Age Group 2012 where he was 4th and the recently concluded New Generation tournament where he was also 4th in t...

At the recently concluded National Age Group Championships, 8 students took part with 5 of them garnering top 10 positions. Results at a glance...

                          Some of my younger students took part at the recent Toa Payoh West CC tournament on 25 November, honing their skills against the others and did well. There were 8 of them who took part, 3 in the Open category and 5 in the age groups. Only 1 did not manage any prize but he enjoyed his games and was all fired up to the next tournament. Satisfaction comes when we see them pit their wits against older players and pushing them. Royce floored his opponent's Hungarian variation of the KID and duly refuted his opponent's risky Kingside attack, while Shi Hao had NM Koh Kum Hong on the ropes but the older man managed to draw on his experience to find a draw. Hui Ling, I Shiang, Elliot, Tricia, Jonathan and first time playing David all managed merit prizes. A good day ...

I am planning a 3 day 4-hr a day workshop for players who are taking part in the coming National Age Group Championships from 17-21  Dec. Date is 4 to 6 Dec , time 9am to 1 pm or 3 to 7pm .  Venue to be advised. If I get more than 6 participants I will have 2 sessions in 2 different venues, one in Central and the other in the West. The workshop will cover mainly aspects in preparation, clock control ( how to maximise the 4 hour game time) and also thought processes (calculation) used in conducting such games. Each session per day is $50 (inclusive of materials and refreshments). This is open to all (not just my students) so if you are keen about it, please feel free to contact me at 97985479 or email me at jfan2003@gmail.com for further details.

Those interested in taking part in the following events 30th Open Championships ( Open Section - all players, Major Rapid for those born after 1995) which is a 45 minute per side time control game. Blitz Championship ( all players ) Minor Rapid ( For those born after 1999 and WITHOUT FIDE rating) You may download the entry form here  

Since I was in Norway for 6 months in 1989 and working in Horten (which is about 30 minutes drive from Tonsberg, the birth place of Magnus Carlsen), I thought I'd shared with you what it was at the chess scene there. Tonsberg is a very old city but a very vibrant chess-club. I was introduced to the club by the Horten chess convenor, Mr Arild Johansen, a very helpful and nice man (he drove me every week to the club as I did not have a driver's licence or a car). The room was always filled with players, most of them playing standard chess and shunned when I asked to play blitz instead. Those who did were alright, but I won most of the games. Then they realised that they needed to tame the 'foreigner' so the top guns sat down. One was Reidar Weierod, the other was Ivar Charvannes who were both very strong and so I had a hard time. We became good friends during my stay in Norway, often meeting for blitz games during the weekend. One particular old man caught my eye - he was...