Blog GilaChess

There is so many weekend tourneys in Malaysia I don't visit any except if I am invited or if it's near my place. (This tourney happened to be 10minutes away from IKEA where I was having breakfast). This tourney in Dr Cafe is special because it is held in a cafe and there is free lunch provided.

From the prize money and entrance fee (RM 40) it can be quickly deduced the cost is mostly covered by the main sponsor - Dr Cafe. Certainly a change with many other weekend tournaments that try to break even or profit from the entrance fee.


First thing I noticed is the nice atmosphere where the tourney was taking place. It was like playing chess in Starbucks!

I've never heard of Dr Cafe before but a quick check with FourSquares shows it is rated highly by locals. Few cafes are highly rated and Malaysian Foodies are a spoilt lot. Wished I got a chance to try any of Dr Cafe beverage but didn't so can
't write a review on that. Next time!



The event advertised the maximum of 100 participants but only 77 were present. That is a repectable number as this event clashed with another tournament taking place in Klang Valley at the same time.

41 were playing in the junior (Under 12) section  and a total of 36 players played under the combined Under 18 and Open section.




To show you how busy the junior section was here is a time-lapse video:


The Chief Arbiter



The cafe was certainly not big enough to cater for both chess participants AND their parents as well as their own customers so some tents were set up outside. That's good planning by DR Cafe otherwise it would have been pretty uncomfortable.


All participants got free lunch which was nice. (again since I didn't take part I didn't get to taste their lunch :( )


Arbiter! Arbiter!




The Open/Under-18 was won by Aron Teh with a score of a perfect 6/6!








Razali Hamzah (Ng6) won 2nd prize.


Dawson Tan took 3rd prize.


Esther Tan - U18 champion.

More pictures from the event:-

Full results in Chess-results.com

Open/U18: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr286613.aspx?lan=1&art=4&wi=821
U12: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr286612.aspx?lan=1&art=4&wi=821











Sponsorship from Dr Cafe also meant loss of normal customers for the day as can be seen we chess players totally monopolised the cafe space! :)

P/S: Would have love to have captured some top board games (especially those games from Aron Teh!)but the cafe tables were too small to place a big ass DGT board on top of it. I could have another camera capture the action live but I don't have enough spare cams yet. Next time!!

Watch out for her!



Here are some pictures of Samantha in action at the Selangor Open 2017.

 
          

The show was definitely entertaining and I think is the best of all the Spiderman movie iterations. Particularly for that one lesson it brings. I was particularly surprised how high tech they made Spiderman suit and of course, it was natural the Spidey grew rather too dependant on it.

It's like chess player's over reliance on databases, engines and ratings to make them feel confident in a competition.

For me, my weakness was the fear of getting into an official rated FIDE game or online rated game. At least not until I improved my game to a decent level. This procrastinating and lack of self confidence behaviour even stopped me from joining rated games in Starcraft for fear I don't get a decent starting ranking/rating (not until I improved my game a little). Of course I know this becomes a perpetual cycle of excuse for inaction.

I liked how Spidey learnt the hard way and quickly relied on the little that he has to make the best of things. The finale shows him fighting without his high tech suit.

Work with what little you have, recognize your strengths and make the most out of it.

Overall I give this movie an 8/10.

So how did you find the movie?

Help University Subang 2 Campus

We all know the essential apps you can have on your PC and that's Chessbase, Fritz or some other engine app. Maybe an endgame table base to complement Chessbase. Skype and messaging software if you are getting online coaching and that's it.

What about on the handphone and tablet platform? I did a quick Google search and it came up with useless results. Even the 8 best chess apps recommended by Chess.com was rubbish in my humble opinion. One of them was chess wallpaper app. Really?

For me these are what I think are essential for the gila chess warrior:

Follow Chess

Important if you want to keep up with the latest games being played live all over the world.


Analyze This

Also written by the same talented Follow Chess programmer this app integrates well with Follow Chess allowing you to analyse any game being watched on Follow Chess. You can also cut and paste other games you found from other sources to be analyzed using different engines. There is a paid and free version. Basically the paid one allows you to add and use more engines of your choice but the ones in the free version is already more than enough in my opinion.

Chessbase

This one I recommend whole heartedly as it actually helped me win RM 600 in a rapid event letting me prepare against many strong opponents. I even got a favourable position against WGM Irene Sukhandar which I of course squandered and lost in the end. But the point is, I got a good opening positions in many cases just by last minute reference to this app before the game.



Of course honorary mention to AI Chess for our very own local chess app database to book up on our own chess player (whose game you may never find in Chessbase). Sure, the app lacks polish and features of other chess programs but it is useful for local preparations.

Disclaimer:
These are what I feel are the essential apps for Android users but if you feel I have missed any please do tell me!