Asean + Youth Team championships

Just got back from the above tournament in Shah Alam Malaysia, yesterday.

It was a tiring 7 days for the kids and the parents too!

We got off to s shaky start. The malaysian tour bus driver that brought us from Singapore to Malaysia told us that he had never heard of Concorde Hotel, Shah alam - the venue of the tournament. We landed up at Concorde KL, and were told we were at the wrong place, but the bus had already left after dropping us!! So it took us another hour to get him back (the traffic jam was bad!!). By the time we got to Concorde Shah Alam, it was 5.30pm, which meant that the children had been on the road for a good 9 hours, all in high spirits but really tired.

The next day, when the tournament was starting, the parents found out that they had to be team captains. Originally each child from a team was appointed as captain, but we discovered that all the Malaysian teams had a parent / teacher to captain their team. Not wanting our kids to be disadvantaged, we quickly assigned duties to the few parents there, as the teachers had other responsibilities.

After 5 days of competing, our Under 12 team A, came in overall 2nd, and our Under 9 team also took silver. A total of 6 of our players won individual prizes. My son N, was one of those who won an individual medal. He did not loose a single game, until the last. He played really well as he was playing either Board 1 or 2 during the whole tournament - where teams field their best players. My daughter, too played well, losing only one game. She even drew her game with the player from the Malaysian U12 National team. However, she lost her game to her fellow team-mate from her schools team A. She was a little disappointed that she did not get any medals, but we are proud of her nonetheless!!

So, its a day of rest for the kids (and us) today, and its back to more chess games,as the National Age groups start tomorrow!!.