Senior moments on board

I’ve been rather quiet the last few days and will likely remain so until the 11th or 12th of this month. Reason is because I’m competing in the Senior 65+ age-group category of the 23rd ASEAN+ Age-Group Chess Championships at the Berjaya Penang Hotel. This is one of the very few age-group events that give recognition to those senior members of the chess board. People tend to think of age-group competitions as limited to those age groups below 20 years old, but I had always contended that age-group events can be for adult chess players too. 

ASEAN Chess Confederation's 25th anniversary celebrations
at the 23rd Age-Group chess championships. There wasn't any
competition in 2001 and 2002, that is, the Covid-19 years

Actually, I didn’t plan to be playing in this ASEAN+ tournament at all. My role was to take charge of the media releases, but several weeks ago, I was being urged by the Penang Chess Association committee members to play since the response for that age-group category was rather poor. I did a lot of soul-searching. Should I play or not? Five years ago, I would unhesitatingly have said yes to it. But five years is a pretty long time, and I’ve found that my chess abilities have taken a hit as I grew older. 

Nevertheless, the urge to play remained strong despite my reluctance. However, the enticing bit was that for the PCA committee members, the tournament was free. No need to fork out the money in order to play. And it’s not exactly cheap. Plus, I get to stay at the tournament hotel for the event’s full duration. That sealed the deal, actually. Not having to travel back and forth from Bukit Mertajam meant less stress on my constitution. And that’s how I ended up as a participant in the Seniors 65+ section, making up a field of 12 players. Meantime, the Seniors 50+ section had attracted 20 players. A very decent number!

However, before the championships started, the organisers decided to combine both Seniors age-groups and came up with a new list of 30 participants. So here at this event, I was wearing two hats. The first was as an official in charge of the media, and the second as a participant. That being so, it forced me to surrender my mobile phone outside the tournament hall as regulations do not permit players to carry mobile phones or even wear wristwatches while playing. The regulations are quite strict to prevent participants from cheating. Even exiting the tournament hall to go to the washrooms or leaving the hall after the games are over would require the players to be body-scanned electronically.

So how have I been faring in the first three days of playing? Well, the first round went disastrously wrong as I lost. The second and third games were drawn. In the fourth round, I lost a second time needlessly by walking into a one-move checkmate. I was having the upper hand in the game, actually—until I tried too hard to capture a pawn, and that was my undoing. Fifth game, drawn again. So from five games, I’ve collected only 1½ points. Quite miserable, this contribution of rating points to other people. And there are four more rounds to go. How will I fare against my future opponents? Stay tuned to my further misadventures.