Yesterday, and Today...

Okay, guys, sorry I didn't manage to blog yesterday. I was too tired...
So, I'm gonna update about what happened yesterday first. After that, I'll update about today...

Alright, let's start with yesterday...
Ummm, school was uneventful.
The classes went on normally:
English = comprehension exercises.
Biology = the importance of controlled mitosis ( cell division ).
Modern Maths = Statistics.
Bahasa Melayu = Essay about Kemalangan Jalan Raya.
Chemistry = Practical exercises.

After school, I had to go and attend a Prefect's Meeting.
Hazwan, Jas, Hari and I went to the meeting at around 1.30pm. But throughout most of the duration of the meeting, we just sat there in the corner doing nothing! Then, Hazwan and I began to chat about Nickelback playing so-called "stupid songs" and Hari and Jas were apparently talking about "Hari's girlfriend"...
After some time, it became apparent that our presence there was actually unnecessary, so we gave the excuse that we needed to go home immediately, and they let us go. We quickly exited the Prefect's Room and rushed to the canteen for the Kelab Permainan Dalaman meeting.

I only played two "serious" games that day, and all of them were with Ashman. Ashman and I drew both of them.
In the first game, he was White and I was Black, and he played 1. d4. I countered with 1. ...c6. The game went on 2. c4 d5 - The Slav Defense.
After a while, Ashman came up with a combination involving several pins on my Queen and uncastled King. And after all the series of tactical complications had ended, I was down a piece.

But somehow, I managed to muster a ferocious counter-attack, utilising the open c and e files to my advantage. I even succeeded in capturing a Rook after my light-squared Bishop forked his Rook and Queen.
Although I had a slight material disadvantage ( I had a Rook for a Knight and Bishop ), my position was much better, and I was raining down intense pressure on the c and e files with my Rooks, while Ashman's remaining Rook was restrained to a1 for quite a long time.
Hazwan even deemed my position the "perfect position" - With complete domination of the two central files, my centralised Queen actively supporting the Rooks, Ashman's backward piece development, and the removal of Ashman's defensive Rook at the hands of my light squared Bishop. But of course, I was merely playing for a draw, even though I had a clear initiative...

Later in the game, we exchanged Queens.
After a lot of piece maneuvering, both our Queenside pawn structures were completely annihilated. After we exchanged Rooks, the position looked very drawish, and Hazwan confirmed it would most likely be a draw. So, I offered a draw to Ashman, and he accepted...

Moving on to the second game, Ashman was Black and I was White this time. I played 1. e4, and he responded with 1. ...e5. The game continued with 2. Nf3 Nf6 - The Petrov Defense. Of course, I declined to take the free pawn on e4, and decided to transpose it to the Three Knight's Game with the move 3. Nc3. Ashman transposed the game into a Four Knights Game instead by playing 3. ...Nc6.
We both played normal developing moves, and it all looked very boring. I tried to flare the game up a bit by offering a trade of Bishops, which by doing so will create central doubled pawns, as well as the semi-open f-file for my Kingside Rook to use. Of course he saw what I was trying to do, so he declined the exchange.
Soon, I managed to open up my c-file. However, I had to trade my Bishop for his Knight in order to do so. Ashman's Knight on f6 played a pivotal role in controlling the center. It was defending his pawns on d5 and e4, which made it difficult for me to exert any more influence in the center. So, I decided to use the open c-file instead, attacking from the flank. However, Ashman counter-attacked in the center, steamrolling his pawns forward. After I exchanged my central pawns for his, his pieces began to flood into the Queenside.
After a series of exchanges, the material was even, but my pawns on the Queenside were "tripled". Yup, that's right, "tripled"! Hazwan decreed that the fact that I managed to create tripled pawns was a "momentous" occasion... But of course, the tripled pawns had their advantages, despite its inability to advance any further. It completely denies any pawn advance directly down the side of the structure, and it played a vital roll in keeping the opposition, so that the enemy King was unable to infiltrate my half of the board.
After we traded off our last pieces, Knight for Knight, we played for zugzwang by pushing our Kingside pawns forward. However, in the end, the pawns became locked, and both our King's couldn't make any progress whatsoever.
So, he offered to draw the game, and I accepted...

After that, we played a lot of Russian Chess ( This is essentially "giveaway" Chess, where the objective of the game is to just blunder off all your pieces. Plus, captures are compulsory in this game ). We were just too tired to continue playing serious games of Chess anymore!
Then, I met with Jooi Foong and his friend, and he invited me to a game of Chinese Chess. I lost the first game with him, but I won the second game...
Man, I didn't realise how long it's been since the last time I played Chinese Chess!

Woah, this post is quite long already, mainly because of my descriptions of my games with Ashman...
Well, I don't want to type a new post, so I'm just gonna continue...

Today, during Pendidikan Jasmani, me, Jannah, Jaslyn, Hari, Ashman, Hazwan and Sehran played football again.
Uhhh, Ashman, Hari and I were on one team, while Jaslyn, Jannah, Sehran and Hazwan formed the other team. Yeah, I know, it's actually quite unfair, right? Me being an amateur and all...

Anyway, the final score was a draw, 2-2. And there were many "accidents" during the game!
Examples:
1. Ashman's and Sehran's legs got tangled up while going after the ball, and they both fell together!
2. Jannah kicked the football directly at Sehran's crotch, and the worst part is that, the ball actually DID collide with his crotch!
3. Jannah slipped to the ground directly in front of me while going after the ball, and since I was running at full speed, I couldn't stop myself from running, and I tripped over her!

Well, it was fun.
At least I finally know how to play a bit of football now...

So yeah, that's practically it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Hari Anugerah Kecemerlangan 2010

Okay, I went for the Hari Anugerah Kecemerlangan at my school just now.
And guess what? I still had to do my duty as a prefect during the ceremony!
Unbelievable!

Amirah dragged me to the school's main entrance hall.
Me and a few other prefects had to stand there and greet the teachers and parents entering the school...
And the worst part was that that particular area was sweltering hot! I pity those prefects who had to wear blazers - They must have been suffering!

Anyway, long story short, I met with some of my friends who went to either MRSM or SBP, including Amir, Raisz, Jabbar, Haziq, Zur Izzati and a few others.

[ sigh ] I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually too lazy to talk about everything that happened during the ceremony!
So, I'm just going to post the pictures I took with my handphone.
Hey, "A picture paints a thousand words", after all! [ smiles ]


So, uhhh, yeah, that's pretty much it.

May the Force be with you...

What a Friday!

Alright guys, sorry I haven't been typing any new posts on my blog recently.
I think I haven't updated for almost a week already!
So, uhhh, yeah. Here I am, updating...

Okay, about yesterday...
Ummm, during Pendidikan Jasmani, I played football with Jannah, Jaslyn, Evonia, Ashman, Hazwan, Hari, Sehran, and a guy named Zafri.
Uhhh, my team consisted of Jannah, Hari and Ashman, whereas the other team consisted of Jas, Evo, Hazwan, Sehran and Zafri.

My team won in the end: 4-1.
But the embarrassing thing is that I'm an amateur at football. Seriously.
I completely screwed up in that game.
Prime examples:
1. I failed to steal the ball from Sehran because I was afraid of kicking his leg.
2. I fell to Jas' "dribble" trick, and I couldn't steal the ball from her either.

Sometimes, I think this is the reason why I'm not as fanatical about football as the others. I suck, big time... [ goes off to a corner to cry ]

Anyway, after school, there was going to be a Prefect's Meeting at 3.30pm.
I had to follow Hari back to his house. I had to because school finished at 12.30, and the Prefect's Meeting was at 3.30. I wouldn't want to stay at school for 3 whole hours, now would I?
So, we walked back to his house. After he showered and had his lunch, he showed me the "PIDM MoneySmart Online Game" on his computer. ( Speaking of which, I tried out the game myself, and I got a score of RM235,785! I'm just below two other people: A Malay guy with RM240,000+, and Lee King with RM250,000+ )

We played the PIDM game at his house for a while. And after we got bored, he showed me his PC games.
I really couldn't believe that he had "Left 4 Dead 2"! And the performance was outstanding! Well, maybe not THAT perfect, there were times when the game hanged and crashed back to the desktop...
We played a few levels, then Hazwan came.

Apparently, Hazwan was also a "professional" Left 4 Dead player himself. And judging by his gameplay, he enjoys using melee weapons and shotguns - Everytime a horde of zombies comes charging towards him, he'll be screaming "YAY!", while happily taking out his fireaxe!
The three of us laughed a lot, especially when Hari got pummeled by a Charger, when Hazwan got his guts ripped out, and when I got completely overwhelmed by zombies during the Mall level on "Expert" difficulty!
Ahhh, good times...

At 3.15pm, it was time to head to school for the Prefect's Meeting.
Of course, I can't say anything about what was discussed at the meeting - It's all highly confidential and classified! Hehe!
The meeting ended at around 5pm...

So, yeah, that's what happened yesterday...

I'm going to my school's "Hari Anugerah Cemerlang" at 1pm today.
Me and the other PMR Straight A students will be receiving prizes! Yay! I'm not sure what we'll be receiving, though...
Most likely it will be a certificate, or money, I think.

Well, that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Field Trip to TOC College...

Alright, I went to school this morning to go for the field trip to the TOC ( The Otomotif College ), which is a college that specialises in providing courses in the automotive field.
The field trip was organised by my school's PRS ( Pembimbing Rakan Sebaya ).
Honestly, I only wanted to go because:
1. I get to skip PBSM.
2. It only costs RM5 ( inclusive of brunch and bus fare, I think... )
3. There might be a Certificate Of Participation.

Yi Ling informed everyone that we had to be at school before 9am.
Coincidentally, my brother had to attend his UPSR extra classes at his school at 8am.
Obviously, my mum decided to send both of us at the same time, and since my brother's class starts at 8, I reached my school at 8am as well! Which meant that I had to wait for one whole hour at my school!

Most of my friends only started arriving at school at around 8.45am-8.50am, I think...
My friends who came include Lee King, Jannah, Lynn, Nani, Iman, Sarah, Yi Ling, Syazween, Diyanti and Ain...
Then, Mr. Durai told all of us to get on the bus.
Soon, we were on our way to TOC College!

When we got there, a guide took us around, showing us the many "interesting" booths and exhibitions there.
They were all about cars and how they work...
For instance, a guy showed us how headlamps work. Another guy showed us how to fix a headlamp. And another explained to us about actuators, igniters, and how a car accelerates.

After the guide finished showing us all the exhibitions, it was roughly around 11.30am, and we had a short brunch of "nasi lemak".

Then, it was time to head back to school.
So, we got in the bus again. The ride was rather uneventful - Jannah and Lynn didn't want to "layan" me at all. So I chatted with Yi Ling until we reached the Bukit Jelutong area. We reached there at around 12.15pm, I think.
So yeah, that's about it...

And yeah, I took pictures...
Here they are:

Woah! Look at all those wires!

Cute car...

"Uhhh, if the car exceeds more than 7000 rpm, the gauge will snap back to 0, yada, yada, yada......"

Now this is brilliant automotive ingenuity!

Yup, it's me...

Well, yeah, that's pretty much it for now...

May the Force be with you...

I'm A Trial Prefect...

This is random: "A few days ago, I was chatting with Hazwan in class... And he told me that, while he was reading my blog, he noticed that all my posts were rather "long-winded", especially in comparison with the posts on other blogs, such as Ashman's or Hari's..."
I suddenly just remembered this for some reason!
Well, Hazwan, I'll try to shorten my posts, kay?

Anyway, I successfully managed to become a Trial Prefect!
I talked to Pn Ezareen about it yesterday. And today, during English class, she told me to meet her at the School Office at 1.05pm to collect my Trial Prefect badge. When I got there, I had to meet with Encik Din, and after a few inspirational words from him, I received my Trial Prefect Badge and my position as a Trial Prefect became official!

Now, I have to undergo a one month trial period, where I have to act and behave like a prefect, as well as perform duties, just like a normal prefect would.
If I manage to make it through the trial period, I will be promoted to a full-time school Prefect! [ smiles ]
Wish me luck!

Well, I don't intend on lengthening this post any further...
So, finally, here's a picture I found on a blog called "MSSM 2010 - Chess"

From left: Andrew ( me ), Hazwan, Ashman, Hari

Honestly, I was really proud when I read this sentence in the "MSSM 2010 - Chess" blog:
"Pasukan SMK Bukit Jelutong sungguh cemerlang apabila menjadi pemenang dalam 3 kategori - Juara B15P & B18P, Naib Juara B18L"
Awesome, right?

Well, that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

Rule The World - Take That

Okay, I am tagged by Jas.
I found this tag on Jas's blog.
And I was in the tagged list...
So, here goes!

Instructions:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS, NO CHEATING!
4. Tag as many friends as you want!
5. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing.
6. Have Fun!

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
Show Me The Meaning Of Feeling Lonely - Backstreet Boys

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Superstition - Stevie Wonder

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
I Want It That Way - Backstreet Boys

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
You'll Be In My Heart - Phil Collins

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Never Far Away - Jim Brickman

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Time Of My Life - David Cook

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Bad Day - Danial Powter

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
You're Beautiful - James Blunt

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
No Surprise - Chris Daughtry

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
Calender Girl - Neil Sedaka

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND/s?
Just Want You To Know - Backstreet Boys

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Son Of Man - Phil Collins

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Numb - Linkin Park

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
21 Guns - Green Day

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
No Boundaries - Adam Lambert

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Beat It - Michael Jackson

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Go The Distance - Michael Bolton

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
What About Now - Chris Daughtry

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
New Divide - Linkin Park

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Rule The World - Take That

I'm tagging: Lynn, Jannah, Evo, Hari, Ashman...

Well, now you know why my title for this post is "Rule The World - Take That"! The last question forced me to put it as the title! ( "Rule The World" by Take That is actually a very, very nice song! Please, go listen to it! [ smiles ] ).
Too bad "Gotta Be Somebody" by Nickelback didn't appear. It's my favourite song...
Oh well, the Windows Media Player was on "shuffle" mode anyway. It's all random...

Speaking of songs, I'm thinking of recording "Don't Stop Believing" by the Glee Cast.
I think it sounds quite okay. However, the girl's voice is a tad bit too loud - I can't even hear the guy's voice anymore at the end! But otherwise, it's a nice song...

My brother insists that I should record the HD version for the "ultimate sound experience"...
So, it could be quite a while before I can actually start recording. I have to wait for the audio to load first before I can record it. And since I'm recording HD audio, I'll have to wait much longer than usual...

And finally... [ drum rolls ]
This is my 200th post!
Wahoo! I feel awesome right now!
Catch up with me if you can, Ashman! [ smiles ]

Kay, that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

An Eventful Saturday...

Alright, it's Saturday, everyone...
I had to go to school for my co-curricular activity this morning.
And today's PBSM...[ sigh ]

Well, apparently, it was raining quite heavily last night. When I reached the Bukit Jelutong toll, which is on the way to school, I noticed that the BJ Wetlands area was almost completely flooded!
Jas said it was raining all night long, and today, it was still raining!

The plus side is that due to the rain, there would be no PBSM marching exercise today!
Yes! No marching!
Instead, the PBSM organised some sort of "fun" activity...

Ummm, how should I explain?
Okay, the PBSM members, excluding the Ahli Jawatan Kuasa, were divided into 10 groups.
There are be 5 stations: Stations A, B, C, D and E.
Each group has to go to each station and complete the "fun" activity that would be held there. Once they were done with the activity in one station, they'll move on to the next one.
For example, Group 1 finishes the activity in Station A. They should then move on to Station B to complete the activity there instead. And after they've done that, they'll move on to Station C, and so on...

Anyway, since I was an AJK, I was put in charge of Group 10. All 6 of my group members were Chinese girls. And I only know 2 of them: Winnie and Vickie. I wasn't so familiar with the other 4...
I didn't really take part in any of the activities at each station.
Shuet Yi doesn't let me and the other AJKs "participate" in the activities... We AJKs are only in charge of leading our respective groups from station to station. According to her, AJKs can't even "help" their group members!

In the end, everything went on smoothly, except for the fact that Jannah got a bit pissed with me because I didn't volunteer to lead Group 7, which included herself, her brother, Jas, Lynn, Hari and Alison.
Well, Jannah, I'm sorry. I couldn't do anything about it! Qi Chao is the one who decides who is in charge of which group, and he put me in charge of Group 10. So technically, I didn't have much of a choice...

At 10am, we were all allowed to go home.
Thank God it was a cool and cloudy morning - I wasn't in the mood to wait for my mum if it were hot and sunny!
Here's a picture I took, just for the fun of it! [ smiles ]After Jannah, Jaslyn, Lynn and Hari went back, I became really bored.
So, since my mum wasn't there yet to pick me up, I hanged out with Amirah and Sabrina.
Here they are!After that, my mum came with my brother, and after I got in her car, we were on our way to Puchong.
We were going to Puchong to watch the newly released movie "Clash Of The Titans" at GSC Cinema, IOI Mall.
On the way, we had brunch at a "dim sum" restaurant. Then, when we reached IOI Mall itself, my mum brought me to the handphone kiosk to top-up my Prepaid credit with RM10. What a relief! FYI, I only had 2 cents of credit left before the top-up!

The movie was scheduled to start at 12.30pm, and since it was only 11.45am when we purchased the movie tickets, we went to "Popular" bookstore, which was conveniently just adjacent to the GSC Cinema!
I read a few books, including "San Tzu - The Art Of War" ( An awesome book, in my opinion! ). At 12.25pm, it was time to go to the cinema and watch "Clash Of The Titans"!

I don't really want to blog about what "Clash Of The Titans" is about. I know some of my friends are planning to watch it themselves. And if I blog about the details of the movie, it would be kind of like a "spoiler" to them!
All I can say is that the movie's not bad. It's quite awesome, actually, especially the visual effects and whatnot. So, for those of you who are planning to go and watch it, please do!

After the movie was over, we walked around in Jusco for a while.
While my mum was looking at some pastries, my brother said he was bored and wanted to play the games on my handphone. So I gave him my phone.
I didn't realise he was actually taking this picture:Well, after that, we went home...
So yeah, that's what happened today...

Finally, this is my 199th post on Blogger!
Just one more, and I'll reach 200 posts! Woot!

May the Force be with you...

Second Day Of The MSSD Chess Competition...

Okay, I went back to SMK SSAAS today for the second day of the MSSD Petaling Perdana Chess Competition.
Oh, and remember when I said in my last post that there were supposed to be three rounds that I had to play today?
Well, this morning, the arbiter announced in the hall that U-18 Boys had to play four rounds, not three! My reaction was like: "Oh my gosh! FOUR rounds?!"

Anyway, I won three out of the four rounds today.
Let's start with my fifth round, shall we? ( I already explained about my first four rounds in my previous post... ).
My opponent ( I forgot his name... ) was White and I was Black. He played 1. d4, and I countered with 1. ...c6. After that, the opening proceeded normally, until he blundered his Bishop. And the best part is that when I took his Bishop, it came with check, so it was technically just a completely free giveaway!
After he lost his Bishop, he blundered his Rook instead! He didn't realise that his pawn was pinned to his Rook by my Bishop. He moved the pawn, and I was free to capture the Rook.
He got checkmated a while later...

My sixth game is with a guy named Kenny Brian, I think. He had the Black pieces and I had the White pieces.
I played 1. e4, and he countered with 1. e5. I was really happy when the game continued with 2. Nf3 Nc6. This allowed me to play my favourite White opening: The Scotch Game. So I played it, with the move 3. d4.
He accepted the central exchange. Then I started developing very rapidly, first my Bishop came out, then my Knight, and then my other Bishop. All of the pieces were completely dominating the center of the board.
Apparently, my opponent realised that my light-squared Bishop was wreaking havoc on his Kingside. So he stormed it with his Queenside pawns. Of course, this only made the situation worse for him - The Bishop actually became more powerful, moving closer towards the center and targeting both the Queenside and Kingside now.
I already had four pieces developed and my opponent only wasted time trying to storm my Bishop with pawns. I realised the time was ripe for an attack. So I checked his uncastled King with my Queen. He had too few defenders to parry my attack, so he got checkmated right in the opening...

My seventh game was the one that I lost today.
I was Black and my opponent was White. He started with 1 .e4, and I countered with 1. e5. It transposed to the Petrov Defense with 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4. But somehow, after a series of complicated central exchanges, I realised that he was up a Knight, due to the fact that my Knight was pinned to my King by his Rook, resulting in the Knight's capture later on.
A lot of simplifying ensued, until the game finally reached the Endgame stage. Of course, he had the material advantage - he was up a Knight anyway! So my Queenside pawn chain slowly deteriorated, and in the end, I was forced to exchange off my remaining Rook for his passed h pawn. I tried to opt for stalemate, but my opponent was very cautious, and I resigned just before he was about to checkmate my King.

And now, on to my eighth and final game of the day.
I was White this time, and my opponent was Black. I played 1. e4, of course, and he countered it with 1. e6 - The French Defense, a solid opening system for Black.
I continued with my development aggressively, controlling a huge portion of the center. My opponent, on the other hand, wanted to exchange off all his pieces for some reason...
In the end, I did decide to exchange off all the pieces, but not before I came up with a combination that resulted with me being a pawn up in material. Later, my Knight forked both his Rooks, and he was forced to lose one of them, resulting in a horrible endgame for him. After I forced him to exchange off his last Rook, it was smooth sailing for me from then on. I managed to promote two of my passed pawns to Rook and Queen, and he got checkmated soon after...

Well, overall, I actually got 10th place in the whole competition. Hazwan got 3rd, Ashman got 4th, and Hari got 5th.
Plus, our team ( U-18 boys ) managed to get 2nd place in the "Best Team" category!

Finally, congrats to all our school Chess players, including the U-18 Girls, U-15 Boys, and U-15 Girls! You guys made SMK Bukit Jelutong proud this year! Well done!

Okay, I guess that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...

First Day of the MSSD Chess Compeition...

Well, today, I went for the first day of the MSSD Petaling Perdana Chess Competition at SMK Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah.
I arrived at school at around 7.20, I think. The rest of my school team were already there.
After Ashman finished helping teacher to fill up some documents, we jumped into the van, and before we knew it, we were on our way to the big competition!

Along the way to SMK SSAAS, I snapped a few photos in the van we were in.
Here they are:


Ummm, when we got there, we had to go through all the registration stuff, yada, yada, yada...
Soon after that, it was time to enter the SMK SSAAS "Tun Sri Lanang" hall, because the first round was about to begin.

Alright, for the first round, I remember had to play with a guy named Clarence.
He was White and I was Black. He played 1. e4, and I responded with 1. ...e5. The game continued with 2. Nf3 Nf6 - The Petrov Defense.
Later in the game, I was putting immense amount of pressure on White's Kingside. However, White's Queenside Knight had a dual threat: Taking my "en prise" ( free ) Bishop, or forking my Queen and King. Of course, when I was faced with this situation, I had to make a difficult choice. In the end, I realised that I could use my threatened Bishop to gain a very strong counterattack on White's King. So I ignored the threat to my Queen.
In the end, I managed to regain my Queen - I was threatening checkmate with my dual Bishops and Knight, and the only way for White to stop it was to block my Bishop with his Queen.
Soon, I exchanged off my Rook for his, and since I was in a winning endgame position, he resigned.

As for the second round, I was White this time, and my opponent ( some guy named Teh, I think ) was Black.
I played 1. e4, and he countered with 1. ...c5, the Sicilian Defense. The opening commenced like normal, except for the fact that the guy took a VERY, VERY long time to think! Seriously! Hari was sitting next to me. When he and his opponent were finished playing, me and my opponent were still in the opening stage!
Anyway, I made two critical mistakes in this game, because honestly, I wasn't very familiar with the concepts of the Sicilian Defense, especially since I was the White player.
First mistake = I blundered a Knight.
Second Mistake = I castled Kingside ( In main line Sicilian, White should actually castle Queenside ).
So, these two mistakes cost me the game. His Rook and Queen were attacking my Kingside like crazy, so I had to resign.

Moving on to the third round. I was Black this time, and my opponent ( his name's Kelvin, I think... ) had the White pieces. The game went 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d3 Bc5 4. Nxe4 Nc6 5. Nxc6 dxc6. I got really excited when he played 6. Bg5, which will eventually lead to the Petrov Trap ( Go and check it out! It's really awesome! ).
Eventually, he realised he was falling into the Petrov Trap, so he replenished his position by protecting his f2 pawn with his Queen. A few moves later, he blundered his Queen - I pinned his Queen to his King with my Bishop. I had quite an easy game after that. He resigned when I had a Queen, 4 passed pawns and King versus his lone King...

My fourth and final game of the day is with a Malay guy ( His name is Syahmi, if I'm not mistaken... ). I was White and he was Black for this round. I played 1. e4, as usual, and he countered with 1. ...c5.
Honestly, I was a bit scared when he played c5, due to the fact that I lost to the Sicilian Defense in my second game. But now, I have a chance to learn from my mistakes in that second game...
We were opening normally, except this time I did the right thing: I castled Queenside.
And now, I took extra precautions before maneuvering my Knight.
In the end, I managed to force checkmate his King on the Kingside using my Knight and Queen.

The results for the day:
1. Me - 3/4 points.
2. Ashman - 4/4 points.
3. Hazwan - 4/4 points.
4. Hari - 4/4 points.

Ashman was super happy, because our team has an incredible 15 points. Which means we might have shot at getting the gold medal for the "Best Team" award!
Soon, we were in the van again and on the way back to school.
Again, I took pictures!Well, tomorrow, we have to go back to SMK SSAAS for the second day of the MSSD Petaling Perdana Chess competition.
There's gonna be three more rounds tomorrow. Three more rounds!
I should get myself prepared for tomorrow...
Hopefully, my team will make SMK Bukit Jelutong proud! [ smiles ] Then the Headmistress won't have to complain about us not trying to "mengharumkan" nama SMKBJ!

Well, wish me luck for tomorrow!

May the Force be with you...

Chess Training Course at SKBJ!

Okay, I'm here to blog about the Chess training course I went through yesterday and today.
The teacher in charge of the Permainan Dalaman club offered my school's Under-18 and Under-15 girls and boys Chess team to go for a Chess training course, which was to be held in SKBJ ( The primary school just next door to my school ).
The best part is that it was completely free of charge - The school would be paying the expenses for us! Awesome, no?

Well, only a few people decided to go for the chess course. The others were either too busy, or too lazy...

Okay, let's start with Friday, shall we?
Ummm, at roughly around 2.30pm, we ( Ashman, Jaslyn, Hari and I ) had to go to SKBJ.
We discovered that the Chess training course was in the SKBJ school library. We met Syaza and her friend along the way...
Inside the library, we met with Ismail, the Chess master that was going to be running the course.
After he showed us a few of his annotated games, he asked us to do some chess puzzles based on Rook and Bishop sacrifices. Ashman, Hazwan and I joked that this was something like a Chess Exam, and that we were sure to get an A for it!

After that, Ismail organised a short blitz competition: the U-12 and U-15 categories versus the U-18 category. ( For those of you who don't know what's "blitz", it's a very fast chess game, where each player is only given a time period of 5 minutes to complete all their moves ).
So technically, since it was a blitz competition, we simply do not have the time to make long calculations. Instead, we had to rely mostly on intuition, logic, common sense and luck.

Embarrassingly, the U-18 category lost to the U-12 and U-15 categories.
My guess is that we were "psychologically unprepared" to play a blitz competition that day...
But oh well...
Here are the pictures I took on Friday:

Ismail vs Ashman! Epic!

Jaslyn and Syaza!

At around 6pm, we were allowed to go home.
My mum was unavailable at the time, and therefore unable to come and pick me up and bring me home.
So, I had to follow Ashman back to his house and stay overnight.
Right after the competition was over, Ashman called his parents, and apparently, they were unable to bring us back to Ashman's house. That meant we had to walk ALL the way to Ashman's house in Tropica 2!
Luckily, Hazwan and his mother were passing by and offered to give Ashman and I a lift...

When we reached Ashman's house, we used his laptop most of the time. We chatted with my brother on Yahoo Messenger, as well as Jaslyn, Lynn and Hari on MSN Messenger. We even called Jas using MSN Web Call.
We also saw a lot of chess blitz games on Youtube.

Oh, of course, Ashman and I played a few friendly games of Chess during my stay.
In one of the games, I used one of my former favourite openings: The King's Gambit.
I was White, and Ashman was Black. Although my King safety wasn't very good, my pieces were very, very active, especially my Bishops!
After a while, we reached a certain position where I had a blistering attack on Ashman's king. Then, we realised that there could be a beautiful checkmate, due to the fact that my twin Bishops were slicing into Black's King's position.
Here's an image of that Chess game:Ashman and I took a VERY long time attempting to find the solution! We tried nearly everything, including, but not limited to 1. Nd5+, 1. Ng8+, 1. Nh7+ and 1. Nd6+.
But then, we finally managed to find the checkmate!
Try and guess what's the mating move?

The correct move is 1. Nh5+!, leading to 1. ...Ke8 2. Nxg7#.
It will still be checkmate even if Black blocks the check from the dark-squared Bishop with either 1. ...Bf6 or 1. ...Rf6.
Beautiful checkmate position, right? [ smiles ]

I think we only went to bed at around 12 midnight...
We had to go to SKBJ again at 8.30 the next morning.

The next day, Ashman and I woke up at 6.30am, which was a bit too early, actually!
So, we decided to turn on Ashman's laptop again to do a few Chess Visualisation exercises.
And guess what? We got so caught up doing the exercises, we didn't realise that one whole hour just flew by!
When we looked at the clock, it was already 7.40am!!! And all of that time just passed by because we were too preoccupied doing the visual exercises!

Anyway, we hurriedly got ourselves ready to go to SKBJ for the second session of the Chess training course.
After a quick breakfast of roti canai, we went to the SKBJ library once again.
We met Amirah there. And honestly, I did not recognise her the first time I saw her!
She looks completely different with her glasses and her hairstyle!
Just take a look yourself:
Shortly afterwards, Chess master Ismail came and began the second session by showing us the importance of understanding the Opening and Opening traps.
He also taught us about how to use the Bishop and Rook combination to great effect.
I managed to take a picture with my handphone:
After he finished teaching us about a whole bunch of other stuff, he organised ANOTHER Blitz Competition. Only this time, it was a bit more serious, because the competition now contained 7 rounds and a proper pairing system, unlike yesterday.
However, this time, Hazwan and Jaslyn was absent because they were both busy...

In the end, I got 5 out of 7 points, with 4 wins, 1 loss and 2 draws.
Ashman got 7 out of 7 points! He didn't lose a single game!
Hmmm, I forgot what Hari's final score was...

Overall, I got 4th place in the whole competition, whereas Ashman got first place.
And the best part is that the Top 5 players get prizes!
The 4th and 5th players get MSSM vinyl chess boards, whereas the Top 3 players get cash money.
I got the MSSM vinyl chess board, whereas Ashman received RM10 worth of cash.
After that, the chess training course was over.
I had a short chat with Syaza just outside SKBJ before my mum came to bring me home.

Well, wasn't that interesting?

Monday's the day when the real MSSD Chess competition is going to take place.
I'm excited, but honestly quite nervous at the same time!
Just one more day to go!!! One more day till' the big day! [ smiles ]

Okay, I guess that's it for now.

May the Force be with you...