Friday, November 03, 2006 | 7:31 pm

reflections from a 5 min walk from the mrt

quite cool, hmmm, was actuali reflecting on my choices of hobbies in lyfe, n y im now in fencing. den was tinkin wad was it dat actuali pushed mi in chess. ah well, since i haf time, n no one's online to pester mi, i shall blog on my whole history of chess.

i was taught chess when i was quite young, abt 4. dat time my parents were exposing mi to alotta stuff n encouraging mi in wadever i wanted to do. which was basically everything. i still rmb i wanted to be a surgeon. rite, now i cant even stand the sight of blood. (bleahx, train of tot got interrupted, stupid kenneth lui) neways ok so was tot chess by my mom, but ironically, its my dad hu plays chess. can onli recall once when i was on my parents' bed playin chess against my dad wif my mom's help n i somehow checkmated my dad. dunno how. so yeah, din reali play much, not seriously in e least, till l8r on when my dad n mom were in one of e bible study grps of our church (e same as cell grp la). so dere was dis older teen, son of one of e pple la, n i sometimes would play chess wif him. but keep gettin trashed, din reali get any better. den l8r on in church got to noe 2 church frens, twins hu r now studying in kiwi-land, n yeah, sean tan, e guy hu somehow used onli his queen to essentially wack all my pieces. wad a sadist. urgh, he was e pro-est guy i knew la, n yeah, was playin lyk s***, but used to play every sunday after church without fail wif him and e twins. quite fun, actuali improved quite abit. n oh yeah, took sean's advice, went down to scf n joined as a member. after dat hung out dere for awhile, started gettin real bored. went home in e end, no one to play wif. chess fed was damn boring. urgh.

it was onli in pri 4 when e scf organized some inter-skool chess competition at expo n dey sent a letter to all e skools requesting every skool to send in 2 pple per team to join. for my skool dey asked e em1 kids, n i was one of e lucky few to be selected. a teacher hu was actuali an ex-teacher in charge of chess clubs for several skools, most notably fairfield in their heyday, n hu fortunately was in my pri skool, was in charge of dis, made us play wif each other, n eventually chose 2 pple, one of whom was mi. (= so ok lor, trained hard, read more chess bks (yes, u can actuali train for chess) n even e old ones of which i had to figure out the weird notation used to notate e chess moves (he had alot of old bks). n yeah, for all e chessers out dere, no my first black opening was not e alekine's defence, but actuali e scillian dragon! (yepp i tink dere would be a few astoninshed faces). actuali din haf a proper opening bk, juz learnt e standard stuff frm e chess greats lyk world champ n child prodigy bobby fischer. ok went to expo, got trashed, but most of e pts were dropped by my teammate n not mi (= den after dat started a chess club!

yay~ so ok lor. den trained harder, got more pple in e club, but still sadly onli a few serious members. met regularly to train n play against each other, i was in charge la so had a first hand exp on how hard it was to get everybody to turn up regularly for meetings. urgh. ok neways nat skools indivs were comin up, n yeah yay~ first nat skools indivs was fun, made mani new frens, one of whom was leroy koh, yeah, an old fren of mine whom e old-timers shuld noe. dat bloody joker, drew him in wad looking baq now would be a veh amusing game. ah well, it looked gd then. i guess at dat time winning cos of material advantage and cheap 1/2/3 movers (yes, cheapos, u juz gotta love it) was fun n cool. so it was essentially a competition to see hu was e cheapo king. oh yeah, but e last round, cos i alrdy had 5 pts den to get into national junior squad u needed 5.5 pts, n in e last round i happened to play my fren n classmate frm skool. so at first it was pride, we both wanted to wack each other. den he suddenly got desperate as e game drew longer, n eventually i cheapo-ed my way to a win. not b4 he asked mi to give him a draw so dat we both got into nat jr squad. urgh, i shuld haf. but i went for e win cos i tot dat mebbe if dere were too mani 5.5 pters dat i wun get in n dey'll onli choose 6. but yeah i shuld haf known. neways e 5.5 pple did get in, i got in too, was reali reali excited, except dat trg was ex. but heck it was still a small pool of players in e nat jr sqd. but i did lose my fren, he got veh angry wif mi n started spiting mi in skool. urgh, did i make e rite decision? i dunno, was young den, would haf given a draw now. lyk anytime (yes gab, must draw e next and last time we meet on e board next yr kae?)

ok first njs trg, was divided into grps. i still rmb my veh first grp i was put into, din noe anyone, but yeah, it was a hell of a grp. it had ong wei chian, my gd fren, n gang, aka jason chan, louis lim, leung weiwen, and others lyk gerald chan, gabriel cheang and timothy wee. n others till whom i 4got ): den we had some GM yuldeshev or sth teaching us. n yeah, dis wei chian n gabriel started cursing in some language i din noe throughout e whole trg (gab aso to dis dae doesnt noe wad kortep elac or sth liddat means), but it was funnie, we cracked jokes etc. din learn much, but was fun. got to noe mani pple n hear e names of e feared -- jason goh and evan yeo, at dat time e best in my age grp. so ok lor.

den yeah, e rest was juz gettin better, junior squad trg, but i always feel i hit mani walls. one was my rtg, e 1700 rating wall, n some players lyk sean tan, louis lim and gabriel cheang (yes gab u did pose a challenge to mi). i dunno how i carried on, i guess it was e combination of e passion of playing as well as e companionship n friendships during every tourney, cos dats when u get to meet all ur frens (= i guess e first turning pt was when one fine sunday i beat sean tan in church. dat brought my confidence up one notch, though was not veh sig on my playin, i was still noob. e second was probably louis lim whom i could nv beat, at most draw, he was a 17+ rtg player and i a 16+ ): yeah at dat time rtg was veh impt. rite now, hu cares man? lol, neways i finally managed to beat him one junior squad game in wad was a my first crazy game. i sacrificed a piece, actuali, slammed my first piece real confidently but definitely not fully calculated. it was my first intuitive sacrifice (playing my intuition means playing by feeling, u're not too sure of e win, but it juz 'feels' right or it 'feels' winning for u or 'feels' lyk it'll offer u mani gd opportunities) so yeah n it was fun, i won (= so frm dere on dat was my veh big turning pt n yeah, y'all can guess, it was frm den dat my reckless streak begun to show. so frm a noobish player hu onli knew positional chess cos u can mug it, i changed to one hu knew positional and tactical chess.

n yeah, e rest u guys in chess shuld noe, frm my first national team tourney when i was first captain of my own team (i played on second board though, we sacrificed our first board hu, as expected, lost all his games), e team whom gab shuld recall, i quote "lianhua pri skool pple all play the alekine's defence as black!!!". yeah, he actuali went arnd announcing it after we played a friendly n he tot it was an interesting opening. in fact it is. n hey evan i started playing it EARLIER DEN U :p i started in p5. but yeah, was playin it lyk s***, onli knew e old theories frm e old bks frm my chess teacher, was nv reali fortunate to get my hands on e gd chess bks or a chess trainer, so everything was frm hard work n sweat n self research n practise. urgh. i wished i had more of it then.

n yeah dere were off course e more fun times such as the ASEAN age grps in various places which at first i tot was prestigious (it was, at least e first one i ever attended, the 2nd ASEAN age grps in KL was cos dere were still v few players). it was damn fun, juz dat e viets always won. urgh. but yeah made mani friends, friendships strengthened, oh yeah, i still rmb at e 2nd ASEAN solomon sia's opponent hu was e top guy in our age grp frm msia gave solomon a free queen n so solomon was a queen up n e next thing solomon did was offer him a draw! e brilliant kid, e trainers were laughing. yeah ASEANs r fun. esp social night.

l8r on off course, ac n e strong chess club n everything else, all e fun stuff, lyk e combined trg wif rgs and nygh dat weiwen organized which was reali fun n other stuff too, chess gossip too etc, it was a hell of a time. i rmb in lower sec was quite close to shuting, valerie, mark wong, weiwen and nicole wee. n yeah, all of e stuff dat came wif it. actuali gave nicole advice on relationships. lol, im not even qualified! neways, yeah la, l8r on got to noe everyone. quite fun la, everyone's lyk one BEEG family. got to noe a hell lot of pple frm chess. n l8r on, off course, e chess united chalets which is still on, and dis yr's will probably be e last one, e farewell one for e j2s, so everyone plz turn up kae? i managed to get valerie phua, a reali old timer to go, so plz drag all e old guys even if dey're not active anymore. yeah, actuali dere is a sad ending to e whole story of e chess thing. cos l8r on in junior squad dey started focusing more on e young kids n started neglecting e old kids. so yeah, one by one we all dropped outta nat jr sqd, except those fortunate few hu made it to e nat mens/womens sqd. oh well.

baq to e happie memories. i guess my best yr of chess was prob sec 3, played damn well, actuali b4 dat was havin periodic streaks of genius or recklessness, whichever u wanna view it as, but 4 mi, its genius. esp e age grps when i was sec 2 where in e 2nd round i played nathanael hu was by rtg supposed to be a much better player den mi, but in e game i sac-ed a knight for 2 pawns den an exchange n had dis 2 veh threatening double connected passed pawns on e 6th rank. quite an interesting game, everyone was crowded arnd watching, was gettin quite stuffy. but yeah, fatigue got to mi (it was a bloody 4 hr game la) n yeah, at e veh last moment i played a wrong move n dieded ): but oh well, i was happie, it was a freakin nice game. but yeah, prob e best streak of genius was sec 3 age grps which is e onli tourney, fyi, dat i won. ironically. i din even manage to win any small tourneys on e public hols! (e closest i got to was christmas rtg where mi n joash were leadin in e 4th round i met him n was winning but screwed up at e curcial moment n lost it, n in e end screwed up e whole tourney, urgh. was e same wif age grps, lost dat game against nathanael, den screwed e whole tourney, losing even to roy lau for those of u hu haf even heard of dat player) neways e sec 3 age grps is one huge story in itself, as i came frm behind to win, but oh well, i nv lost a single game (= 5 draws n 4 wins. actuali e last round against joash shuld haf been a win instead of a draw but i got impatient n made a careless move. oh well (=. oh yeah, n b4 dat tourney, in e national skools individuals which is much grander cos pple lyk jason n evan took part coincidentally i got e same result overall, 5 draws n 4 wins, i tink 3 draws came frm playing my seniors, i rmb one was jason chan whom i could haf won, weng chee hus much better den mi hu i managed to draw by exchanging everything n reaching a drawn position, n i tink e last guy is either louis lim or weiwen. oh n e last round was e funniest! cos e first 10 boards everyone had 6 pts n we needed juz 6.5 to get a prize, so yeah, we all arranged draws. almost everyone, except benjamin lee's stupid opponent hu din wanna draw, n yeah in e end benjamin won n got 3rd. urgh dat guy. owed mi my national age grps challenge trophy for a mth. but yeah it was hilarious to see everyone in e first 10 boards finishing their games after 10 mins! (= esp mine where mi n vincent tandiono frm sji, my old pal, lol, hu trashed mi e previous individuals (i was actuali scared of playin him) alrdy signed our scoresheets n proceeded to play suicide chess wif our game. i suicided my queen, he din take it but instead did e same. so yeah, we chopped each other's pieces till we ended up in a drawn rook ending. wad a great game (=

oh well, besides dat golden yr, had a fun yr last yr. urgh, since dere r so mani gd players in our skool arnd my age, im not in e first team often most often in e 2nd team of so called '2nd choice players', but we did well, onli failed to make e top 3 teams in our category once cos we met our first team n off course lost to dem ): in fact, we've always been meeting our first team. see, we're juz too strong la. lol. neways last yr i decided to be suicidal n push our team to A division. i mean, c'mon, sji has alrdy done it, dey're too scared to meet our first team n since dey haf no chance to win, dey go A div n trash everyone n win it. which is wad dey did. so my team tried to do e same last yr. except dat off course acjc had a much stronger team (c'mon weng chee, pok wern jian, myron, chang jie, and most importantly, yarrite, most hilariously, cyril chua!). so yeah, acjc were top seeds, followed by sji, st francis, rjc, den mine, and njc hu fielded a strong team too (im sowie might haf got e order mixed up, but yeah, dese r e strong teams). n i was lyk s***, i miscalculated, cos i at first dunno how la, but somehow i tot dat my team would be 3rd highest seed n more or less ensured of e top place (= so ok lor, first round we trashed some jc 4-0. den 2nd round, lol, how fun, we met top seeds acjc. n u noe wad, WE ALMOST WON!!! urgh, i was holding weng chee, had a slight advantage, kia hua actuali won pok wern jian! lyk, OMG???!!! den bryan hooi was up a piece against alan khor! wtf. n philip was drawin chang. so i tot ok sure 3-1 liaoz. so when kh won i offered a draw which weng chee took. budden l8r on bryan lost n philip drew, so we settled for a 2-2 draw. den throughout e rest of e tourney, we were tied leaders wif acjc and sji, till we finally met sji. damnit, we were winning! dat team of stupid buggers were so confident, esp gerald chan. lol, onli our damn reserve kenneth lui actuali got e nerve to shout 'sji are noobs! trash dem! n he told mi, 'evan yeo is a noob! u can trash him one! easily!' rite. lol, but actuali as it turns out, i quite enjoyed e look on gerald chan's face when dey're team started losing to us. he was in a veh bad shape against kia hua hu was dominating. e other 2 boards were holding. n i was actuali winning evan yeo (ok la, he deproved liaoz as compared to jason), but still evan yeo! damn. time trouble, pressure, e rest of e games had finished n everyone, practically everyone was crowding arnd our board. it was hot n stuffy. i hate dat feeling. urgh. neways i had to blunder on e last move. sighz. dats how we lost our championship. cos if we had won, cos acjc alrdy drew sji, den we would be clear cut leaders goin into e last round. in e end we had to settle for 3rd, above rjc. but oh well, it was fun, 2 upsets and 1 close one, i drew weng chee, and i won mark wong, yes, THE MARK WONG, lol! kept my nerve in dat game even though i was losing at first, but din manage to in e evan yeo game. urgh! but yeah, it was fun all e same, dat tourney i felt e same feeling i was feeling throughout e sec 3 age grps dat i won. it was a kinda dreamy, surreal feeling, i duno how to sae, but its nice (=

sighz, im gonna miss e old times, e memories, but most importantly, the friends old and new i haf met and made along dis long long journey. love u guys! *hugs* wonder wad happened to ong wei chian though, havent reali seen him. hey, if u guys r readin dis, n if anyone still is in contact wif him, invite him for chalet lehz. drag louis lim too, cos jason chan's coming.

lets end our era, the era of juniors hu haf now grown up n gone on to greater things, wif a bang!

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