Monday, December 19, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
SEA Games 2011 - Looking back (final)
Blindfold
Prior to leaving we had no idea how the blindfold event would be conducted other than that computers will not be used. (The most famous blindfold tournament is the annual Amber. Each players sits in front of a computer with a blank chess board on screen. They enter their moves into the computer which is then sent to the opponent's screen.)
Prior to leaving we had no idea how the blindfold event would be conducted other than that computers will not be used. (The most famous blindfold tournament is the annual Amber. Each players sits in front of a computer with a blank chess board on screen. They enter their moves into the computer which is then sent to the opponent's screen.)
Sunday, December 4, 2011
SEA Games 2011 - Looking back (Part 1)
At the 2005 SEA Games in Tagaytay City, Philippines, Vietnam swept all eight golds available. For the next two Games, chess was excluded. Both Thailand (host in 2007) and Laos (host in 2009) did not have the capability of winning any medals in this sport.
At the 2011 SEA Games in Palembang, chess was re-instated with some stipulations. No player could enter more than 2 events. Even so, Vietnam won 6 golds out of the 9 events contested. In the women's event they took all three golds (Standard, Rapid and Blitz). Such a depth of talent every country should be envious of.
Thailand won their first chess gold in the newly created Asean Chess event. No surprise here as this chess variant is closest to Thai chess ("makruk"). To this day, I still cannot fathom why this new chess variant was created and included in the 2011 Games. I guess that this was created so that chess will again be included in the next Games in Myanmar. But I also heard that Myanmar chess ("sittuyin") is already going to be part of chess there so Myanmar will have chances at a few medals.
At the 2011 SEA Games in Palembang, chess was re-instated with some stipulations. No player could enter more than 2 events. Even so, Vietnam won 6 golds out of the 9 events contested. In the women's event they took all three golds (Standard, Rapid and Blitz). Such a depth of talent every country should be envious of.
Thailand won their first chess gold in the newly created Asean Chess event. No surprise here as this chess variant is closest to Thai chess ("makruk"). To this day, I still cannot fathom why this new chess variant was created and included in the 2011 Games. I guess that this was created so that chess will again be included in the next Games in Myanmar. But I also heard that Myanmar chess ("sittuyin") is already going to be part of chess there so Myanmar will have chances at a few medals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
