Wednesday, December 28, 2005

hm... was thinking about what i did this year ... haha and the first thing that came to my mind was raffles cup!! haha just recalled how exciting it was... so i shall blog abt sth that happened 6 months ago...

ok, if you all still don't know, raffles cup is er chinese chess competition organised by RJC. our school sent in 3 teams haha... but i shall just talk abt my team coz i seriously cant rmb other tings. there is only 1 big category for secondary schools la... so my team only got sec 3s we go to the competition oso quite scared. see the sec 4s from other schools keep talking sum chinese chess shit we dun understand.

my team got me, chunkai and jonathan sim (express guy). this order was also the order of our boards. usually the schools put the best guy on the 1st board and so on la. but chunkai just joined chess club so i still captain:). den our first match is against ACSI. to our shock we realised that ACSI only sent 1 team... means the team must be dam pro wan. i rmb i playing wif this funy yellow colored hair guy who seems like a china scholar. and the whole team all sec 4s. den i tink after a while jonathan lost and chunkai won:). so left me lol. i got some advantage la... den after quite long (i tink quite long wan) i finally won 1 piece. by that time jw and the rest all crowding near me liaoz waiting for me to finish to eat lunch lol. actually its quite obvious i will win but i still nervous...scully careless whole team lose liao. den after i checkmate him he say in chinese 'bei ta kan chuan le' which means that he was sad that i saw through how to checkmate him. LOL .... lydat who also can see wan lor... quite happy i won la.. coz he supposed to be qutie proz wan

after eating lunch we came back and our team, with 1 win, go play against chung cheung high C. I still sat at the 1st board, ck 2nd and jonathan 3rd. den i start move zhong pao my opponent move lie shou pao .. means he move his opposite pao to the center. chunkai, on the other hand, start second so his opponent move zhong pao he also move his opposite pao to the center. so by right i got a bit of advantage and ck a little less coz i start firz and ck start second. jonathan duno play wad shit lost quite fast. den ck won. left me again lol. although i start firz i duno move wad ting wrong den my opponent attack me like siao... so i defend like siao... i get 1 piece but he attack like shit... really scared i might lose. den he blur blur go and let me eat another piece so i was like 2 che up? lol. after 2 che up its quite obvious i win liaoz... but then his position so good that he manage to try another trick which can be fatal... but obviously i nt so stupid. so he resigned with a smile:) ... lol tt round was quite tough... 2nd round already almost lose liao...

this concludes the firz day of the competition.

2nd day 1st match vs cat high team A
den second day we came back... tinking still got quite gd chance coz we got 2 wins... but dam nervous coz its always getting harder and harder. oh ya and jonathan never come this day... so its like left me and chunkai lol? 2 players how to fight 3 opponents? if lydat means both of us have to win our opponents den can count as team win... coz the last board just lose by walkover. haha den we cant stomach the fact that we so kind to our opponents... so we ask junwei from team C to come and play for us too... at least might have some chance haha. den guess what we did... we put junwei as captain so he play first board so he kena the harder opponent... den me and ck just try our luck with the lousier opponents...so ck seat second board i seat third board (i humji a bit). i could see that the opposing team was quite surprised tt junwei was the captain.. coz they nv see him b4 but guess they keep seeing me play for RI... den i go humji third board lol. while we were playing i glance at jw's board... whoa he not bad sia his position almost draw...i was like omg!? we meant to offer him as 'sacrifice' budden he can make draw its seriously dam pro lor... budden duno wad he doing play so fast in the end his ma duno how become eaten... man... its like almost sure draw haha. den he lose... den i look at ck's board... den i tink i rmb he losing 1 piece... but his position better... he like signalling to me he sure lose liaoz.. haha...budden coz his position good he managed to eat back the piece he lost... i tink the opponent let him eat back the piece coz he dun wan ck's bing to chiong and i tink he tot tt since he winning 1 piece gif some slack... poor choice though. den my game i got advantage liaoz.. win piece after a while duno wad my opponent doing trap his own piece. but then he use his piece to eat my shi la... so i got 1 shi less he keep attacking my other lone shi... dangerous lor so close to my king... so i was like using everyting else to protect my shi... coz i noe tt if he canot manage to eat my shi he cant do aniting liao... den i just win wif my extra piece. he attack until to a point that i almost tot i will lose... den rmbed ck's method of putting the pao beside the jiang... so i did tt and protected everyting... haha my opponent cant do aniting liaoz.. den after tt my turn to attack den he cant defend... so he slowly slowly lose more and more pieces whilst defending... so i attack more and more... den unconsciously i jiang him for the last time i managed to chou his last che... in fact the last attacking piece on board haha! so in the end... i ate ALL his attacking pieces up.. (the ches, mas and paos)... den i look at my pieces i only lose 1 ma and 1 pao haha... cool man... i realised i effectively used only 1 pao 1 ma to exchange his everyting else... den he was like omg and resignz... so now 1 win 1 loss.. left to ck to win the match for us la.... den the cat high supporters were all looking at his board after seeing how i stripped my opponent... den ri not much supporters so only me looking at ck's game lol...and u noe wat? i tink ck's position got a bit advantage now... he not bad sia noe how to niu zhuan qian kun... den suddenly his opponent's time dropped! rofl? we were like hurray... coz omg we won cat high team A!!!! (the best team in cat high)

lol den after tt i asked ck how come lydat... den he say coz his opponent keep drinking water den going toilet... den his time keep ticking lol! den after a while drop! cool sia

2nd match (vs Cat high B)
lol we were quite surprised... winning cat high A liao still play cat high B...yea coz we got 3 wins liao means the team we fight getting proer and proer... ya we were dam nervous again coz just now we win dam tyco wan... haha... so using same trick jw was firz board, ck second board and i third board (coz just now humji seems quite useful)... yea jw lost first, den left ck and me playing. i tot i was playing against a guy tt beat me b4... so i quite scared la... tho i tink i still better:) ( i always nervous wan) ... den after tt i realised he dun wan play so i play wif some other guy...lol den he pleaded wif me not to strip him like i did to his fren in team A...lols ... yea forgot how the game went but i won la... den ck got bad position... most of his pieces forced back coz he play defense... but then the opponent keep attacking but attack nothing...so ck did some pro defense (like he always does) ... den counter-attacked. i was like quite impressed coz i cant imagine his sucky position still can counter... and his counter was seriously quite good coz got alot of hidden stuff haha... like almost countered from nowhere lydat... proz... in the end draw la.. coz both sides attacking and defending... den they oso wan to play safe. so this match was a draw.

in total, we got 31/2 pts out of max 4 from 2 days. whoa... chance not bad sia... i tink we were temporarily the top seeded team. ya rofl at the end of the day was surprised to see our RI coach actually come!!! omg lol... he so lousy and so slack still wan to come and pose wif other coaches... nv come and help us... u noe wat he did? he went to me and ask how mani pts we got... we told him 3.5 den he say quite gd and zaoed immediately... some kind of coach.

3rd day (round 1 vs chung cheng B)
i tink 3rd day only got 1 round. we matched against chung cheng B haha. we now played 2 cat highs and 2 chung chengs already. hard to describe... but chung cheng team b actually seems quite sleek. i tink their team also made up of sec 3s (like us) so we were quite happy playing finally with our own age. ya so they young and their minds still not polluted by chess books openings (but sadly they still got better coach den us) haha ... o ya and jonathan came back today... so i went back to be at the captain's seat...jonathan's board i tink lost all first 4 games... man lol! so this fifth game he did some credit and drew it... instead its me and ck who lost... actually is kena thrashed rofl... ck use lie shou pao so both sides attack like shit... but his opponent oso equally pro and more tyco... i use ping feng ma... i tot i use until quite gd wad... den i seriusly duno y make all the correct moves den kena thrashed...argh coach never teach finish the opening lor...knn

current pts: 3.5/5 haha we nt too sure of our chances now... seems quite bad... we must win both or win or draw the last 2 games we got...quite apprehensive lor

last day (round 1 vs chung cheng team A)
haha already at the start of the day ck told me give up liaoz... wah i see ck lydat i noe if i say we still got chance he sure dam nervous and sure canot tink wan... lol so i just told him tt i give up oso ask him anyhow play:) yea our history with chung cheng is tt we won Team C and lost Team B. now we playing against Team A... wah chances quite low. As usual our opponents are all big sized sec 4s… haha i rmb jonathan played 3rd board, i played 2nd board and ck played 1st board... rofl we keep switching around... we tot its illegal but dun care coz no1 said aniting. yea jonathan drew and i drew too... coz i playing with the best guy den a bit scared...anyway the position both sides quite hard to do aniting... if continue playing sure dam exciting and 1 side will win... but we 2 cowards coz better to play safe coz its the 2nd last match liao. haha....so its left to chunkai to win so tt we can get overall team win. Hehe the chung cheng supporters plus us were dam nervous while watching ck’s game… I tink ck’s hands also trembling liaoz. Coz he use lie shou pao den he keep on sacrificing to attack haha…yea so after quite a few nice patterns ck finally attack finish and almost going kill the king liaoz using his few but pro pieces… den the opponent time out lol

so omg we won our second last round… so we got 4.5 pts out of 6 pts… wah really got chance to win prize man. So all the more we were dam nervous for the last round… its either we win or we go home with nothing hehe

last round vs cat high team C
haha we were like omg? We are playing with yet another catholic high team…but now is team C… so we were like…quite gd chance wad… we won team A den sure can win team C rite…

when the round started, I played the first board, jonathan took the second and ck took the third…. Lol and chunkai was playing with sec 1!!! So I was telling him make sure he win man…haha den I was like shocked when I saw tt ck’s small opponent got the advantage in the end game…so I tot the most ck can get is a draw… den jonathan losing…. Den I oso losing… lol den I was feeling dam sad coz I tot sure lose wan lor…all wasted on this last round. Haha then came a surprise… ck first to announce a win on his board! Haha…coz he bully his opponent eat up his defense using 2 ma den win…dam tyco man…. Den jonathan’s board lost….left my board!!! Haha almost died of pressure…. Means tt I win/lose will decide whether we can get ani prize… yea and I was dam nervous coz the opponent can pattern and kill me wan…. So its like gg…budden realised my opponent was not really good coz he missed patterns sumore end game he anyhow play… so I tycoily won 1 piece… haha by then the whole hall all the players like all play finish… left my board… den to my utmost delight I won the game:) yea dam happy can heave relief liaoz… we got total 5.5 pts out of 7… shld be quite gd chance of winning sth…
so we anxiously waited a while for the results… den we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we got 2nd!!! Rofl … and you know we realised that the top team is actually catholic high team A… the team which we beat!!!! Using 2 players!!! And is the team with the guy whom I ate every piece up!!! Lydat oso can get firz?? Lol… found out they got 6 pts out of 7… which means tt they won every other game but lost to us!! Hehe dint noe we so pro.

Yea den saw the RJC J1s faces… haha feel like suanning them coz they last year in RI nv win aniting… sec 4s sumore… we sec 3s oso can win 2nd… and I tink the last time we won 2nd was 4 years ago… duno got win champs b4 or nth aha.

Yea den our coach realised we got 2nd and come to congratulate us… kao that idiot never help us at all we win by our own merit come and claim credit… the hwa chong coach keep teaching and teaching his students after every game our coach nv even see his face…

Haha den sth really stupid happened. Our coach said tt other teams complain tt we keep playing different boards for every game and the judges are investigating this lol! Oops dint noe they took it so seriously… after a while I felt quite scared coz if they really dun give chance they might take our 2nd prize away:( I was praying and praying wun lydat coz im sure we fight so hard den in the end kena complained by some other sore loser schools… must be cat high complain wan lor lol…. Coz we play all their 3 teams we all different positions LOL…..

So luckily in the end the judges nv say aniting la… so I presume they give us chance and oso dun make other schools appear like sore loser… the judges quite nice:D