Football meets Chess!
What happens when the two sports intertwine? In a special curated match, young football star Danelle Tan goes up against Grandmaster Tin Jingyao.
Meet the Stars
Danelle is an avid chess player who participated in many international tournaments in her youth. Towards her teenage years, she found her passion in football and has since been expanding her career in the sport. Danelle holds the national record for being the youngest player to score a goal for the Singapore national team, and currently plays for renowned German Club Borussia Dortmund.
Jingyao is Singapore’s youngest Grandmaster and highest rated player. A multiple SEA Games medalist, he is pursuing a degree in Computer Science at the National University of Singapore.
The game follows special rules:
– After every 5th move made, both players will have a chance to take a penalty shot – For every successful goal, the scorer may then choose to remove his/her opponent’s piece off the board (starting with pawns) and the chess game will continue thereon
– For every successful consecutive goal, the penalty piece removed shall increase in value (first pawns, then bishop/knights, then rooks, and the 5th consecutive shot allows the opponent’s queen to be removed)
To add a couple of plot twists, the goal keepers assigned to stop (or die trying anyway) every single one of these penalties are well known colleagues of Danelle and Jingyao:
Nur Izairida Shakira Muamad Zaini, or ‘Shak’ as she is commonly known in the circuit, is Singapore’s National Goalkeeper. Shak trains regularly under the Lion City Sailors club; with her peak physical conditioning and experience, it would be a tall task for Jingyao to score against her.
And rather amusingly, Singapore’s 3rd chess Grandmaster Kevin Goh, the CEO of the SCF himself has “volunteered” to defend against Danelle’s penalties. His extensive experience as a goal keeper is limited to watching a 10 minutes video on YouTube the night before, which certainly doesn’t bode well for Jingyao and his chess pieces.
Can Danelle survive on the chessboard long enough to ‘rapture’ Jingyao’s army, or will the latter somehow score more hat tricks against the professional footballer? Watch the exciting outcome and the game’s critical moments in this titanic collision!
