Peter Long on Chess

  Guess what I found! In storage for three years! The clocks given by the Asian Chess Federation in the days when such largesse would be expected at the Asian Summit / Yearly Awards. One final duty delayed by the pandemic is now completed!

SEA Games Chess Gold Silver Bronze           1st Vietnam  7 2 2           2nd Indonesia 3 3 5           3rd Philippines 0 3 3           4th Singapore 0 2 4           5th Malaysia 0 0 2   With all said and done, host Vietnam dominated the games with 11 medals, seven which were Gold. Indonesia took the remaining three Gold medals on offer and also won 11 medals, even having one Silver more than Vietnam ion that means anything! The Philippines were barely in third place ahead of Singapore which did not take part in the team events. and three Silvers and three Bronze simply confirms the decline of a country that once dominated Asian chess. Singapore with just two players was so much better than the large Malaysian contingent, with two Silvers and four Bronze compared to Malaysia's two Bronze. 

  One final Gold for Vietnam and Indonesian Mens and Women Blitz Teams respectively. A silver in Men Blitz Team for Indonesia. Silver in Women Blitz Team and Bronze in Men Blitz Team for Philippines and Bronze for Malaysia in Women Blitz Team 

In Men' Blitz, Vietnam took Gold and Silver with Le Tuan Minh taking out much favoured compatriot Le Quang Lie, 1.5-0.5 in the final. Indonesia's Susanto Megaranto and Singapore's Tin Jingo shared Bronze. It was another very good day for Vietnam as Pham Le Thao Nguyen took Gold by beating Indonesia's Chelsie Monica Ignesias Sihite. Janelle Mae Frayna from the Philippines and Singapore's Gong Qianyun shared Bronze.

 

  Expected but I don't understand a tie-break where game points in a round robin supersedes match points and that can only be attributed to technical incompetence. Malaysia would then have gotten the Bronze in Women Teams that they deserved by beating the Philippines but it seems they did not even know 2-0 was needed. On the flip side, I never thought the Malaysia men would be last or ever finish below Thailand and a Myanmar whose veterans are playing every event. 

In the men's section it is looking good for host Vietnam to get their fourth Gold but it now seems  Philippines and not Indonesia is more likely for Silver.  Thailand continues to play above their ranking while Malaysia is disappointing. Indonesia is now fielding their best players and so is on track for an expected Gold although Vietnam seems to have an easier run in, and it would be looking good for Malaysia if they did not have to play Vietnam and Philippines in today.

  For men, Vietnam and Indonesia should be the clear favourites with Malaysia (assuming the right team is fielded) with some hope for and upset, fighting a Philippines long in clear decline for Bronze. The women section has one team less, no Myanmar, but again Vietnam and Indonesia will fight for Gold and the Philippines taking Bronze.

  Nguyen and Pham, a long time married couple had a golden day when both took Gold in men and women Rapid Chess respectively It was all Silver for Singapore with Tin Jin Yao adding a Silver to the Bronze he won earlier in Standard Chess while defending champion Gong Qianyun had a redemption of sorts after a poor performance in Standard Chess. Susanto Megaranto and Jodi Steyaki Azarya took Broze for Indonesia in the men's section while Bronze in the women's section was was earned by two young talents, Vietnam's Bach Ngoc Thuy Duong, already a veteran at 19 and Malaysia's even younger Sim Jia Ru, just 17, who started as being by far the lowest seeded!   

Late in 2020 I thought that we have finally established a genuine partnership to develop training capacity in Africa.   http://trainers.fide.com/2020/12/13/this-time-for-africa/ These seminars were to be the start of a regular yearly activity where greater reach could be achieved through regional vs country accessibility, use of a common language, and with a lower cost (free in this case) with increased quality.   Next step was the development of a course to be administered as a five to 20-day hands-on training of national coaches that would be tasked with working with young talents in their countries   Again, they are free, and given a complete set of foundation materials for them to use with their students between 1200-1700 levels.   Our idea was not only do we teach the trainers how was done successfully in other countries but to also walk them through a set of materials that they could immediately use and from which to build over time.   For use to do this, we only wanted intereste

 

The Olympiad Training Support program is closed – all available slots have been completely taken up. We have had many late appeals including those who have only now decided to participate in the Olympiad, but have only been able to accommodate these when there was a withdrawal from the program. Eligibility for this program was and remains for Federations in FIDE Development Levels 4 & 5 so we have rejected applications from Level 3. Based on expressions of interest, a budget was created, and the Federations were asked to confirm their participation with the announcement of the Olympiad to be held in Chennai India. Training is now started in the original pre-Olympiad preparation phase. We have also extended the support to the teams participating with the option of taking the existing coach they chose/we assigned in this first phase to continue working with them in Chennai or to opt for suitable trainer provided in cooperation with the All Indian Chess Federation. This is of course i

  What are champions made off? Ervan was happy to draw relatively quickly,  Li Tian inexplicable lost to a much lower ranked opponent, while Truong Son won. Yes, he had the advantage of being the only one with White... and maybe some help from his countryman, but it was a round robin and all needed what to do and more so in the last and final round. It was a wonderful performance from Citra, a well deserving winner with arguable the best chess, and with just one hiccup that did not seem to bother her at all. As I predicted in my earlier post, she had the luxury of making a short draw the last round and leaving her rivals, both whom she had earlier beaten. to have to win to get just second and third places.  On performance by ratings: In the mens section, Erwin was not a favourite  before the start and so he had the second largest rating gain of 35 points while young Prin Laohawirapap grew into the level of competition and gained an amazing 49 points. The rest also picked up rating gain

With Ervan, Li Tian and Truong Son all tied on 6/8, its was clear what would (should) happen in the ninth and final round. Tuan Minh would try to at least draw with Ervan to help Truong Son whom he had quickly lost to in the event round, Li Tian would win, while Lik Zang who has been hugging the cellar would want to have his moment of glory by playing spoiler.    In the women section, Citra takes a half point lead and is up against a very up and down opponent, while her two main rivals, just half a point behind after drawing each other in the previous round have significantly weaker opposition in the two Malaysians in the bottom three. While it is in Citra's hands, any result is possible and a draw might just be enough, having the better tiebreak and also given she had already beaten both Irine and Thi Bao Tram earlier.

  https://fide.com/news/1756

 

  Ervan who is Indonesia's brightest prospect and has been recognised as especially talented for some years now, leads the local hope and top seed and also the defending champion from Malaysia. It is still very open and will depend on one of them getting a win or two in the final three rounds as it is unlikely any of the others behind can put together a strong run.  The heavily favoured top seed shares the lead with both her Indonesian team mate who beat her in the first round and a veteran who has now emerged as the host's best hope.

  To date seven seminars have been organised, with another in a week's time. Of these, five were in India under their "Chess for All" initiative, taking capacity going to large cities which still somehow were relatively underserved in this respect. Our professional trainer education and development workshop series led by FST and GM Artur Yusupov had a great start and the second will take place this weekend. June will see the first of our DI/NI courses where trainers working with young players up to 1700 level, even to 2000 level, will be instructed in how to teach and develop talent in the quickest possible time, also giving them a foundation from which they can go further. On-site seminars are now being allowed with select Federations able to meet our standards and remain independently supervised and with an assigned examiner. First up is the New Zealand Chess Federation and then Croatia, and Singapore, of course also China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, all which will be held

Not quite the halfway mark....  

https://trainers.fide.com/2022/05/11/final-list-for-olympiad-support-is-to-31-federations/

A very even field - the big three of host Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia are joined by non professionals Malaysia and Singapore - but with no favourites among those in the top half, remembering that the defending champion is Yeoh Li Tian.  Despite being under martial law and in state of essentially civil war  since the military coup Myanmar is also taking part together with Thailand but neither have players able to challenge, Wynn Saw Htun already a veteran and young Prin Laohawirapap is not even their best player. Brunei is always at the Olympiad (118th), and while Lao and Cambodia also intends to be in Chennai, India, where the 44th World Chess Olympiad will take place, all three are again not taking part in our regional games, showing their low level, and so the men's event will have seven from ten countries. Women's chess has significantly declined - we have the single (and well supported professional) as the top seed and clear favourite - and any real challenge would r

Gold - U-10 Blitz Silver - U-10 Rapid                          "I want to thank you for everything you have done for me,  for helping me become world champion and vice world champion! I am very happy and grateful! Thank you very much! Andrei Negrean"

  In December I had agreed with my daughter to go to Athens but after we had booked our flights in Qatar Airways and found excellent accommodation, we were able to go simply because Malaysia remained on the list of centres barred from entering Greece. Fast forward, and with restrictions all lifted and with a two week window in May, we decided to try again. The flight was again booked on Qatar Airways adding some RM 2,500 to the travel refund vouchers issued as the fares had gone up and with email confirmation, I booked an apartment for nine nights. Friends were informed of the visit, appointments made, and gifts were purchased. With some 48 hours to go, I decided to go online and check in and to my shock the system said there was no such booking and refused to recognise the given reservation number. The next few hours was spent in trying ton contact Qatar Airways and finally I got through to an extremely unhelpful customer service representative in Malaysia who basically was not intere

  The  indigenous  population of  Papua New Guinea  is one of the most  heterogeneous  in the world. Papua New Guinea has several thousand separate communities, most with only a few hundred people. Divided by language, customs, and tradition, some of these communities have engaged in  endemic warfare  with their neighbors for centuries. It is the second most populous nation in  Oceania . Huli  Wigman from the  Southern Highlands Province Tok Pisin  serves as the  lingua franca . English is the language of business and government, and all schooling from Grade 2 Primary is in English. Foreign residents are just over 1% of the population of Papua New Guinea. More than half are  Australian ; others are from the  United Kingdom ,  New Zealand , the  Philippines ,  Zimbabwe  and the  United States . Since independence, about 900 foreigners have become naturalized citizens. Over 100,000  white people  live in Papua New Guinea, representing over 1% of its total population.   Most of them are f

  It has been a very long time since I have been to Central Market or Pasar Sent as it is more accurately called in Malay. It is the go to place for tourists looking for handicrafts and souvenirs, located in the heart of the old city, with Chinatown on one end, another side leading to iconic Majid James where the city of Kuala Lumpur was founded, and the far end being connected to the Merdeka or Independence Square and its numerous surrounding attractions.  Not as many shops are open compared to the post pandemic period but Malaysian is starting to now open up to tourists and these are typical of some of the shops there. The highlight for me was to see a pay for use public toilet with turnstiles and cowboy swing doors! 

  In the last few years, due to the enormous work of the FIDE Trainers' Commission, I have had very little time to work regularly as a trainer. My passion in chess has always been in all things that enables young talent development and so there was no question at all that with the organising of this "by invitation only" KCFAP Talent Development Camp in Singapore, that I would not agree to give my services! And PEACE CENTRE is simply such a wonderful name for a venue in these times!

We have received many enquires as to eligibility for captaincy at the coming 44th World Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India. See extract from the regulations: 5.       Captaincy 5.1.    All Head of Delegations/Captains/Trainers at official FIDE events like Olympiads, World, Continental and Regional Team Championship, are required to be a licensed trainer, and for World and Continental Junior, Youth, Cadet and Schools Championships, to be a licensed trainer or International Organizer, failing which, will need to apply for a captaincy license. 5.2.    Only licensed trainers and holders of the International Organizer title, as applicable to the official FIDE event, or those with a captaincy license and Federation Officials given special permission, are allowed access to the official playing venue and playing area (as per the tournament regulations) and be entitled to free board & lodging (where offered by the organizers). 5.3.    If a Federation is unable to organize for a licensed train