Centenary chess

We are all ready for the OFA Centenary chess tournament tomorrow at the Pinhorn Hall, Penang Free School. This morning, my sub-committee members met up with the school's Chess Club members to arrange the tables in the school hall, and they were also coached on setting the digital chess clocks by Jonathan who is the Chief Arbiter. 

There are 93 players registered for the event which includes 10 ladies, seven from PFS, six from OFA and five veterans. Sixty-six of these players are aged 18 or younger. As expected, Malaysians comprise the vast majority of the participants, numbering 86, while the remaining are nationals of China, India, England, the United States, South Korea and Russia.

This field of 93 players include an International Master (Pavel Shkapenko), two Fide Masters (Ronnie Lim and Poh Yu Tian), one Woman Candidate Master (Chua Jia-Tien), one Arena Grandmaster (Eshwant Singh) and one Arena International Master (Manresh Singh). All these are titles awarded by the World Chess Federation, FIDE. Ronnie is also a former national champion, just like Evan Capel and Tan Khai Boon who are also competing tomorrow.