SINGAPORE – As far as household names go, there’s none bigger in Singapore than Lee Kuan Yew.
Yet, there are surprisingly few Singaporeans who share the same name as the late founding Prime Minister, as photographers Sam Chin and Samuel He found out over…
Source link
The search for Singapore’s ‘other Lee Kuan Yews’
Interest in weiqi peaks after computer beats top player
Tradition and culture have underpinned the ancient Chinese game of weiqi for more than 3,000 years.
But last week, it was technology that sparked interest and piqued curiosity in a game that has seen little change since its invention.
Last Tuesday, an advanced artificial intelligence soundly defeated one of the world’s best human weiqi players, South Korea’s nine-dan player Lee Sedol, after a gruelling five-game match in Seoul.
Players of weiqi, known as Go in the Western world, are ranked using the dan system, with nine-dan being the highest rank attainable.
The historic match shocked weiqi players. In Singapore, close to 1,000 people – enthusiasts and first-timers alike – watched the live streaming of the match offered by the Singapore Weiqi Association (SWA) as Google’s AlphaGo computer programme beat Lee four games to one.
“I thought it was impossible,” says six-dan player Yang Jin Hua, 64, coach of Singapore’s national weiqi team.
“If you asked me before the match if I could defeat AlphaGo, my answer would be definitely yes. But now, I don’t think I can.”
Interest in weiqi peaks after historic match
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
The New Paper, Reuters
IMPLICATIONS
As the dust settles, weiqi players in Singapore are starting to see the match’s implications.
Speaking to The New Paper on Sunday at its Bishan clubhouse, the SWA president says the association has seen an unprecedented spike in interest in a board game that used to be played only by a niche group here.
“Since AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol, we’ve received 80 per cent more inquiries from the public about weiqi,” says Mr Tan Teng Chuan.
“We’ve also had nearly 1,000 new faces turn up at our clubhouse or participate in our online activities.”
The constant calls have prompted some of its staff to claim overtime to answer queries on weiqi and the association’s classes, he adds.
Based on past sign-ups for its classes, Mr Tan estimates there are 100,000 Singaporeans who know how to play the game.
SWA is now deciding if it is able to increase its number of weiqi classes for adults.
The association conducts classes for about 3,000 players every year, including school students and adult players.
Mr Yang, who is also SWA’s head coach, says: “Playing the game regularly helps to develop intellectual, memory and critical thinking skills. It also aids in developing one’s personality.”
He stresses the importance of the game’s traditions – which include how the stones are placed on the wooden board and the respectful greetings opponents give each other before every match.
COMPETITIONS
While such traditions are absent when computer-players are involved, weiqi players learn from their defeats. Having a strong opponent in AlphaGo is a definite plus, says Mr Yang. He also believes Singapore is no slouch in the competitive arena.
In 2012, Singaporean four-dan player Kwa Jie Hui, 19, was crowned world No. 10 in the youth category of the World Mind Sports Games in Lille, France.
The event, which is held every four years, is the Olympics-equivalent for weiqi, chess, bridge, checkers and Chinese chess.
Last year, Mr Kwa placed third in a tournament in Thailand that was open to all age groups.
Mr Kwa, who is waiting to enlist into the army, says: “It’s ironic that for a game so set in its traditions, it was technology that brought it to the attention of the world.”
Mr Yang, his mentor, agrees: “In all my life, I’ve never seen such excitement over weiqi, especially in Western countries.
“I’ve spent years to hone my skills on this game. I cannot feel any more proud for weiqi right now.”
About AlphaGo v Lee Sedol
Google’s AlphaGo computer programme ended a historic match of the ancient Chinese game of weiqi against South Korea’s Lee Sedol by securing a 4-1 win last Tuesday.
The winner had earlier been determined when Lee, 33, lost the third game of the five-game match on March 12.
AlphaGo, which was developed by Google’s London-based artifical intelligence subsidiary DeepMind, received US$1 million (S$1.36 million) in prize money, which will be donated to charities.
The human weiqi champion beat the artificial intelligence in the fourth match, but Lee was defeated once again in the fifth and final match.
AlphaGo made history last year by becoming the first machine to beat a human pro player – but Lee was deemed more formidable.
“One of the most incredible games ever,” DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis tweeted following the match.
“To come back from the initial big mistake against Lee Sedol was mind-blowing!”
After the match, the Korea Baduk Association (KBA) awarded AlphaGo an “honorary nine-dan” – the highest rank attainable and equivalent to Mr Lee’s.
KBA also asked Google for a rematch with Lee after analysing the games, its secretary general Yang Jae-Ho told the media.
S Korean Go grandmaster scores surprise victory over supercomputer
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
Reuters
How weiqi is played
Singapore Weiqi Association’s head coach Yang Jin Hua describes weiqi as “a game that is easy to play, but difficult to master”.
Known as Go in the Western world and “Baduk” in South Korea, it is one of the oldest board games in the world.
Meant to emulate a battle between white and black, it is played on a 19 by 19 grid.
Players take turns to place white or black stones on any of the 361 possible grid intersections.
To conquer an opponent’s stone or group of stones, players must completely surround it with their own stones.
Doing so will “capture” the opponent’s stones.
The game ends when all open spaces on the board have been surrounded.
Players receive points for the number of territories they have surrounded that cannot be re-conquered by their opponent.
The number of captured stones are subtracted from the opponent’s score at the end of the game.
The player with the most points wins.
ngjunsen@sph.com.sg
Image:
Publication Date:
Sunday, March 20, 2016 – 21:00
Keywords:
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Story Type:
Others
Singaporeans must recognise their diversity and avoid becoming a monolithic society: Chan Chun Sing
Mr Chan called on Singaporeans to recognise their diversity and contribute in different ways in order to avoid becoming a monolithic society.
Source link
20 more waterways upgrading projects in next 5 years
SINGAPORE – Twenty projects to upgrade water bodies like rivers and canals around the island will be completed over the next five years, according to the Public Utilities Board (PUB).
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong officiated at the groundbreaking ceremony…
Source link
Bangladesh bank heist exposes Philippine dirty money secrets
When mystery hackers launched a stunning raid on Bangladesh’s foreign reserves, a plot worthy of a John le Carre spy novel was sparked in the Philippines, exposing the Southeast Asian nation as a dirty money haven.
The US$81 million (S$110.08 million) stolen from the Bangladesh central bank’s American accounts last month was immediately sent via electronic transfer to the Philippines, with the thieves deliberately targeting their laundering location.
The Philippines has some of the world’s strictest bank secrecy laws to protect account holders, while its casinos are exempt from rules altogether aimed at preventing money laundering.
“The Philippines is very attractive (for dirty money) because our laws have gaping holes. It’s easy to launder money here,” Senator Sergio Osmena, who is pushing for stronger anti-money laundering laws, told AFP.
Still, if the thieves were to get away with their audacious heist, the money had to be moved quickly through the banking system and into the casinos.
And it did.
Authorities took four days to order a recall of the money.
But by then it had vanished – leaving in its place a tale of death threats, bribes, shady business figures and a bank manager who could be the villain or a victim.”I did not do anything wrong. If this is a nightmare, I want to wake up now,” the manager, Maia Deguito, told ABS-CBN television this week after authorities stopped her at Manila airport from trying to leave the country.
“I live everyday in fear.”
With authorities in Bangladesh and elsewhere bamboozled over who masterminded the cyber-heist, Deguito’s role as manager of the bank that accepted and shifted the money has come under intense scrutiny.
She has accused the bank’s president, Lorenzo Tan, of ordering her to move the money. He has fiercely denied the accusations.
Philippine senators who launched an inquiry this week into the affair are yet to determine whether she was a scapegoat or not, but are convinced she was not the mastermind.”It’s a big operation. This could not have been done out of the Philippines alone,” Senator Ralph Recto said.
The Senate inquiry and another probe by the Philippines’ Anti-Money Laundering Council have hit several major hurdles, including a security camera at the bank not working when the money was shifted.
Accusations and counter-accusations between Deguito and RCBC management have further confused investigators.
A final roadblock has emerged at the casinos, with the money apparently vanishing in mountains of gambling chips and mysterious middlemen.”Our money trail ended at the casinos,” Julia Abad, deputy director of the anti-money laundering council, told senators on Tuesday.
On Feb 5, the same day Bangladesh Bank was hacked, the money was sent electronically to four accounts in Deguito’s RCBC branch in the financial capital of Makati, according to testimony to the Senate inquiry.
Those accounts appeared to have been set up solely for that purpose because they were done using aliases, the Senate inquiry heard.
After that, the bulk of the money was transferred into accounts of a local ethnic Chinese businessmen, William Go, who has since protested his innocence. He said his signature was forged to set up the accounts.
From there, the money was briefly held by Philrem, a foreign exchange brokerage.
Philrem President Salud Bautista told the Senate inquiry US$30 million went to a man named Weikang Xu.
He was described as a casino junket operator but senators have said they know little more about him other than he is of Chinese origin.
The anti-money laundering council said another US$29 million ended up in Solaire, a casino on a glittering Manila bayside strip that the Philippines hopes will become one of the world’s biggest gambling destinations.
That money was exchanged into chips but could only be turned back into cash after being played in the casino, its management told the Senate inquiry.
Another US$21 million was sent to Eastern Hawaii Leisure, which runs a sparsely furnished casino with Chinese-only television in Santa Ana, a sleepy town in the far northern Philippines, according to the council.
Senator Osmena said the case was likely just the tip of the iceberg.”This could have happened hundreds of times already,” he said.”We discovered this one only because someone complained. But normally, if a drug dealer from Burma (Myanmar) or China would send money here, no one would complain.”
Image:
Publication Date:
Sunday, March 20, 2016 – 12:12
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Story Type:
Others
Football: FAS and Fandi to part ways
Fandi Ahmad has retreated from the touchlines of the Malaysian Super League (MSL) to the stands of Great Eastern-Yeo’s S.League clubs, and sources have revealed that as soon as next month, he will be off the payroll of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS).
Fandi has been without a team after the LionsXII were unceremoniously dumped out of the MSL at the end 2015, and after rejecting the FAS offer to lead the Garena Young Lions in the S.League this season, he has spent his days filling the role of assistant to national coach Bernd Stange.
The German is set to depart when his contract ends next month, and while some in the fraternity have called for Fandi to take over the reins of the national team, the latest development is a clear indication that the former Singapore captain is out of the picture.
Fandi’s contract with the FAS runs out only in November this year, and he has been scouting players, paying visits to clubs and has also travelled to Malaysia to watch Singapore internationals Hariss Harun, Baihakki Khaizan, Shahril Ishak and Safuwan Baharudin turn out for their respective Malaysian clubs.
But sources reveal that after some four months of negotiations aimed at finding Fandi a full-time position within the FAS, both parties were unable to come to an agreement of where he can best serve.
Fandi is set to leave after the Lions’ final Group E World Cup qualifier (WCQ) against Afghanistan on March 29.
TNP understands that with the year-end AFF Suzuki Cup the national team’s only other major assignment for the year, the FAS sees no need for a full-time assistant to the national coach.
“I have met with the FAS Exco (Executive Committee), given them my proposal and plans of what I would like to do. Now I’m not sure what the situation is, I’m waiting for them to tell me what they want me to do,” he told The New Paper in an earlier interview, declining to reveal what his proposal entailed.
“I’m standing here with open arms, I’ll be willing to accept whatever they decide.”
Sources revealed that Fandi’s proposal was focused on youth development, but his rejection of the FAS offer to work on the Young Lions raised eyebrows and seemed to have soured negotiations.
The Young Lions were an Under-23 developmental side last year, but have been tweaked to become one comprising mostly Under-21 players in 2016, and are now under the watch of newly-hired Frenchman, Patrick Hesse.
While Fandi declined to elaborate on his decision to turn down the position, TNP understands that it stems from the issue of player selection.
With Fandi declining the role of Young Lions head coach, the relationship is set to come to an end after the Afghanistan fixture.
“I’m helping Bernd scout players in the league, accompanying him on club visits, and even going to Malaysia to watch our players there. Right now my job is to help Bernd to prepare for the WCQ,” said Fandi.
“After that, I don’t know.”
shamiro@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on March 20, 2016.
Get The New Paper for more stories.
Image:
Publication Date:
Monday, March 21, 2016 – 01:00
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Story Type:
Others
Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf $2 Off Sliced Cakes 1-Day Promo 20 Mar 2016 | SINGPromos.com
TODAY ONLY: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf $2 off sliced cakes w/ any beverage purchase. Must pay via CBTL card
Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf $2 Off Sliced Cakes 1-Day Promo 20 Mar 2016 | SINGPromos.com
Enjoy $2 off sliced cakes at all Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlets on 20 March 2016 as they celebrate 20 years in Singapore
SDP's Chee Soon Juan confirms he will contest Bukit Batok by-election
SINGAPORE – Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) secretary-general Chee Soon Juan has confirmed that he will contest in the upcoming Bukit Batok by-election.
In a Facebook post on Sunday (March 20), Dr Chee, 53, said that if he won, his priority would be to “ensure the efficient and productive management of the Bukit Batok Town Council”.
“The SDP’s goal is to surpass current levels of performance of PAP-run town councils. We will set new standards for transparency and accountability in estate governance,” he added.
He also published a statement on the SDP website, outlining a “new model of town council management where residents are involved in the planning and running of their community”.
This party would also employ qualified and experienced professionals to manage the town council, Dr Chee wrote, adding that he would “personally see to the effective running of the TC and to attend to the residents’ concerns”.
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
The Straits Times, Berita Harian, Shin Min Daily News
He also said that if he becomes elected, he would retain the bulk of the existing staff from the current Bukit Batok town council office.
SDP had fielded Sadasivam Veriyah for the Bukit Batok SMC seat in the 2015 General Election but lost it to PAP’s candidate David Ong.
On March 12, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that a by-election would soon be held in Bukit Batok after Mr Ong suddenly resigned from the party. It has been alleged that Mr Ong, 54, had an extra-marital affair with a grassroots member in the same party.
| GE2015: Bukit Batok SMC | |
| Number of voters: 27,077 | |
 | Number of votes: 18,204 Candidate: David Ong |
 | Number of votes: 6,585 Candidate: Sadasivam Veriyah |
 | Number of votes: 150 Candidate: Samir Salim Neji |
ljessica@sph.com.sg
Image:
Publication Date:
Sunday, March 20, 2016 – 11:31
Send to mobile app:
Source:
Rotator Image:
Story Type:
Others
Older PMEs struggle to adapt in tough economic times
SINGAPORE – Taxi driver Mr Ng, in his late 40s, took up his occupation last May after being a real estate agent for close to five years. As the property market slumped over the past three years, he found it tough to pay his housing loan and often had little…
Source link
20 more ABC Waters projects to be completed in next 5 years
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong officiated the groundbreaking ceremony of three projects under the ABC Waters programme on Sunday.
Source link
