I don’t earn much from blogging and chess. Most of my income are supplemented from ad-hoc website projects. I have often thought that if my chess was the same level as my programming I’d be a Grandmaster 
. However, I’m not really proud of my skills as friends my age have graduated from programming to become project managers or bosses of their own business. I’m still a lowly programmer. No business or company to call my own. 
To make matters worse, my former programming students are earning more than me. The good news is that I’ve connected with some old friends and students and through them I hope to find more similiar ad-hoc programming projects like the one I just finished.
I’ll still maintain my chess blogs but will not be as active as before. Like I’ve said before, with so many active chess blogs today, less one GilaChess blog will hardly make a difference. Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to play in the Stonemaster Amature. You can expect some live updates on that even on this blog.
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You may be wondering why I’m duplicating information into the new wiki. The reason is this.
Tournament information on blogs show information in reverse chronological order. Meaning the latest event is shown at the top. After some time the article will be “pushed down” to make way for newer articles. Hence, finding old chess events and results is a little more difficult using blogs. In a way the old results are “lost” when old events are pushed to hard to find pages.
Wikis on the other hand have nice indexes and search features so that finding a past event details fast is quite easy. Think of blogs as notice boards showing the latest info. Wiki are like books with indexes. They have more “permanency”.
I will be using the chess wiki as an archive of as many tournament results as I can.
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One of the spotlight discussion on shoutbox these few days was the ‘controversial’ decision taken by MCF was to hold the National Age Group in Penang. I have nothing to add but an observation that Penang has a different chess culture from players in Selangor and KL.
For example last year’s NAG I saw the Penang kids walk over one after another to enter their games into the notebook right after the game. What they do with the games I do not know but I presume this will aid the coaches to help the students later. It may or may not prove useful but these are good elements for team spirit and unity. It was easy to recognize the Penang players because they wore the same uniform T-shirt. I don’t see any of the KL/Selangor kids doing the same. They are their own individuals. Penang also came by the busloads last year showing some good organisation by Penang Chess Association. Klang valley players I believe have to arrange their own transport to go to Penang this year.
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I read somewhere that Tal used to watch TV programs on chess. They were for beginners so it’s suprising that a strong GM like Tal would learn anything from such programs.
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That’s where this year’s Chess Olympiad will be held.
Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. It may be one of the coldest place to be in but it’s also a place where big tournaments has been held. Who can forget Khanty-Mansiysk which was the venue where top world class players battling it out in last year’s FIDE World Cup?
Tomorrow’s Malaysian Women Masters will be the crucial selection process to find representatives for Malaysia. Yes, besides the RM 2000 prize fund, the prestige of representing the country is also at stake.
Who do you think out of the 16 will be the lucky winners ?
Who will be the 1st Malaysian Women Master?
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With the increased Chess interest in Malaysia it seems that there is now a greater demand for chess coaching.
Not surprising that even in Perak a new chess academy, First GM Academy has been announced by Raymond Siew on his blog which has IM Lim Yee Weng listed as one of their trainers.
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Disappointing to see that the top players could not confirm their availability to play in the Malaysian Women Masters 2010 starting this Friday. It is unclear what is the reason. Most probably it’s because most of them are still busy with their studies or work.
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Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley say napping not only make you smarter, they also increase one’s learning ability, as they are the brain’s way of making room for new information.
Presenting the study at the American Association of the Advancement of Science conference in San Diego, Calif., lead investigator Matthew Walker, Professor of Psychology at UCB says staying awake longer lessens our brains ability to learn, while a quick nap of just 60-minutes brings about a significant improvement in our learning ability.
This means a good night’s sleep and a midday siesta could increase intelligence.
Perhaps we could have done better in the recent Malaysia-Singapore match if the team captain(s) made the players take a nap in between rounds?
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Note this is not this blog traffic but GilaChess.com which only lists chess events and results.
It’s a big increase (200%!) as the usual numbers are around 100+ per day. I’m sure other chess blogs are also experiencing an increase in traffic as there is definitely a heightened interest for chess news this period of time.
This can only be a good thing for Malaysian Chess
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I don’t envy chess organisers as it’s getting hard to find empty slots to host tournaments.
At least 6 events are set to clash this coming weekend.
See the full calendar
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Just realised from Firey Rook’s post that Ian Udani played two tournaments back to back and won both of them!
He played in the Uptown Shah Alam tournanent which started at Friday night from around 9pm to 3am. After that he had to go all the way to Perak for the UTP Open (formerly USM Perak branch) which starts a just few hours later.
Now that’s what I call really crazy about chess. Such stamina, passion for the game and dedication! Perhaps this is the same passion we should instill in more Malaysian players if we are ever to become as good as countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam or China.
PS: Kamaluddin Yusof and Abdullah Che Hassan were the other 2 strong players that were prize winners for both events.
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One of the things that impressed me the most when talking to some foreign chess coaches is that they have begun to use free online tools like screen sharing to coach their students online. Many years ago it was just hype – distance study, study anytime & anywere etc. Today however, I’m seeing practical use of the technology because the internet connections are generally faster (even good old Screamyx ) and can support the relatively high bandwith requirements of screen and application sharing.
With screen sharing, a coach can be online and share his computer screen with his student(s). Eg he or she can turn on ChessBase and discuss using voice about the position while moving the pieces around.
The student can respond immediately too via voice or text chat.
I feel this way of interactive learning is better compared to the one way learning via Chess videos. Perhaps we can leverage this technology to bring GM Ziaur Rahman’s services to students who are from far away states like Sabah, Sarawak. Penang, Johor, Terengganu etc.
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Malaysia has over 30 plus blogs – like this blog, related to chess.
However, an interesting new study by American Pew report very few teen blog. Apparently the trend now shows that teens and young adults are blogging less. They prefer to be on social networking sites like Facebook. To them, blogging is for old people. That study was done in the United States. I guess it’s true in Malaysia too. Out of the many chess blogs, I can only think of Yatzchess and Danial’s blog who are teenagers (correct me if I’m wrong). One good thing is that they will be ahead of the curve in blogging when their peers will eventually go into blogging perhaps a decade later.
Sad thought though. Blogging is for old people
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I’ve lost to Jax Tham countless times so getting a winning a position against him in the Excel Chess First Saturday in the first round got me all excited. My first win against Jax?
Jax got into a losing position fast after making some dubious pawn sacrifices to complicate things in the opening. To my credit, I handled the opening calmly even though my King was exposed and gradually realised my advantage in the middle game. However I felt like a patzer because later, I missed a mate in four, and then couldn’t win the favourable middlegame with good material advantage. What a waste! It’s times like these I feel like quitting chess altogether
I’m White. Black just played 22. .. Nf6??
White can mate in 4.
Can you see the mate which I couldn’t ?
Here’s the complete game(try not to laugh):
[Event "Excel First Saturday (Feb2010)"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2010.02.07"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Andrew Ooi"]
[Black "Jax Tham"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A34"]
[WhiteElo "2074"]
[BlackElo "1834"]
[PlyCount "101"]
[EventDate "2010.02.07"]
[SourceDate "2010.02.07"]
1. e4 e6 2. c4 c5 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. f4 e5 5. fxe5 d6 6. exd6 Bxd6 7. Nf3 Bg4 8. Be2 Bxf3 9. Bxf3 Qh4+ 10. g3 Bxg3+ 11. hxg3 Qxg3+ 12. Kf1 Nd4 13. Bg2 Qd3+ 14. Kg1 O-O-O 15. Qf1 Qg3 16. d3 Nf6 17. Qf4 Qxd3 18. Bh3+ Ne6 19. Nd5 Qxh3 20. Rxh3 Nxf4 21. Bxf4 Nxe4 22. Re1 Nf6 23. Bg5 Rde8 24. Ne7+ Kd7 25. Rd3+ Kc7 26. Bxf6 gxf6 27. Kf2 h5 28. Nd5+ Kc6 29. Rxe8 Rxe8 30. Nxf6 Re5 31. Rd5 Re6 32. Nxh5 b5 33. b3 $2 bxc4 34. bxc4 Re4 35. Rd2 Rxc4 36. Ke3 Kb5 37. Nf4 a5 38. Nd5 Rh4 39. Nc3+ Kc4 40. Ne4 Kb4 41. Rc2 c4 42. Nd6 Rh3+ 43. Kf4 c3 44. Ne4 Rd3 45. Nf2 Rd2 46. Rxd2 cxd2 47. Ke3 Ka3 48. Kxd2 Kxa2 49. Kc2 a4 50. Nd3 f5 51. Nf4 1/2-1/2
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