The legend of the Five Heroes

(8/30/2008 08:55:00 PM)

Note: I'm still in the process of uploading the Teachers' Day videos thus the post about it will be postponed until this task is finished.









A First Aider

An Astronomer

A Bridge Player

A Judoka (ie from Judo)

An Environmentalist











It all started with the notice that players would be required for the 49th National Inter-School Team Championships 2008. All would be well, if not for the fact that the Block Tests and coming A levels for the J2 seniors in the Chess and Bridge Club, as well as other complications, meant that the club would be unable to field any chess players at all.

This sparked off an intense search for talented individuals capable of upholding the illustrious record of the school. Other than the Chess Captain (Marvin Chua), the Open category had nearly no one able to hold the fort.

With the glowing recommendations and testimonials of Chua Xin Rong, the second hero was found within the club, and was none other than Kho Zhe Wei, formerly specialising in bridge.

The Captain then managed to pull in his classmate, Kian Min from the First Aid Club. However, there were still 2 vacancies left, which urgently needed to be filled.

Thus, I was recommended to fill this position, whom then recommended Norvin Chan to fill in the last space, completing the holy quintet.

However, by this time, less than 2 weeks remained before the start of the competition. Worse still, we relative greenhorns were expected to compete against the best and brightest in Singapore, including the National Team in RJC/RI. Amid this bleak backdrop, it was deemed an excellent performance if we had obtained 3rd placing for the West Zone.

Also, the team had never met as a whole before the competition, and the identities of several of the teammates were left a mystery to some of the team members until the day of the competition itself. Thus you could imagine the lack of coordination of the team when the heroes first met.

The faithful day arrived (today to be precise), and we gathered at Yishun MRT at 8 am, to begin the pilgrimage to the distant land of Mount Doom (a.k.a Northland Primary).

Along the way, Xin Rong decided to drop the bombshell that the HRH JWS had wanted this lowly photographer to fan her on Teachers' Day. This was quite shocking as the services of this lowly servant were formerly terminated by HRH JWS herself. This led to the photographer commenting in spite that "Its not that I'm obsessed about her, the fact is that she wants me."
*Expects firestorm of outrage. Thankfully there are no leste majeste laws in the Dominion*

We reached the steep precipices of Mount Doom after a long and ardous trek.

Image 2: The team composition. Notice how lousy we are by the fact that our rating is 0.

Horror of horrors, the opponents for the first round turned out to be ACS (I)

Image 3: The much vaunted ACS (I). Naturally we lost 0-4. (The last guy is a reserve)

The second and third round turned out much better, with us getting 2-2 and 4-0 respectively. After the 3 rounds, we had clawed back to a respectable position.

Lunch began, with the team going to a nearby coffeeshop to eat. While most people decided to bring the food back to Mount Doom to consume, Chua Xin Rong, Kho Zhe Wei decided to eat at the locale itself under the pretext of environmental friendliness. Unfortunately, said photographer could not capture such an award winning image due to the presence of too many lightbulbs.

It so happened after lunch that the 2 HC teams had to meet in the 4th round (The girls category also participated). However, Xin Rong decided not to play with her beloved so as to ensure a better chance of winning. In the end result though, the team still won 3-1, with the lone victory obtained by the venerable Jamie Pang.

The fifth round was the most traumatic game, in that we were playing against RJC and the associated National Team. However I am proud to say that I was at least able to check them before going down in an horrific defeat, as our team sank 0-4.

Thus, the game hung in the balance as we entered the final round. Playing against JJC, a major contender, it was discovered that if we won all 4 games in that round, we would most definitely get the title. However, a similarly devastating defeat to them will mean we get nothing at all. This was shaping up to the toughest test of the team.

A most notable event occurred before my game. I feel tired lecturing HRH JWS on the answer to question 9 of Waves tutorial, so I shall post it as it is by the concerned party, Norvin from A13 (See it in their class blog!)

========================START OF CRAP=============================

And if you were wondering why me, a judoka, was in a chess competition, I can tell you the answer.

I too found myself wondering why I was there playing chess, after realizing that all chess players aren't muscular... and look kind of... bookish.

Then I felt good since I could win anyone in that hall in a fight and walked around feeling full of myself and my chest.

However, I soon came to realize that brains and brawns are not mutually exclusive:Judo helps you win in Chess.

Before Round 6, the final round, in which we badly needed points, I went up to one of the opponents....He was sitting on the table...I took up the seat facing him...I made eye-contact with him...And I put my arm onto the table...And I said:"Lets Arm-wrestle."

He was like O_o. Why is this weirdo challenging me in arm-wrestling when IT IS IN A CHESS TOURNAMENT?!?!!?

He chickened out, then he redirected me to the biggest-looking guy on his team.

Then I sat in front of the Biggest looking guy (70 kg+) and he accepted...We pushed the chess boards away.I rolled up my sleeves a bit so that the image of my biceps will burn into his retinas...And we made contact with our arms."GO!"It was a total pushover =P. He stood no chance against me. I left him clutching his arm in agony and his teammates looking o_o that he lost.

Then, since he lost the arm-wrestling match, his self-esteem and pride in his manliness dissolved...The chess match started soon after. (His chess opponent wasn't me though!)

He played over-aggressively to restore whatever notions of manhood he had left...His arm, hurt, had to move slower, and he lost precious time...He was confused by the adrenaline rush arm-wrestling gave him...He couldn't concentrate as the vivid images of my biceps kept flashing in his mind...

In short, I managed to make him lose since I arm-wrestled him.

Who says that Judo doesn't help you win in chess? =P(It was really... dumb of him to accept the challenge though XD)

===========================END OF CRAP==============================

Obviously, I would like to note that:

a) I was being owned by that guy (Was 3 pawns down at a point). The only saving grace was that I had way more time than him. Thus, he wasnt screwing up, rather I was the one whom was screwing up (I was near checkmate several times).

b) It was only near the end, when he screwed up, and lost everything, then did I win. This was like way after the arm wrestling thing had occurred, and any adrenaline rush had long since subsided.

Felt abit sad for that guy, he looked very dejected and pissed afterwards.... Very understandable given that he squandered everything

Image 4: The final tragedy. White resigned in this position.

So anyway, the round ended 2-2. Our fate remained uncertain, and we were waiting for the results anxiously, hoping that we made 3rd.

The announcer then said 3rd: VJC 2nd: JJC. We thought all was over, and were quite dissappointed. (We spent an entire day for nothing?!!?!)

Then he said 1st: HCI Team B! Looks like we exceeded our expectations!

Image 5: The winners for the West Zone Open. From left to right: Kian Min, Zhe Wei, Me, Marvin and Norvin.

If you were wondering why is the writer having such a constipated smile, its because he is putting the king on top of the queen in order to show the queen's submission to the king (Get the drift?)

It was discovered that in the end, we only beat JJC by 1.5 pts. If I really had lost the match, we wouldnt be where we were today. It was really an exciting match that was likely to give heart attacks to me and surrounding spectators

The girls also got First in the Open (Girls) category, which wasnt exactly surprising given that there were only 2 competitors

Image 6: The lonely trio whom decided to stay and watch the proceedings. From left to right, Yong Hui, Xin Rong and Lisa

Image 7: The medal that was given.

Congratulations to Zheng Jiahui, Chua Xin Rong and me myself for making the Dominion proud!