SGChess Blog #1 – The 2023 Inter-Professional Games

The Inter-Professional Games returns this year after a 3-year hiatus. This multi-sport event, contested between the Lawyers (Law Society of Singapore), Doctors (Singapore Medical Association), Engineers (Institution of Engineers Singapore) and Accountants (Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants) has traditionally included chess and this year, the playing field included 2 Grandmasters, 2 International Masters and many former National Champions and players.

SMA Team — Team of Doctors representing SMA. From Left to Right: Paul Thng, Lee Chien Earn, WFM Victoria Chan, GM Wong Meng Kong, Team Captain J. Nithiananthan, Dominic Lo, Raymond Lin and Jonathan Koh

This tournament has always been eagerly awaited as many old friends get to meet and catch up with each other and, get to play a tournament! But make no mistake about it, this is not at all just a “friendly” tournament – each association has tried to send their most competitive line up to try and win this event.

Playing hall — The playing hall at Toa Payoh West Community Centre

In spite of the competitive nature of the participants, this year’s event witnessed an act of outstanding sportsmanship. Dr Dominic Lo, who once represented Singapore at the Chess Olympiad, offered a draw to IM Lim Yee Weng from the lawyers after the latter flagged in a dead drawn position. When I asked him why he did so, Dominic simply quipped “I don’t want to win on time la!”

In many ways, this reflects the overall spirit of this event – this might be a competitive tournament but friendship comes first!
The Lawyers, fielding a star studded line up with IM Terry Toh and IM Lim Yee Weng helming the first two boards emerged as deserving champions. Congratulations to the winners and we look forward to next year’s edition.

IM Terry Toh SCF Vice-President, playing board 1 for the Lawyers

IM Lim Yee Weng playing for the Lawyers. Yee Weng has represented Malaysia in multiple international events, such as the SEA Games and the World Chess Olympiad

Dr. Jeevarajah Nithiananthan, who has been the IPG Chess Convener for quite some time has this to share:
“As the IPG Chess Convener for years and decades now, it is indeed quite challenging to get all the professions to turn up for these competitions. On the other hand, it is gratifying that every profession actually makes the best efforts to participate in these tournaments, in the spirit of friendship and camaraderie.”
Dr. Nithiananthan, or Dr. Nithia for short is also well known in Singapore as the “Piano Doctor”, due to his prowess in both music and chess. Readers are invited to follow his exploits on
https://www.facebook.com/TheThePianoDoctor/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsaEraGByeZvhXL_ymgrq6Q

The Piano Doctor in action for the Doctors

Here are a few more photos from the event for your viewing pleasure:

GM Wong Meng Kong vs IM Terry Toh — SCF Vice-Presidents, GM Wong Meng Kong facing IM Terry Toh in a big match between the Doctors and Lawyers

Doctors vs Lawyers — The two favourites, Doctors face-off against the Lawyers in Round 1

WFM Dawn Hui vs Dr. Nithia — WFM Dawn Hui lost to Dr. Nithiananthan in a sharp Classical French

WFM Hazel Liu vs Dr. Dominic Lo — Extremely tense finish in the game between WFM Hazel Liu and Dominic Lo

CA Mr. Kenny Chern — Chief Arbiter Mr. Kenny Chern

Sharing a joke — GM Kevin Goh sharing a joke with Mr Gregory Vijayendran, former President of the Law Society of Singapore

Mr. Mark Choong, one of Singapore’s most active veteran chess players playing for the Accountants

Mr. Serafin for the Engineers had a winning position against GM Kevin Goh in Round 1, but unfortunately faltered towards the end of the game

Mr. Warren Lim — Warren Lim, playing for the Engineers

To end off this blog post, here is a game from Round 2, annotated by GM Kevin Goh

Team: IES		Team: SMA		Team: LSS		Team: ISCA
Board	Player	Board	Player	Board	Player	Board	Player
1	Sukesh	1	Raymond Lin	1	Terry Toh	1	Mark Choong
2	Serafin	2	Wong Meng Kong	2	Lim Yee Weng	2	Kevin Goh Wei Ming
3	Warren Lim	3	Paul Thng	3	Gregory V.	3	Liu Yang Hazel
4	Aaron	4	Dominic Lo	4	David Chong	4	Ly Hong Nguyen John
5	Teo SH	5	Lee Chein Earn	5	Edward Lee	5	Dawn Hui
6	Chua Si Sim	6	Jonathan Koh	6	Cyril Chua	6	Wong Kong Wei
		7	Victoria Chan
		8	Jeevarajah Nithiananthan

Results from Round 1

Board	White: IES	Score	Black: ISCA
1	Sukesh	0 – 1	Mark Choong
2	Serafin	0 – 1	Kevin Goh Wei Ming
3	Warren Lim	0 – 1	Ly Hong Nguyen John
4	Teo SH	0 – 1	Wong Kong Wei

Result: 0 – 4

Board	White: SMA	Score	Black: LSS
1	Wong Meng Kong	0 – 1	Terry Toh
2	Dominic Lo	½ – ½	Lim Yee Weng
3	Jonathan Koh	0 – 1	Gregory V.
4	Jeevarajah Nithiananthan	½ – ½	David Chong

Result: 1 – 3

Results from Round 2

Board	White: ISCA	Score	Black: LSS
1	Mark Choong	0 – 1	Terry Toh
2	Kevin Goh Wei Ming	1 – 0	Lim Yee Weng
3	Liu Yang Hazel	0 – 1	Gregory V.
4	Ly Hong Nguyen John	0 – 1	Edward Lee

Result: 1 – 3

Board	White: IES	Score	Black: SMA
1	Sukesh	0 – 1	Raymond Lin
2	Serafin	0 – 1	Dominic Lo
3	Warren Lim	0 – 1	Jonathan Koh
4	Teo SH	0 – 1	Victoria Chan

Result: 0 – 4

Results from Round 3

Board	White: SMA	Score	Black: ISCA
1	Raymond Lin	0 – 1	Kevin Goh Wei Ming
2	Dominic Lo	1 – 0	Liu Yang Hazel
3	Jonathan Koh	1 – 0	Ly Hong Nguyen John
4	Jeevarajah Nithiananthan	1 – 0	Dawn Hui

Result: 3 – 1

Board	White: LSS	Score	Black: IES
1	Terry Toh	1 – 0	Sukesh
2	Gregory V.	1 – 0	Serafin
3	David Chong	1 – 0	Warren Lim
4	Edward Lee	1 – 0	Teo SH

Result: 4 – 0

Final result cross-table

No.	Team	IES	SMA	LSS	ISCA	Match Point	Position
1.	IES	X	0	0	0	0	4th
2.	SMA	4	X	1	3	4	2nd
3.	LSS	4	3	X	3	6	1st
4.	ISCA	4	1	1	X	2	3rd

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