Friday March 25, 2011
Zhuo Ren a chess champ at last
Lim Zhuo Ren has succeeded in exorcising chess demons from the past.
TWO years ago, Lim Zhuo Ren met with the greatest of his heartaches. At the national closed chess championship of 2009, he was leading a close pack of players going into the final round of the tournament. A draw was all he needed to clinch the title but he played over-cautiously to lose the game.
Because of that, three other players caught up with him at the top of that year’s championship. All four had finished with equal points and it forced the Malaysian Chess Federation to arrange a quick play-off tournament to determine the winner.
Lim never recovered totally from that last-round loss. The disappointment showed. In the play-off, he was outplayed and could only finish third among the four players.
Last year, he again played in the national closed championship but it was as though he was still reliving the past. A lukewarm 14th position was all he could manage.
By the end of the year though, his confidence was starting to creep back into his games. At the national junior chess championship in December, Lim played well enough to force a five-way tie at the top. In the play-off tournament that followed, Lim won.
Fast forward to this month; it was now time for the national closed championship. Again, Lim – now 19 – decided to throw his hat into the ring but this time, he had a new status as the national junior champion.
Maybe Lim did not have great expectations of himself but suddenly, like two years earlier, he found himself in a similar position: sole leader after seven rounds, and people already speaking of him as the new national champion.
Full article here.
Congrats!