More European successes for Singaporean lads
First off, a fruitful Czech expedition for 5 youngsters.
IM Cyrus Low, FM Ashvin Sivakumar, FM Lee Qing Aun, CM Lee Junwei and Matthew Lau spent their January in the Czech Republic, seeking to push their chess skills to greater heights and they did not disappoint.
IM Cyrus Low made a clean 7-0 sweep to emerge champion in the Marianske Lazne rapid, finished 3rd in the Marianske Lazne blitz and 6th in the Praha blitz.
FM Ashvin Sivakumar was the champion of the Praha Rapid open (TPR 2505!) and he also finished 5th in the Marianske Lazne blitz.
FM Lee Qing Aun took 1st position in the Marianske Lazne IM Norm (B2) event and his TPR 2386 performance there helped him reach 7th place on the Singapore active rating list (Elo 2339).
CM Lee Junwei was a big Elo gainer, grabbing a massive 75 points. He finished 2nd in the Marianske Lazne rapid, 4th in Marianske Lazne blitz and 7th in the Mariakse Lazne Open. Talk about stamina!
Matthew Lau, who was the lowest rated among the six, got the biggest Elo harvest. He only played in the Praha and Marianske Lazne Open, amassing a total of 87 ELO points, bringing him past the Elo 2000 mark, settling in nicely at 2063.
Next up, CM William Woong has not been slouching in the past few months, spending December and January in Spain (Barcelona) and England.
William facing FM Luis Sanchez at Sunway Stiges Festival, Barcelona (Photo credit: Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival Website)
William gained 57 points from his London Chess Classic campaign, culminating in a classy win over Scottish GM Ketevan Arakhamia Grant in the final round.
Last but not least, Siddarth Jagadeesh, joined in the local Elo 2000+ club on the strength of his results in the Villach Open and Graz Open in Austria. The massive 177 points gain propelled him to 20th spot on the local active rating list at Elo 2086 as well as puts him at number 5 on the World's top U11 list.
