International Chess Day 2021 Chess960 event

For this year’s International Chess Day, two activities were carried out by CAC and both had IM Tin Jingyao, our World Cup hero heavily involved.
First up was a Hari Raya online Chess960 event which was initially meant for Singapore Civil Service players to participate in. However, in view of ICD celebrations, the organizers decided to open the event to the ChessAgainstCovid whatsapp group, Yuhua chess club members, Singapore Varsity Chess Alliance and Chapalang team members.

So a 79-strong player, 90 minute Arena blitz (5 min + 3 sec increment) ensued and plenty of local masters and top juniors made up the numbers for the 3pm event.
The star-studded field comprised IM Tin Jingyao, IM Hsu Li Yang, FM Lee Qing Aun, FM Jarred Neubronner, FM Ashvin Sivakumar, CM Jayden Wong CM Advait Bagri, Ian Wong (former top player in the 80s) and current and former junior champions such as Sean Goh, Ng Sheng Feng, Ethan Poh, Jonathan Goh, Ashton Chia, Sarah Ann Ang and Charlene Mak.
The tournament was basically a two-horse race between FM Lee Qing Aun and IM Tin. Both of them remained unbeaten throughout the event and just racked up the points to pull away from the other contenders.

FM Lee Qing Aun, at the Kharisma Workshop which he organized at the Ang Mo Kio CC in 2018.

The Lichess Arena format (pairing available players with closest points) resulted in the two players not getting the chance to play each other, despite logging in 10 games. So they just kept amassing points to try to pip each other to the finish line. And in the decisive final game, both had tough opponents to contend with with less than 10 minutes to conclude. Qing Aun had to try to break down the resolute defence of CM Advait Bagri while Jingyao seized the advantage over Sheng Feng early in the game with a pawn sacrifice.

https://lichess.org/study/uZKVT1x6/91K66Tle

So even though Qing Aun got the job done, he only achieved it after the 90-minute mark and the one point difference (JY 38, QA 37) won the current National Champion the ICD chess960 title!

You can’t see the chagrin on his face after being pipped to the post by Jingyao...but FM ‘Hobbit’ Lee Qing Aun was so close to pole position.

You can check out the event in the link below:
https://lichess.org/tournament/SZFR5z46

Thus Jingyao clinched the book prize, an autographed copy of FM Andrey Terekhov’s The Life and Games of Vasily Smyslov: Volume I - The Early Years: 1921-1948 which had just clinched the FIDE 2020 Book of the year award.

However, Andrey decided that Qing Aun’s effort was equally deserving as well, so the Fide Master and National Serviceman got the book as well!

To wrap up this segment, here’s how Jingyao’s endgame technique got him past Ian Wong, a former top player and the Singapore Public Service co-champion this year.

The 2nd event, an IM Tin JY Ask-me-anything session will be covered in the next blogpost.