Meeting old chess friends

One week after I had returned from playing in the Merdeka rapidchess team open tournament with my The Old Frees' Association teammates at the Cititel Midvalley, I found myself in Kuala Lumpur again. Same place too, the Cititel Midvalley.

Reason was to attend the closing ceremony of the Malaysia Chess Festival but mainly, also to meet with the grand patriarch of Malaysian chess, Tan Chin Nam, whom I had not talked with for at least two years. He would now be 92 years old, getting to be 93 in March next year.

While I had visited his home last year in an effort to meet him, he was not feeling well enough to see me. But I knew that he would be at the closing ceremony. He wouldn't miss it if he was able. And I couldn't afford to miss this opportunity. It was a chance I had to take.

So I flew to Kuala Lumpur on the morn of the 26th of August. And yes, he did turn up. The moment he entered the hall, the whole place was abuzz with excitement. Everybody wanted to fuss over him. Such an important man in Malaysian chess.

Other than Dato Tan, I met up with several other chess friends that I have known throughout the years. But if only I had taken the opportunity to take more pictures with them. Oh well, there is still next year, though.

 Carl Hessler from the United States. He used to call Penang the biggest Chinatown in the world outside of China.

Possibly my oldest foreign chess friend, Ignatius Leong from Singapore, whom I've known since the 1970s.

 

And of course, this is Hamid Majid, another old chess friend. Known him since the 1980s when he first started to be interested in chess organisation. Now, this is so much ingrained in him.

 See Swee Sie, the current President of the Penang Chess Association.  

The next morning, I bumped into another old friend at breakfast in the hotel. Khoo Boo Teik, one year my junior in school. Only a casual chess player, unfortunately. He now works in Tokyo, Japan.