NTU 5th Inter-Institution Invitational Chess Championships By Kelvin Wee and Elizabeth Yeow

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) hosted the 5th edition of the Inter-Institution Invitational Chess Championships (IIICC) on 1st - 2nd June 2013. Traditionally, IIICC, as its name suggests, was only open to invited schools who are strong powerhouses in chess. A change in strategy saw the tournament being open up to all secondary schools, junior colleges, polytechnics, universities and international schools. The tournament also abandoned the usual 7-9-11 rounds tournament format. This was done in order to allow players to have an equal opportunity of play with both black and white after 8 rounds of play. The 2013 edition being FIDE (Rapid) Rated was also another first, this being in line with the Singapore Chess Federation’s (SCF) move to make all tournaments FIDE rated.

The event was attended by a total of 32 participants, hailing from 6 schools in total - Anglo-Chinese Secondary (Independent), Dunman High School, Nanyang Polytechnic, Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University. As it was an individual tournament, the two days oversaw many intense matches--a significant number of which were fought down to the last second--played between players regardless of school and age group. 

Eventual Champion Isaac Ethan Soh with the Guest of Honour, IM Goh Wei Ming

After 8 rounds, Isaak Ethan Soh of ACS(I) emerged the individual champion with a total of 6.5 points out of 8, followed closely by Crivoi Alexandru of NTU (6.5), Ang Kai Lun Melvin of NUS (6), Wee Chun Jie Eugene of ACS(I) (6) and Daniel Moskovich of NTU (6).

The crucial last round game which Isaac had to draw to emerge Champion

 Battle on the top boards...

In the Open team category, NTU Team A, consisting of Alexandru Crivoi, Daniel Moskovich and Wee Chu En Kelvin, came out top with 17 points out of 32, 1.5 points ahead of runners-up ACS(I) Secondary and the ACS(I) seniors in the JC team. Naturally, both the Secondary and JC/Poly team categories were won by ACS(I) as well.

 NTU A - Overall Champions

 ACS(I) - Champions in JC/Poly Category

 ACS(I) - Champions in Secondary School category

Overall Standings (Individual)

The awards ceremony was held at the Sports and Recreation Centre, presided by our guest-of-honour, International Master (IM) Goh Wei Ming. IM Goh needs no introduction; being the top player native to our republic, he has represented Singapore in several Chess Olympiads, SEA games and Asian games. He is also a 5-time national champion (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012). A probably little-known fact is that IM Goh is an alumni of NTU, and the NTU Sportsman of the Year in 2006, no less!

IM Goh gave a short address, quoting the 12th World Champion in saying that chess is an “art, science and sport”. IM Goh believed that science was the most important component of chess, as it embodied the study of theory and the understanding of chess. He encouraged all participants to continue playing chess actively, and not to stop playing despite our busy schedules. IM Goh then helped distribute the prizes to winners.

To end, the NTU International Chess Club organizing committee would like to thank the following people and organizations: Singapore Chess Federation; IM Goh Wei Ming, guest-of-honour; Mr Christopher Lim, FIDE Arbiter; Mrs Celine Lim, NTU Sports Officio; NTU Sports and Recreation Centre; and Liu Tong, NTU Chess Club member. It is through their help and support that this tournament ran smoothly from start to finish.

Photo credits go to Elizabeth Yeow, Kelvin Wee, Liu Tong, Wagish Kumar Rai (photographers), and Na Na (image editor)

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Here are two games from the event.

First - an endgame squeeze in which White effected a sudden breakthrough when Black got complacent ( annotations by Eugene Wee)

Finally, a rampant rook allows Black to trigger off a humongous Kingside attack (Annotations by Kelvin Wee)