Stories beyond the board - What is insanity

Today for the first time, I approach the destitute. I have a plastic bag containing clothing in hand. He is sitting at the bus stand facing away from me as I approach. He seemed to be looking into the distance deep in thought. As I stand next to him, he became aware of me. He turns towards me with a startled look.

Then unexpectedly he smiled. at me  It was not the type that you give to strangers. What really surprised me was how genuine and innocent he looked. He seemed really happy to see me. For some reason I broke into a smile too and as we looked each other in the eye, for a brief moment we seemed connected somehow.

I raised the bag towards him not sure if he will take it.  He took it and peered into it. It was my opportunity to move on.  There was nothing to say and no words were needed or even necessary. On the way back from the post office I passed the bus stand. He had gone and the plastic bag with him. That is good, at least he understood my intention.

And in his own way, he is perfectly happy. No pressure, no responsibilities. Sleep when he is tired, eat when some kind soul gives him food. He does not have to worry about how to pay the next housing installment or the various monthly bills that arrives in the mail.

Part of me envy him. He may have nothing but he has more freedom than me. Every morning from Monday to Friday I have to get up at 7:00 AM and go to work. I normally reach home around 7:30 PM, that is a good 12 hours gone. If I stop working, the bank will take my house and I will end up on the street too. Working to pay others is what most of us sane people seem to be doing.

Maybe I and people like me are the real  crazy men.

Stories beyond the board - Homeless and destitude

Yesterday morning I saw him again. Right across the road from my office building is another building with a row of shops on the ground floor. He clearly stands out amongst the well-dressed men and women in their office attire. He must have been there for a couple of months now.

Everyone thinks he is a crazy lunatic. They judge him thus because of the dirty tattered clothes not washed in months. There is a tear in his trousers exposing part of his thighs. But mostly because he stands there with a wide smile. Sometimes he laughs to himself silently.   I think he should be around thirty but it is hard to tell his age from the dirt that covers his face. Certainly he is still a young man. A man who should have been at the prime of his life.  I wondor what were the circumstances that brought him to this point in his life. Why and how did he fail in society?  Or did society fail him instead?

Did he have no friends? Where are his family and do they know what had befallen him? Or maybe they do know and have forsaken him.

I wondor where he sleeps at night or if he feels hunger. Today he held a half full plastic cup of soya bean milk,  no doubt gifted by  the mobile vendor who plys his trade along the sidewalk a couple of feet away. So he knows how to feed himself. He cannot  be completely insane.

Sometimes I imagine myself in his place. No family, no friends, no home , no job and certainly no future. How would I behave? What would I do? What could I do? Would I try to act normal or would I pretend to be mad with a permanent smile, stand half naked on the side-walk and hope nobody pay attention to me?   Society deems that someone in this situation must be insane therefore I have to act insane. Any other behaviour will be abnormal.

Reading this you may now expect me to come up with some kind of moral or advice to the story. I'm sorry I do not have one.

I think I will look for my old pants I can give him since his is falling apart.

How to be an "expert" (old post)

I learn something new everyday. Nothing to write about so here's a old post instead.

Reminder: SMK Hillcrest Open

The SMK Hillcrest Open is scheduled for 10th July 2011. There are a lot of goodies for the participants like a chess board, free food and drinks courtesy of Gardenia, Marigold and and F& N. There will also be  a lucky draw. Details for the tournament are below:

                                                                                                        

Date                 :           10^th  July 2011 (Sunday)

Venue              :           SMK HILLCREST

Category          :           Under-9, Under-12, Under-15, Under-18, Open

(Boys And Girls Mix)

Entry Fees         :           RM25 for all junior categories

                                                RM30 for Open category

Closing date     :           1^st  July 2011

Only entries with the entry fee will be considered to have entered for the tournament.

Enquiry                        :           i)          Ms Wong Yen Lee 017-357 7788                                                                                                (yenlee741011_u@hotmail.com)

                                                ii)         Ms Farah Alwani   013-333 6849

                                                iii)        Mr Manivannan   018-375 7339

Prizes for each age category:

Juniors categories			Open Category
1st	Trophy + Certificate + RM 150		1st	Trophy + Certificate + RM 400
2nd	Trophy + Certificate + RM 100		2nd	Trophy + Certificate + RM 200
3rd	Trophy + Certificate + RM   50		3rd	Trophy + Certificate + RM 100
4th	Trophy + Certificate + RM   40		4th	Trophy + Certificate + RM   75
5th	Trophy + Certificate  + RM  30		5th	Trophy + Certificate + RM   50
6th – 10th Trophy + Certificate			6th – 10th Trophy + Certificate

ü Prizes will be given to youngest boy & girl participants.

ü Certificate of Participation for all players.  

ü Free Chess Board for the first 500 entries who registered with payment

ü Bread and drinks sponsored by Gardenia, F & N and Marigold

Schedule of play
08.00am 08.30am	09.00am 10.00am	10.15am 11.15am	11.30am 12.30pm	12.30pm 01.15pm	01.30pm 02.30pm	02.45pm 03.45pm	04.00pm 05.00pm	05.00pm 05.15pm	05.30pm
Registration	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Lunch	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Lucky Draw	Prize Giving

Apparel                        :           Singlet and shorts are not allowed

                                    School t-shirt ( Hillcrest Students)

                                                                                                        

Rules & regulations

1. FIDE Laws of chess
2. Time control: 25 minutes to the finish
3. The Organizer/Arbiter reserves the right to accept or reject any entry without assigning any reasons.
4. The conduct of players forbids smoking, consulting with a third party, distracting or annoying the opponent, foul languages or bad behaviors.
5. Recording of all chess moves is compulsory. The winner or the White player in the case of drawn games must submit both score sheets duly signed by both players.
6. No audible comments should be passed on a game in progress. This rule applies not only to the players but also to spectators.

Name of participant			:
I/C  number			:
D.O.B (dd/mm/yy )			:
PLEASE TICK 0NE CATEGORY ONLY TO PLAY
Under – 9   (born in or after 2002)
Under – 12 (born in or after 1999)
Under – 15 (born in or after 1996)
Under – 18 (born in or after 1993)
Open category
Payment mode			Cash				Cheque no
Contact no.	:	Hand phone					House phone

 All cheques are payable to Intelligent Minds Academy ( Eon Bank 0053-10-004865-0)

 I understand that the organiser reserves the right to cancel any age group  for a particular category without earlier information.

……………………………………………

Participant’s/Parent’s Signature

 (Name ____________________________)

InSoFar Chess Weekend Event

DATCC hosted three Insofar Chess Academy events over the weekend and it was a good turnout for the Elite Open Semifinal events with 19 players taking part including IM Jimmy Liew, NM Kamalariffin Wahiduddin and Sumant Subramaniam, who just concluded his ASIAN Junior outing in Sri Lanka the week before.

In the morning session, the Rapid U-10 had 7 participants who amongst others included well known chess offspring - Mohd Saprin's 2 boys and Mohd Fairin's 2 daughters. The U-10 event was won by Haziq Aiman Nizam who scored 3 points out of 3 games to edge Kong Dak Nam with 2 points on second spot and Johnathan Ananda Leong at third with the same 2 points but a lower tie break

No	Name	NRtg	Pts	Position
1	Haziq Aiman Nizam	1298	3	Champion
2	Kong Dak Nam	1438	2	Second
3	Jonathan Ananda Leong	1121	2	Third
4	Amir Ghaazi Mohd Saprin	0	2	Best Boy Year 4
5	Amir Muqqri Mohd Saprin	0	1	Best Boy Year 2
	Nadiah Mohd Fairin	0	1	Best Girl Year 2
7	Liyana Mohd Fairin	0	1	Best Girl Year 3

In the afternoon session, another Junior event was held starting at 2:30pm. The 5th Insofar Junior Scholarship event had 9 participants - 8 of which came from 3 families. Saprin's 3 boys - Qayyim, Ghaazi and Muqqri, Avadiar of Seremban 3 daughters - Pavethra, Davithra and Sasithra, and Vinton and Ethan Wong. The 9th player was Kong Dak Nam who had stayed on from the morning event. Ethan Wong came up on top edging brother Vinton on tie break. Pavethra came third followed by Amir Ghaazi Saprin at 4th place who also bagged the best unrated player for the event.

No	Name	NRtg	Pts	Position
1	Ethan Wong Hsien Aun	1557	3½	Champion
2	Vinton Wong Hsien Loong	1568	3½	Second
3	Apavethra Avadiar	1143	3	Third
4	Amir Ghaazi Mohd Saprin	0	2	Best Unrated
5	Sasithra Avadiar	1181	2	Best U-1600
6	Amir Qayyim Mohd Saprin	0	2	Best Under 15
7	Kong Dak Nam	1438	2	Best U-1500
8	Davithra Avadiar	1157	1	Best Girl
9	Amir Muqqri Mohd Saprin	0	1	Best U-12

The main event for the day was the Insofar Elite Open Semifinal leg which was played over 5 rounds with a time control of 25 minutes. Hot favorite Jimmy Liew was cruising comfortably with 3 points when he hit a brickwall in the form of Kamaluddin Yusoff who snatched a win against him in the 4th round. In his last round, a quick draw with Taulani Tukiran sealed the deal for Kamaluddin to snatch the top spot with Jimmy Liew a close second.

It was a good showing for Shreyes who sealed the 3rd spot with 4 points - his only lost to IM Jimmy in the 3rd round. Shreyes had a good start when he beat elder brother Sumant in the first round and his good run continued in the second round when he managed to outlast Ahmad Fadzil Nayan. After his lost to IM Jimmy in the 3rd round, Shreyes secured another win against Stonemaster Mohd Fadli and in the last round, triumphed over Jax Tham to seal his 3rd placing.

Taulani Tukiran of Johor Bahru secured the 4th placing followed by Ahmad Fadzil Nayan at 5th and NM Kamalariffin Wahiduddin round up the 6th spot.

No	Name	NRtg	Pts	BH.
1	Kamaluddin Yusof	1932	4½	15
2	Jimmy Liew Chee-Meng	2079	4	17½
3	Shreyes Subramaniam	1685	4	14
4	Taulani Tukiran	1768	3½	13½
5	Ahmad Fadzil Nayan	1941	3½	12
6	Kamalarifin Wahiduddin	1929	3	15½
7	Sahir Sarifdin	1595	3	10½
8	Jax Tham Tick Hong	1749	2½	17
9	Sarika Subramaniam-G	1599	2½	13½
10	Muhd Syazwan Zulkifli	1817	2½	11½
11	Subramaniam Demudu	1590	2½	10½
12	Sumant Subramaniam	1957	2	15
13	Mohd Fadli Zakaria	1822	2	13½
14	Mohd Fairin Zakaria	1788	2	13
15	Razali Hamzah	1633	2	12½
16	Mohd Ezmi Mahmood	1585	2	12
17	Subramanian Sivanesan	1603	2	10½
18	Nithyalakshmi Sivanesan-G	1644	1½	12
19	Harun Bustaman	1250	1	13½

Tough choices

I first read this last year and I'm linking it again for those who had missed it. It really is a sobering reflection from our inactive IM. Unfortunately Li Tian seems to be taking the same route as Zi Jing.

From Quah Seng Sun's blog

Chuck Norris and Chess

I read this chess joke and found many other Chuck Norris jokes for example

• When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.
• Chuck Norris invented the internet… just so he had a place to store his porn.
• Chuck Norris can count to infinity
• At night the Boogeyman checks his closet for Chuck Norris
• God said "Let there be light!" Chuck Norris said "Say Please"
• Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
• Those aren't credits that roll after Walker Texas Ranger (a Chuck Norris film), it is actually a list of people that Chuck Norris round house kicked in the face that day.
• The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.

This is really fertile ground for a lot of fun and I spent an hour coming up with a few of my own jokes :).

Since this is a chess blog , let's start with the chess one first



Its not true that the inventor of Chess is unknown. Chess was created by Chuck Norris when he roundhouse kicked a tree into little pieces. Those pieces are now known as King, Queen, Rook.....

From this

To this

Thanks to this man

Chuck Norris's watch does not tell time. Chuck Norris tells the watch what he wants the time to be.

Chuck Norris got into an elevator and the door remained open. The elevator knows shutting the door in Chuck Norris's face is sheer suicide.

Chuck Norris entered the House of Horrors and came out laughing. The only thing that can scare Chuck Norris is Chuck Norris.

That  picture of Chuck Norris is not really Chuck Norris because everyone who has seen the real Chuck Norris has been roundhouse kicked to death.

Top ten chess training tips and advice

Some astounding tips and advice , mostly directed towards juniors , that I picked up surfing various chess sites ( OK, wipe that stupid grin off your face. We all know it is only one site.)


Disclaimers
-  None of  the below advice represents the views of ChessisChess.
- I cannot be held responsible for your success or failure as a result of following the content below.
- Reading this article does not automatically make you my "student"
- The contents below are hazardous to the health of readers without a sense of humour.

If you agree to the above disclaimers or even if you do not agree, then move on to ...

TOP TEN BEST TRAINING TIPS AND ADVICE (EVER)

#1 You are not born with chess playing skills. It has to be learnt.


#2  I cannot help you if I do not know who you are playing with next.


#3 If you win a game, it does not mean you will win the tournament.


#4 Never go to a game without any opening preparation.


#5 Knowing who is your next opponent will greatly help you to prepare for him.


#6 Do not tie one of your hand behind your back. You need both hands to play properly


#7 Our IMs are only 2200 players and declining fast. You can beat them. Eventually.


#8  Chess is a mind game. If you believe you can win, you will win. Time to sell all those chess books and CDs you mistakenly bought.


#9 Time management is only important when you are down to your 30 seconds increment.


#10 After beating the grandmaster do not lose to the lowest seed. You still get only one point from both. Now if you beat both you get two points. Is that clear?