January Message from SCF ExCo
The conclusion of this year’s 62nd edition of the National Chess Championship is the beginning of a new era for Singapore chess.
Two young players, 15-year old FM Daniel Chan and 16-year old FM Terry Chua, finished ahead of veterans such as GM Wong Meng Kong, IM Goh Wei Ming Kevin and current Commonwealth Champion IM Enrique Paciencia.
In a nail-biting finish with 5 contenders going into the final round, Daniel Chan Yi Ren and Terry Chua tied for first with 6.5 from 9 rounds.
Daniel defeated Terry in the 4-game Rapid playoff to emerge the winner while Terry earned his first IM norm.
This is the first time that a Singaporean has made an IM norm in a National Championship.
Terry has become the fourth Singaporean in less than 10 months to achieve an IM norm. Norms were made
by 13-year old FM Daniel Howard Fernandez in the Sydney International Open 2009, 19-year old WFM Jeslin Tay in the Asian Women’s Championship in Philippines and FM Timothy Chan in the Zonal 3.3 Chess Championship 2009 in Vietnam.
In August, two girls Christabel Neo and Zerlene Cheng won their Asia Dragons Open and Under-16 events
in Taipei – mixed competitions against men and boys. In December, Singapore PR Paciencia won
the Commonwealth Open while the National Men’s Team (Wu Shaobin, Terry Chua, Dominic Lo, Tan Weiliang
- without a reserve) came overall 6th in the Asian Men’s while the women’s (Jeslin Tay, Liu Yang, Victoria Chan, Christabel Neo – also without a reserve) placed 4th.
Despite funding constraints, SCF has undertaken to send our teams to the Olympiad and the Asian Games.
The new selection guidelines require our juniors to achieve results at the Asean Age-Group Championships
in Philippines and/or the Asian Youth Championships in China in order they may be allowed to participate in the World Youth/Schools Championships. This new ruling has been endorsed by the juniors/parents as a form of commitment by the juniors to place Singapore once again on the correct roadmap towards achieving excellence not only for themselves but for Singapore. In addition, immediately starting during the Lunar New Year, SCF will organise regular, if not monthly, internationals so as to provide all the opportunities for our players to achieve Master titles.
Last month, SCF employed Singaporean PR FIDE Senior Trainer Jovan Petronic as our Technical Director.
Jovan is the third full-time staff in SCF; the others being Executive Director Philip Chan and Admin Assistant
Jason Ong. All these are being achieved without additional funding nor major serious corporate sponsorship
nor membership fees. Revenue is derived mainly through competitions and training. The long-term plan includes hiring trainers to restore ownership of the National Training Programme as well as to set overall national policy on Chess in Schools. Last but not least, among the ExCo and its sub-committees are 3 members who had “graduated” from junior training in the late 90’s. They together with many more others will be groomed to take SCF forward.
We thank you for your past support to help us achieve what Singapore Chess is today and appeal for your continued support.
Regards,
The President & Members of
The Singapore Chess Federation Executive Council
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