Singapore Chess

The following sections are included:

• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• NOTES ON GAMES, ANNOTATIONS AND SOURCES
• ABBREVIATIONS AND ANNOTATIONS SYMBOLS

Following the end of World War II, chess in Singapore was rejuvenated by a handful of active pioneers led by Yeoh Bok Choon (1911–1983) and Lim Kok Ann (1920–2003). The old Singapore Chess Club, the colony’s leading club before the war, was brought back to life and a growing number of local chess players began to challenge the supremacy of a crowd of competent Europeans who still dominated the Malayan chess scene (the Dutchman J. Fernhout, the Irishman J.C. Hickey, the Englishman D.B. Pritchard and his wife Elaine Saunders, and the Swiss R. Fontana). The Malayan Chess Federation was the leading chess institution but, gradually, Lim Kok Ann rolled out plans for a Singapore body. The first attempts to reorganise the local chess life unfolded.

With the late 1950s Singapore chess entered a new era. Scholastic chess took off in the middle of this decade and the emergence of a prodigious talent took the local chess to a new level both in terms of performance and excitement. At the end of this period, Singapore chess was in a position to fulfil an essential desideratum: to be able to form the nucleus of a future national team aiming to take part in Chess Olympiads.

Energised by Tan Lian Ann’s remarkable exploits, organised chess in Singapore grew further. For the first time, a Singapore Olympic team travelled to take part in a Chess Olympiad (Lugano, 1968), an experience repeated two years later (Siegen, 1970). Scholastic chess boomed, and, in addition to becoming a popular stop for elite masters, Singapore played host for two Zone-level international events.

The news of Bobby Fischer’s exploits in the late 1960s and early 1970s reached the hearts and minds of Singapore youngsters with the same intensity they did everywhere else in the world. A few gifted young Singaporeans joined Tan Lian Ann at the top of the national pecking order. Leslie Leow and Lim Seng Hoo, two of the very best, emerged as the leading players of the 1970s, with excellent results in world-class junior events. Grandmasters Miguel Najdorf and Max Euwe visited Singapore, a team took part in the Skopje Olympiad and Tan Lian Ann became an International Master.

The second part of the 1970s saw more Soviet and Eastern European Grandmasters giving exhibitions and lectures in Singapore. This period also saw Giam Choo Kwee and Lim Seng Hoo’s successful campaigns to reach international-level mastery. There was another Chess Olympiad outing (Nice, 1974). Several newly discovered Singapore juniors scored well both globally and regionally.

Thanks to unprecedented local press coverage, the buzz created by the dramatic Karpov vs. Korchnoi match in Baguio City translated into a greater interest in chess in Singapore. For the first time, the Lion City hosted an international tournament for women and a Singapore woman player qualified for the Interzonal. While Lim Seng Hoo surprised his contemporaries by withdrawing from competitive chess, 16-year-old Wong Meng Kong became the country’s fourth International Master and, for the first time in 20 years, the Singapore Chess Federation elected a new president.

The early 1980s were the years of the prolonged Karpov versus Kasparov rivalry. Despite Lim Kok Ann’s absence from Singapore (his professional retirement coinciding with his stint as FIDE General-Secretary), news of the clash between the two Soviet giants filled the Singapore newspapers and the efforts of these two iconic masters inspired a new generation of players, teachers, organisers and regular fans. Most notably, beginning from 1982, Singapore restarted its participation in Chess Olympiads (Men’s). Starting with the 25^th Chess Olympiad in Lucerne, Switzerland, the Singapore team would not miss a single edition.

The late 1980s brought about more fiercely-contested Kasparov versus Karpov matches, growing popularity of faster time controls (rapid and blitz) and some of the earliest chessplaying minicomputers. The Singapore scene registered a greater involvement with FIDE and witnessed the rise of young master-level players such as Wong Foong Yin, Hsu Li Yang, Jeremy Lim, Terry Toh and Lee Wang-Sheng. In addition to hosting the World Youth Championships (U-18 and U-16), Singapore sent teams to compete at the Thessaloniki (1988) and Novi Sad (1990) Olympiads.

The following sections are included:

• AFTERWORD
• APPENDICES
• SOURCES
• INDEX OF OPENINGS (ECO CODE)
• INDEX OF PLAYERS
• GENERAL INDEX