TWO WEEKS ago, I had the occasion to attend a reunion of sorts among the chess players in Penang.
It was an opportunity provided by Eric Cheah, whom many of you will undoubtedly remember or know, who had decided finally to surrender his bachelorhood in favour of wedded bliss.
Cheah was among the last of my generation of chess-playing friends to get married, and it was to Vu Thi Anh Lua that he had met in Hanoi, Vietnam, several years ago.
I will not bore you with the details of the wedding dinner but it is sufficient to say that it brought together many of my contemporary chess friends, some of whom I had not seen for quite a while, at least over the chess board.
When I arrived at the dinner reception, Tan Hong Ghee and Yeoh Chin Seng had already arrived from Kuala Lumpur and being the chess fanatics that they were, they were busily playing blitz chess with Chuah Heng Meng. Playing blitz chess, I tell you, at a wedding dinner!
And peering anxiously over their shoulders were Goh Yoon Wah and Choong Yit Chuan, who were waiting rather impatiently for the opportunity to be the blitz winner’s next opponent.
Cheah, though busy with greeting his guests who were arriving for the reception, could not resist coming over to talk with us every now and then but I suspect his motive could be more to keep a watchful eye on the chess games.
Wong Mun Hoe, vice-president of the Penang Chess Association, provided good company but inevitably, conversations around him always turned to politics and speculation about the dates of the next general election.
Though Ooi Kiem Boo and Chan Lee Pon were the next to appear, our small circle of chess friends was only completed when Ooi Gim Ewe, John Lim and Lee Wei Ming arrived. Ooi, Lim and Lee are not prominent names outside Penang but nevertheless, they are long-standing chess friends. Later, I understood from Cheah that Jimmy Liew too had been invited but he had been unable to attend.
So there we were, 12 of us, gathered at the dinner function to celebrate Cheah’s wedding. These were people that I have known for at least 20 years. Goh and Chuah go back even further, and it must be about 30 years. We had all known Cheah when he was only about seven years old and his father had brought him to the PCA clubhouse in Kimberley Street, Penang, to play.
Cheah eventually grew to become one of the strongest players in the country. His international rating rose above 2250 but sad to say, the Malaysian Chess Federation officials of the day never saw the urgency or need to register him for the Fide Master title. Until today, he is not one.
His profession was law and he was a practising lawyer in Penang until one day in the mid-1990s, he told us that he would be leaving for Vietnam to answer a greater calling. It was a loss for Penang chess as well as Malaysian chess.
He had been back to Penang sporadically through the years but it was last year that we knew for sure that he had decided to come home. For the next few years, at least, he will remain in Penang and resume his law practice.
CAS chess calendar
As a supplement to the Malaysian Chess Federation chess calendar which was released two weeks ago, here is the Chess Association of Selangor’s own calendar, applicable from now until the end of the year.
The CAS will organise their second, third and fourth quarter allegro chess tournaments on Apr 4 at the Wilayah Complex, Aug 15 at the South City Plaza and Oct 10 again at the Wilayah Complex. The final will be played on Dec 11-12.
The Royal Selangor open tournament is the CAS’ biggest event and this year’s tournament, 31st in an uninterrupted series, will be from Apr 30 to May 4 (which includes an open event for the under-18 category on May 1 and 2). The venue will be announced later.
Also in May, there is the Selangor closed tournament on May 16 and 23 at the Sunway College. This will be followed by the Royal Selangor CTEP junior camp from Jun 9 to 12 at the Wilayah Complex and the Selangor leg of the BPM national allegro on Jun 13 at the Summit USJ.
The 18th Royal Selangor 1200 and 1800 junior open tournaments will be played on Jul 17-18, and the 1400 and 2000 junior open tournaments on Jul 24-25. These four events will be held at the Sunway College. Finally, on Aug 7-8, the CAS will organise their Selangor Merdeka open tournament also at the Sunway College.
UP NEXT
CAS junior grand prix events
The Chess Association of Selangor (CAS) will hold the third leg of this year’s ninth Royal Selangor 1600 junior grand prix chess tournament at the Sunway College on Mar 6-7.
This tournament is the third of four junior events that CAS will organise for players born in 1986 or later, and with a Selangor rating of 1600 points or lower. Players without rating points are also eligible to take part.
The remaining leg is on Mar 20-21. Last week, the CAS had concluded its second leg. Players earn GP points from these legs and the top 40 players with the highest accumulated GP points will qualify for the grand prix final on Apr 18 and 25.
Entry fees are RM10 for CAS members and RM20 for non-members. Entries and enquiries should be forwarded to chessmate@cas.com.kg. For more information, contact Lim Tse Pin (012-298-4922).
SouthernCity chess
The Johor Bahru District Chess Association will organise the 4th SouthernCity chess tournament at the SouthernCity Hypermarket in Taman Suria, Johor Bahru, this Sunday.
Entry fees are RM20 for the open event, RM7 for the under-16 event and RM5 for the under-12 event. There will be attractive cash prizes for the top 10 winners in each event.
Closing date is today. For more information, contact Narayanan Krishnan (tel: 07-333-8215 or email naraa@tm.net.my).
