We went to the Malaysia Chess Festival 2025 this month and it was awesome. Two of my daughters played in the age group team’s category and they did pretty good, even though I believe that they can achieve more.
We became friends with WIM Diajeng Theresa Singgih, all thanks to Ben for introducing us to her. She’s a very strong player with deep understanding of the game. What I admire about her is her resilient in playing the game; she achieved 2100+ and then her rating crumble down to 1800 due to some personal reasons.
What did she do?
She climbed back up. Now she’s at 2089 and climbing back up.
Pondering some things
Coming back into the chess scene after a hiatus is such an eye-opener. Diajeng informed me that Kamalsyah is now an FM; we played once in Malaysia Chess Challenger 2016. It was a good game; I had black and misplayed my opening and had to defend in a bad position.
I lost 9 rating points in that tournament; and not only that, I lost twice to Kamalsyah and another young girl named Sim Jia Ru from Malaysia.
What made me ponder is the current achievement of these two; Kamalsyah is already an FM while Sim Jia Ru is already a WFM.
Me?
I’ve evolved from a young dumb man into a grumpy old man, but still dumb.
I am not sure whether quitting chess was a good decision or not – had to admit that I did not consult anyone when I was making the decision.
Oh well….
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