Participation CERTIFICATES - 15th ASEAN+ Age Group C.C. 2014

Back HOME to NEWS that ELDEST Qualified for GLOBAL FINALS.

Eldest picked us up at the airport in her debate attire excluding blazer and informed that her team had qualified from the Regional Rounds which was just concluded a few hours earlier for the Global Finals of the WORLD SCHOLARS CUP which is to be held in Singapore end of June.

Unfortunately, she's unable to attend the Global Finals as the date is to close to her PPM Debate Finals at PICC.

Congratulations to Amira and her team of KD & Ildina for making the Global FInals.

Note: Scope for PPM Finals have been released i.e. " ASEANs for ASEANs."

Coming Back with 2 Bronze Medals and a Poor Record against Vietnam.

Vietnam should be banned from taking part in the ASEAN+ Age Group...but that's just wishful thinking. During closing ceremony, Ignatius announced that they had received 2 bids to host next year's 16th ASEAN+ Age Group C.C. 2015 i.e.one from Thailand (Phuket) and another one from Vietnam. Am hoping that it'll be in Phuket.

( U-12 Girls, Rapid Event - Bronze for Team Malaysia )

L-R: Garry Kasparov, Amira Farhana, Nur Faiqah & Raja Bazilah.

 ( U-8 Open, Blitz Event - Bronze for Team Malaysia )

L-R: Iskandar Haikal, Ooi Zhi Ping & Amir Faiz.

The kids are going back with 2 Bronze Medals for Malaysia. hAnA a Bronze medal in the Team Rapid event while Faiz gets a Bronze medal in the Team Blitz category. Overall, the Malaysian team finished 6th after Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and China with 3 Golds, 5 Silvers and 15 Bronze Medals. Forget about the Filipinos, the Vietnamese are clearly superior in this competition.

If not for the Vietnamese, the kids could have done even better.

A breakdown of their results against Vietnamese players in all categories:-

Classical
hAnA - 1 loss to a Vietnamese player (from 4 losses)
CP - 2 losses (from 4)

Rapid
hAnA - 2 losses (from 3)
CP - 2 losses (from 4)

Blitz
hAnA - 2 losses (from 5)
CP - 1 Draw & 4 Losses (ALL)

Hence, out of a possible 14 points against Vietnamese opponents they managed ONLY half a point (3.57%). Perhaps, it is time to consider ala-Military chess Training as adopted by the Vietnamese. I'll be OK with this but CP!!!??????

Not to Be Outdone, The CP gets a Team Bronze as Well.

Not to Be Outdone by sister hAnA, The cHEss pIRATE managed to get a Bronze medal for the Team Event in Blitz. The Malaysian team finished 1 point ahead of 4th placed Singapore and is 1.5 points behind Silver Medalist, the Philippines.

In the 9 Round Competition, he secured 4.5points. All 4 losses and a Draw was against the Vietnamese. 3 games was lost on time with the closest being his Second Round game where his opponent only had 5seconds remaining.

Congatulations to the CP and his team members i.e. Iskandar Haikal and Ooi Zhi Ping.

Team BRONZE for hAnA prior to UPSR Sabbatical!

By half a point i.e. 9.5points to 9 points, the Malaysian Girls U-12 Rapid team managed to pip the Singapore team for the bronze medal. Vietnam with 17 points bagged the gold while a distant second was the Philippines with 12 points.

hAnA finished with 3.5 points and in the process managed to atoned for her defeat in the classical event to the same opponent from Thailand.  A career high was also achieved when she played on Board 2 in the 6th Round of the 7 round competition. However, 2 Vietnamese put a stop to her momentum of 3 straight victories.

The Team Bronze medal is a  farewell gift of sorts prior to hAnA's "retirement" to concentrate on September's UPSR. Hopefully, she can exorcise her double demons of not being selected for the KL Team this year despite contrary instruction and not making the top 10 in NAG due to her falling sick just before NAG 2014.

Well done & Congratulations to hAnA and to the rest of the Malaysian Girls U-12 Rapid Team.

Note: Having said the above, bragging rights at home still belongs to eldest whose Debate Team won the ASEAN Educational Debate in Chiangmai-Thailand last 2 years. Will be interesting to hear eldest and hAnA debate as to whose achievement is better!


(TBC)

Chess in EDUCATION, Seminar Attended.

Event INFO

In between the kids Rapid rounds 1-4, managed to attend a Seminar co-organised by the Kasparov Chess Foundation Asia-Pacific and Kasparov Chess Foundation Africa. The Seminar was titled " Chess in Education" with opening remarks by Garry Kasparov.

Other Malaysians spotted in the Seminar were MCF Deputy President Tg. Badlishah and Kasparov Foundation Executive Director IA Peter Long.

It was my 3rd attendance at such chess Seminars/Courses after attending the Arbiters course during NAG 2013 in UTP Tronoh-Perak and the International Organiser Seminar during WYCC 2013 at Al Ain-UAE.

Some interesting facts/observations were shared.

(TBC)
The price of a chess set in Kenya is USD25.
The Rwandan Chess Federation only have a few chess sets & clocks.

Definitely a WASTE of TIME...IF not for the Encounter with Garry

Just came back around 9.30PM after being away since 2PM. Wasted around 2-3hours idling away.

After having to "fight" for a bus back the escalator from the 3rd to 4th Floor of the "luxurious" Holiday Inn stopped functioning.

The only highlight of the day was having a chat with Kasparov on the way up....he looked beat as well!

(TBC)