GG Tan

Wei Ming Tan spent three decades in shipping finance until a health scare at fifty-two ended it, and he rebuilt his days around the game he had always played on the side. He walks the Marina Barrage each morning, takes a kopi-C at the same Tanjong Pagar stall, and sits down to play. It is the same walk, the same stall and the same hour every day.

His patience is not a technique he acquired. He has nowhere else to be, and his opponents mostly do. He speaks little, hurries nothing, and prefers long matches for the simple reason that they take a long time. He is not certain the game was improved by everyone learning what their own numbers are.