Hi, it's me again.

I took part in the recently concluded Anchorvale CC Fast Chinese Chess Competition and managed to win 12th place, which was quite nice since it was an open category and there were four masters participating. The prize? A nice trophy and 10 dollars in cash.

On the course of earning my place, I played with several interesting opponents:

3rd round) My opponent here was... strange. He wore ear rings, had his hair long and curly, and painted his nails (meaning both his fingers and toes) white. Still, he was an formidable opponent, and I lost to him. He later got into the top 10 places.

6th round) My opponent here was an old man who was a sore loser. Which part of fast chess did he not understand? Yes he was better than me. Yes, he had the advantage in the game. His time ran out, and he couldn't believe the fact, calling all and sundry to accuse this 'young brat' of stealing away one minute from his clock.

Besides these colourful characters that I am mentioned, my teammates also did encounter several other interesting faces.

Chun Kai played against an entire family of chess players in his first round. Confused? He actually just played with one guy, while the mother, father, and sister of that guy surrounded the table. Looked like some kind of Hong Men Yan with them preparing to kill Chun Kai once he wins.

Wentao got to play Fiona. He probably wouldn't have lost if not for that bad mistake.

In retrospect, my win was mostly due to pure luck. Not that I am complaining, but such luck most likely will not continue to next year, so I really need to buck up. On the other hand, I was the only JC guy who got into the top 15 placings (aside for Junren who got 11 place with even more extreme luck then me) so I suppose that is quite encouraging.

Still, there are many tough JC opponents who didn't participate in the competition, and also some who weren't on form then, like zixian. Additional training must be needed to prepare for these obstacles to us winning the Raffles Cup. (Come to think of it, the Raffles Cup trophy is actually smaller than the two trophies I have at home)

On a lighter note, Liverpool lost to Man United by one goal. To be honest, Man U deserved the win. They defended tightly, and Liverpool, aside for a couple of missed opportunities in the 1st half, were relatively tame in the 2nd half, and really didn't deserve to win. (I know I will never hear the end of this from Moses, sigh)