While I was working (as a chess journalist) at Equarius Hotel or the Convention Centre, the only not-for-work picture I wanted to take was with Ding Liren's second, GM Richard Rapport. I didn't try to take selfies with Ding, Gukesh, Anand, G...
We all know the exciting conclusion of the World championship and its thrills and spills. In a nutshell, both Gukesh and Ding are humble and spoke with earnest honesty about their game and thoughts, fought like gladiators and Gukesh pipped Ding du...
Translation of WGM Vivian Gu's Mandarin question to Ding Liren. Vivian Gu: This time, both your father and mother are here. How do you feel about that? Does it make things better? Will it help with improving your mood subsequently? Ding Liren...
Game 2 Press conference with questions posed by WGM Vivian Gu in Mandarin. WGM Vivian Gu (credit: Chessbase India) VG: Can you describe in simple terms how today's game went? D: Today we got an infrequently played line which I had prepared ...
WGM Vivian Gu asked these questions during the last 5 minutes of the post Game 1 press conference and Ding Liren preferred to answer in Mandarin. I translated the comments into English. Vivian Gu: First of all, congratulations on the win. In t...
23rd November, 10am Ding Liren's interview with WGM Vivian Gu Xiaobing during a kids’ event where he took pictures and signed autographs for the youth members of Singapore’s National Training Program at the Equarius Hotel. Ding Li...
The last time I went to the sleepy city of Adelaide was 7 years ago. Over the past 2 decades or so, things have changed tremendously (especially infrastructure and food/living costs). Take for example, the Chess Centre of South Australia. it is st...
Generally, chess tournaments in Singapore are held over the weekends so that the main group of competitors - students and youngsters can unwind over the weekend after tough schooling weekdays. There are exceptions of course, like Bishan Chess Club...
By now, the chess world is already aware that the Singapore Chess Federation is hosting the World Chess Championships Final match between GMs Ding Liren and Dommaraju Gukesh. The Singapore Chess Festival will be held alongside this to a...
“There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.” Malcolm X. This quote by the late great human rig...
Without a doubt, the 'Queen's Gambit' Netflix movie has increased the popularity of chess in Singapore but to sustain it, the chess scene must be vibrant and attractive enough to retain the new players' interest subsequently. On any given we...
The year 2024 is deemed the Year of the Dragon (according to people of Chinese origins) and so I thought it's timely to show more Hungarian Dragon activities to herald in the new Dragon year. Moreover, I got in a very thematic HD tacti...
WCM Fang Kun was taken aback when I told her to scurry over to play a rapid chess event against Elo 2100-2200 type masters. She is rated about 500-600+ points below them for that matter. "OMG, why am I in this event, I am gonna get thrashed!...
The last vacation I took was 4 years ago and this time round, we decided to visit Perth, especially to check out how the Swan River waterfront area has been revamped. We were very impressed...and from our hotel windows...we really can't complain a...
GM Kevin Goh Wei Ming and WGM Gong Qianyun edged closer to local legend IM Tan Lian Ann’s 10 Singapore Championships titles with by claiming the National and National Ladies titles for their 8th and 9th time respectively though at some point...
In Game 8 and Game 14 of the 2023 World Championship match between the previous finalist Ian Nepomniachtchi and the new World Champion Ding Liren, we have seen the latter taking tremendous risks by brandishing what we call the 'fishing pole' motif...
This blogpost is copied from my article in the September 2022 issue of CHESS (UK) magazine with the permission of its editor IM Richard Palliser (thanks so much!). It's mainly a plug for my new book, The Hungarian Dragon (Carstenchess, 2022)...
During a training blitz game with a student, I realised that after this standard Anti-Closed Sicilian pawn block... ....f5, which stops the White pawn storm for some time, the subsequent play is not as 'automatic' as I would imagine. Although...
With the cancellation of the immensely popular over-the-board annual Nanyang Chess Challenge 2021 due to Covid restrictions, and thanks to the influx of sponsorship funds from an NY parent (who insisted on remaining anonymous), the online Young kN...
Our regular sparring partner for the Singapore Olympiad and Asian nations events, FM Andrey Terekhov was poised to leave the shores of Singapore...the Microsoft executive having been assigned to Paris, France and come August, his family would be s...
It's funny how one remembers decades-old chess stuff so clearly like it happened yesterday especially one can forget the simplest things (like what food to buy when you just got told minutes ago). Yesterday, my Indonesian friend NM Heri Da...
A blocking combination (sacrifice) is one where you combine (or sacrifice a piece/pawn) to jam up the opponent's ability to defend, block a diagonal, line or square or prevent pieces from scurrying back to aid the king's defence. A simple ex...
Following the completion of the #ChessAgainstCovid charity drive where GM Kevin Goh, a truckload of young masters and a bunch of volunteers somehow raised $84,000 for those affected by the Covid19 crisis (the government matched dollar for dollar a...
There isn't much to celebrate in these troubled times as most of us are more or less jammed at home. Well, there is Kevin Goh's confirmation as a Grandmaster, the first for Singapore in 2 decades (on April's Fools day, no less) so at least we have...
By now, everyone and his dog already knows that IM Kevin Goh Wei Ming has crossed the elo 2500 rating required to complete his Grandmaster title by edging out IM Wynn Zaw Htun 4-2 in their standard match (though Wynn claimed the Chess on Board tro...
