Dear members of the chess fraternity,
I am very happy to announce that GM Kevin Goh Wei Ming will be coming on board full time as the new SCF CEO from 25th November. He will step down as Vice-President of the SCF when he assumes this role.
Kevin is a chartered accountant by profession, and was the CFO of Lucence Group – a precision medicine company specialising in liquid biopsy technology for cancer patients – in his previous employment. During his stint with Lucence, he oversaw several fundraising rounds and the expansion of the company to four different cities.
Kevin is no stranger to the local and international chess community. He is Singapore’s second homegrown Grandmaster, and is also a seven-time National Champion. He has represented Singapore in 8 Chess Olympiads and 3 South-East Asian Games, where he won a total of three bronze medals. He has also authored a popular chess book (The Sicilian Najdorf 6 Bg5. Chess Developments. Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1781940211) that was widely rated highly by chess players globally.
Besides being a strong chess athlete, Kevin has served actively in the chess community for almost two decades. He has coached numerous individuals and teams in Singapore and the region towards achieving chess excellence, generously sharing his extensive opening preparation and experience. He has also organised events to promote the popularity of the game, including the Chess against Covid charity initiative in 2020 that raised over SGD160,000 for Lakeside Family Services’ Caring Amidst Covid-19 Fund.
Due to his achievements and contributions to chess, Kevin has won several accolades which are unprecedented for a chess athlete. For instance, he had won the NTU Sportsman of the Year award in 2005 and was included in Tatler Asia’s prestigious Gen-T list of leaders of tomorrow in 2020.
During his brief tenure as VP of the SCF, he led the organization of the very successful Singapore Chess Festival in 2022, established the Singapore Chess Magazine, brought in GM Thomas Luther as the SCF’s Training Director and revamped our dated training program for our top players, setting up the National Squads in the process. He was also instrumental in raising the funds that made the above possible.
Kevin has many more ideas to increase the popularity of chess here in Singapore, and to link us more closely to the regional and international chess community. I have every confidence that with Kevin at the helm and with all your support, we will have a vibrant, growing local community with more and better events. We can also look forward to greater international success for our players, and for Singapore to feature more prominently on the global chess scene.
Dr Hsu Li Yang
President
