Bragging rights

With the PCA President on the left, our WP2W team comprised
Poh Yu Tian, myself, Leonardo Alidani and Joshua Ng Shao Wen

Here's more catching up to do. I've to say something about the Penang Chess League last December, held after a hiatus of two years owing to the Covid-19 lockdown. Due to some scheduling difficulties, this annual team competition was held on 24-25 December which meant that many people could not take part. They were either on vacation or celebrating Christmas. 

My chess friends from The Old Frees' Association couldn't come together to form even a team of four players and as such, we were forced to sit out this competition. I was resigned to become just a spectator last year but quite suddenly on the eve of the event, the President of the Penang Chess Association called me to ask whether I was interested to play as a last-minute adhoc team had formed and they were short of a player. Yes, definitely, I would be interested to play, I told her, but be warned of my erratic form. Would my unknown team-mates mind? Never mind, she replied, just come and play. So, after the closing ceremony of the Penang open chess tournament, I went seeking for my team and lo-and-behold, found it to be such a mish-mash of diverse chess characters. 

One, Leonardo Alidani, was a Filipino who had finished playing in the Challengers section of the Penang open. He was top-seeded but couldn't win the event although a week later, he won the Challengers tournament at the Johor open. Two, Joshua Ng, who was from Penang Free School but now doing his Form Six at the Sekolah Menengah Zainal Abidin. Anyway, he had represented Free School at the MSSPP chess tournament in 2021 and in his SPM examination, was the best performing student from Free School, a straight A+ student. And third, a big surprise, 13-year-old Poh Yu Tian. A lot has already been written and said about Yu Tian on this blog and it is needless for me to add more in this particular story except for one new comment. I'm particularly pleased and proud that my bragging rights now include saying that I once led a chess team which included Penang's strongest player of the day, Fide Master Poh Yu Tian. 

Anyway, the first day turned out quite excellently for me, winning my first two games. But then on the second day, my erratic form surfaced and I salvaged only a further half-a-point from six games. However, my team-mates carried the day, Yu Tian winning all his eight games, Joshua scoring 6½ points and Leonardo 3½. Overall, we (the team) finished in sixth position.