From the warm-up match below and this friendly match held on the same day, noticed that a few players played for more than a team, although it is ok for individual player, but may be not very good especially for team friendly match.

As mentioned by the name "team friendly match", the main purpose is for players of different teams to know each other so that stronger relationship could be built between teams over times, we should try to fill up with own members so that everyone knows the members of other teams.

If we treat the friendly match as another "serious" competition (winning is the only purpose) and formed the team with players from all over the places, the team is just in "NAME" and it is meaningless.

Even for "Serious" competition, we should have a plan to build up the skill of our players over times but not to form team with whatever good players over Singapore or even overseas. If not, the Champion is also just in NAME and only valid during the competition duration.

As brought up during the Round Table Discussion by various xiangqi teams held at Bishan C.C. on 7 Jan 2007, Boon Lay team has a training plan for the new players, it should be the direction for all teams.

Just my personal view only.


Below from Boon Lay C.C. Blog.

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Warm-up friendly

Today, we organised a friendly between Boon Lay CC Xiangqi Club teams A and B at Boon Lay CC. This would serve as a warm-up for the upcoming Albert Complex team competition. After some fierce competition, Team B upset the stronger Team A by a narrow margin of 4:3. The detailed results are as such:

Board 1: 甲级 卢国龙 0-1 甲级 熊国伟 (外援)
Board 2: 甲级 黄毅鸿 0-1 甲级 吕瑞展
Board 3: 乙级 刘茂荣 0-1 无级 刘亿豪
Board 4: 乙级 柳国斌 1-0 无级 陈政利
Board 5: 无级 邱振宇 1-0 无级 赖俊杰
Board 6: 无级 张友彬 0-1 无级 魏琬妮
Board 7: 无级 廖铭濠 1-0 无级 陈忠辉

Note: Team A is listed on the left. The players highlighted red took red.

A lady from China studying at SMU called me on Friday, 7 Sep 2007. She wanted to find out professional related training for xiangqi players. I told her that no such training in Singapore but I encourage her to come to our Club on Wednesday or SIXGA during weekend. I met her at SIXGA on the same evening. She should have about Grade 2 standard.

to have positive xiangqi development in Singapore, we should have at least 8 to 10 active and strong xiangqi teams in Singapore, but the current situation is far below the expectation, especially when compare to Weiqi and International Chess development in schools.

If all good players all channelled to say 5 teams or less, in the long run, only these 5 or less teams are active, then we will have less competitions in future and less sponsors are willing to support it. This is another chicken and egg issue.

It may be quite interesting to look back at this matter, say 5 or 10 years down the road.

I went out after my last posting to agree with

"Players for more than a team－－我的一点意见 － by 卷心菜"

and came back a few minutes ago.

My purpose is just to touch on "team friendly match" to use all own players (in this case, the kolam ayer team event) instead of external players for matches between two or more different clubs with no intention to touch on Boon Lay training match. (In fact, I give my support to Boon Lay training plan for their players regardless whether to use any external player.)

Actually, I believe that the Bishan players did not feel bad although we scored last in the 3 years (2005, 2006 & 2007) at Kolam Ayer as the main purposes are for 3 years anniversary celebration programmes and our priorities were to send EXCO members to these type of events and to include some non-EXCO members if we need to put up more players.

I hope that I do not use any offensive words in these few postings.

Furthermore, if we have some good suggestions from these few related discussions and resulted in the positive development of xiangqi activities in Singapore over the next 5 to 10 years, it could be viewed as unintentional benefits for all the Singapore xiangqi lovers.

As mentioned in my first posting, my personal view only.

With this, I wish to close this topic and move on.

Thanks.

of course, these 5 games were played for fun by the 4 players (she and 3 SIXGA members) (by the way, 棋人生 not in these few games)


she won a SIXGA Gr 2 player for 2 games

followed by

won a SIXGA no-grade player for 2 games

followed by

lost to a SIXGA Gr 2 player for 1 game.

I have clarified on "Team Friendly Match" in a separate note.

Regarding the issue of good overseas players, I wish to share some personal views here.

When I mentioned overseas players, actually I am referring to those coming to Singapore for a few days to represent a local team in a team competition.

For those holding work permits or students passes etc, I am considering them as players in Singaspore for the duration when they are working or studying in Singapore. Definitely, they help to improve the skill levels of Singaporeans during their stays.

For those overseas players with a few days stay in Singapore, their main goal is to win in a team competition sponsored and it is the only expectation from their sponsor(s). It has no or little improvement to the skill levels of their other Singapore team members during the stay.

I do not think their sponsors will "invite them over to give the other Singaporeans from other teams the opportunities to play with these top players for free." If this is the thinking of the sponsor, could it be very unfair to the Singaporeans in their own team (???).

As mentioned, the Champion is just in NAME and only valid during the competition duration with overseas good player(s).

If the good overseas players or trainers come over for a longer period, say a few weeks or even months, then it is a total different issue and it will definitely bring up the skill levels of some or more Singapore players at least during their stays or even better after their stays. Sponsor(s) for such nature of ativities will be very much appreciated, this is also why we build up a closer relationships with, in examples 黄少龙教授(中国象棋大师) and 言穆江（中国象棋大师） during their stays in Singapore and they even contributed articles to our 5th Anniversary Newsletter Special Edition later.

For details, please refer to two early postings on


海外来稿 : 黄少龙(中国象棋大师) -- 漫谈象棋人才 Publicity 8 ......
2007-06-22 14:21


海外来稿 : 言穆江（中国象棋大师） Publicity 9 ......
2007-06-22 14:23

Of course, during the team competition, players from any team will like to have chances to play with good overseas player(s) provided the sponsors are having the same thinkings, to the sponsors, they need to know their purposes of sponsoring the events.

if I am not wrong, she got under 16 champion previously in Canton.

just to share our current way to handle this matter as we do not object 一人多队 in the past, present and of course, hopefully into the future.

For our members under 一人多队, they participate in all internal activities as other members, eig. internal competition, but for external activities, they have to decide (we also communicate with the leader of the other team) to represent one team only during the specific period, of course, they can indicate if they want to represent another team for another period (we communicate with the leader of the other team again).

One example is we have one Grade 1 player joined us in July 2005, particiapted in our internal competitions 2005 and 2006 but only starting to represent us from Apr 2007 in external activities.

So far, we do not encounter any problem in this way of handling, and we will continue to use this method until review to be conducted if any.

As highlighted in my previous posting : “When I mentioned overseas players, actually I am referring to those coming to Singapore for a few days to represent a local team in a team competition.”, in such case, the benefits to other players definitely more than your own team players excluding getting Champion in the team competition.

To look at it from another angle, if I am able to get a sponsor to contribute a few thousand dollars, do I plan to get good overseas player(s) into Singapore to get Champion for our team in Lion City’s Cup or Lee Bee Wah’s Cup etc. My answer is NO, but if your answer is YES for your team if you are able to get a sponsor to contribute a few thousand dollars, then definitely I am happy for our team players as at least one or few of them having chances to play with your good overseas player(s) in the Lion City’s Cup or Lee Bee Wah’s Cup competitions etc.

郑启岁 to find out more from 棋儒.