Visitors from Xiamen China

It took us about a day to prepare for the visit of four representatives from the Xiamen Haicang Songyu Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and other related associations to the Penang Swee Cheok Tong Quah Kongsi (檳城瑞鵲堂柯公司) but there we were, the four of us waiting to greet the four of them on their arrival at our humble Kongsi this afternoon.

Led by their president, Mr Lin GuoBao, the four delegates were taken on a quick tour of our Kongsi's premises and given a brief rundown on our 171-year-old history. But of course, we had already hosted them for lunch and exchanged quite a lot of information and pleasantries earlier.

Nevertheless, it was only appropriate that at our Kongsi's premises, we partook the official exchange of souvenirs and the mandatory photographs. The four delegates from China were Mr Lin GuoBao (林国宝), Mr Xie Fu Kun (谢福坤), Mr Yan Di (颜笛) and Mr Jiang ZhiMin (江志民).

Myself receiving a scroll from Mr Lin GuoBao. Others in the picture are Quah Cho Pin, Keo Soo Liang, Mr Yan Di, Mr Xie Fu kun, Quah Chin Sun and Mr Jiang ZhiMin.

And my turn to present a souvenir from the Swee Cheok Tong to Mr Lin GuoBao

John Kongos

I almost bought another copy of this album recently until I remembered that I already had it in my possession. One of the songs on this album is a piece of pulsating music, mesmerising, full of incessant drumming - African drums, I am told - and someone playing an aggressive riff repeatedly on the guitar. Well, this is John Kongos' original version of He's Gonna Step On You Again which was covered later by Australia's The Party Boys and some others.

Side One: Tokoloshe man, Jubilee cloud, Gold, Lift me from the ground, Come on down Jesus
Side Two: I would have had a good time, Try to touch just one, Tomorrow I'll go, He's gonna step on you again

Penang's great floods, part 2

It just came to my mind that I should perhaps separate my original post on Penang's great floods into two stories; the first one several days ago to describe my own experience with the flood that I missed and the second one here to show some rather disturbing pictures that emerged from the floods and the aftermath.

I was at a friend's hair salon yesterday and he related that the flood waters had risen about six inches into his shop at the Anson Road end of Seang Tek Road during that fateful weekend. But the floods had also affected his own single-storey home in Caunter Hall as he was chest deep in water. Together with his cousin who was staying with him, they had to make sure that his mother was safely perched on a table throughout the night. His car was submerged and he is now debating whether to get it repaired - an estimated cost is something in the region of RM20,000-plus with no guarantee that nothing else could go wrong with the engine in the next year or so - or scrap it off and buy another one.

If his end of Seang Tek Road could be so badly affected, I'm sure the other end of the road, where I stayed during my childhood, would have been severely flooded too. The Dato Kramat Road end of Seang Tek Road is basically a basin and I do recollect that the road outside the house my grandparents rented could flood after huge storms. There were at least four or five occasions when the flood waters then had even swept into the house. It seemed that the monsoon drain at Dato Kramat Road, huge and deep though it was, could simply not cope with the gush of water. My friend told me that even Dato Kramat Road itself was flooded.

This is Malacca Street.

Even the roofs had been blown off in the storm.

The beached ferry at the Butterworth terminal.

This huge sinkhole formed near the Surin Condominium in Tanjong Bungah affecting a nearly completed housing project.

Unbelievably stupid

This is one of my old postings that never got to see light way back in November 2015 for some obscure reasons that I can no longer remember. It was about my old school pal, Kee Thuan Chye, launching his Unbelievably Stupid books at The Star Pitt Street building in Penang, and Lim Guan Eng was there to do the honours. Remarkably, a host of my other school buddies were also around in Penang at the same time.

Thuan Chye has not written any new book since then, instead reserving his energy to produce an excellent play, Swordfish & Concubine, which had a short run earlier this month at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre and which my wife and I had the benefit of watching.

Rhythm heritage

I've just been watching the first episode of the 2017 reincarnation of that hit television series of the 1970s, namely, S.W.A.T. and I must say that it is terribly interesting. Action-packed and interesting. But I had to wait until the end of the episode for the theme music which appeared before the closing credits. Well worth the long wait, though, because it is such a kick-ass piece of music. It made me decide to dust the old cobwebs from my copy of Rhythm Heritage's Disco-fied album.

Side One: Disco-fied, Caravan, Baretta's theme (Keep your eye on the sparrow), Theme from S.W.A.T.
Side Two: Blockbuster, My cherie amour, (It's time to) Boogie down, Three days of the condor, Disco-fied (reprise)

Penang's great floods

When the rain came in the afternoon of 4 Nov, courtesy of Typhoon Damrey that had hit Vietnam, I was in Kuala Lumpur attending a seminar. As such, I had no idea at all of the ferocity of the storm nor the havoc it would create in Penang, both on the island and the mainland. It was only much later that night that my wife received a video on her mobile showing a flooded Nandaka Vihara at Bukit Mertajam.

The Nandaka Vihara flooded? Impossible to comprehend that at first because the meditation centre is located at the foothills of the Bukit Mertajam hill at Cherok Tokun. But when we then realised from the video that it was no joke, we grew concerned about the storm. Slowly through facebook and Whatsapp came information and pictures that showed floods everywhere.

The next morning came information that the streets of George Town were well under water. Not just water but murky muddy water as if the city had been drenched with teh tarek. And the rain was still falling.

We became concerned about our relatives in Penang, especially our son who stayed in an apartment off Dato Kramat. Only about a month earlier, the roads around the apartment had been flooded too and he had managed to drive his car into the apartment's compound, sharing a parking space with his landlady. We telephoned him and was told that he was okay. His car too, was dry. Well, that was a relief.

One of my sister-in-laws phoned to ask about us and our house in Bukit Mertajam. We told her that we didn't know. We hadn't been thinking about our house at all because we were staying in a rather elevated piece of land that wasn't flood-prone.

But I recalled that once this year when a particularly heavy rainfall touched home, water almost entered the houses on the opposite side of the back lane. Or maybe it did. At least an inch of water. But our house was about three feet above the back lane and we weren't affect. But just to be certain, my wife called a neighbour and was given the assurance that there weren't any floods in our neighbourhood.

Our thoughts then turned to our relatives. We had an aunt staying in Taman Sri Rambai in Bukit Mertajam. This has traditionally been a flood-prone area although in the past 20 years or so, there had been no floods there, thanks to an earlier flood mitigation programme initiated by the state government.

But in this particular case, because of the huge deluge, water had risen about three to four feet into most of the houses. All her furniture, electrical appliances and cars were damaged. Nothing except clothes and crockery sets could be salvaged once the flood water subsided.

We arrived back from Kuala Lumpur by train very late on 5 Nov night. A taxi driver whom we had contacted earlier at first couldn't commit to pick us up from the station because he said his place at Perda was flooded and he couldn't drive out. But later, we found him waiting for us at the station. The waters had subsided around his house, he grinned.

The next day, I drove to the Land Office in Bukit Mertajam, which had been converted into a flood relief centre, to join an old schoolmate friend in attempting to deliver foodstuff to some displaced Malay kampongs. It was very gratifying to see that the centre was filled with volunteers who were helping out with the distribution of food and other essential items. Even a monk was helping out.

One place that we went to was the Kampong Baru Alma. The surprising thing about this kampong, like many of the other urban Malay kampongs in Penang, was that it is located at the fringe of a modern middle-class community. There we were driving along perfectly tarred roads with neatly built double-storeyed houses lining both sides of the roads and suddenly, we turned a corner and entered another world of narrow, winding and uneven roads that led eventually to a haphazard collection of typical Malay kampong houses.

The social divide was so clear: the urban rich and the urban poor living together uneasily side-by-side. How many generation will it take to bridge this divide? Anyway, my friend distributed foodstuff to the affected families, 10 in all, and he came back again the next day with new mattresses for them. All their earthly belongings had been damaged by flood waters that had risen way above their heights.

Boys night out

Amidst all the cleaning up on the island and mainland on account of the unprecedented floods, my old schoolmates decided to continue with our reunion at the OFA Restaurant (aka New Wing Look Restaurant), which we had arranged quite a while back. 

Back row: Sukumaran, Ewe Soon, Hock Thiam, Oon Hup, Michael, Siang Jin, Seng Chye, Kah Thiang, Leng Kooi, Yoong Koy, Andrew and Swee Poh
Middle row: Teik Wah
Front row: Seng Sun, Huan Chiang, Boon Hoe, Wee Lork, Chye Chye, Ewe Leong and Siang Juan

Hutchings memorial service 2017

Although the school's Speech Day was well and truly over - it was held on 3 Oct 2017 - Penang Free School stuck to tradition by holding its annual Hutchings memorial service on the 21st of October.

This morning, about 50 people had congregated at the gates of the Protestant cemetery in Northam Road to await Revd Ho leading a relaxed but solemn procession of the Penang Free School teachers, Prefects and pupils, Hutchings Secondary School teachers and Prefects, a handful of Old Frees - led by the Old Frees' Association president Billy Yeoh and PFS Board of Governors chairman Rafique Abdul Karim - and several other well-wishers, including the Press and a film crew, to the grave of Robert Sparke Hutchings in the cemetery grounds.

The service was completed in about 30 minutes, during which time, there were readings from the Bible and the school songs of both the Free School and Hutchings School were sang, before the solemnity was broken after the wreaths were laid at the grave.

Local historian Marcus Langdon was present to see the service for himself. I think he was much impressed by the dedication of the Old Frees.

Chinese surnames: where do you rank?

Whether we like it or not, we are all in the minority. Below is the latest ranking of Chinese surnames in China, given to me by someone. And if we tally up all the percentages for the top 10 surnames, it only adds up to 44.1 per cent. Hardly a majority:

01李 (Li) 7.94% 02王 (Wang) 7.41% 03張 (Zhang) 7.07% 04劉 (Liu) 5.38% 05陳 (Chen) 4.53% 06楊 (Yang) 3.08% 07趙 (Zhao) 2.29% 08黃 (Huang) 2.23% 09周 (Zhou) 2.12% 10吳 (Wu) 2.05%

11徐 (Xu) 12孫 (Sun) 13胡 (Hu) 14朱 (Zhu) 15高 (Gao) 16林 (Lin)  17何 (He)  18 郭 (Guo) 19馬 (Ma) 20羅 (Luo) 21梁 (Liang) 22宋 (Song) 23鄭 (Zheng) 24謝 (Xie) 25韓 (Han) 26唐 (Tang) 27馮 (Feng) 28於 (Yu) 29董 (Dong) 30蕭 (Xiao) 31程 (Cheng) 32曹 (Cao) 33袁 (Yuan) 34鄧 (Deng) 35許 (Xu) 36傅 (Fu) 37沈 (Chen) 38曾 (Ceng) 39彭 (Peng) 40呂 (Lu) 41蘇 (Su) 42盧 (Lu) 43蔣 (Jiang) 44蔡 (Cai) 45賈 (Jia) 46丁 (Ding) 47魏 (Wei) 48薛 (Xue) 49葉 (Ye) 50閻 (Yan) 51餘 (Yu) 52潘 (Pan) 53杜 (Du) 54戴 (Dai) 55夏 (Xia) 56鐘 (Zhong) 57汪 (Wang) 58田 (Tian) 59任 (Ren) 60姜 (Jiang) 61範 (Fan) 62方 (Fang) 63石 (Shi) 64姚 (Yao) 65譚 (Tan) 66廖 (Liao) 67鄒 (Zou) 68熊 (Xiong) 69金 (Jin) 70陸 (Lu) 71郝 (Hao) 72孔 (Kong) 73白(Bai) 74崔 (Cui) 75康 (Kang) 76毛 (Mao) 77邱 (Qiu) 78秦 (Qin) 79江 (Jiang) 80史 (Shi) 81顧 (Gu) 82侯 (Hou) 83邵 (Shao) 84孟 (Meng) 85龍 (Long) 86萬 (Wan) 87段 (Duan) 88漕 (Cao) 89錢 (Qian) 90湯 (Tang) 91尹 (Yin) 92黎 (Li) 93易 (Yi) 94常 (Chang) 95武 (Wu) 96喬 (Qiao) 97賀 (He) 98賴 (Lai) 99龔 (Gong) 100文 (Wen)

101龐 (Pang) 102樊 (Fan) 103蘭 (Lan) 104殷 (Yin) 105施 (Shi) 106陶 (Tao) 107洪 (Hong) 108翟 (Di) 109安 (An) 110顏 (Yan) 111倪 (Ni) 112嚴 (Yan) 113牛 (Niu) 114溫 (Wen) 115蘆 (Lu) 116季 (Ji) 117俞 (Yu) 118章 (Zhang) 119魯 (Lu) 120葛 (Ge) 121伍 (Wu) 122韋 (Wei) 123申 (Shen) 124尤 (You) 125畢 (Bi) 126聶 (Nie) 127叢 (Cong) 128焦 (Jiao) 129向 (Xiang) 130柳 (Liu) 131邢 (Xing) 132路 (Lu) 133岳 (Yue) 134齊 (Qi) 135沿 (Yan) 136梅 (Mei) 137莫 (Mo) 138莊 (Zhuang) 139辛 (Xin) 140管 (Guan) 141祝 (Zhu) 142左 (Zuo) 143塗 (Tu) 144谷 (Gu) 145祁 (Qi) 146時 (Shi) 147舒 (Shu) 148耿 (Geng) 149牟 (Mou) 150卜 (Bo) 151路 (Lu) 152詹 (Zhan) 153關 (Guan) 154苗 (Miao) 155凌 (Ling) 156費 (Fei) 157紀 (Ji) 158靳 (Jin) 159盛 (Sheng) 160童 (Tong) 161歐 (Ou) 162甄 (Zhen) 163項 (Xiang) 164曲 (Qu) 165成 (Cheng) 166遊 (You) 167陽 (Yang) 168裴 (Pei) 169席 (Xi) 170衛 (Wei) 171查 (Cha) 172屈 (Qu) 173鮑 (Bao) 174位 (Wei) 175覃 (Tan) 176霍 (Huo) 177翁 (Weng) 178隋 (Sui) 179植 (Zhi) 180甘 (Gan) 181景 (Jing) 182薄 (Bao) 183單 (Dan) 184包 (Bao) 185司 (Si) 186柏 (Bai) 187寧 (Ning) 188柯 (Ke) 189阮 (Ruan) 190桂 (Gui) 191閔 (Min) 192歐陽 (Ou Yang) 193解 (Jie) 194強 (Qiang) 195柴 (Chai) 196華 (Hua) 197車 (Che) 198冉 (Ran) 199房 (Fang) 200邊 (Bian)

201辜 (Gu) 202吉(Ji) 203饒 (Rao) 204刁 (Diao) 205瞿 (Qu) 206戚 (Qi) 207丘 (Qiu) 208古 (Gu) 209米 (Mi) 210池 (Chi) 211滕 (Teng) 212晉 (Jin) 213苑 (Yuan) 214鄔 (Wu) 215臧 (Zang) 216暢 (Chang) 217宮(Gong) 218來 (Lai) 219嵺 (Liao) 220苟 (Gou) 221全(Quan) 222褚 (Chu) 223廉 (Lian) 224簡 (Jian) 225婁(Lou) 226蓋 (Gai) 227符 (Fu) 228奚 (Xi) 229木(Mu) 230穆 (Mu) 231黨 (Dang) 232燕 (Yan) 233郎 (Lang) 234邸 (Di) 235冀 (Ji) 236談 (Tan) 237姬 (Ji) 238屠 (Tu) 239連 (Lian) 240郜 (Gao) 241晏 (Yan) 242欒 (Luan) 243鬱 (Yu) 244商 (Shang) 245蒙 (Meng) 246計 (Ji) 247喻 (Yu) 248揭 (Jie) 249竇(Dou) 250遲 (Chi) 251宇 (Yu) 252敖 (Ao) 253糜 (Mi) 254鄢 (Yan) 255冷 (Leng) 256卓 (Zhuo) 257花 (Hua) 258仇 (Chou) 259艾(Ai) 260藍 (Lan) 261都 (Dou) 262鞏 (Gong) 263稽 (Ji) 264井 (Jing) 265練 (Lian) 266仲 (Zhong) 267樂 (Le) 268虞 (Yu) 269卞 (Bian) 270封 (Feng) 271竺 (Zhu) 272冼 (Xian) 273原 (Yuan) 274官 (Guan) 275衣 (Yi) 276楚 (Chu) 277佟 (Tong) 278栗 (Li) 279匡 (Kuang) 280宗 (Zong) 281應 (Ying) 282台 (Tai) 283巫 (Wu) 284鞠 (Ju) 285僧 (Seng) 286桑 (Sang) 287荊 (Jing) 288諶 (Chen) 289銀 (Yin) 290揚 (Yang) 291明 (Ming) 292沙 (Sha) 293薄 (Bao) 294伏 (Fu) 295岑 (Cen) 296習 (Xi) 297胥 (Xu) 298保 (Bao) 299和 (He) 300藺(Lin)

2017's harvest moon

While we Chinese people calls the occasion as the Mid-Autumn Festival on account of the full moon, people in the West are referring to this particular full moon as the harvest moon. According to the almanac, the harvest moon is the full moon nearest the start of the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere which was 23 Sept. Normally, this coincides with the full moon in September but in 2017, the October full moon occurs nearer to the equinox than the September full moon. These two scenes of the harvest moon were viewed at about 5.45am this morning.

The legend of the Moon Goddess

Tonight is the 15th day of the eighth Chinese lunar month which means that we can see the full moon hanging above us and shining bright in its full glory, weather permitting, of course.

The Chinese has it that Chang-Er is the Goddess of the Moon and the story goes, according to wikipedia, that in a very distant past, 10 suns had risen together into the skies and scorched the earth. The archer Yi shot down nine of them, leaving just one sun, and was given the elixir of immortality as a reward. He did not consume it straight away but hid it at home, as he did not want to gain immortality without his beloved wife Chang-Er.

One day while Yi went out hunting, someone named Fengmeng broke into the house and tried to force Chang-Er to give him the elixir. She refused and drank it herself. Chang-Er was transformed and flew upwards towards the heavens, choosing the moon as her residence. When Yi discovered what had transpired and felt sad, he displayed the Fruits and Cakes that Chang-Er had liked and offered them to her in worship.

That is why if you peer hard enough at the full moon in the eighth lunar month, you may see some semblance of the Moon Goddess dancing in the heavens.

Lucky strike

It took between 35 to 40 shots on my mobile camera before I could manage to freeze an image of a lightning strike in Kuala Lumpur about a month ago. When I returned to my room at the Cititel in Midvalley after losing one of my chess games, any thought of frustration was forgotten when I noticed the darkening sky from the room. Soon afterwards, it was a lightning storm blitzing the city. I had a regret that my regular Olympus camera was being serviced but I still had my mobile phone with me. Ah well, better than nothing, I had supposed. So I started clicking away, sometimes at nothing and only in anticipation of a lightning bolt appearing, and was lucky enough to have captured two strikes.

BBC Radio 1 Vintage

BBC's Radio 1 Vintage brings back some of the best radio programming from 50 years ago. The temporary radio station will be available for the next 30 days. I can't wait to start listening....again and again and again!

David, Patrick and Jahabar

Three fellas that I met at The Banker's Draught last August when I was down in Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysia Chess Festival:

The first was David Wu, whom I had first met several years ago in Penang when my old schoolmate, Kee Thuan Chye, was launching one of his Bullshit books at the Loke Thye Kee building in Penang Road. After the launch of the book, we had all adjourned to a food court in Weld Quay for a few drinks. Interestingly enough, I had asked David then whether or not he was related to a certain Wu Lien-teh and he said "no."

Well, as many of you would know, David walked all the way from KL to Kelantan in 2015 to raise money for the flood victims of Kelantan and he managed to raise enough to re-build a house for a Malay lady there. In 2016, he went on a solo bicycling trip to China to rediscover his ancestral roots.

Then in a mad rush of adrenaline, he had taken off again on an ambitious bicycling journey around the globe with another chap, this time to try raise funds for childhood cancer. He's trying to raise RM5 million in conjunction with the National Cancer Society Malaysia and he's only asking the public to donate at least RM1 to the effort. In case you want to do your part, you can bank in your donation to Public Bank Berhad account no: 3988587622 in the name of The National Cancer Society of Malaysia.

The second was Patrick Teoh. You should know this niamah guy. His voice was the voice of radio for decades. On Radio Malaysia's Fantastic Facts and Fancies in the 1960s to the Breakfast Show with Yasmin Yusof in the 1990s, I think, and he is still on the Bfm radio station today with his Pick of the Pops on Saturday afternoons.

We had first gotten in touch in the mid-1990s when my pals and I formed an Internet emailing list which Patrick came on board much later. At that time, I had asked him about the word "seque" and he said it meant music flowing continuously from one song to another without stopping. And he said that it's pronounced as "seg-wei".

So when I met him again recently and reminding him about his email, I dropped a clanger by mispronouncing the word and having him correct me. Anyway, Patrick in person sounds exactly as Patrick over the airwaves.

The third was Jahabar Sadiq. First time that I had met this guy but not the first time that I had heard about him, of course. He was the editor of The Malaysian Insider news portal until it was blocked by the Malaysian government in early 2016 and this caused the website to close down permanently a month later.

But then you really can't put a good man down, can you?  He later found someone to back him up and in early 2017, Jahabar was back as the editor of another news portal called The Malaysian Insight. That's how I introduced him to my daughter on that evening at The Banker's Draught: the editor of The Malaysian Insight? "Are you sure?" he tried to cast doubt on my introduction. Of course! How could I be wrong?

King versus King

About two weeks ago, I did mention that if I was in the right mood, I might wish to revisit one or two of the games that I had played in the Malaysia Chess Festival. So there I was, on 1 Sept, freshly recovered from a one-day break in the Seniors tournament where I had experienced three losses in consecutive games. In the sixth round, I found myself seated across from Fide Master Brian Jones of Australia whom I had last played in 2010. We are now seven years older. Would I be heading for another loss or would I be able to break the chain? I had hoped that it would not be the former.

I had vaguely remembered that he had opened with 1.d4 against me seven years ago. I had sprung a little surprise on him then but I wasn't very confident that I could spring the same surprise on him again. Or could I? In the end, when he did open with the same 1.d4 again, I decided to opt for something slightly less risky. The only question was, what? What could I do? You know, sometimes, when you are faced with such a dilemma, it is best to just let your fingers do the talking, or walking, and to hell with the consequences.

So it turned out that after a moment's hesitation, my mind being an undecided semi-blank, my fingers suddenly flew out to push 3...b5. Yes, the Benko Gambit, which even caught me by surprise. Why on earth would I play this? The only other time that I had essayed this move was....lemme think....in December 1974 at the first Asian team chess championship. Between then and now, nothing! Ziltch! In no other game had I ever played with the Benko. Really, I was going to have to play this game almost by intuition alone.

Before I continue, I have a request. If there's anyone who can pick holes in my analysis or train of thought below, please let me know.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. a4 bxc4 5. Nc3 d6 6. e4 g6 7. f4 Bg7 8. Nf3 Nbd7 9. Bxc4 O-O 10. a5 Ne8 11. O-O Nc7 12. Qe2 Rb8 13. e5 f5 14. Ng5 I can safely say that by this time, I had left all my old memories behind. All my moves until the ninth move were automatic but progressively from the 10th move, I had felt that my position was slowly going downhill. But a little voice kept asking me to play 14... Rb4. (See the first diagram) In hindsight, it was probably the only active move I had.

15. Re1 h6 16. Ne6 Nxe6 17. dxe6 Nb8 18. Nd5 Rxc4 Gosh, suddenly this turned out to the only resource in this position or otherwise, I would be slowly strangled in the centre. 19. Qxc4 Bxe6 20. exd6 Qxd6 21. Rxe6 Qxe6 22. Nxe7+ Kf7 23. Qxe6+ Kxe6 24. Nxg6 Bd4+ I'm down by one pawn but I believe that I have a pretty good game. My bishop is active and the white b2-pawn doesn't look too comfortable there. 25. Kf1 Rg8 26. Nh4 Nc6 27. Nf3 Bf6 28. g3 Rb8 29. Be3 Kd5 30. Rd1+ Ke4 31. Ke2 Rxb2+ There, you see? I've got my pawn back and now I have a very d a n g e r o u s c-pawn that's just waiting to advance! 32. Nd2+ Kd5 33. Kf3 Nd4+ 34. Bxd4 Bxd4 35. g4 c4 During the game, I felt that I should resist capturing the white g4 pawn. The white king on the f3 square takes away a very important square for his knight. 36. gxf5 c3 37. Nf1 Kc4 38. Ne3+ Bxe3 39. Kxe3 c2 40. Rc1 Kc3 41. Ke4 Rb4+ Here, I was debating whether to play this check or to move my rook to the b1 square immediately and eliminate the white rook. I think the ensuing endgame would still be drawn, eg 41... Rb1 42. Rxc2+ Kxc2 43. f6 Rb7 44. Kf5 Kd3 45. Kg6 Ke4 46. f7 (or 46. f5 Ke5 47. f7 Rxf7 48. Kxf7 Kxf5, etc) 46... Rxf7 47. Kxf7 Kxf4 48. Kg6 h5 49. Kxh5 Kf5 50. Kh6 Kf6 51. h4 a6 52. h5 Kf7 53. Kh7 Kf8 54. Kg6 Kg8 55. h6 Kh8 56. h7

Back to the game. 42. Ke5 Rb5+ 43. Ke6 Rxa5 44. f6 Ra4 45. f5 Re4+ 46. Kf7 Kd2 47. Rxc2+ Kxc2 48. Kg6 Re8 (See the second diagram) Should White play 49. f7 or 49. Kxh6? It's so inviting to capture the pawn because the king could still move to the g7 square on the next move. But it is a losing move because I would then gain a tempo to push my last pawn forward. For example, 49. Kxh6 a5 50. f7 Ra8 51. Kg7 a4 52. f8=Q Rxf8 53. Kxf8 a3 54. Kg8 a2 55. f6 a1=Q 56. f7 Qa2 and now starts the long process of pushing the white king in front of his pawn before my king plods back towards it. 57. Kg7 Qb2+ 58. Kg8 (or 58. Kh7 Qf6 59. Kg8 Qg6+ 60. Kf8 Kd3 etc) 58... Qb3 59. Kg7 Qc3+ 60. Kg8 Qc4 61. Kg7 Qd4+ 62. Kg8 Qd5 63. Kg7 Qe5+ 64. Kg8 Qe6 65. Kg7 Qe7 66. Kg8 Qg5+ 67. Kf8 Kd3 68. Ke8 Qg6 69. Ke7 Qg7 70. Ke8 Qe5+ 71. Kd7 Qf6 72. Ke8 Qe6+ 73. Kf8 Kd4 74. Kg7 Qe7 75. Kg8 Qg5+ 76. Kf8 Ke5 77. Ke8 Qg6 78. Ke7 Qe6+ 79. Kf8 Kf6)

Back to the game again. 49. f7 Ra8 50. Kg7 a5 51. f8=Q Rxf8 52. Kxf8 a4 53. f6 a3 54. f7 a2 55. Kg8 a1=Q 56. f8=Q Qg1+ The quickest path to a draw, which Jones and I recognised. However, the problem with not agreeing to a draw earlier was because right until this point, we had believed that both sides still had some slight mathematical chances to win should either player faltered. Momentum simply pushed us forward. 57. Kh7 Qxh2 58. Qxh6 Qxh6+ 59. Kxh6 ½-½ Okay, the queens are off the board and the kings are the only pieces left. Still chances to win? Nahh....

You know, playing till reaching a King versus King endgame is not that uncommon. Why, even as I was completing this story, I've just learnt that in the FIDE World Cup that's taking place in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, two top grandmasters - Ding Liren of China and Wesley So of the Philippines - had drawn a game that was reduced to a similar King versus King ending. Really, it's not that uncommon.

Ding Liren - Wesley So, FIDE World Cup, Tbilisi, 20 Sep 2017
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6  3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Be7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. b3 b6 7. O-O Bb7 8. Nc3 Nbd7 9. Bb2 c5 10. Ne1 cxd4 11. Qxd4 Bc5 12. Qf4 Bb4 13. Nd3 Bxc3 14. Bxc3 Qc8 15. Rfc1 dxc4 16. Bxf6 Nxf6 17. Rxc4 Qb8 18. Qxb8 Rfxb8 19. Ne5 Bxg2 20. Kxg2 Ne8 21. Nc6 Rb7 22. Rd1 Kf8 23. e4 Nf6 24. f4 b5 25. Rcd4 g6 26. Ne5 h6 27. Rc1 Ke8 28. Kf3 Nd7 29. Nd3 a5 30. Rc6 Ke7 31. a3 Raa7 32. Ke3 Nb8 33. Rc8 Nd7 34. Rc6 Nb8 35. Rc8 Nd7 36. Nc5 Nb6 37. Rc6 Rc7 38. Rxb6 Rxc5 39. e5 g5 40. Rd3 gxf4+ 41. gxf4 Rc2 42. h3 Ra2 43. b4 axb4 44. axb4 Rh2 45. Ke4 Rc7 46. Rxb5 Rc4+ 47. Rd4 Rc7 48. Rc5 Rxc5 49. bxc5 Rc2 50. f5 exf5+ 51. Kxf5 Rxc5 52. Rd6 Rc1 53. Rxh6 Rf1+ 54. Ke4 f6 55. exf6+ Rxf6 56. Rxf6 Kxf6 57. h4 Kg6 58. h5+ Kxh5 ½-½