Closing in on IM Tan Lian Ann’s record of 10 Singapore National Championships titles
GM Kevin Goh Wei Ming and WGM Gong Qianyun edged closer to local legend IM Tan Lian Ann’s 10 Singapore Championships titles with by claiming the National and National Ladies titles for their 8th and 9th time respectively though at some point, they were thinking it would be beyond their reach for the 2022 edition.
Kevin who also serves as the Singapore Chess Federation’s CEO, was already thinking of calling it quits on his playing career as early as round 3 when he blundered a piece in a drawish ending against his student Jayden Wong. In the previous two National Championship events, he had shed more than 50 Elo points with similar uncharacteristic blunders and he was wondering if he could still play proper chess.
This time round, he hunkered down after the setback and acknowledged that he had played overt risky chess in Rounds 1 and 3 and gotten himself into unnecessary time trouble. He thus decided to change his playing approach, to patiently build his position without speculative play. This paid great dividends as he went through the rest of the tourney unbeaten, winning from Round 4 to 8. The last round fighting draw against last year’s champion FM Andrean Susilodinata clinched him the title, one clear point ahead of IM Enrique Paciencia and GM Tin Jinyao.
The turning point was the Round 5 encounter against the top seed 2598 rated Tin Jingyao (who was featured in NIC 2023-1) with the latter in the lead with 4.5 points, half point ahead of Kevin.
A thumping win over a very difficult rival for the $2500 first prize . And as Wei Ming jokingly indicated, “I’m sure Jingyao will overtake the record of 10 titles in the future. I’m happy to delay it for now!”.
WGM Gong Qianyun’s chances of winning the National Ladies title for the 9th time was almost dashed as she found herself on a miserable 3.5/7 after her Rds 1 and 2 wins were followed by 3 straight draws and 2 subsequent losses. This meant even if she won the next two games, she would have to rely on 19 year old university student Saravanan Dunga (5/7) and Sreekartika Velmurugan (4/7) to drop points to catch up. Qianyun isn’t known as the Tahan (resistance) Queen in Singapore for nothing as she won convincingly in the next two games. Her closest rivals shed points in those two rounds and Qianyun even got to avoid a playoff for the title.
Here is the crucial last round win which earned her $1500 and custody of the WIM Chan Lai Fung challenge trophy.
Congrats to both Wei Ming and Qianyun for keeping the young punks at bay!
