Went to zxf's house again today, luckily didn't get "chased" back. Played with a special guest today, under the same conditions as Xin Ma Cup (25 steps in 60 mins, 15 steps in subsequent 15 mins etc)

The special guest was Mr Low Hui Hui, a lawyer and yeah he was really pro. Raped me in the first round coze I made a silly exchange -_-. Managed to win the 2nd round after much effort, the match lasted till end-game before it finally ended ... It was really good training, his attack was really good and his defense is imba, nothing less expected from a person with 40 yrs of playing experience. He was really a nice guy too and thnx to him I think I am starting to regain my touch in chess =)

Went to play pool with ex 4b-ers, lol long time nvr play already, played damn noobily, gave and wasted free balls -_-, haha must train more. Had dinner with jianting after that, the gan lao mian was damn spicy, now my throat hurts. Had a really hearty chat about JC life too, looking back at high school life, everything just seemed so different ...

2 weeks left to get myself in tip-top condition for SP, must get all-wins this time.

{/6:07 AM}

Posted by innocent boy

Blocks are over! YAY! Haha sort of screwed up pretty badly ... lost 18 marks for physics, 12 marks for math and 10 marks for chem, but nvm shall do better for promos =) .

Went to zxf's house this morning for chess lesson, only to be told tt he can't teach me today just because he needs to settle some immigration stuff today for his china maid ... ARGH, waste my money for transportation and time. Went to big bookshop in Clementi after tt hoping to buy a new chess set and realised it wasn't open yet, great start for a day ...

Went to Zixian's house after that and found him doing MI, LOL!! Took out his chess set and realised tt tt was the one I have been looking for!! Then he told me he bought it from the bookshop downstairs!!! -_- ... To think I have made 2 trips to Clementi bookshop and even 1 trip to kino over the last month in search of tt chess set ... 远在天边，近在眼前 LOL

At least one good thing happened today, haha ... Playing minesweeper flags with my friend now, 25-25, damn mortifying game haha.

{/5:54 AM}

Posted by innocent boy

Haizz, the more I study, the more inconfident I get. Juz went through last yr's BT and promos' model answers. IMBA ... I was like ... no way I can produce tt kind of answers under exam conditions ... suan le bahz juz do my best tmr ...

GP is GG, didn't touch it at all :P. Haha gonna do some last min studying tmr after econs ... Brain is exploding from all the studying, damn worried for physics, the gravitation formulas all look so alike ... come to think of it, I seemed to have forgotten some formulas from circular motion, grrrr tmr will be hell for me, trying to do last round of revision for 2 subjects.

Almost selfdestructed myself by downloading FF8, spent quite some time on it, luckily still managed to finish studying ... but still damn inconfident, gonna have a 2nd round revision for all the econs concepts again and conduct a mini test on myself tmr morning, hope this works ...

Good luck to everyone for blocks, and my AJ friends for their mid-yr.

{/3:54 AM}

Posted by innocent boy

Life is unpredictable ... just yesterday morning, a fellow Hwachongian juz left us ... Well, his name is XinXian, he was my secondary one classmate. I did not have much interaction with him, only rmb taking the same bus as him during secondary one and we did talk a little ... Although I am not really on close terms with him, his death did have a lot of impact on me ... can't really concentrate on studying since yesterday night.

Went to his wake today, the atmosphere was solemn =( . This is the second time I have been in such a situation, first time was my grandmother's funeral, but I was only 4 then, so can't really feel a thing. However, this time is different, everything just seemed so sad ... He suffered from blood disorder during secondary two and since then he has rarely been to school, he did most of his academic work in the hospital, must have been really hard on him. The following year, he returned, victorious in his battle against his illness, everyone thought they saw the last of his illness...

Just yesterday night, I received a phone call and was informed that he passed away ... It was a bad shock to everyone who knew him, no one knew exactly what happened to him, only that he was warded in hospital again a few weeks ago ... 人生难测 ... Must treasure the time I have, for I never know when my time will end.

For those interested, you may attend his funeral tmr --- 1pm at Choa Chu Kang.

Health is a great asset.

{/5:41 AM}

Posted by innocent boy

YAY! My team got champ in the Khaki Bukit competition!! Well, the competition here is even more intense, with sec schs and JCs fighting one another (haha, probably because of the prize money --- $300 for champ team!!). First champ after 2nd in Char Yong, 2nd in HC cup and 2nd in R-cup!! Here's a peek at leslie holding our prize $$$ =)

Well, $60 had to be used for registration fee for both teams, hence the remaining was split up among the four of us --- $60 per member. Well, personal record was 4 wins, 1 lose and 1 draw. Lol, shldn't have lost tt match against RV ... could see tt he was just aiming for a draw with me ... then I was like ... why should I let you achieve your aims? There were countless times where he wanted to exchange a horse with me, if the exchange was made then the match would become drawish, so I refused and then tt very horse killed me in the end =( ... My stubbornness killed me ><

Sian, I realised tt for the sake of the team, I should have just drawn ... in this case, the team's victory is much more impt than glorifying my own personal record. Luckily, my loss was insignificant since the leslie and zixian won... My team got 6.5 out of 8 (top scorer). Lost one round to VJ (I won but leslie and weiseng lost) and drew AJ in the last round which guaranteed our champ.

Finally team champ after 3 team competitions, denied of it during HC cup due to 天时，地理，人和, denied of it the 2nd time in R-cup due to wrong strategy and 自相残杀. One more SP challenge to go, jiayo jiayo, must end it nicely with another champ!

Gonna have two weeks of hell for the remainder of June, haizz, this is damn tiring ... no time to slack at all =( .

{/3:35 AM}

Posted by innocent boy

Just read Yick Loong's blog, here's a little extract from his blog:

"One could be forgiven into thinking that it would be hard to deny HCI a clean sweep of the trophies this year, just like how previous great teams had done it in previous years. And as though to exert their supremacy, HCI A fought it hard with HCI B, and it ended up in a draw. This brought some sort of relief to the rest of the chasing pack as all the teams were already down by at least half a pt before this draw took place."

Feeling damn pissed now, it's not HCI A's fault lor, it's team B who refused to throw us up in the first place, resulting in a meaningless fight ... Btw, HCI A isn't tt supreme at all this yr, with a feeder board. 真是的，讲到我们变态似的, trying to slay every opponent we meet ... even those from our own sch ... Haizz, hate being badmouthed liddat ...

Hope members of HCI A get over this ordeal soon ... it was a terrible blow to mi, zixian and leslie, getting 2nd ... 2nd to a team we defeated in the first round ... Haizzzz, nvm shall aim for a champion tmr ... to make up for our poor performance in R-cup.

Champ team gets a prize money of $300 ($75 per member), so all the more we should work hard for it ... Jiayo Zixian, Leslie and Weiseng! 把我们所收的耻辱十倍地讨回来!

Haizz, last competition in June already ... finally! Finished the econs essay yesterday ... having PW meeting later, can finally start studying for blocks next wk =) A lot of pple seemed damn surprised when I told them I haven't started mugging ...

{/5:57 AM}

Posted by innocent boy

"HCI aren't tt invincible after all ..." As quoted from Yick Loong's (ex-AJ player) blog. Yeah, this yr's R-cup has proven tt statement ... HCI team A and B got 2nd and 3rd respectively =( . The main problem was that we had no strategy in team formation, tt's why we couldn't get champ this yr ...

Well, after a long chat with my senior, Fang Tao and Yick Loong, I suppose we shouldn't place too much blame on our feeder. A feeder strategy is to ensure both teams stand a better chance while the chances of getting the top is lower. Haiz, hence the 2nd and 3rd result wasn't unexpected ... Upon much consideration, part of the blame lies with us for agreeing to this strategy when we were actually aiming for champion in the first place. Furthermore, using a feeder strategy means that we must always be prepared to lose a board every round... I apologise if the previous entry sounded offensive, I just couldn't help feeling pissed after that day of competition.

From this competition, I have realised that while the skill of the players is important in a team competition, team formation is just as important, tt's why AJ outdid us this year. If we are aiming for champion, then the feeder strategy isn't feasible, hence for important competitions, all the strong players should form a team to stand a better chance. For not so important competitions, where the main objective is for players to gain experience and improve, then the feeder strategy can be adopted. Furthermore, in adopting a feeder strategy, the stronger players have the responsibility of guiding the feeder and helping him in any way they can. For example, teaching them how to pull off a draw against players of a higher standard.

The previous entry was posted in a fit of anger after 3 nightmarish draws and being overtaken by AJ. I apologise for any unhappiness caused.

Zixian and Leslie have also posted unpleasant entries on their blogs yesterday ... I suppose they were just too angry at tt point of time ... Hence, for anyone who has read their blogs, pls understand and dun let this incident harm the harmony of the club.

Well, tt's tt. We got an amazingly number of seconds this time round. The high school team category got 2nd, Zixian got 2nd in blitz competition, JC team category got 2nd and Liu Yang got 2nd in girls' individual as well. Wow, the morning announcements are gonna be interesting. Nvm, we shall change all the 2nds to 1sts next yr ...

As the new captain and vice-captain, Zixian and I have a lot on our hands to improve the overall quality of our players. As such, the JC and high school sections will be having combined training sessions (YAY!).

Haiz, competition's over, time to start doing the econs essay =( . To be handed in by 10th June, feeling a bit zhai now, plus got PW stuff to do by tmr ... Argh.

{/3:54 AM}

Posted by innocent boy

Haizzz, after 6 rounds the champ has been more or less decided --- AJ =( . Sian, played 3 rounds today --- personal record 1 win 2 lose =( . Overall 4 win 2 lose. Left with one more round tmr. Lost to jinxiang and junyang.

The match with Jinxiang was dead even, sian in the end not enough time den started blinding ... Lol, this reminds me ... he blinded one car to me during HC cup, today I blinded 2 horses ... haha our matches are always so screwed ... The match with Junyang was a mortifying one, he moved a weird variation which was not that effective, I moved pretty well up to a point where I could have won if I had made one crucial step, in the end didn't see it and made a bad one instead and all my attack was GONE, then I exploded .... Nvm, it was a great match, before I made that bad move that is ... Lol, this is already my 2nd match with Junyang ... 1st one I almost died but didn't, 2nd one he almost died but I died in the end, funny how some things can turn out ...

Haiz, our team had 3 draws today while AJ had 3 wins, now they are leading by half a point and their next opponent is RJ which I dun think they would have much problem with, hence the champ is as good as decided =(. My team is currently 2nd, so if we win tmr den we are 2nd =( . Sian, to think we won AJ in the first round and now they have overtaken us ...

Well, it wasn't tt unexpected anyway ... I have thought of 3 reasons why we could not get champ this yr (in order of importance)...

1) It was basically a 3 v 4 match every round (My teammates would know what I mean)
2) Zixian, Leslie and mi each had a 临门一脚 which we missed ...
3) Hwa Chong team B refused to throw us up

Haizzzzzz, 冠军与亚军真的犹如天壤之别. One more Khaki Bukit competition this Sunday, must get champion for that which is quite likely since it would be a 3 v 3 match and not a 2 v 3 match ...

From this competition, I have come to a conclusion that when it comes to the formation of teams, all the strong players should form one team whereas the weaker players form another one. The decision of splitting up the strong players to fit in 2 teams is not a wise one due to the following reaons:

1) It is unfair to the strong players in team competition when they always have to deal with the poor performance of the weaker players EVERY round.
2) Leeching occurs
3) The weaker players do not learn or benefit more when they team up with strong players as compared to when they team up with players of the standard.
4) The players would try harder to win if they are teamed up with players of the same standard since the team's victory is not guaranteed.

While this strategy would allow both teams to stand a better chance, getting a champ is much more significant than having both teams in top 3 ...

My coach is also pissed with our performance. Jinxiang should have been in our team, then the champ would have been ours ... Haizzz, nvm this situation shall not happen next yr ...

After my match with Junyang today, I realised 要赢一盘棋真不容易, I am still mada mada dane ...

{/5:08 AM}

Posted by innocent boy