1st BLITZ event, Participated & Watched

TODAY, was another historical day for the AMfa family. We or, rather the kids participated in their FIRST ever chess blitz event whilst I enjoyed myself watching the blitz. The event was held after the 5th NJCC 2012 prize-giving ceremony and started after 3pm.

Among the rules peculiar to Blitz chess:-
(1) 5 minutes per player
(2) Make One(1) Illegal Move - Player Lose IF, opponent claims.
(3) Fallen Chess Piece(s) - Player Lose IF, he presses the timer before placing back the fallen piece properly.
(4) Need NOT say "check".

Tip: DON'T wear long-sleeved Shirt or Jacket/Sweater to avoid piece(s) falling.

At the end, I believe the kids enjoyed themselves in their first ever chess blitz participation.

( Family Warfare. To the Victors - "Bragging Rights". The cHEss pIRATE and his cousins Ayeesha, Aqil & Arif. Picture, Courtesy of Chess-Malaysia fb)

hAnA finishes at 19th out of 34players with 4 1/2points, making her the 2nd Best female player. She played fairly well against stronger opponents and "almost" got 2 of them into time difficulty...one of which is in the picture below.

( hAna playing against a more "seasoned" player. Picture, Chess-Malaysia fb )

The cHEss pIRATE on the other hand secured 2points, placing him 33rd in the field but not before losing 2 games due to an illegal move and another 2 more games due to a fallen chess piece. In the 1st Round, he had an opportunity to claim a victory when the opponent chess piece had fallen but being new to blitz rules he failed to claim the win. Having said that, seeing him play reminds me of the NAG 2012 where many times he can cause person(s) with heart defficiencies to beat faster. For example, in his match against Wong Zi Yue...he literally won the game by "1 SECOND". Zi Yue would have check-mated hi when the pawn is promoted in the next move....UNfortunately for him BUT Fortunately for the cHEss pIRATE, Zi Yue's time expired just before the promotion. Even the arbiter i.e. Nik Faroqi said "....Sayangnya, just 1 second!"

My initial assesment of chess blitz is that it favours fast thinkers and impulse players like kids. Many a times I'd observed that adults tend to "overthink". There was also "entertainment" especially amongst the boys when they started poking fun at each other to dustract their opponents. Amongst phrases heard "...what, you lost to a little girl?", "...your nose is droping..." and many more which I do not want to write. An enjoyable 1st blitz for me.