Merdeka Chess Team Rapid (Pt 2)

For final standings and even more photos, proceed to GilaChess.

Merdeka Chess Team Rapid

The Filipinos have arrived. They came, they saw and they captured the top three prizes in the recently concluded Merdeka Rapid Team Chess championship, held at Cititel Midvalley Hotel on August 18th to 19th and sponsored largely by IGB. And they are probably saying to all Malaysians ‘Mahal Kita’ which means ‘I love you’ in Tagalog. FYI, the top spot carried a prize money of RM 8,000 plus trophy which is high in terms of cash reward in our region.

As with previous event, the Merdeka Team tournament, which is part of the week long chess festival, carried a concoction of strong and weak players, young and old, undergrads, local and state chess clubs, family teams, and even a last minute participation! We have participation from China, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Singapore and of course, the Philippines. Some flew in just in time for the tournament.

We don’t see a lot of brilliancies in rapid games - although there are more tactical play and very little consideration given to strategic planning. This is because of the high rate for mistakes, blunders and missed chances. Perhaps, in real time pressure, it’s a case of whose brain processor is more powerful! Hopefully, we’ll get to see more fire across the board in the following prime event - the Malaysian Open.

There are of course chess personalities like former world champions Bobby Fischer, Mikhail Tal and Capablanca who outperformed their opponents in blitz games, especially when in front of an audience. The best is to stay true to yourself, especially when ‘external factors’ come into play.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself during the event. In between play, I managed to capture a few shots of the event. Here’s my pictorial report :

Chess meets music

Chess and music are my two great companions. Both complement each other in the way we use our thinking processes. The link between these 2 great art forms are further demonstrated in the world of computing in a soon to be marketed software program called Ludwig, a product of Chessbase, a leading German chess software company. It is discovered that music composition can be programmed in much the same way as chess.

Ludwig, due out in October 2007, should be a great music composition companion for the novice musician. It is able to compose according to any level of competency, accompanied by other musical instruments or even a full orchestra, if so desired. You can choose your own ensemble. It is suitable for people like me who is not used to rote learning and playing from memory. I depend very much on notation, actually. Perhaps, the only thing we cannot control during music composition, I suppose, is the musical style, which should be very Western and classical. Here are some samples of Ludwig’s composition.

Tears in Heaven

To all fellow medical doctors (me included) - don't forget your noble calling. Consider joining Doctors without Borders for a short stint or maybe try a humanitarian organisation closer to home? Even if you belong to non-medical field, you can try applying to join as volunteers or try adopting/saving a child in a third world country at World Vision HopeChild program. Hundreds of top performing artists from all over the whole have contributed to become child sponsors including my favourite, Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau. This is no easy undertaking, of course. However, try to reimagine your humanitarian effort as part of your contribution to a worldwide unified religious affiliation.

Celebrating Nature

'I need no inspiration other than Nature's. She has never failed me yet. She mystifies me, bewilders me, sends me into ecstasies. Besides God's handiwork, does not man's fade into insignificance?'

'To me art in order to be truly great must, like the beauty of Nature, be universal in its appeal. It must be simple in its presentation and direct in its expression, like the language of Nature.'

Mahatma Gandhi

Road to Dawn

The Road To Dawn premiered in Beijing just a few days ago, although it has yet to be screened here. So far, I believe there has been no posting about the movie as it has just been released. I’m doing this review based on historical facts. The film traces the struggle of Dr SunYat Sen, his revolutionary political career as well as his personal life. It showcases the time before the overthrow of the Manchurian government when he arrived in Penang to raise funds from the locals for his revolutionary campaign. Penang was chosen as a historical landmark because it was the center of a large Chinese population and had huge financial capability to help launch an uprising in China. At that time, emotions were burning due to the fact that China was going to be the Land of the Morning Sun.

All roads led to China.

All the fingers were pointing to the imminent transformation from an ancient civilisation into a modern, progressive nation.

That was the scenario before the 1911 Revolution turned China from a Manchurian monarchy into a republic. It was an ultra-radical 180 degree turn in her constitutional, political, education and social system. Mind you, it was not even a moderate change into a limited modernised monarchy. China was about to go full steam to become a democratic state and a land of equal opportunities. For comparison, imagine the atmosphere in KL being transformed from a hot and humid metropolis into a city filled with maple and other trees as you would see in autumn season elsewhere.

The collapse of an imperial civilisation paved way to a rebirth of modern China with the following immediate consequences (whether good or bad is for you to decide):

* introduction of scientific and philosophical methods of thinking

* abolishment of imperial examination system

* popularisation of knowledge in schools

* reform of written language

* freedom for women from social conventions, in particular mistresshood and foot binding

* erosion of Confucianism values with special reference to the family system ( the respect due from a son or daughter in regards to old age and authority)

* equality in government service

Dr Sun was not an ordinary person with revolutionist ideals. He was a medical doctor by training. He was also a prominent well-read scholar with an international status to boot. He drank Lipton tea and read English dailies. His ideas were probably Westernised due to his Christian background though he was also influenced by Confucionist ideologies. He was like Mahatma Gandhi, India’s spiritual leader, although he also possessed military prowess and a charm that would arouse the admiration of women.

His political career,can be traced to the time when he was abroad. That was why I think his return to China was like that of a prodigal son coming home to the welcome of his people. His was a romantic adventure. By romantic I mean, being idealistic and visionary, he had seen the worst of China and was capable of fanning the sentiments of a people to revolt against the monarchists’ corrupt practice. Best of all, he was doing this while most of the time he was in exile. However, he wasn’t able to realize his dream of a genuine unification of China at the time of his premature death in 1925.

His Three People’s Principles of nationalism, democracy and people’s welfare were revered by both the warring Kuomintang and Communist Party. Ironically,it became the fulcrum of the communists’ more liberal policies which were realized at the last quarter of the century. This is actually a paradoxical ideation, a similar concept which doctors learnt in psychiatry – the more obsessed a person is with a task, the worst it gets; so turn the other way.

His speech on pan-asianism in 1924 made in Kyoto, Japan, brought home the point that in order to unite as a people and restore the status of a powerful Asia, we need to veer towards benevolence and virtue, which has been our strength since antiquity. Armaments is only for self-defence and not to oppress or destroy other countries.

This nationalistic sentiment among the local Chinese had been carried through for many decades since his historical visit to Malaya. In fact, apart from generous fundings, many have shown their undivided support by sending their children back to their homeland. My late maternal grandfather was one of those who had the fervent wish to see his children deeply ingrained in this nationalistic culture. I had 3 uncles ,whom I have never met nor am I likely ever to, who were sent back while they were in their teens to join Mao Zedong’s Red Army revolution. The sad news was that they suffered psychological trauma and sometimes had to survive without meals and proper drinking water during the disastrous communist revolution which ended the rule of the Kuomintang.

Northern Lights