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| I'll be so happy if you could sign my guestbook.Thank you very much. |
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| Chess is like war on a board. -- Bobby Fischer |
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| Chess |
| Chess is mental torture. -- Garry Kasparov |
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| The Mysterious Chess Set
In 1972, when I was 8 years old, I found a chess set at home. I asked family members and others who owned the chess set. Nobody knew. One cousin suggested that somebody must have given me the chess set. But who? Could not have been anyone living at home. None of my family members played chessl. And why give me a chess set out of the blue? And why not give it to me personally? To this day, it is still a mystery. Untill then I had only played checkers. Not knowing anyone who played chess, I borrowed a beginner's chess book from the school library. I learned how the pieces moved and played over the games from the book. I began to like chess. |
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| Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events. -- Benjamin Franklin |
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| National Juniour Squad
However, I did not play much chess till I was about 14 or 15 when I joined a school chess club. I won the school's tournament. So I began representing my school. I was also selected to represent my Buona Vista constituency, playing on 2nd board (out of 5 boards) after the captain. And for a while, I was selected to the National Junior (under 21) team. We trained hard. Unfortunately, as my GCE exam approached, I stopped going for the training. Again, I took a break from chess till I went to Hawaii, where I joined the US Chess Federation and began playing in tournaments. Playing Chess at Stanford University When I attended Stanford University, I played only lightning (quick) chess for fun, to take a break from the stress of studies. I played with my Stanford dorm roommate Daniel who was an excellent player. We played mostly at night, especially after our Christian Fellowship meetings on Friday evenings. We once jogged together and played blindfold chess. We told each other the moves (such as Nc6) as we jogged along. He won. I also played a few chess games at Stanford's Tressider cafe, including some with a Russian (a Eastern European) master in his 50s. I lost almost all of my games against him, but it was fun. Today Nowadays, I don't play much chess anymore, though I wish that time would permit. I still love the game of chess and I always will. |
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| That's me waiting for my opponent in Kailua, Hawaii 1992. It was a US Chess Federation game |
| Won a chess award in the inter-school chess competition in Singapore, 1979.
Award presented by the late Dr. Lim Kok Ann, respected chess player and father-figure in Singapore. Dr. Lim would become the Secretary-General of FIDE from 1982 till 1988. He passed away on March 8, 2003. I miss him. |
| My Encounter with Dr. Lim
I met Dr. Lim Kok Ann when I was in high school. We played several quick chess games and he won most of them. He was far stronger than I was, yet he did not seem to mind playing me. Such a great guy! We played with a chess set that had a pawn missing. And so during the course of the game, we would replace the missing pawn with a captured pawn. For some reason, the missing pawn bothered me, but he was such an easy-going person that he did not mind at all. Later, I would occasionally see him at chess tournaments. I felt very honored when he presented me with an award in a chess prize presentation ceremony. (See photo above). |
| While on vacation in Hawaii in June 2002, I met these two nice gentlemen at Waikiki Beach, Honolulu. I played chess with them till 5 am in the morning! What a memorable time. |
| Life is like a game of Chess, changing with each move. -- Chinese proverb |
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