From Pawn to King

Enter the life of one of the few Singaporeans to ever reach the prestigious title of Chess Grandmaster with Mattheus Yang

Grandmaster Kevin Goh making the first move in a game of chess. PHOTO CREDIT | Boban James

Staring at a chess board, Kevin Goh Wei Ming rubs his hands on his face as he contemplates his next move. His opponent, International Master Wynn Zaw Htun, is away from the table after moving his queen in front of Goh’s unprotected pawn, preparing to capture it. After a long think, he decided to give up his pawn. In the end, the game ended in a draw.

This is the first round of Chess On Board 2020, and by the end of the event, Kevin Goh became Singapore’s first chess Grandmaster in over two decades by beating his opponent by four-to-two.

In the world of chess, being a Grandmaster is one of the highest positions a chess player can reach, only surpassed by the title of the World Chess Champion. In Singapore, there have only been three other Grandmasters in history, Zhang Zhong, Wu Shaobin and Wong Meng Kong.

Mr Junior Tay, 49, chess player and close friend of Goh, said in an email interview on his title: “We have other youngsters who have Grandmaster [nominations] (you need 3 to complete the title + a 2500 elo rating) but they don’t have his persistence or determination (or interest) to complete it all.”

Goh has a long history in the field of chess, starting off at a chess club in Boon Lay Primary School, and working his way up to the rank of International Master in 2007.

His chess career reached a turning point after he took a break in 2011 to train and if he could not improve, he would consider retiring from chess.

He said: “You go down in flames right? You don’t just give up without really trying.”

Within two months, he got his first nomination for the title of chess Grandmaster. He said: “It’s a little hard to describe how important it was, I was so significantly far from the [Grandmaster] level that making a [Grandmaster] nom in two months really shocked me.”

After making his second nomination by beating the second best chess player Li Chao from China in the 2012 Asian Team Championship, he realised he could actually become a Grandmaster.

However, the slow nature of chess translated into his real-life journey as it took close to a decade before he gained his third nomination and 2,500 ELO rating.

Goh said: “It’s just unfortunate that it took eight years”. Unlike other Grandmasters such as Li Chao and Zhang Zhong who gained their title by their early twenties, Goh gained his title at age 37.

Infographic showing several of Kevin Goh Wei Ming’s Achievements. PHOTO CREDIT | Boban James, DunnoItAll and Mattheus Yang

When Goh plays chess, he does not like to keep to one style.

“I like to be unpredictable,” Goh said, “I like to experiment with different things as chess is a very rich game with many different possibilities and I want to enjoy all the aspects of chess that I can.”

For him, chess is a beautiful game with limitless variations for play, it is what motivates him to play to literal no end.

Tay said: “We also used to stay awake to play online blitz chess events on playchess.com from 11pm all the way up till 4am.”

The planning which goes into a game of chess extends past the board for Goh, as he often researches extensively on his opponents, to find out their psyche and how to exploit it.

What is as unpredictable as his playing style is that this chess Grandmaster is the Chief Financial Officer of Lucence Diagnostics, an oncological company currently assisting in coronavirus testing.

Goh is proud of his work at Lucence because of their work in cancer treatment. “It’s not just about making money, it’s also about saving lives and making a change in the right direction for cancer patients suffering all over the world,” he said.

His care for the less fortunate does not end at his workplace, as he often fights for those who have been treated unfairly. Mr Christopher Lim, 59, President of the Singapore Chess Federation, said in an email interview: “He is prepared to be the spokesman wherever he thinks there has been injustice, pushing to help the underdogs.”

An example of this is #ChessAgainstCovid, a charity fundraising event organised by Goh that uses chess matches to raise donations for the Lakeside Family Services “Caring amidst Covid” program, which provides basic needs to poor families who were severely impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. It raised $168,228 in total.

“That’s the one thing I’m really proud of,” Goh says.

His current goal in life is to focus more on his work, as he feels that he neglected it too much in his journey to become Grandmaster.

“My focus was sort of diluted when I was competing… Now that I made [Grandmaster], it's only fair that I refocus now,” he says.