Saturday 25 January was the last chess meeting in the year of the Snake and it was good to see some players who had been away for some time join in again.
Beginners/Intermediate Group
Jay booked an important win over Maximilien to secure first spot he is followed closely followed by Wo Hang who secured an important win over Alex. Joshua was back after a long time and Kian confused him by copying all Joshua’s moves – which of course is allowed but not recommended – until a checkmate made more sense. Glad to see Joshua back and congrats to Kian who this time didn’t stalemate his opponent!
Jonathan, also back after a long time, played convincingly against Saga and cashed his first win after a checkmate. Roshan and Noah played the longest game which ended king against king: draw. Ian/s win against Kaya put him back in the top 3 and some fireworks is going to happen in the coming Year of the Horse!
Gsp = played, Gw = won, Rm = draw, Vl = lost
Advanced Group
Richard and Koji were also back from several weeks of absence and with their comeback they made their mark. Koji made well use of some weak squares Mei Jing created in her own otherwise solid Philidor set-up. Richard eyed the black king side of Samira with his queen and bishops and converted his well placed pieces into a check mate.
Jing did not manage to create initiative with her white pieces and after a pawn was lost James pushed his army of pawns deep into white’s territory leading to a calm win. Miguel Angel is getting back on track and his win over Maxwell pushed him up to 4th place. David won against Chor Wei who gave away some material in the middle game.
Mei Jing still tops the ranking and we wish her good luck to stay as long as possible in the saddle!
