One Last Hurrah

The National Schools Individual Chess Championships (NSICC) is a - mark these words, you might hear them during a prize presentation near you soon (yes, you may have even heard them twice before) - national championship in which many top Singaporean juniors participate, and a qualifying tournament for the National Junior Training Squad, which serves as as the national pipe-line to TEAM SINGAPORE.

It is a competition which, along with its cousin tournament - the National Inter-Schools Team Chess Championships (NISTCC) - I’ve faithfully played in every year since I entered chess in 2000. For eight years, I’ve witnessed its evolution from the original one-hour time control (over three days) to 25 minutes in 2006 (over two days) and then 20 minutes in 2007. This also includes a transition from favouring weekends towards weekdays, and a gradual separation of categories, to the point where each age-group is now played on a different day where previously they would be all held concurrently. The age-boundaries of the categories have also been recently changed to follow those found in international competitions (from U16, U14, U10, and U8 to U15, U13, U11, U9 and U7 now).

Over the years, the event has been held in Jurong, ACS Barker (the campus I never got to enjoy), Hougang, Tampines, Yishun and Bedok, and more. I have played in various schools and sports halls, in air-conditioned rooms and not. This year’s edition takes it to AMK, and will be unprecedented in that the event has been shortened by a round (from nine to eight), and will be completed within a single day.

I have witnessed faces come and go, seen faces change over the years, played in every section from the Boys Under-10, Under-12, Under-14, Under-16 and finally the Open. Over the years, I’ve also played some memorable chess in it, but also committed some hair-raising blunders - understandably so, since NSICC marks the bulk of my tournament experience. For years, it was - along with NISTCC - the only tournament in the calendar I would dare to play in. No vesak or labour or children’s day rapids, no national inter-clubs, no ASEAN, but I would come out of my shell for this one in March, and the other one in August or September.

Some years, I’ve come away with a prize; never one of the top prizes - the field has always simply been too strong for that - but still, something to be happy about - in 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2006. The other years were years of heartbreak, leaving with little else to show but regrets - 2001, 2002, 2005, and 2007 - especially so, since in three of them I missed out only on tiebreaks.

Come the 10th of March, I will play in this event for my ninth and final time. Ideally, there would be time to prepare to do battle, but unfortunately the business of IB life doesn’t quite permit it. Nonetheless, it will be a competition worth looking forward to. What will this year bring?

Yesterday

Yesterday could have been a really good day. I woke up early. I had an interesting English lesson, the first mock IOC presentation which set the bar really high. Physics was good, as always. I was commended during Economics for handing in my work early. And I received my first good test result of the year, 28/30 for Chemistry. I got home as early as I could have. I finished reading a book. I set my mind upon finishing whatever work that was due, and I did. I plotted nice titration curves. I did the best I could for my chem report, and duly finished it. People said interesting things to me during the day, with some interesting conversations resulting. I received permission to donate blood. Yesterday could have been a really good day.

The Courage Song

 and the wisdom to know the difference

The new year’s come. The watchmen shout.
The thaw sets in. The dead remain.
Wherever life has not died out
It staggers to its feet again.

Heroes

I have two heroes.

One is a fictional character. The other is dead. No prizes for guessing who they are.

One’s life ended in tragedy, while the other’s was shaped by it. Between them, they demonstrate the effects of individualism when taken to extremes. I admire and respect them for their willingness to make the controversial decisions, their complexity of character, the way they defend(ed) the ideals they stand (stood) for, and for their will to work and dedication towards becoming the best at what they do (or did).

But I don’t particularly harbour any hopes of becoming either one of them.

Quality and Pressure

Just the other day, I was talking to my junior about the IB workload. At some point in the middle on the conversation, I asked him the question “What is the first thing that has to be sacrificed when there is so much work?”

He answered quickly: CCA; sleep. And that would be correct, more or less. But what next?

Quality of work. Quality of everything else.

*****

Under current conditions, things will never be ideal for producing a perfect piece of work, as much as we would like them to be. Most of us may have at one time or another dreamed about locking ourselves away for the weekend, to produce a brilliant piece of EE, TOK , or World Lit, something that will stick at the first go with little or no changes. Unfortunately, that opportunity doesn’t quite avail itself very often, if at all. And so it does us little good to bear that ideal in mind, and heap on the pressure on oneself when one does indeed finish the work under real conditions - there’s little to be gained by reminding oneself that the real work falls short of the ideal quality of work. But I think the main factor affecting how things eventually turn out is the way we respond to pressure - under the pressure and madness of IB, some individuals break through, while others break down. It is the response to this stress which could produce a positive or negative swing in quality - and if so the former, I believe that work approaching that of near-ideal conditions can be produced.

But enough of incoherent rambling. Time to break through, somehow.

123 Meme

Tagged by Derek, but I had no clear closest book in sight and settled upon Chris Ward’s Chess Choice Challenge 3. Actually, my closest was probably Siddhartha but everyone has that and presumably someone has done it before.

Instructions
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Interestingly, page 123 has only four sentences, notation not included (and I have no idea how I would count it). Therefore everything is from the first sentence of page 124 instead. Bearing in mind that the book in question is a chess quiz book:

I’ll give 2pts for A because that also crossed my mind. Nevertheless the top 5pts go to those who selected C.

Q4

After 1 Rea1 Rxb2 2 Qe1 (rather than 2 Qxa5?? Rb1+) 2…Nb4, there is no doubt that White would be on the back foot. 1 b3 and 1 Ra2 are too passive and counterplay must be sought on the kingside.

*****

The reader should also note that I have not bothered to type out the given notation in figurine as was given in the book and converted it to alphabets instead.

Hong Bao Rapid

Finally, a satisfying performance after the past 3 relatively dismal showings (Inter-Clubs, Inter-School Teams, and January). 6 out of 7, a share of equal 2nd-4th, another trophy, and about 5 weeks worth of money.The full results of the tournament can be found here. Everything has been uploaded into PGN but checking with Fritz will have to wait until I have more time and energy.

*****
Here is my round 7 game against the 3rd seed. I’m pretty happy with how smoothly everything went.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 c6 7. Qc2 Nbd7 8. Bd3 O-O 9. Nge2 Re8 10. O-O g6 11. f3 Nh5 (I don’t understand the point of Black’s last two moves) 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. e4 dxe4 (it seems that giving up the centre so readily is not such a good idea. 13…Nb6 here may have been preferred) 14. fxe4 Nb6 15. a4! (for this move and the following) a5 16. Qb3 Qc7 17. Rf2 Rd8 (Be6 may have been better) 18. d5 (actually, Raf1 here seems to be better. I think I was scared of …Be6 coming but then d5 anyway comes with tempo) Ng7 (trying to reactivate the knight but Black gets into trouble now. 18…cxd5 was playable) 19. Raf1(Rc1 is a possible improvement, but I didn’t look at it too closely over the board) cxd5 20. Rxf7 (Into the breach. Black cannot play …Qxf7 since the b6-knight would hang) Qc5+ 21. R7f2 (The most accurate. By now I already had a good lead on the clock.) Be6 22. Nf4 Bf7 (this looks natural but in light of what happens next, …Kh8 had to be better) 23. Nfxd5 Nxd5 24. exd5 Rd7? (Now we see why …Kh8 earlier was preferable - capturing on d5 is not possible because a pin along the a2-g8 diagonal wins. But the move played loses too.) 25. Ne4 (Menacing Black’s queen and also threatening an invasion at f6 winning more material. If 25…Bxd5 then 26. Nxc5 Bxb3 27. Nxd7 and White is just a rook up, so my opponent resigned) 1-0

The Price Of Excellence

Addendum to the previous post, now that I’m more awake.
*****

What is the cost of achieving academic excellence? The question could be extended to other areas, but I’ll keep it specific for the sake of this post. What is its direct cost, in terms of time and energy spent? What is its opportunity cost, i.e. what has to be foregone in pursuit of this ideal?

To begin answering these questions, one must first define the term. This is something best left to the reader to arrive at for himself - it may be anything ranging from understanding of concepts, knowing their implications, getting good results, validating one’s existence, or realising how what one learns affects the rest of his or her knowledge.

But whatever the working definition used, it is likely that the higher the standards of academic excellence that one upholds, the higher the real cost of striving to attain it.

In light of this, does it make the ideal any less worth pursuing?

If not, why? Does it then just make it more inconvenient? Or does it make it more rewarding in the end? Or does it just make pursuing the ideal entirely not worth the trouble at all?

Lithium

In a week marked by craziness, aberration, and high tension, today would easily have been the best school day of the week.

Home at last. A source of solace, a place of peace, comfort, and rest. Just what I need for the weekend ahead.
*****

Conformity. Non-conformity. Normality. Abnormality. Expectation. Subversion of expectation. What price individuality? What price failure? And what price excellence?

Sins Of The Other

I am sick and tired of getting scolded for the sins of others, sick and tired of being lambasted for crimes I did not commit. I have done my work (generally), I have come to school on time, I have behaved myself during lessons, I have kept the class clean. Why must I be forced to endure all the scoldings, which are getting more and more frequent, more and more drawn-out, and more and more repetitive?I am sick and tired of my teachers’ endless droning on in as long-winded a manner as possible about the need of said persons to get their act together, work harder, be more disciplined, have a better attitude, come to school on time (if at all), keep the class clean, behave in class, stop interrupting lessons, and goodness knows what else. I don’t understand why they choose to waste the time of others by repeatedly reprimanding the problematic few in the presence of the innocent.

These people disgust me to no end. The students, not the teachers. The teachers are okay.