Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Joseph Toh comment on drunken (grand) master incident

Local chess coach - Joseph Toh made a comment about the drunken (grand) master incident at the recently concluded - Calculta Open which stir the chess world . Below is his comment which was publish in chessbase.com:-

Joseph Toh, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Let me relate a personal experience that I was a guilty culprit for sleeping during a game. It was the last round of one of the major Swiss tournament in our country, and I was down with a flu during most of the event, and it was at its worst during this round. I heavily intoxicated myself with medications to withhold the fever just to be able to play this crucial game. During the game I was heavily wrapped up to protect from the cold air-conditioning and was dozing most of the time just able to open my eyes at the click of the old analog clock being pressed after my opponent's move. Since my opponent was also a slow player and not wanting to take advantage of my poor situation, I got the much needed rest during the game and was also very relaxed throughout for this very important game.

Through sheer luck or determination, I managed to win the game and was placed outright second, losing an only game to the eventual champion in the earlier rounds. Had anyone of my friends or the arbiters interfered, trying to be good Samaritans, I doubt things would had turned up as it was. All there is to say is, if a player can bodily get him/herself present at the board, leave them alone! One's own presence, mentality or physically, is the responsibility of oneself. Should one have felt otherwise, one would not have chosen to be there in the first place.

There is the saying, "Let sleeping dogs lie." Should one wake a sleeping chess player? An absolute resounding, "NO!"

Read the full chessbase.com article here

Joseph Toh is once an active chess player and now a chess coach. If i'm not mistaken, he once represent Malaysian in Asian Team tournament in Australia . During the 90's, he open a chess centre in Petaling Jaya called - Total Chess but the centre didn't last long.

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