Blog GilaChess

Chess Scholarships are a rare thing in Malaysian Chess. So, it warms my heart when I see chess scholarships like these offered to the public:-

Chessmate Academy Scholarship

We are seeking 2 (two) enthusiastic junior chess players to be coached by our dedicated coaches.

Our experienced coaches are passionate in teaching enthusiastic juniors.

The objective of the scholarship is to support the chess industry train enthusiastic chess players to excel and be competitive internationally. 

Panel of Coaches consist of:

• International Master (IM) elect Lim Yee Weng

He was one of the youngest national men’s champion at the age of 14 and went on to obtain his IM title after becoming the first Malaysian to achieve a 2600 GM rating performance in the Malaysian Open 2008. Currently practicing law after obtaining his law degree from Australia in 2004 and is presently coaching chess players professionally and passionately.

• Schools and National Team Coaches

Closing Date  : 31^st December 2008

• Sponsored by management and a group of passionate chess coaches.

• 18 and below only

Please, submit your application to:

Magic Tree Child Development Sdn Bhd

20A, Persiaran Zaaba, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03 – 7727 0817, 012 – 210 5620 (Grace Leong) Fax: 03 – 7727 3672,

Email: magictreekl@gmail.com

• The Seattle Times cuts 10% of workforce

• US Newspaper circulation down 4.7%

• Two Connecticut papers to be shut without a new owner

• Tribune Co. reports $124 million loss for 3rd quarter

• NY Times in trouble: advertising down 16%, may struggle to service debt

• New York Sun to close

• The perfect storm: Newspapers take a huge hit, print advertising dying

Those are just the dreary headlines that are out the past few days. I think new media is slowly taking over. Blogging to replace newspapers? It's not as absurd as it sounds because there are already many blogs and new media on the web that are taking over the role of informing the public of news and events.

Sad if you are a full time reporter affected by this but I'm sure people who are in the "new media" saw this coming much earlier. I for one have stopped buying newspapers a long time ago. I only get TheStar occasionally (like once a month) or The Sun because it's free from some 7-11 outlets.

After so much hard work I put into the latest chess website I was involved in, I got rewarded with a PR 4.

My visits to Vietnam and Philippines were not in vain. Each one of the visit was for reporting on the chess tournament that was being held in both the countries. Both were high profile chess tournament so the eyes of the world (chess enthusiasts anyway) was on my website.

ChessASIA.net is now PR 4!! I'm just documenting it here in this relatively unknown blog for my own reference :)

Another chess related website, DATMO.net, for the Malaysian Open 2008 chess championship also surprisingly reached PR 3.

Now in Vung Tau, Vietnam helping out in the World Youth Chess Championship 2008. One of the banes of a programmer is not having a camera when in an important event. I wish I had time to replace my faulty one before I came.

At least there are other bloggers whom I can 'steal' some photos from.

This is how the playing hall looks like:-

It's a Gmnastic stadium and will house a total of 885 young players from Under 8 to Under 18 age groups. Of course this does not include the parents and coaches accompanying the children to the tournament.

The opening ceremony was pretty grand for a mere "Chess tournament".

The opening event was even broadcasted live on Vietnamese television - something that I don't think will ever happen if this was in Malaysia.

It's truly an International event with over 70 countries taking part.

Vung Tau is a small town shaped like a peninsula surrounded by beach so it's a natural tourist attraction. For me I like the fresh sea food that they have.

At the opening reception I took lots of fish and prawns !! :)

The selection for the chess team members who will represent Malaysia to Dresden Germany will start tomorrow (31st May 2008). I will be there to blog about the event and you can follow the news via http://blog.gilachess.com and http://tcn.sourceforge.net.