By Dawn Yip

Teck Ghee Community Club, 31 July 2008 – After 10 days of intense competition, Singapore emerged the overall winner of the 4th World Schools Chess Championships, followed by India in second place and Indonesia in third.

Against a field of over 250 participants from 23 countries, Singapore put in a sterling performance, concluding with a medal haul of 9 golds, 8 silvers and 9 bronzes.

An interesting feature of the championships is the age of the competitors. 6-year-olds representing Singapore is an unusual occurence, let alone winning medals. But both were the order of the day. In the U-7 category, Singapore's Nathan Mar won the silver and Lee Qing Aun won the bronze. The Singapore U-7 team comprising Nathan, Qing Aun and Kenneth Weng also won the team Gold for their category.

The youngest Singapore player was Sim Zun De Kai, a 5-year-old member of the National Junior Squad whom one parent described as a strong and composed player with high potential. Mrs Sim, his mother, said that that Sim Zun found the competition exciting but was a little overwhelmed by the seriousness of at least one of his opponents. “But we sent him for this competition because he really likes chess, and this is good exposure and experience for him.”

The names of Singapore medal winners are listed below.

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Photo 1: Terry Chua of NUS High School emerged the winner in the Under-17 category. (Photo 1 © Singapore Chess Federation)
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Singapore’s Daniel Chan of ACS(IND) won gold in the Under-15 category. (Photo 2 © Singapore Chess Federation)
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Nathan Mar, Kenneth Weng and Lee Qing Aun, winners of the Under-7 Team Gold. They received their medals from Senior Parliamentary Secretary Mr Teo Ser Luck, back facing camera. (Photo 3 © Lim Peck Seah)