Reflections on Singapore politics, chess and tests of character

The World Chess Championship being held here resonates with all who follow Singapore chess and know something of the nation's political history.

- Shashi Jayakumar

On the day of the final rupture between the People's Action Party and the left-wing Barisan Sosialis on July 20, 1961, prime minister Lee Kuan Yew called for a crucial vote of confidence in Parliament. Finance minister Goh Keng Swee stood to speak. Addressing the House, in particular Barisan leader Lee Siew Choh, Dr Goh gave perhaps the most perceptive set of remarks ever made by any politician on the link between chess, life and politics.

Beginning by noting how his friendship with the Barisan man began over the chessboard, he continued: "You can judge a man's character by his style of play. Chess players are of many kinds. Some persons are cautious and calculating by nature, and they play the game to obtain long-term strategic advantages. Other players are bold and prefer complications and combinations on the chess board to get quick results... in the affairs of the country, you do not replace the pieces and play a new game after you have lost. You are playing not only with your own lives but with the lives of other men and women and their families, and you take the consequences."

Dr Goh was speaking from experience politically, but also from a deep knowledge of the 64 squares. A little known fact was that Dr Goh was a champion chess player himself - tying for first with Professor Lim Kok Ann in the Singapore Chess Club Championship in 1948.

When rediscovering in the archives Dr Goh's chess playing exploits (while working on a book on Singapore's chess history with the chess historian Olimpiu G. Urcan), we calculated that he must have been close to international class as a player at his peak. One parliamentary speech aside, though, he almost never mentioned his own familiarity with the game. (He did, however, spend time meticulously preparing for his opponents, and even as late as 1972 closely analysing games from the iconic 1972 Fischer-Spassky match with his son Kian Chee, who related this to us).