Chess observations

I have an invitation to attend the closing ceremony but unfortunately,
I won't be able to accept it this year

In the last few editions of the annual 10-day Malaysia Chess Festival, I had made it a point to travel down twice to Kuala Lumpur for the event: once to participate in the Merdeka rapid team tournament with my chess friends from The Old Frees' Association and a second time to attend the closing ceremony. Not this year though. I am unable to travel down to KL for the closing. Thus, I shall be missing out on the excitement of the last day's play in the main Malaysia Open event. 

Who shall be the new Malaysia Open champion? As I write, the tournament is taking a breather between yesterday's fifth round and tomorrow's sixth round. The competition at the top is still wide open but I am very happy to see one of Penang's top players, 14-year-old Poh Yu Tian, a FIDE Master, still holding his own against the main contenders. I shall continue cheering for him and urging him forward in his quest to get a first International Master norm. I hope he gets it from this tournament.

The main problem of playing in only the rapid team tournament is that one gets too engrossed in one's own games until there is no time to observe the goings-on during each round. As every player is required to play all nine rounds, there is no opportunity for anyone to sit out during a round.

Luckily, or unluckily enough, I had a meltdown in the eighth round which left me enough time to wander around the tournament hall and take a few snapshots of the participants on the top boards.

On the right are the Penang "A" team, led by Wong Yinn Long on the first board, Poh Yu Tian on the second board, Tan Jun Ying on the third board and Ooi Zhi Yang on the fourth board.

The PKM Parlimen Shah Alam team which comprised, from right, Yeoh Li Tian, Nicholas Chan, Marcus Chan and Nik Farouqi

Another look at Penang's top two players, Wong Yinn Long in the foreground, and Poh Yu Tian in the background. Both of them, together with Tan Jun Ying, are also playing in the main Malaysia Open tournament

A chess pasar malam

I should mention that concurrently with the Merdeka rapid team tournament, there were other junior chess events going on as part of the Malaysia Chess Festival. Thus outside the tournament hall, it was a real pasar malam situation with parents and family members setting up camp while their children were competing. As pictures speak louder than words, I shall let these pictures do the talking. Who says chess is not a popular game?

Friends (朋友)

The occasion was the Ban Hin Lee Bank reunion dinner at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel on 19 August 2023, which had brought together about 250 former staff. As the vast majority of us hadn't seen one another for at least five years, this particular Alan Tam song, Friends (朋友), brought back unforgettable memories of the best times we had in the bank.

As usual, we had to have Lee Soo Hock sing this signature song. He was an aspiring singer in the 1990s and jokingly - we had worked in the same ATM Centre - I told him then that if he ever turned professional, I would apply to be his manager.

Well, it turned out that he did earn himself a recording contract and had appeared semi-professionally on television but by then, I was planning to leave the banking industry and looking elsewhere for my career change. However, managing a singer was no longer within my list of things-to-do. Soo Hock went on to conclude his career in CIMB Bank, retiring very recently. By the way, he sang two songs on our reunion night. There's also Shanghai Beach featured here in this video.

By the way, I also made a third video recording of Teik Kean singing his ever popular version of The Room at the Top of the Stairs but I was struggling with a problem with my mobile phone and can't find it any more. So, Teik Kean, if you are reading this, my apologies for being unable to upload it to YouTube for everyone's enjoyment.

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. 

Eighth student leadership workshop completed

This is only a brief post to say that we have completed the eighth Student Leadership Workshop at Penang Free School. the second weekend of the workshop was held last weekend at the Pinhorn Hall with 21 boys in attendance. There was one each from Upper Six and Form Five but the rest were all in Form Four. Having completed with this batch, we are now looking forward to the ninth workshop for the Sixth Formers which we hope will kick off at the end of September.

Thank you to the Headmaster, Syed Sultan, and the Senior Assistant, Leonard Selva, for making the workshop a success. Thank you to the coaches - Lean Kang, Sue, Cheng, Ben and Ugenthraa for their invaluable time. 

BHLBank's 88th anniversary

A few months ago, word got out that there would be a reunion of the former staff of Ban Hin Lee Bank (short form: BHLB or BHLBank) in August this year. An organising committee had been formed and through our facebook page, everyone with connections to the old bank were invited to sign themselves up for the occasion. 

Of course, I was among the very first ones to pay up for myself and Saw See. There was no way that we were going to miss this reunion of the old Ban Hin Lee Bank family and in fact, we hadn't missed any of the previous reunions. It has been far too long since we all got together to relive the good ol' days. And according to Khoo Khay Seang, the organising chairman, the last reunion was held five years ago in 2018. Time certainly had flown; all of us, five years older! 

The attendees were initially capped at 200 because of concerns over the capacity at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel but because of the rush of the last-minute sign-ups, there were eventually almost 250 names on the dinner list. I dare say if the list had remained open till the reunion's eve, we could have had 300 to 400 people signed up! 

Of course, topping the guests were the former directors of the bank and here, we had Goh Eng Toon, Stephen Yeap Leong Huat and Yeap Lam Yang stepping out of the lifts to much attention around. People were really very happy to see this trio and their families. Neoh Choo Kean was also present but unfortunately, not Tan Kuan Hai. Among the oldest among the former colleagues was Khoo Boo Hean, now 92 or 93-years old.

Coincidentally, this function could have also marked the 88th anniversary of Ban Hin Lee Bank, if it were to still exist. The bank was established in 1935: the date of incorporation was 17 September 1935 although the actual start of operations was on 01 November 1935. But by 30 June 2000, Ban Hin Lee Bank had ceased to exist, swallowed by Southern Bank, and thus became one of the casualties of a national corporate merger exercise pushed by the Government of Malaysia. Very few of the locally-incorporated financial institutions were spared the cull. 

How about a closer look at this remarkably crazy group of people?

Here come the guiders

 

It's the start of a brand new project at Penang Free School. On and off, Siang Jin and I have been working on this project during the past year and with the School's Speech Day just round the corner, it has become imperative for us to have this project launched before the big day.

We are calling this the Free School Guide, which is an innovative interactive guide to the heritage of Penang Free School. There are more than 200 years of history here, which we have distilled into the Free School Guide.

It is still far too early for me to say more but I can disclose for the moment that we are starting to train a bunch of the students to be the Guiders. They'll be able to take visitors around the Free School and narrate stories to them. Be proud of your school and be proud of your history, that's what we have told them.

Therefore above, we have a group picture of all of us together, save for one student, at our inaugural workshop. Cikgu Zahidah was the teacher who helped to coordinate everything. So, thank you to her! 

Left of banner: Lim Siang Jin, Agilan Sastriyar a/l Sivaraman, Muhammad Adriez bin Reza Azlan, Avinaash a/l Selvanathan, Cikgu Zahidah

Right of banner: Muhammad Danish, Nicholas Lew, Lim Jing Fuh, Jayden Chee, Yashodev, Allan Albert, Nordin Hilman Visser, Marvin a/l Mohgan, Nurul Fazilah Hanim, Dhevisri a/p Vasu, Heng Yee Keat, Fatimah Al-Zahra, Quah Seng Sun

The workshop at the Lecture Theatre in the Sixth Form Block went off very well with 17 students present. Halfway through the morning session, the Headmaster, Syed Sultan, came in to address them. He has always been very supportive of our programmes, including the Student Leadership Workshops through the years, and this fine gesture showed how keen he was to have this Free School Guide implemented. Here are some pictures:

In case anyone wants to know whether I've made a mistake with my half-past-six English, here is some food for thought regarding the difference between the words guide and guider. First of all, "guider" is a valid word, though it is not as commonly used as its synonym, "guide". Both words refer to someone or something that provides direction, assistance or leadership. I chose "guider" because I didn't want the students to be known as "girl guides" or, horrors, "boy guides".

"Guide" is the more standard and widely recognised term. It can refer to a person who leads or directs others, as well as to something that offers instructions or information.

"Guider" is less common but still correct. It can be used as a noun to indicate someone or something that guides. For example, in some contexts, "guider" might be used to describe a person leading a group through a forest or a tour, similar to how "guide" is used.

Carry on

I saw this picture on facebook. Ut sure brought back a lot of memories watching those old Carry One films, Here, we have Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Willaims, Joan Sims, Sidney James, Hattie Jacques, Jim Dale and Barbara Windsor.

A Woodstock drawing

A page from a very old issue of the MAD Magazine, drawn by Sergio Aragones, and celebrating the 54th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival in America. I know Alfred E Neuman is somewhere in the detail, but where?

#sergioaragones #aragones #madmagazine

OFA history (hip version)

I'm wondering whether I should submit this story to the Penang Free School Magazine for publication in this year's publication, since their editorial board had been asking me for a contribution. 😆 Or perhaps I should tone it down and make the story more proper and presentable? 😄

The Old Frees' Association, the original bunch of Penang Free School alumni, hit the grand One-Zero-Zero in 2023. Yep, we've seen a hundred years of greatness, and we're calling it the OFA Centenary – a special time for the old and the current gang.

Before 1923, when you wrapped up your time at the Free School, you were pretty much on your own. No official alumni club or anything fancy. The old school pals just did their own thing once they stepped out beneath that arch.

Way back in 1916, when Penang Free School reached its 100-year milestone, some folks had the idea, "Hey, let's make an alumni group!" But truth be told, the idea just sort of hung around.

For about six years, not much action took place. Then, in late 1922, a former teacher from the school, Harold Cheeseman, decided it was time to shake things up a bit. Cheeseman had been teaching there since 1907, leaving a lasting mark on every student he encountered.

Come August 1922, Cheeseman moved up the ladder to a different school. Suddenly, he found himself with some free time and thought, "Why not start an Old Boys club?" He penned a letter in the 1922 School Magazine, saying, "Let's start small – a club with a list of members, keeping everyone connected and having a reunion once a year. Maybe some games and debates with the school, and we'll pitch in for the parties."

That letter got the old gang excited. Yeoh Guan Seok, a big-shot lawyer, rallied the troops, and on February 20, 1923, over a hundred Old Boys and PFS teachers gathered for a meeting.

Familiar faces like Quah Beng Kee, Dr Lim Guan Cheng and a host of others were present. At the meeting, they all agreed – time to make The Old Frees' Association official. Anyone who was an Old Free or had taught there for over five years could join. They entrusted Khoo Heng Kok, Harold Cheeseman and Tan Kiar-Lew with the task of drafting the rules.

Around two months later, on 17th April 1923, they held their first gathering, and Yeoh Guan Seok stepped up as the natural leader. They brought the crew together – Khoo Sian Ewe, MHM Noordin, Dr Ong Huck Chye and more – and decided to set up shop at No. 10 Leith Street.

Come 21st October 1923, the clubhouse officially opened just in time for Penang Free School's 107th birthday bash. A couple of days later, the Old Frees and the school clashed on the football field, the game ending in a 2-2 tie.

In 1932, they shifted to a new place on Hutton Lane, and in 1939, they found a home at No. 2 Mandalay Road. Finally in 1963, they settled at No. 41 Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah. In 2012, they added a spot in Bay Avenue for Old Frees around that area.

Coming back to the here and now, the OFA Centenary holds more weight than a simple mark on the calendar. It's a nod to an extraordinary accomplishment – not just surviving but thriving over a whole century. The Old Frees' Association has kept those meaningful ties going strong, weaving together Old and Present Frees from all walks of life.

As we toast to a century of rich history, the OFA Centenary also invites a moment of reflection. We raise our hats to the alumni who paved the way, whose vision and dedication have solidified The Old Frees' Association, allowing it to stand tall today. What's more, our shared heritage has given rise to two other official groups – the Old Frees’ Association Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, and The Old Frees’ Association Singapore.

Together, we carry on the Old Frees' spirit, strengthening the connections among the Old and Present Frees, and sparking inspiration for generations to follow. The OFA Centenary serves as a gentle reminder – once a Free, always a Free. The camaraderie and fellowship we cultivated back in the Green Lane days? They're here to stay, no matter where life's path may lead.

So, there you have it – a hundred years of Old Frees' awesomeness! Here's to raising a glass for the OFA Centenary! Hip, hip hooray!! 🎉

 

Increasing stamp costs

In this day and age of emails and social media, I had the occasion to write a letter last Friday. It was the only way for me to reach out to someone. 

However, having written a letter, I now had to go to the Post Office to send it out and it was then that I received a big surprise. 

For a one-page letter sent by ordinary mail to another part of the peninsula, I was charged RM1.30 for the stamp. Initially, I thought that it was ridiculous. The stamp costing RM1.30? But I had no choice but to pay up. That's how much increasing costs had bumped up the prices at even the postal services. It's not cheap to send letters any more.

#snailmail #letterwriting #postagecosts #stamps #postalservice

 

Election D-day

 It's all up to us!

The "new" old Straits Echo building

In the last few weeks, I've noticed that the old Straits Echo building at the junction of Penang Road and Dato Koyah Road has been undergoing restoration. I don't know who is behind it but the splendour of the building is back. After the newspaper closed in the 1980s, it was occupied by the Kayu Nasi Kandar group and for a while, I think there was even an outlet here but it folded rather quickly and the building was then left empty. 

To see the building in this sparkling shape today brings some satisfaction although back in the old days when I was working briefly in the Straits Echo, it was far, far from this pristine condition. But at least it was occupied and functioning as a newspaper office. The printing press was at the back of the building and at night, the place was busy with people working, the machines printing and folding the next day's edition, local newsvendors waiting for their supply of the Straits Echo newspaper and vans waiting to collect the newspapers for delivery to places like Taiping, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur.

As I write about these newspaper vans, I remember that in the mid 1970s when I was studying in Petaling Jaya, these delivery vans were popular modes of transportation for students travelling between Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Come night time in KL, we would go to, if my memory serves me correctly, Jalan Walter Grenier somewhere in Ipoh Road, and wait for these vans to arrive with their newspapers. For a small fee, we'd hop into them for the journey home to Penang, sleeping in them and awaking to stretch our legs whenever the vans stop in the small towns along the way to offload the newspapers. Journey's end for me was at Butterworth where I would then catch the ferry to the island and take the bus back to my home in Seang Tek Road to surprise my folks. Those were the days of carefree living.

#goodolddays #memorylane #reminiscing #nostalgia #retrorides #newspaperdays #studentlife #yesteryear

The Wynners breaks up

Oh no, a news report in The Malay Mail said that the Hongkong pop group known as The Wynners would disband after a successful career spanning five decades. They were one of the most popular - or maybe, even the most popular - Chinese pop band from the 1970s.

The only time I had written anything about The Wynners was in 2014. I had mentioned then that "the band never disbanded officially and occasionally, they would re-unite to thrill their old and new fans." 

Well, fans of The Wynners will no longer get to see them on stage any more. What we shall be left with are all old videos on YouTube.

Meantime, here is the report in The Malay Mail on their breaking up, which can also be read from their website:

End of an Era: Popular 70s HK band The Wynners officially breaks up 

By Sylvia Looi

Tuesday, 08 Aug 2023 12:49 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 ― After five decades, popular 70s Hong Kong band The Wynners has officially disbanded.

The announcement was made during their recent concert at Hong Kong Coliseum, yangtse.com reported.

With the announcement, it is official the band, consisting of Kenny Bee (band head, lead vocals, rhythm guitar and keyboards), fellow singer and actor Alan Tam, (co-lead vocals), Bennett Pang (lead guitar), Danny Yip (bass) and Anthony Chan had broken up although they began pursuing solo careers in 1978.

Besides being the longest-living band in the Chinese music scene, The Wynners is also one of the longest-surviving bands in the world music scene.

In conjunction with the band's 50th anniversary in May, Tam had let slip that the concert would be their last performance as a band.

He reportedly said there was an ending to everything and why not do it when every one was still in a good state.

All the members are now in their 70s.

After going on their solo careers in 1978, Bee and Tam went on to become two of the most popular stars in Hong Kong during the 80s.

The group would however reunite on stage every five years to sold-out concerts.

They last performed in Malaysia in February 2020.

New views with vintage lens

It's my son's camera, a Nikon D5100 which he has stopped using - completely lost his interest in photography -  but with my even older lens attached. 

The lens from a time when digital cameras were not yet in vogue. This is the AF Nikkor 80-200mm f4.5-5.6 D lens. 

It had been lying in a dry camera box for at least 20 years and I didn't know what to do with it. But finally, I decided to fix it to my son's camera body to find out whether it's true that though the lens was still usable on a digital camera, several functions were disabled. 

And this proved quite correct as I couldn't use the auto-focus function at all. On some Nikon cameras, there would be a AF/MF switch but there is none on the D5100. What a bummer! 

Instead, I had to search for the focusing ring on the lens which turned out to be a thin ribbed ring at the end of the lens barrel. It was with this setup that I used to take this picture on Thursday morning at 7.10am. The first of two full moons in a month.

PS. The full moon occurred at about 2am on Wednesday but I was fast asleep. And woke up too late to catch a sight of it at six or seven o'clock in the morning. Dunno what I did on Wednesday night to miss the moon too, but luckily I happened to look out my bedroom window at 7am on Thursday and there was the moon hanging low in the sky. So, snap snap snap with the Nikon D5100 and Nikkor 80-200mm lens. Since everything was manual, there was a lot of fiddling with the shutter and aperture controls and the focusing ring. My verdict: must practice more with this setup to get the hang of things.

#NikonD5100 #VintageLens #OldMeetsNew #LensExploration #MoonCapture #LensOnDigital

OFA Centenary chess tournament 2023

FIDE-rated rapid chess tournament

on 24 September 2023

in conjunction with 

the Centenary celebrations of

The Old Frees' Association

(Prize list is updated!!)