SS Quah's Anything Goes: PCA's golden jubilee

Thursday 26 January 2023

PCA's golden jubilee

I'm attempting to catch up on a piece of old but meaningful news. Last December, the activities of the Penang Chess Association returned to normal as it resumed holding its 14th Penang heritage city international chess tournament in conjunction with the annual Penang Chess Festival. But what was very significant about last year's Penang Chess Festival was that the association was also celebrating its Golden Jubilee or 50th anniversary simultaneously.

Yes, that is very correct. The Penang Chess Association was 50 years old in 2022. When I attended the inaugural meeting of the Penang Chess Association as a junior member at the Penang Library in March 1972, the furthest thought in my mind was to celebrate the Golden Jubilee 50 years later. But there I was, proudly standing on the stage of the Heah Joo Seang Hall of the St Xavier's Institution on the 18th of December, to give a short shoutout about the association's early years to mark this historical occasion.

1972 MSSPP chess competition at Han Chiang Primary School

There were many thoughts that crossed my mind when I stood there on the stage but knowing that time was limited, I could not say everything that I wanted to share with the chess-playing audience and especially the parents of the junior players who, I'm sure, know absolutely nuts about the Penang Chess Association's long history.

For example, the fact that among all the founding members at that inaugural meeting 50 years ago, only I remained as the Penang Chess Association's sole member-in-benefit. The rest of the founding members had either passed away or let their memberships lapse with time, which was a pity because among them were several friends who are still around in Penang or living elsewhere, though no longer playing chess.

1972 MSSM chess competition at Dewan Sri Pinang

Another significant item that I did not mention was that together with the Penang Chess Association celebrating its Golden anniversary in 2023, two other chess events in the country could also commemorate their 50 years but it went unnoticed. When nobody remembered them at all, it becomes a waste! And what a great waste; it was a missed opportunity to celebrate 50 years of the MSSPP and MSSM chess competitions which both began in 1972 too! To be exact, the first MSSPP chess competition was played at the Han Chiang Primary School in June 1972 and the first MSSM chess competition at the Dewan Sri Pinang in December 1972. Both started off as team events and the respective individual competitions were added in the Malaysian schools itinerary a year later. Being my final year in secondary school, I was lucky to have featured in both of these inaugural events. In the MSSPP, Penang Free School was first among eight participating chess teams while the Penang chess team came second in the MSSM.

It was also left to Hamid Majid, the Penang Chess Festival's coordinating Chief Arbiter, to add another snippet of information after I finished speaking. He said that after the dark days of the later part of the 1980s when the Penang Chess Association fell into a deep slumber of inactivity, it was left to me almost singlehandedly to revive it. From 1990 onwards, there was no more looking back for the association.

This opening ceremony also included speeches by former PCA President Dr Choong Sim Poey, present PCA President See Swee Sie, MCF President Akhramsyah Muammar Ubaidah Sanusi and Penang State Executive Councillor Soon Lip Chee, and a fascinating video presentation that took viewers through the 50 years of the Penang Chess Association. Naturally, this took up quite some time and consequently, the first round of the Penang open was pushed back by about at least an hour. Fortunately, that was the only delay suffered by the Penang Chess Festival as subsequent rounds in the following six days all started on time without any hitch. The Challengers section was played in the main school hall while the Open section took place in the smaller Karpal Singh Hall.

Finally for the sake of documentation, I'm repeating in this blog my private words to the PCA President regarding the running of the Penang Chess Festival:

Dear Swee Sie, congratulations to you and your team on organising a most memorable Penang Chess Festival this year. Knowing the financial challenges that you faced, it became even more impressive to see how your team had pressed ahead with this event. The Penang Chess Festival turned out to be quite emotional for me in the sense that never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that in this Golden anniversary year, I would be the last Founding Member left standing. I wanted to speak more on the stage but I had promised myself to keep within five minutes. May the progress of Penang Chess Association continue for the next 50 years! You did an excellent job getting almost everyone that mattered to come together on this landmark occasion. It was a moment of significance. Congratulations again!!