What’s Happening

Well, almost two weeks have gone by. My grandfather passed away last Monday due to old age, a ripe 98 years old and I was back in my hometown for the funeral ceremony. We all wore red, as if it is like Chinese New Year because according to tradition, anyone who passed away at a ripe age of 100 shall be celebrated because they have lived a full and long life and passed away peacefully, with lots of children and grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Indeed, the place was packed with all my grandfather’s decendents.

Thinking back, if it was not for my grandfather who has had the courage and made the effort to come to Malaysia (or Malaya at that time) to work and find a new living and new hope, our generation will still be stuck somewhere in China and our generation may not have progressed very far. Anyways, for better or for worse, we are living well here, all thanks to my Grandfather’s courage and foresight.

Every once in a while, this kind of courage and foresight is important, especially so when you are trapped in a death-hole, i.e. no matter what you do, the situation does not and will not look that it can be bettered. In such instances, courage is necessary to take the leap of faith, to restart life in the hope of a better future, if not for oneself, for the next generation.

You just can’t keep repeating and doing the same thing but expect the same results. I always keep telling myself and whoever I thought needed to hear this. I think I have even blogged about this before. This is really important. There is virtually no way where you keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different things to happen.

Anyways, the World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) is happening now in Japan and is one of the top event for amateur Go players. Malaysia is represented by the ever strong Boon Ping who registered himself only as a 4dan. Let’s hope that he can achieve good results and we will all be rooting for him.

Another player that I am interested in is China’s representative, Hu Yuqing with whom I have played with in a tournament in Bangkok and of course was completely trashed by him. He won the WAGC before with straight wins and this year, many people thinks that he will win again. In fact, he actually has pro strength as I witnessed in the Bangkok tournament as even 2dan professional players have difficulties when played against him. By the way, he was also the champion in the Bangkok tournament.

A lot of things in Go is happening now in Malaysia. We just had a selection tournament for a tournament in Korea this September and the winner was Zaid (as expected) with the first runner up being Philip and second runner up being Alex. I was appointed to be the team leader. I am really looking forward to a great experience of Korean Go.