another look at the same thing

(8/31/2008 07:48:00 PM)

Being a rather lazy person, this author's first intention after reading the latest post by indeterminate-"I think I'm cute"-LKY was simply to declare that he had high chances of becoming the champion of the "So you think you're cute" competition. However, I realized that firstly, it would be washed away by other tags by people, and secondly, the number of accounts on this event (ref: 08a13 class blog, 08s6k class blog) has presented some of the facts in a manner that I am not in complete agreement with.

This author, not having taken pictures of note, has decided to include far more interesting things like tables and strings of meaningless numbers. Generally, the higher your rating (ie the larger the number), the better a player you're supposed to be.

As everyone who has been reading this blog knows by now, the competition was held in Northland Primary. As someone who had been there before (unsurprisingly, for a chess competition), I noted with some surprise that nothing much had changed. For example, there was still no air-con, although yours truly did not complain much since being in the Open category, we all got to sit at the side of the hall. (And besides, yours truly graduated from a school that thought it acceptable to close all the doors of the non-air-conditioned hall during the screening of the council investiture, thereby allowing all the students to enjoy the experience of being in a sauna.)

1st round: While the guys team had the privilege of facing off against ACS I, my team had an extremely relaxing match against the RI team.

Table 1: Ratings of the RI (yes, RI) players. Note that the last player is a reserve and didn't play a single game throughout the entire tournament.
Chan Wei Xuan Timothy 2040
Shen Chuan Qi 1967
Neubronner Jarred Jason 1941
Sng Zheng Yang 1762
Seah Kiat Hong 1205

Table 2: Ratings of the HCI Girls' players. We note that the smallest differential between the RI players and the HCI players works out to 549 points. Incidentally, contrary to the allegation made on the 6k blog, they are/were in chess at some point in time. Theoretically.
Chew Yi Peng Lisa 0
Pang Ru Xue Jamie 1418
Chua Xin Rong 1330
Zheng Jiahui 0
Qiu Yonghui 0

Thankfully, the next 2 matches were much better than the first (where we cruised to 0-4) and thus like the other HCI team, we had managed to obtain reasonable results by the end of the 3rd round.

But before round 4, there was a break for all the broken and bruised warriors to pick themselves up and get some sustenance in preparation for the upcoming rounds. I am not sure why, but my choice of location and choice of food seems to have been a source of interest to many people. Jamie "Top Debater" Pang managed to sway even "I'm from Green Club and therefore supposed to care for the environment" Marvin to follow her in her act of environmental destruction. Perhaps Kia Yee followed in the hope that Jamie would teach him how to win the heart of HRH. Lisa and I then spent time twiddling our thumbs while waiting for someone who suffered a great decrease in speed due to the aftereffects of too much chili squid.

On returning to the scene of bloodshed and torture, we soon discovered the "sin of attrition" had occured once again. In the four years I spent in my secondary school, I remember only 1 occasion where 2 teams from my school faced off against each other. In the eight months I have spent in HCI, it has happened three times.

Perhaps if HRH had consented to come the result of the 4th round might have been different. Imagine...

HRH: Kia Yee-e-e...

*here Kia Yee's hand shakes and accidentally touches his queen and a defended pawn, forcing him to take it*

Coming back to reality, Jamie Pang was the only 1 to score a point, despite all the pre-match plotting against her. Sadly.

After another 4-0 wipeout against ACS I (the very same), I envisioned a fight to the death against my beloved juniors for the Girls' trophy.

Then the pairings for round 6 came out.


At that point in time, we had 7 points and our dear juniors had 6.5. Having gained the bye meant 2 free points for our team. Considering that we had beat NYGH's opponents 4-0 (ie suggesting that they would too), it seemed like we were going to have to settle for second. Therefore, instead of mugging like a good HCI student, I started talking rubbish and praying that the JJC team HCI was playing would transfer all their intelligence to the team NYGH was playing.

Being the hopeless busybody that I was, I could not resist poking my head in and taking a look at the games. To my surprise, the NYGH 2nd board was down by a rook! That, coupled with the fact that I seemed to have heard that the NYGH 4th board had lost, boosted my spirits no end.

Did you really think it was going to be that simple?

In the end, the NYGH 2nd board came back from the dead with a flurry of exchanges culminating in a king-rook fork to win the game (kudos to her for that). And the first board drew.

So there it was. We were neck-to-neck in game points. I even counted match points, came to the conclusion that it was the same, and couldn't be bothered to calculate our scores for the next tie-break.

Suspense reigned as we waited for the prizes to be announced.

After what was rather a long time (they announced the prizes for the other two sections first), they started announcing the prizes for the west zone.

3rd: ACJC
(here the captain of the other HCI team started consoling his players)
2nd: JJC B
1st: HCI B!

Which was quite amusing, all things considered.

Then came the moment I was waiting for. It was quite embarrassing, I suppose, but I'm not going to drop dead over it.

"2nd place: Nanyang Girls' High!"
Me: YES!!! *claps very loudly* *some people turn*

Image 1: The final standings. Note that my team only won on the 3rd tie-break.


I would just like to thank my team. I know it's been said by 3 different sources (at last count) that there were only 2 contenders (which I do not deny), but it was honestly close. I didn't really think it would happen (and that we would have to put up with people telling us that we lost to a team of secondary school girls (although there is no real dishonour in that per se)), but it did.