Gary Ip Weng Tou is only 11 but since the age of six he has been representing Macau at major youth chess tournaments around the world.
Ip sat down with MPD Weekender last week in Ouvidor do Arriaga to discuss how he got into the game, why he loves it and his travels with the team.
Ip started playing chess when he was 5 years old because his older brother Samuel Ip Seng Tou was a member of Macau’s youth chess team and got to “sit on an aeroplane.”Ip said, “Because I heard that my brother could sit [fly] on an aeroplane, I wanted to sit on an aeroplane too. My daddy said if I wanted to go on an aeroplane I needed to play chess, so I started to learn it”.
Outside Macau Ferry Terminal before leaving for Sri Lanka in 2012. Six-year old Ip Weng Tou (front far right) with the Macau Chess Team, Chinese Chess Master and teacher Xiong Junyang (third left at back) Jose Silveirinha President of Macau Chess Federation 2012 (centre back).
Ip Weng Tou with opponent Maraparo Sanupa Bismath at the Asian Youth Championship in Sri Lanka in 2012.
