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Category: past events
by CM Junior Tay
Today’s ABC Swiss event had 26 players returning for the 3-round, 10min+5 seconds Swiss event and this time, we had 4 winners with maximum points.
Topping the list was Leong Hung Rey, who had studied in Raffles Institution from 2014 to 2019 and according to FM Ashvin Sivakumar, he had represented the school on Board 3 and 4 in the interschool events. He won all his rounds with relative ease and this week’s student analyst; Benedict Koh will provide more details and commentary on how he won the event in good time.
Last week’s champion Maxim Terekhov once again made the podium. He didn’t have it easy this week though as ACSI schoolboy Ethan Teo stretched him in the final game when Maxim’s all-out attack hit a cog when he mistimed his kingside assault. The advantage kept swinging both ways due to the highly tactical nature of the encounter but finally, Maxim wrapped up the proceedings with a mate in 4 combination.
It’s RI in the fray once again as Khor Eng Yeow, likewise a former Rafflesian, breezed past his opponents for his 3/3. Interestingly, we have a chessdad who had the last perfect score. Ng Hui Kwang, the father of Alyssa Ng (NAG U8 champion last year), also had a picket fence score. However, he had to endure some serious time pressure though as Ethan Teo (again?) took him to the wire in round 2. Ng was virtually surviving on increment in a worse ending when he came up with an inspired idea to establish a kingside passed pawn to generate counterplay. Ethan got caught up in playing a-tempo and underestimated the passed pawn (and Ng’s active king) and subsequently lost.
See https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=Ed162MvLEwJEvRtp/qsrFc9XchO9zJw84j9PJ87jDiaVgg7bNrlbzhwo5QEcYOOb for the exciting finish.
We have received many positive comments about this event, one which allowed the ABCs to compete and spar without the stress of being bulldozed by FIDE-rated players. One parent credited the event for bringing his son’s chess interest back to chess and subsequent chess training. Another parent related how the kids eagerly awaited to compete in the weekly event and I was told about a daughter’s happiness in her own improving play in subsequent ABC events…and so on, so forth. So now, we are discussing whether the event should be continued after June henceforth.
We will leave you now with this wicked stalemate trick by ACS schoolboy Joshua Chee.
The team would like to thank the players for their faithful participation in the event.
Thanks so much!
From:
Tourney director/ coordinator and post-game analyst(by request): WCM Bernadette Kong
FIDE rated student analysts: Lim Kai Jun, Zachary Chia, Benedict Koh and Marcel Neo
by FM Ashvin Sivakumar
The 1st Chess Against Covid Online Bughouse Challenge was a resounding success. Held on the 22nd of May from 8pm-8:45 p.m., it attracted 26 enterprising chess players, willing to try their hand at a scintillating variant of chess: Bughouse.
Bughouse is played with teams of 2 players working together: when one player captures a piece on his board, he can pass it to his teammate to “plant” on his board. A total of 6 rounds were played. Under the chess.com bughouse tournament format, partners were swapped after a loss. By the end of the 6 rounds, FM Lee Qing Aun emerged as the champion with 5/6, followed closely by IM Liu Xiangyi and FM Andrey Terekhov, both tied for 2nd with 4.5/6, and Royce Ho in 3rd with 4/6, beating out 5 other players on tiebreak.
Exciting games were played, with the tables turning quickly: for example, FM Lee Qing Aun sprung a surprise pawn checkmate on IM Liu Xiangyi when the latter forgot about his weakened kingside.
The Organisers would like to apologise for any confusion during the event as we are still relatively unfamiliar with chess.com’s specific bughouse eccentricities. We will considerorganising another bughouse event when we have a better understanding of the bughouse tournament system.
All in all, it was a very successful bughouse tournament. We look forward to your continued participation in our Chess Against Covid events!
by FM Ashvin Sivakumar
Chess Against Covid’s Remembering Professor Lim Kok Ann: 4 Grandmaster Simultaneous Exhibition ended yesterday evening as a resounding success.
4 Singaporean Grandmasters: GM Zhang Zhong, GM Wong Meng Kong, GM Wu Shaobin and GM Goh Wei Ming, tackled a total of 85 players in commemoration of Professor Lim Kok Ann’s 100th birthday.
Part I
The simultaneous exhibition lasted over 3 hours long, with many exhilarating battles across all 4 of the Grandmaster’s simultaneous exhibitions. GM Zhang Zhong ended with a score of 17.5-2.5, winning 15 games and drawing 5. GM Wu Shaobin finished with a score of 16-4, winning 15, losing 3 and drawing 2. GM Wong Meng Kong finished with a score of 5.5-14.5, winning 5, drawing 1 and losing 14. GM Goh Wei Ming finished with a score of 23.5-2.5, winning 21 and drawing 5.
GM Zhang Zhong had a dominating display, only dropping 4 draws in his simul: to Advait Bagri, Teo Hong Ming, Marcus Chen, Joel Ong and Faryal Gohar. Hong Ming essayed the French Defence, a favourite of GM Zhang Zhong, a former World Junior runner-up. Queens were quickly traded by the 20th move, with the players entering an equal endgame. Advait’s game transposed into a Ruy Lopez Tchigorin variation, with the players soon trading into a position where Advait had slight pressure along the c-file, while Zhang Zhong had a space advantage in the centre. The players soon agreed a draw after a threefold repetition, as neither player could make headway into their opponent’s solid position. A well-deserved draw by Advait. GM Zhang soon built a strong position with a kingside pawn storm, but Hong Ming managed to cook up strong counterplay on the Queenside and exploit GM Zhang’s shaky king position. Eventually, the players traded pieces into a dead draw pawn endgame. Marcus Chen’s tactical nous helped him to navigate the difficulties posed to him by GM Zhang Zhong, astutely walking a tight rope to simplify into a position where he had a positional advantage, saddling GM Zhang with doubled pawns. GM Zhang made an audacious attempt, moving his king up to h3 (!) to support a kingside pawn storm. However, it came to naught as Marcus managed to trade pieces and eventually forced a threefold repetition. Joel Ong essayed the Nimzo-Indian against GM Zhang Zhong, managing to clamp down on GM Zhang’s kingside pawn advance to his credit. A manoeuvring phase then began, before GM Zhang made an audacious exchange sacrifice to blow open Joel’s kingside and seize the initiative. GM Zhang soon built an advantage with a piece and 2 pawns for a rook, and soon managed to open Joel’s position, winning a bishop for 2 pawns. However, he later made a slight tactical miscalculation that allowed Joel to win a knight. GM Zhang’s commanding position allowed him to salvage a draw by forcing Joel to repeat moves. Faryal Gohar managed to combat GM Zhang’s threats resolutely, trading pieces into a Queen+Knight+Bishop endgame. He then managed to take advantage of GM Zhang’s slight missteps to penetrate his position, and developed a forcing advantage. He even had a few winning opportunities that he missed: for example, he could have won a bishop on the 36th move by using a sneaky pin. Alas, Faryal missed these tactics in the end, and acquiesced to a draw in a position when he still held an advantage. Final score 17.5-2.5 to GM Zhang.GM Wong Meng Kong, Singapore’s first ever home-grown grandmaster, eventually finished with 5 wins, 1 draw and 14 losses. Unfortunately, the majority of his losses were due to a loss on time, showing how hard it is to manage one’s time as a Simul master.
Jayden Cheng, Ethan Teo, Low Kah Tzay, Karthika, Sanjay Vasu, Dylan Long, Yu Kaiyi, Benedict Koh, Lau Yan Han, Poh Yu Tian, Cai Mingzhe, Harryndran Gunendran, Elliot Koh, Dwayne Alekhine and Huang Song-Jei all beat GM Wong, while Megan Kwok split the points with her esteemed opponent. Only Karthika, Poh Yu Tian and Cai Mingzhe had winning positions when they won their games on time. The rest of GM Wong’s opponents were either completely losing, or had an equal endgame, when GM Wong ran out of time. Cai Mingzhe used the Dutch Defence to outfox his GM opponent, later forcing a piece sacrifice in order to cook up some counterplay. However, GM Wong did not have enough time to further complicate the position, giving Mingzhe the opportunity to consolidate his extra piece and eventually score a well-deserved victory. Karthika played a tactically complex Queen’s Gambit Declined against GM Wong, navigating the middlegame complications well, save for a slight slip on the 13th move that presented GM Wong with the opportunity to win a pawn. To her credit, Karthika found the best defensive moves in the position, and her tenacity finally paid off when she found a cunning fork on the 31st move that forced GM Wong to give up his rook. Her accurate defence meant that no counterplay was available, and GM Wong soon conceded the game. Poh Yu Tian played a tough tussle in the Gruenfeld, skillfully defending against GM Wong’s minority attack before penetrating his position in the endgame. A misstep by GM Wong in time trouble saw him get his rook skewered, whereupon the grandmaster graciously resigned. Megan Kwok was the only player to draw with GM Wong. She strangely eschewed the opportunity to play on in a slightly better position, where she was up a pawn and GM Wong’s king was feeling draughty. She was probably already satisfied with achieving a draw against her well-respected opponent. Final score 5.5-14.5 to GM Wong Meng Kong.
We would like to sincerely thank all those who have supported this event in any way, through your kind words of encouragement, your participation, and your donation
GM Zhang Zhong’s final result: http://chess-results.com/tnr527697.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=1
GM Wu Shaobin’s final result: http://chess-results.com/tnr527698.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=1
GM Wong Meng Kong’s final result: http://chess-results.com/tnr527716.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=1
GM Goh Wei Ming’s final result: http://chess-results.com/tnr527694.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=1
Part II
This part of the report covers GM Wu Shaobin and GM Goh Wei Ming’s games. GM Wu Shaobin is the epitome of a chess gentleman, who takes every game with the utmost seriousness, and is gracious in victory and defeat.
GM Wu’s simul started slightly later due to some technical difficulties at the beginning. After a grueling 3 hour battle, he dropped 3 losses and 2 draws in a commanding display. GM Wu lost to Deng Tianle, Gideon Yen and Bryan Kow, while he drew with Chong Huan Yan and Chen Chia-Chien. GM Wu lost all 3 games on time, a testament to the tough time management requirements of a 20-board simul. Gideon Yen was in a lost pawn endgame, but Deng Tianle and Bryan Kow were both winning. Bryan played a strong game, tricking the grandmaster and winning a full rook, after GM Wu forgot that his rook was hanging with check. The game was lost from then on. Deng Tianle outplayed GM Wu from the black side of a Queen’s Indian setup, making a thematic hedgehog-style break in the centre with d5. Tianle found himself with a powerful light-squared bishop slicing through GM Wu’s weak kingside light squares. Tianle then managed to pick up 2 of GM Wu’s pawns and simplify into a won rook endgame, and was close to winning when GM Wu ran out of time. Strong play from Tianle! Huan Yan was outplayed in a King’s Indian by GM Wu, who showed his skill and experience to build up dominating connected passed-pawns in the centre. However, GM Wu later made an unforced error, leaving his bishop en prise due to time trouble. A draw was later agreed as neither player was able to make progress. A topsy-turvy game and props to Huan Yan for fighting hard! Chen Chia-Chien essayed a solid French Defence, which led to an uneventful draw where GM Wu continued to press throughout the game, but was unable to break through Chen’s solid position. Overall, a final score of 16-4 to GM Wu.
GM Kevin Goh Wei Ming was the final grandmaster to play the simul. Singapore’s 2nd grandmaster, and an extremely strong player, he convincingly mopped up the field, scoring an almost unbelievable 21 victories and 5 draws. Eshwant Singh, Charlene Mak, Do Minh Quan, Tran Dang Minh Quang and Clement Chieng. Do Minh Quan played a topsy-turvy game against the strong grandmaster: a complex middlegame descended into an endgame where Wei Ming had a clear advantage, with a knight and 2 passed pawns for a rook. An uncharacteristic misstep by Wei Ming saw him miscalculate a key variation, upon which Do Minh Quan traded into an endgame with a rook and a pawn vs a bishop and a pawn for Wei Ming. However, Wei Ming was able to hold a fortress and eventually forced a draw. Charlene Mak had a lucky escape after Wei Ming’s early Greek Gift sacrifice of his bishop on h7, where Wei Ming unfortunately missed a winning tactic near the end of the game. Tran Danh Ming Quang traded into a worse endgame, where he was down a pawn. However, his active play soon allowed him to drum up strong counterplay, eventually forcing Wei Ming to accede to a draw. Clement Chieng’s game was a rather peaceful English opening, with pieces vacuumed off the board extremely quickly, leading to an uneventful draw in a bishop endgame. Eshwant Singh put pressure on Wei Ming from the start, and went up a pawn after skillfully defending against Wei Ming’s Trompowsky opening. However, he later went for a threefold repetition against Wei Ming in a position where he still held a sizeable advantage. A draw against a strong grandmaster was probably satisfactory for the young Malaysian player. A powerful performance by Wei Ming, with an overall score of 23.5-2.5.
We at Chess Against Covid are extremely grateful for all the support for this initiative, in commemoration of Professor Lim Kok Ann, the man who built up Singapore chess. We are glad to have raised over $2000 for families badly hit by Covid-19 due to this event, and are also very thankful for the participation of his daughter, Ms Stella Kon, in support of this event.
Do stay safe and take care of yourselves. Chess on!
EVENT PHOTOS
by Junior Tay
The 4th and final Fight Night Tuesday had 45 wood pushers (or should we call them mouse shifters/clickers?) vying for the title of Chess960 king.This time round, the Elo 2000+ gang comprised FM Ashvin Sivakumar, FM Andrey Terekhov, CM Benjamin Foo, Royce Ho, Ng Sheng Feng and Jayden Wong. By now, everyone was ready to expect an anonymous strongie to show up to claim the title, since it has occurred in the past 2 editions too.
This time round, the mystery man was a certain ProfMorosoph, who moved twice as fast as our resident masters and had everyone playing catch-up (just like Myozz and Limcf before him).
Off the starting blocks, it was Zheng Yuan Heng of Raffles Institution and ProfMorosoph heading the pack, while the Elo2000+ crowd struggled to make headway. As I had explained in the groupchat, in Arena format, the initial pairings pits the similarly rated players together (unlike Swiss where the top seed gets the middle of the pack dude) so there is little chance of them seizing the lead barring a massive blunder by one side.
Zheng and ProfMorosoph continued to lead into the first ½ hour and by then, the top juniors such as Sean, Dixon Tang, Ng Sheng Feng and Jayden Chua began to assert their presence. FMs Ashvin and Andrey and CM Ben also stayed in contention.
10 minutes later, a small but perceptible gap began to open up with Sean and Ben taking turns to try ousting ProfMorosoph from pole position while the rest tried to stay close to the top 3.
At the 1 hour mark, Jayden had joined the leading pack. It was also noticeable that some young ‘punks’ such as Charlene Mah, Zachary Chia, Lauren Rice and Lim Kai Jun, figured in the top 10 occasionally, but they naturally found it hard to sustain the momentum with so many strongies contending.
At this point, a crucial top of the table clash between ProfMorosoph and Sean ensued which eventually ended in lone kings for both sides. Jayden was next up against the leader and the game ended inexplicably after a 16th move draw offer by Jayden was accepted. From a strategic perspective, it was a good truce agreement by ProfMorosoph as it broke Jayden’s streak (thus he will have to go back to 2 pts for a win instead of 4 for a streak win). However, will it cost the pair their leading status? All signs seem to point to that as Benjamin was next to challenge ProfMorosoph. With 12 minutes remaining, Jayden with 43 points, edged one pt ahead of ProfMorosoph and Sean.
Amazingly, Sean lost the exchange to Cai Mingzhe on move 2(!) and the latter slowly but surely converted the win. Benjamin had ProfMorosoph tied up and trussed on the back rank but just failed to find the finishing blow and the latter overturned the tables to actually increase his lead. Try as the chasing pack might, they could not close the gap as ProfMorosoph started getting non-top 10 players to contend with. With 3 minutes left, Jayden had a final chance to make or break. He had 46 points to ProfMorosoph’s 52 and they had to face each other. A win followed by a quick berserk last game victory would seal the deal. ProfMorosoph cleverly elected to go into total defensive mode with a central barricade and no targets for the youngster to aim at. All White had to do was to run the clock down and the fat lady can start singing.
In his attempt to complicate, Jayden gave away the f4-square which was swiftly latched onto by ProfMorosoph’s knight and it was all over as the knight and g-pawn tandem could not be stopped without copious material losses. And so, for the 3rd time in the series, a mystery guest claimed the Chess960 title. This time round, it was really exciting as Sean, Benjamin and Jayden’s attempts to dislodge him were so near and yet…so far.
Final tally:
1st: ProfMorosoph
2nd: Jayden Wong
3rd Sean Goh
4th: CM Benjamin Foo
5th: Zheng Yuan Heng
6th: Jonathan Goh
7th: Ng Sheng Feng
8th: Cai Mingzhe
9th: FM Andrey Terekhov
10th: Charlene Mak.
Final results and games: https://lichess.org/tournament/Bs49GQ4GThanks to all the participants for taking part in our Fight Night Tuesday!
by CM Junior Tay
The 3rd Fight Night Tuesday was shorn of quite a few of the regular blitz monsters, though 55 is a good crowd to contest for the title of the Chess 960 king. However, there was still considerable punching power in this horde with elo 2000+ types like CM Benjamin Foo, Sean Christian Goh, Ethan Poh, Ng Sheng Feng and Royce Ho lurking around.
Brendan Kong seized the lead after a quick draw and an even quicker win to top the table. Another youngster Cai Mingzhe overtook him but then, a certain Limcf started berserking his way up the top and after ½ an hour, he overtook everyone with 5 straight wins. He was not only playing extremely fast, but very precisely as he took out strongies using less than 1.5 minutes in total. I was wondering if we were dealing with a chess bot at this point . Also I was getting myriad calls about this person’s identity.
So this dude was having an exhibition of his own, leaving the rest to contest for 2nd place. Jonathan Goh, Sheng Feng, Sean and Mingzhe were having their own Mexican standoff after they reached top board to play and inevitably lose to Limcf. This was when Ben Foo started to get his mojo and went on an 8-game winning spree.
With 30 minutes remaining, Ng Sheng Feng took his A-game to limcf and had him on the ropes. The latter was in serious time trouble with a pawn short but kept finding ways with creative defending/counterattacking to confuse Sheng Feng and when the smoke cleared, all the pawns had disappeared. Limcf’s perfect score was dented with Sheng Feng getting a well-deserved draw.
And that was all anyone could do to slow down the Limcf freight train and he mowed down his next 5 opponents to finish 10 points clear of Jonathan Goh. The latter was quite fortunate to snatch 2nd place from Benjamin when the latter, in a highly advantageous position gave a free rook and got mated at the same time. Ben was also overtaken by Sheng Feng and had to settle for 4th position, with Sean finishing 5th.
After computer correlation checks for possible engine usage was completed, it transpired that the results showed Limcf to be more likely a strong human player with a very high degree of accuracy in his play but yet, not shelling out computer-like/level moves. My apologies to the chap, for indicating that ‘his moves seemed too good to be true’ in the group chat.
And so. it transpired that our champion this week turned out to be a Grandmaster who still wanted to remain anonymous. All I can say is, when he came over to my place a few years back with a bunch of masters for sort of our own version of the Olympics (tennis+badminton+bowling+table soccer+swimming+chess), he crushed two masters at blitz chess with the ping pong like score of 8.5-0.5 and the like. At least we took him out in badminton though…
Final results:
1st: GM limcf
2nd: Jonathan Goh
3rd: Ng Sheng Feng
4th: CM Benjamin Foo
5th: Sean Goh
6th: Cai Mingzhe
7th: Jiang Youhan
8th: NatheArrun
9th: ccohho
10th: Adharsh Venkatakrishnan
Final scores and games can be found at https://lichess.org/tournament/9j7fR0o9
Categories
Master Class by GM Daniel Fernandez
Yesterday, our Young Masters, who organised the successful Young Masters Simul Series, were in for a treat: a GM Masterclass by Grandmaster Daniel Fernandez!🤩
The Young Masters learnt a lot as Daniel shared some of the key endgames that he played in his chess career, such as against GM Gawain Jones, a giant of British chess.!learning from his deep calculation, as well as his strong intuition in the endgame.
Thank you to all Young Masters for your help in the Chess Against Covid campaign!😊
Professor Lim Kok Ann is widely known as the “Father of Singapore Chess” within the chess community. He has helped countless chess players in his lifetime many of whom have gone on to represent Singapore and become the nation’s best chess players. A lesser known fact about Prof is that he is also known as Singapore’s Flu Fighter. He was the first to discover a strain of the Asian Flu that killed millions between 1957-1958.
Prof Lim would have been 100 years old this year and to celebrate this special occasion and to remember his legacies in chess and in microbiology, the #ChessAgainstCovid team is proud to announce SG Grandmasters Simultaenous Exhibition – celebrating Prof Lim Kok Ann’s 100 years.
On 23rd May, from 4pm, our very own Singaporean Grandmasters will each take on 25 brave challengers concurrently. Despite being located in different cities at this juncture, our Grandmasters have decided to join forces in a concerted effort to remember Prof Lim and also in the name of charity.
Registration for this event is free and can be done via https://tinyurl.com/GMSimul and if you like to pick your favourite GM to play against, you can do so at a minimum donation of S$50 only.
Be a part of this historic event and see you soon! ☺️
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By CM Junior Tay
Chess Against Covid held the 2nd Fight Night Tuesday: Chess 960 event earlier today, and it was a thrilling showdown!💪🏼
65 players participated, and the main contenders were FM Jarred Neubronner, Singapore’s first ever Chess960 champion, FM Daniel Chan, our 2010 National Champion, FM Timothy Chan, our 2011 National Champion and FM Andrey Terekhov, all of whom possess IM norms. We also had FM Ashvin Sivakumar and CMs Goh Zi Han and Advait Bagri to make life difficult for the trio.
It was Daniel Chan who sprinted to the top of the table right from the start, collecting two berserk wins before the rest completed even 1 game. And he just kept going with 10 wins in a row within 1/2 an hour before he was forced into an opposite coloured bishop endgame draw against Andrey. By then, only 4 players could barely keep pace with him, the unknown Myozz and Timothy Chan, Terekhov and Sivakumar, all of whom lurked more than 15 points behind.
Jarred was soon to join the leading pack, but Daniel and Myozz kept their winning ways, way into the 1 hour mark. Tan Meng Wei and Advait threatened to muscle in at this point at the halfway mark, and three young juniors also figured in the top 10, CM Goh Zi Han, Cristal Lee and Lim Kai Jun!
10 minutes later, Daniel had extended his lead to 16 points but it was then he suffered his first loss to Bagri. With two more losses in the next 3 games, Jarred and Myozz soon got within striking distance of Daniel but at this point, Myozz hit a purple patch with 5 consecutive wins, inclusive of 2 over Bagri. Daniel however could not shake off Jarred and in fact, the long protracted game between them allowed Myozz to propel pass them, towards the 90 minute mark.
Daniel’s 3 wins over Myozz was overridden by the latter’s ultra fast wins with an incredible 26 games played (5 more than Dan or Jarred). Daniel noted that his strategy of ‘berserking’ every single game (which meant he only had 1.5 min per game) probably worked against him as he started to get flagged often in the last third of the event.
After the event, we were beset by many calls on the identity of mysterious winner Myozz. Our money is on GM Daniel Fernandez (for a variety of reasons) but we have not received confirmation on this from our GM Masterclass lecturer yet 😊.
Final result
🏆: 1st the mysterious Myozz,
🥇2nd: FM Daniel Chan,
3rd: FM Jarred Neubronner,
4th: FM Timothy Chan,
5th: CM Advait Bagri.
6th: PickledKnights
7th: Cai Mingzhe
8th: Tan Meng Wei
9th: FM Ashvin Sivakumar
10th: Tang Yiheng.
Congrats to all players😊
Final scoretable and games: https://lichess.org/tournament/uzINIYGm
Singapore chess used to have a National Interclubs event with about 5 to 6 teams in 3 to 4 divisions. For aspiring juniors who wish to have a go at the top local masters, they had to be part of the Combined Schools teams to contest in the Premier division. There were teams like Caissa Patzers and Queenstown CC which were chockful with IMs, FMs and NMs.
So ever since the event’s departure, we seldom see the tussling of strong local teams in tournament praxis.
However, the 4G Team Battle event demonstrated that our top players spanning the last 30 years can be relied on to return to play, albeit online with a worthy cause – the #ChessAgainstCovid Charity.
30 top local players from 4 different generations took part in the 6 teams, 5 players per side event with the time control of 3+1 second. We also managed to attract sponsorship of Eu Yan Sang, Q & M Dental, QCD Technology and the contributions by Shaun Lim, Mark Ong, Timothy Chan and WHOM Pte Ltd came in handy to attract local luminaries such as GM Zhang Zhong (who has also donated substantially in his own private capacity), WGM Gong Qianyun, IM Hsu Li Yang, IM Jason Goh and FM Daniel Chan. As a result, $5199 will go to Lakeside Family Services to aid the poor affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
The first 14 minutes saw Crazy but Not Rich Asians storm into the lead with 4 of their 5 members scoring early wins. The SEAS team, (the only one without a ‘professional’ hired gun) surprised all by edging close to the Crazy Asians thanks to Ng Sheng Feng’s double wins. What was worrying to the onlookers was the Rusty Half Masters who were on 0 points for 12 whole minutes(!) which really made their moniker a self-fulfilling prophecy. Their Half – Masters name is also an inside joke, as 3 of their players, Jarred, Daniel and Tim have a total of 6 IM norms between them, before they retired to their fledgling careers (inclusive of a double norm – as GM Daniel Fernandez was quick to point out in the CAC whatsapp group chat).
1 minute later, WGM Gong Qianyun showed why she is the SEA games champ by pushing her Skrubs team to even terms with Crazy Asians. But it was a short-lived reign for the two teams as Bruh Force 1’s IM Tin Jingyao and CM William Woong exerted their presence to bring the Generation 3 team into the lead. It was neck to neck with these teams but at the quarter time mark, Bruh Force 2 and Bruh Force 1 brutally forced their way into the top two spots. By now the Rusties had their engines chugging already and rust removed, only 1 point behind the Bruh-lies. Amazingly, they even surged into the lead at the 30 min mark, thanks to FM Jarred Neubronner’s 12 points.
At halftime, it was a 4 horse race with Bruh Force 1, Bruh Force 2, Crazy Asians and Rusties all equal with 37 points. The players were tiring and tilting, mixing wins and losses. The two exceptions were IM Tin Jingyao (Bruh Force 1) and IM Hsu Li Yang (Crazy Asians) who matched each other win for win to lead the MVP standing at 14 points, leaving the rest of the field in smoke…
After 1 hour, the Legendary Dr Hsu and his good buddy FM Mark Ong Chong Ghee kept the lead for Crazy Asians with a 6 points distance from the Bruh Force teams. But the Rusties weren’t gonna just watch the proceedings and surged past these team. It was insane as the lead kept changing hands every few seconds. With 10 minutes left, the Rusties and Crazy Asians were on 73 points, furiously chased by the Bruh Force duo with 71 points. That was when GM Zhang Zhong stepped up a gear. He took out GM Kevin Goh and FM Ong Chong Ghee consecutively, thus terminating the Crazy Asians’ chances of clinching the title. With Jingyao continuing his awesome winning streak, there was no stopping Bruh Force 1 as they built up a 6 point winning margin over the Rusties.
Congratulations to Bruh Force 1 for emerging the Champion Team of the 4 Generations Team Battle, the strongest team event in Singapore! As for the Most Valuable Player of the event bragging rights, the top scoring player was IM Tin Jingyao with 41 points, followed by IM Hsu Li Yang with 34 points. Young Jayden Wong’s impressive 27 points gave him 3rd place, with GM Zhang Zhong and FM Siddharth Jagadeesh taking equal 4th with 23 points.
Top Three Teams
Champion
What more to say? 4 strong young punks and a supergrandmaster in GM Zhang Zhong! The 2640 GM not only played on a mobile phone 🤣 but also donated substantially to our cause! 🥰🙏
1st Runner Up
The Rusty Half Masters were indeed rusty and couldn’t muster up a single point after 12 minutes. But once they warmed up, they became serious contenders, eventually finishing 2nd!
2nd Runner-up
The old birds are old and slow but the Legend’s awesome play brought them to a half decent 3rd placing! 👍🍾🎊
BRIEF POST TOURNAMENT CHAT WITH BRUH FORCE 1
We had FM Ashvin Sivakumar to interview the winning team on their amazing feat in a Skype interview.
Ashvin: It was fun, wasn’t it? How do you feel about this win?
Bruh Force 1: We are really elated and it was unexpected and really fun! Jingyao really carried the team!
Ashvin: How did you find the format of the event? What did you mean when you said it was fun?
Bruh Force 1: The format was really fun because the games can get really crazy. We were also very glad to have a chance to play the older generation, masters we hear about but seldom get to challenge.
Ashvin: GM Zhang Zhong started slowly and started mopping up the opposition, didn’t he? How did you fellas come across the idea of ‘buying’ him for the team?
Bruh Force 1: We gotta thank Eu Yan Sang’s sponsorship for allowing us to get our ‘Messi’. It started as a joke…when we jestingly said, OK, let’s get GM Andrey Kvon…he’s the highest rated player in Singapore…and it dawned on us…why not GM Zhang Zhong?
At this point, we interrupted the interview to ask Bruh Force 1 and Bruh Force 2 with a question.
CAC: Why did the boys split their players into 2 groups? Surely the winning chances are higher with the highest rated players in a team?
Bruh Force 1 and 2: This has always been our style. Form 2 equally strong teams and see which team can win the event, say like the Racial Harmony team event over the past few years.
CAC: Can I have a screenshot of the winning team?
Bruh Force 1: No, we paiseh…
CAC: 🤣
Thanks to all for a memorable event. I would like to especially thank our sponsors and contributors for their support which is most important, as our main aim, apart from connecting the top players of the last 3 decades together, is to raise funds for ChessAgainstCovid’s beneficiaries.
Final result and games : https://lichess.org/tournament/E9ANJDAh
Event Livestreaming: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/615778614 courtesy of GM Kevin Goh
Team Bruh Force 2
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Team Skrubs
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Team SEAS
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To our generous Corporate Sponsors for this event – our Sincere Thanks.
