Meet the Singaporean chess team joining PCAP's 3rd Conference

MANILA, Philippines – Singaporean Grand Master Kevin Goh didn’t play much during the Wesley So Cup, the second conference of the maiden season of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines, where he only competed in 17 matches for a 5-7-5 record with the Pasig King Pirates.

Goh was an alternate import to Mongolian GM Gombosuren Munkgal. But he has good memories of competing in PCAP that this third conference, he brought some friends with him to compete in the PCAP-San Miguel Corporation-Ayala Land Premier Cup.

The Singapore side he brought with him is known as Team SinQGApore with the capitalized middle letters “QGA” standing for “Queen’s Gambit Accepted” in it, given that three of their members are seasoned female players.

The distaff members of Team SinQGApore include WGM Gong Qianyun, WFM Liu Yang Hazel, and their Indonesian import WFM Diajeng Theresa Singgih from Indonesia, who recently placed third in the World Cup Cadets GU18 rapids.

Aside from the three females players and GM Goh who represented Singapore in the 2020 and 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad, the others who comprise the Singaporean guest squad include FM Lee Qing Aun (a 2020 and 2021 FIDE Olympiad player), FM Ashvin Sivakumar (who competed in the 2020 Fide Olympiad) edition, young talent, FM Siddharth Jagadeesh (who finished second in the most recent Singapore National Championships), former National Champion IM Chan Peng Kong, IM Nima Javanbakht (a Phd student in Singapore), Ethan Poh (who finished second in last year’s MCC’s Hjorth Online Classic) Teo Hong Ming (Melbourne Allegro Premier champion last week), and one more familiar face… Malaysian IM Jimmy Liew who competed for the Caloocan LoadManna Knights in the Wesley So Cup where he amassed a 34-17-13 record).

Said GM Goh, “We are excited and honored that PCAP has invited us to join the third conference. During these difficult times, it is very difficult to find serious, high level chess events especially in Asia and entering the league will help the Singaporean players hone their chess skills with regional masters online.” 

“We would like to thank our sponsors Theme International Trading, Mr. Joshua Lim and Mr. Ong Yujing for covering the team expenses for the event! We hope to provide the league with interesting and tough matches and really look forward to October where the guest teams commence their battles!”

The PCAP-San Miguel Corporation-Ayala Land Premier Cup begins next Wednesday, September 15.