OFA at Merdeka chess

Eight of us from The Old Frees' Association travelled down to Kuala Lumpur last Friday for this year's Merdeka rapid team chess tournament at the Cititel MidValley. This year, the two-day event has a new sponsor in SMS Deen Jewellers. When I cornered the boss, Sirajudin, on Saturday, I told him, "hey, now you can really call this event as my tournament." He simply gave a chuckle. 

But seriously, everyone is thankful to Siraj for coming to the rescue of this long-running Merdeka rapid chess team tournament after the old sponsors terminated their interest. SMS Deen Jewellers is located at 52 Jalan Masjid India and is open throughout the week, including Sundays. Their sole business is the sale of 916/22K gold jewellery for all occasions such as weddings and engagements, and their range naturally extends to daily casual-wear too. There's even a branch in George Town, located at 106 Penang Street.

Anyway, our two teams took part in the tournament and the first team, which we named as OFA Young Penang Boys, played brilliantly to finish in 19th position. It should be noted that there were quite a number of achievements against a number of titled players. 

Ing Kiat drew with local IM Jimmy Liew and beat WFM Khadijah Qurota’ain from Indonesia. Colin Chong drew with FM Mahmud Syarif from Indonesia. Tay Aik beat FM Robert Gibbons from New Zealand and WFM Millyena Legowo Parahita from Indonesia. Terry Ong beat CM Helen Milligan from New Zealand and drew with both local FM Dilwen Ding and CM Paul Spiller from New Zealand.

The second team, OFA Youngest Penang Boys, fared slightly below par and ended in joint 56th position. Nothing notable to report on the players except to say that Chian Min and Peng Seng were the star performers of this team. I had a very torrid time playing on the first board and wasted a lot of chances. Only in the very last round did I find a little bit of redemption but by then it was already too late. And I know too that Hun Pin also found his opponents tough.

All these ups and downs are just part of the game. Win some and lose some. But one thing for sure....we should be back for next year's edition, come what may.