I have just finished two tournaments in Austria, the excellently organised Lienz Open and Graz Open and I am astonished at the number of Caro-Kanns that were played in the latter. Perhaps, it is because the inventor of this opening, Markus Kann is...
My apologies for the delay - I've been really busy at work and when I'm not working, I was busy with chess! I in fact just finished playing a tournament in Iran and I am typing this out in a PAUL cafe in Dubai, awaiting my next flight back home.&n...
It is kinda late to post a happy new year-ish type of post but in my defence, it has taken me quite a bit of time to go through all of the games that I played in December. I very seldom participate in local events but somehow, I caught a chess bug...
Well, on the December 2017 rating list at least. I had always been hovering around the 2nd or 3rd spot for as long as I can remember and I've never really cared about topping the list because 1) the GM title matters a lot more and 2) there was nev...
In the weeks to come, I will be covering several recent books on the opening in this column. While there are many experienced trainers out there who demand that us amateurs stop looking at openings and focus on the real chess, the fact of the matt...
I've just returned from a summer chess trip and even though I did not manage to accomplish my primary goal (painfully missing the final GM norm by half a point at De Sants 2017, being the highlight of this trip), I did at least achieve other forms...
So I've just returned from this year's summer attempt to make my final Grandmaster norm and many of my friends might already have known that I've come mighty close to achieving exactly that in my final event of the tour. The Legend has already&nbs...
Chess has, without question, undergone a huge renaissance in the US these days. There are simply too many spectacular accomplishments: Winning the 2016 Chess Olympiad for the first time in the last 40 odd years, Jeffrey Xiong joining a long and il...
The SCF will be holding its annual AGM on 3 July 2017, 8pm at the Cairnhill CC. It is also election year, and so members will have the opportunity to appraise how well the current Exco has done for the last 2 years in terms of serving the local ch...
I have to admit that I was a little surprised when I saw that the young and very strong Indian Grandmaster, Gujrathi Vidit filming a set of opening DVDs for Chessbase. After all, he is still an active competitive player and I was more used to name...
White to play a "tahan" move I managed to play in a rapid tournament yesterday and although I was the highest rated player in the field, I was not really expecting much given that the intention was really to shake off some rust, experiment wit...
Some of you might have read that I am now the official book reviewer for Chess.com and I have tentatively set the date for my first review to be on 30 June 2017. If you have any books that you are interested in, please feel free to comment below o...
The QCD Sg Chess League is a joint initiative between the QCD Group and the SCF and is a refreshing and welcome change to the largely junior-focused events that we have seen in abundance in Singapore. Players have to be above the age of 20 in orde...
In the last 5-6 years, I had acquired somewhat of a reputation as an openings-based type of player who relies significantly on "having a powerful serve", as my friend Junior Tay likes to say. Additionally, my aggressive style has led GM Wong Meng ...
