In the early 90’s, Mr Helmut Glaser’s work commitments saw him getting posted to Singapore. Mr Glaser, a chess fanatic with a reputedly impressive chess library, approached the Singapore Chess Federation to establish correspondence chess here and among those who responded to his call were national players like Winston Williams, FM Dr Goh Cheng Hong, Teo Kok Cheng, Bernard Teo, IA/IO Ignatius Leong, FM Chia Chee Seng and FM Jeremy Lim. He organised the Singapore team for the Pacific Area Team Tournament as well as the Olympiad. Despite Helmut paying Singapore’s ICCF membership fees out of his own pocket, most of of his team-members quit active CC play (if only you knew how frenetic the pace of life in Singapore is). Just count the number of noughts we have registered in the last 3 CC Olympiads…. on second thoughts, don’t bother.

However, Helmut’s enthusiasm rubbed off on Wang Mong Lin, the 1974 OTB British Universities and 1983 Queenstown Open Champion. Wang was to become Singapore’s first native CC IM in 1998 (Glaser made his IM title in the early 90’s). After clinching his first norm with 6.5/8 in the PATT III Tourney, he won the ICCF EM/MN01 one point ahead of the field to gain the title. Even then, his compatriots could not maintain their commitment to postal chess and many withdrew from their Olympiad games. Edmund Bau, a permanent resident from Hong Kong took over the captaincy of the Singqapore team in 1995 following Helmut’s return to Germany. Sad to say, most of the players were still unable to sustain their interest in CC and withdrew from tournament play. One great exception was Mr Oon Soon Tee, a former National Veteran Championship Runner-up, who nevertheless competed tirelessly in the Olympiads and NAPZ preliminary events up till today.

With the advent of email chess, a new breed of CC players have started to emerge. In recent years, some newcomers to the international CC scene are:

Steven Tan, National OTB player and Elista Olympiad representative – taking part in IECG tourneys and Blackmar- Diemer thematic events.

Kek Wei Chuan - National OTB player and 1995 Asian Cities representative – taking part in IECC tourneys

OTB IM Terry Toh – National OTB Champion 1995, 2^nd in Gurnadarma Masters 1992, 6^th in World Under 16 Ch 1990 – taking part in ICCF MasterNorm tourney

Dr J Nithiananthan – National OTB Closed Runner-up 1998, Asian Teams representative 1999 – taking part in ICCF Masterclass tournament.

NM Mark Chan – National OTB Champion 1998 – Moscow and Elista Olympiad representative – taking part in ICCF zonal, NAPZ and Masterclass tournament.

FM Mikko Kivisto – 1998 National Blitz Runner-up – taking part in ICCF Email Team Finals Bd 2.

And yours truly…

Only time can tell if these newbies can sustain their interest. Since Helmut’s departure, Wang has been paying Singapore’s ICCF Membership dues as well as sponsoring all the local CC players’ tournament entry fees up till today! Any local player wishing to make a splash onto the International CC scene can contact: