Thursday, December 29, 2016

MEMBERSHIP 2017

Join as a member this year and you are automatically in the starting list for the Thomson Club Championship 2017 happening February 19 Sunday at the Thomson CC Hall.

To join, if you are aged 13 and above the fees are $18 a year. You need to own a PAssioncard membership ($12 for 5 years). Therefore you need only to renew your Club membership for 2017. Your name then appears in the Seniors section for the Club Championship.

If you are aged 12 and under (by birth year), the fees are $10 a year plus a valid PAssioncard membership. Once you are a member, your name appears in the Junior Section for the Club Championship.

You can sign up starting 6th January onwards and closing date is 15th February 2017.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

BOTVINNIK - DECEMBER 30TH 2016


The 6th World Champion, Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik, lived through 2 World Wars and got to the Chess Olympus via a Candidates tournament staged in 1948 after the death of the 5th World Champion Alekhine in 1946. He won the tournament with 14/20. Ironically, he was the only World Champion never to have won a World Championship match, but was reinstated twice via rematches! He lost to Vasily Smyslov in 1957 and regained it the following year,  then to Tal in 1960 and regained it in 1961. As for the Bronstein match in 1951, he did not win the match but drew and kept his title. 

Botvinnik was the pioneer in chess preparation which involved deep study of the opening all through to the endgame. He was a specialist in the lines he played and had good ideas that span right until the endgame. Strangely, Petrosian his conqueror adopted the same approach and won a game in their match via deep analysis of an opening line in the Grunfeld which gave White a lasting plus. 

This approach to chess influenced his later pupils Kasparov and Karpov so their 3 matches in World Champion history became models of opening preparation. 

Come on down Dec 30th to Thomson Chess Club with FT Bradley for the last lecture in 2016 and learn more about the achievements of the great Botvinnik! I am sure it will change the way you'd look at the game.

Monday, October 24, 2016

MAX EUWE LECTURE OCTOBER 28

Max Euwe 1963.jpg






We resume the activities of the Thomson Chess Club with a lecture by Bradley Loh on the 5th World Champion Machcgielis "Max" Euwe . Max Euwe was Dutch and a mathematician who was also strong in chess. He won the title from a poor-form Alexander Alekhine in 1935 in Holland. He was generous to allow a rematch, which Alekhine told full advantage of and prepared thoroughly. The 1937 match ended in a victory for the Russian and thus ended the World Championship reign of Max.  He was nvited to the 1948 Tournament for selecting the World Champion after Alekhine passed on in 1946, but was unable to stop Mikhail Botvinnik to the crown.

Please reserve your seats by replying to jfan2003@gmail.com , priority goes to members of Thomson Chess Club.

Friday, July 22, 2016

ALEKHINE LECTURE 22 JULY


Tonight the topic was Alekhine..the 4th World Champion whose speciality was his multifaceted plans often confused his opponents.

Apart from imaginative combinations, Alekhine placed great importance in preparing innovations in the opening. Many systems with gambit possibilities were uncovered in his games, setting the pace for successors like Garry Kasparov.


Tuesday, June 28, 2016

LECTURE ON ALEKHINE JULY 22

July's lecture by Bradley covers the 4th World Champion, Alexander Alekhine.


Alekhine's fame rests on his ability to produce deep combinations when one least expects, based on his choice of moves which often masks his plans. His legacy to the chess world is best depicted in his collection of games which is available as Alekhine's Best Games below:


All players who are tactical and wish to go into 1 d4 from 1 e4 will do well to study his games.

July 22nd 8pm. Seats are limited to members only. Please message me for reservations.

MATCH WITH BULLDOGS JUNE 24

This has been covered here

Sunday, June 5, 2016

PLAYERS FOR JUNE 24 MATCH


Calling all Thomson Chess Club members  rated 1400 and above..

We are playing a 11 board match against BullDogs Team and would like to gather as many as possible. Naturally we would want to field a decently strong team to match their average rating of 1600.

Please email me soonest at johnwongfk63@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Monday, May 30, 2016

MATCH INSTEAD OF LECTURE IN JUNE

For June, we decide to take a break from the lecture series and instead, Thomson Chess Club is organising a friendly match with the BullDogs Team at our Club!

The BullDogs Team is made up of Filipino expatriates who are crazy about chess and mind you, they are strong and often finish highly in our local tournaments. My task is to rope in as many that they can muster.

Format of the match shall be 2 games of 15 min with 10 sec increment.  We shall do a blitz one sometime later.

Members who are interested to play please email me. The date is tentatively set at 24 June.


Tuesday, May 24, 2016

LECTURE ON CAPABLANCA MAY 27

The coming lecture by Bradley will be focused on the 3rd World Champion, Jose Raul Capablanca


He is Cuban, learnt chess at a young age by watching his father play. One day while his father was playing, he could even tell him that  an illegal move was made with the Knight. Mark of a genius.

We start 8pm this Friday at the Club, please come early to take your seats.

Friday, May 6, 2016

THOMSON CHESS FIESTA 28 29 MAY

The entry forms are available on the SCF Website.

CLOSED TILL MAY 27

Please note that the Thomson Club sessions will be suspended till May 27. We shall resume with the lecture on World Champion Jose R Capablanca then.


Thursday, April 7, 2016

LECTURE ON LASKER APRIL 22

 The next World Champion featured will be the 2nd, Emmanuel Lasker


Emmanuel  M Lasker hails from a chess-playing family, his brother Berthold is also a master. He holds the title for the longest period of 27 years (1894-1921) and has battled the likes of Janowski, Marshall, Tarrasch and Schlechter before bowing out to J R Capablanca. 

He taught the world to play chess in his famous work " Lasker's Manual of Chess"

by expounding Steinitz's theories in great detail.

Bradley will be at the Club 22 April Friday at 8pm to say more about this great champion. Please reply via whatsapp or email me if you wish to reserve places.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

TURNOUT AT STEINITZ LECTURE 18 MARCH


All present get to review the game Steinitz - Sellman which was a classic positional game expounding many of Steinitz's theories on the accumulation of small advantages as listed below:

1. Keep connected pawns

2. Create backward pawns in opponent's wing (medium weakness for opponent)

3. Create doubled pawns in opponent's wing

4. Isolate the  opponent's   pawns

5. Keeping our majority of queen side pawns to create remote passed pawn advantage in the end

6. Weakening of the pawns especially in front of the opponent's king

7. Create secure advanced posts and posting pieces there

8. Control of open files

9. Play in the centre

10. Advance the queen-side pawn-chain to cramp the enemy

11. Keep the Bishop Pair advantage with you and devoid your opponent from this
advantage if possible (exchange his one bishop with your knight)

12. Avoiding all such weaknesses in our camp (unless serious material loss is threatened) and create positional strengths

Steinitz has also expounded principles of conducting the game shown below, as listed in his writings in the Modern Chess Instructor:
1-At the beginning of the game, the forces stand in equilibrium.

2-Correct play on both sides maintains the equilibrium and leads to a drawn game.

3-Therefore, a player can only win as a result of an error made by the opponent (there is no such thing as a winning move).

4-As long as equilibrium is maintained, an attack, no matter how skillfully executed, cannot succeed against correct defense. Such a defense will necessitate the withdrawal and regrouping of the attacking pieces and the attacker will inevitably suffer disadvantage.

5-Therefore, a player should not attack until he already has an advantage, caused by the opponent’s error. That justifies the decision to attack.

6-At the beginning of the game a player should not seek to attack, instead a player should seek to disturb the equilibrium in his favor by inducing the opponent to make an error-a necessity before attacking.

7-When a sufficient advantage has been obtained, a player must attack tany weakness created or the advantage will be dissipated

Thanks to Bradley for having done a fantastic job in teaching the class these principles!

Thursday, February 25, 2016

LECTURE ON STEINITZ MARCH 18

Bradley will continue the series on World Champions with his lecture on Wilhelm Steinitz, the man who revolutionised chess thinking with his theory on chess positional play.



Come witness a great game where Steinitz puts  his theory into action. You are not going to see fireworks but the methodical buildup of factors listed by the great World Champion.

We start at 8pm and this will last 1 hour. There will be no league game on March 18.

Please reply at johnwongfk63@gmail.com to reserve your seats. Members only.

NEW RAPID LEAGUE STARTING MARCH 4

We start a new rapid chess league next week from March 4. This will be played on the 15 minutes with 10 sec increment. Each game lasts about 50 minutes if the game is played to 60 moves. The games will start from 8pm.

Those wanting to have a feel for the time control before the National Schools Individual Championship can take part. We can play 2 games each Friday.

Interested members  please email me at johnwongfk63@gmail.com.

Monday, February 15, 2016

LECTURE ON PAUL MORPHY


Thanks again to Bradley for his insightful lecture on the game Morphy vs Duke of Brunswick & Count Isouard! This is a good game to emphasise the value of chess tempo in the opening, particularly on Open Games. The participants get small prizes in the form of chocolate candy for their answers to the questions.

We will do this again March 18. See you then if you missed this one.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

THOMSON CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 31 JANUARY

Please see the

ENTRY FORM which is the membership form

TOURNAMENT DETAILS for the event

Prizes for the different sections are given - these are old books which come from my collection. No trophies.

Please note. First place winner gets first pick, 2nd place second pick and so on..

Thursday, January 14, 2016

SIMUL TONIGHT

Please come in to sign your membership if you are playing in the simultaneous match with IM Tin Jing Yao if you have not done so.

We shall seat the players at 730pm, the simul will start 745pm sharp. Latecomers will have their places taken by those present who wish to play.

Have fun!

Sunday, January 10, 2016

MEMBERSHIP FOR 2016

Join as a member this year and you are automatically in the starting list for the Thomson Club Championship 2016 happening January 31 Sunday at the Thomson CC Hall.

To join, if you are aged 13 and above the fees are $18 a year. You need to own a PAssioncard membership ($12 for 5 years). Therefore you need only to renew your Club membership for 2017. Your name then appears in the Seniors section for the Club Championship.

If you are aged 12 and under (by birth year), the fees are $10 a year plus a valid PAssioncard membership. Once you are a member, your name appears in the Junior Section for the Club Championship.

The starting list shall be published 2 days before the event.