A Pictorial Report: Round 7 of the QCD Adults Chess League

As I did not play in today's round (still nursing a prolonged cold/cough), there will be no games replay / self-attempted analysis.

Rather, I tried my best to serve the chess goddess Caissa in every foreseeable way. 

First, I tried to take some photographs to cover this event. Unfortunately, more than 50% of my pictures taken "cannot make it". Some of the pictures, despite being very blur, were kept as they hold certain special meaning to me. Things did improve a bit when Andre tried his best to impart some photography skills to a complete photography idiot (me). You can see the world of difference between pictures taken by myself compared to the ones I tried to imitate his shots.

Second, I finally remembered to pass the application form for the upcoming Queenstown Chess Club standard chess tournament (unrated, 1 hour per side with no increment) to Mr Eric Lim, whom I have been referring to as the "Sunday Chess Uncle". We are currently playing chess on Sundays at Siglap South CC (3pm-6pm). This is the only way to inform him as he does not have access to the internet ... =(

Third, I tried to make sure that the spectators I'd invited (namely, Mr Sid and the "Sunday Chess Uncle") feel welcomed. I'm glad I brought my personal chess set and clock for their friendly games!

Wrapping up would be my observations, learning points and personal ranting -- I still care a lot about "irrelevant" things like chess etiquette and the likes -- and I admit this may be controversial and may upset some of the players in the league. Of course, things like etiquette is very subjective and open to interpretations. Please feel free to feedback any objections or different views. Even an indication that you're upset will be good, so that I would be more careful with what I say in future.

Okay, this is supposed to be a PICTORIAL report, so here goes. 

First, free-flow of drinks (coffee and tee) is provided. Yes, some of my friends found this "duh" (meaningless to take).

Second, these are some shots taken on my friends from Singapore Chess Meetup @ Asia Square Tower 1 before the game commences.

Picture with David and Jarred. I guess this was a lucky shot in that both players won their personal games for their own teams in impressive fashion. (Their team were playing against each other!)

This is between Cyrille and Jarred. What a game it turned to be man, I was treated to quality chess display!

A friendly game between Mr Sid, whom I "invited" to observe the league, and Mr Xavier Chua, Team Captain of Team Bulldogs/Psalms 23.

And their friendly game was observed by Chris, the arbiter for the tournament, who is also the current President of the Singapore Chess Federation.

It was hard to take a close-up with Chris as he seems to be avoiding my phone whenever I was taking a shot blatantly. Only managed to sneak one here. There was a very funny moment when Chris said "touch move!" in a joking way at the friendly game. I almost spilled my tea -- unfortunately this precious moment could not be captured by any shot -- you gotta be there to appreciate the atmosphere yourself!

A timed friendly game between Mr Sid and "Sunday Chess Uncle", Mr Eric Lim. Because Eric had stopped playing chess for decades (his knowledge on the rules and etiquette remain with the 1980s or so), I had taken some effort to update him of the current rules and etiquette. Hopefully, he will know enough to play correctly at his maiden tournament after so many years of inactivity!

An interesting team battle between the Asia-Squared Bishops (a team I helped to pull the players together at the beginning of the league!) and team 8.c4! (my team). Interestingly, I have played individual head-to-head games with all of the players fielded for team Asia-Squared Bishops.

There was a minor episode before this team battle. The Asia-Squared Bishops Team was unable to field 4 players (Mr Teddy Yip was added late and not eligible to play in this round under the tournament rules). So the team forfeited board #4 at the onset. Still, the players on Board 4 played a friendly game notwithstanding the 1 point was scored for my team's favour. In the end, my team won by the narrow margin of 2.5-1.5. In any case, there is no dispute over the team results as Mark won his friendly game on Board 4 anyway.

Team 8.c4!'s victory shot after the round: That's me with the tongue, Gabriel, Mark, Ching Wai and Ethan. The "3" from Mark signifies the 3rd consecutive team victory we scored -- in fact, it's "only" the 3rd team victory scored since our participation from the 1st season ^o^ I'm not sure if our team is the only 1 with absolutely no change of players from the 1st season? In any case,  I guess we are sticking together since we enjoy each others company very much!

Timothy seem to be in a great mood. I'm not sure if the smile was arising from (i) the presence / arrival of his supporter, (ii) me coming over to take a close-up shot, (iii) the discovery of a great resource over the board against my team mate, Ching Wai, (iv) a mixture of these reasons, or (v) some other reason(s)? In any case, kudos to you for a fine display my friend! Just hope you can quickly finish up your NS commitment and come back to play more chess okay =) 

Andre and Uthpala, both regular players of the Singapore Chess Meetup, posing for my shot. Their opponents conceded a walkover, so they had time for a little distraction. I'm sorry my poor shot don't do you guys justice man!

Uthpala with the very gentlemanly Anthony preparing for their blitz series for the night. Anthony deserves my praise for being a sport in a tournament setting. -- it's easy to behave like a nice guy in a non-competitive setting, but it's rare to behave as a gentleman in a competitive setting (You can read more on this in my previous report of the recently concluded unrated team rapid event @ Nanyang CC). Both Uthpala and Anthony boast a 100% win record against me to date ^o^ 

The following are some ad-hoc shots with no specific player-reference.

The league pool is big enough to be interesting. I've heard about some players' preference to play in adults-only pool, because they had bad experiences with kid opponents misbehaving in local tournaments. With no disrespect to kids, and with no intention to over-generalise, I have personally indeed encountered such incidents, or witnessed it myself when I/my friends participate in local chess tournaments. These are unfortunately, not once-off episodes. So this might serve as another pull factor for adult players to consider joining the Adults Chess League!

A slightly more artistic shot I tried to take, after Andre's patient repeated guidance =) 

Observations, Learning Points and Personal Opinion (Etiquette-wise)

Okay, a final pre-warning that this may seem controversial to some, and risk upsetting some players. Also, this is highly subjective based on my personal opinion. 

1. Strong players are strong because of their resilience. It is NOT true that strong players will always get a superior position right out of the opening (or from move #1 for the matter), increase their advantage to the point of no return and then crush their weaker opponent like a fly. Rather, when faced in a difficult / disadvantaged position, they don't give up as easily as "newbies" like myself and display impressive defensive technique. Recently, I have come to better understand why it always seems difficult to defend -- psychological factors aside, because more often than not, we need to address the opponents' main threats / ideas instead of advancing our own goals. Of course, this also does not mean that we are condemned to defending passively. Always remain on the lookout for opportunities to strike back!

2. Gamesmanship within the rules are perfectly legal. Whether it falls under "proper etiquette" is up to you.

One common observation I have seen (not only in this round, but also in other tournaments) is that sometimes a player likes to grab the Queen (or an extra Queen) and put it beside the chess board. No matter how I see it, this is a gamesmanship (not a sporting) display. Players who do this are essentially utilising psychological attack -- "If you do not resign, I am going to crush you with the promoted Queen."

What should we do when our opponent do this to us? Possible responses include:

a. If the position is truly hopeless, consider resigning!

b. There is this possibility that the opponent is bluffing! Why does he resort to a psychological attack? Maybe because he is not confident in outplaying you over the board! So the more the opponent tries to provoke us with such gimmick, the more we should try our best to remain calm and objective.

Is it possible that I am over-thinking, and that players doing such actions meant "no harm"? Maybe the opponent just wants to make sure no precious time is lost when it comes to the point that he needs to Queen/promote. I can't bring myself to buy into this argument/excuse, simply because of the following law of chess. As quoted from FIDE Laws of Chess taking effect from 1 January 2018,

"6.11.2 A player may stop the chess clock only in order to seek the arbiter’s assistance, for example when promotion has taken place and the piece required is not available."

So the reason/excuse that a player is doing this with no harm intended doesn't stand, at least, in my opinion. No time will be lost since you can pause the clock when you are promoting a piece not available!

Of course, the use of gamesmanship is not against the rules. I am guilty of it as well. In particular for team events I often initiate 1 insincere draw offer in a bad/lost position (although I do not repeat the offer). Even if it burns a bit of the opponent's thinking time to consider the offer, it achieves some "free damage". So far, other than arising from wrong evaluation of the position, I don't think I have initiated a draw in a bad/lost position for individual games. (If I did, I apologise for it.) But I do admit that I am no saint myself where chess etiquette is concerned -- I am still learning and trying to improve with each other game (both in terms of play and etiquette). 

3. Take note of the proper way to execute pawn promotion!

Going back to the point on piece promotion, the use of an inverted Rook to represent a Queen is NOT correct under FIDE law of chess (I've heard that this is allowed under certain USCF rules, but I'm not so familiar with USCF rules anymore). The famous incident over the Canadian Chess Open Controversy will serve as a painful reminder for the side making the promotion the wrong way. In fact, I observed it done wrongly in a couple of games played today (but the opponents did not complain about it).

Even though the current laws of chess is such that a game is only forfeited after making 2 illegal moves (a lot of things, like not using the same hand to move the piece(s) and press the clock, using 2 hands to make a move, pressing the clock without having made a move are now considered as an illegal move) , one should be careful with all the high tension ongoing during a game. Remember to replace the pawn with a promoted piece before pressing the clock, even if it is obvious that the opponent will capture the promoted piece immediately! If you can't find the piece you wish to promote to, pause the clock and don't waste precious time!

4. How to deal with the pressing of the wrong clock?

Last but not least, there is still one infringement that I cannot find a proper reconciliation -- in a team event, what if you press the wrong clock? I have asked 2 arbiters for their views so far, and both opine that 

a) it should not be punished as having made an illegal move, but 

b) it is indeed difficult to restore the "legal/correct" playing condition in a time incremental situation. 

Personally, however, I do think the culprit should be punished somehow. But I don't know how... If you have any suggestions or take on this, please feel free to share with me!

Thanks again for reading!

Yours sincerely

Ong Yujing

(a.k.a. newbie_learner)