How things work.

It's a process. And its not an easy one no matter how much we want it to be easy. If we can accept this we will be truly on the road.

Back in 2004 when I first got involved in Malaysian Chess, I came in with a simplistic idea. I saw that Mark was very often one point or a half point from the front runners. And there were games he could have won! He seems to keep dropping a ball.

Now in 2010 we are still one point or a half point from the front runners. :)

Although the field is perhaps stronger. Anyway the point is that as we journeyed we found out there were more and more things we didnt know. We fix one problem and another turns up. We fix one problem and it holds at a lower level only to find more flaws at a higher level. As we journey we find that we have more known unknowns and less unknown unknowns.

And so we developed patience and we perfected our evaluation techniques.

Of course Mark's journey is different from others. For one he was in Perak, where the culture in the now infamous PICA is one of sabotage and match fixing. So that took up alot of energy too. They seem to spend just as much energy perfecting dirty tricks as we spent trying to figure out how to become a strong chess player. Thats the irony isnt it? The other problem we faced was the lack of proper guidance so we did things by trial and error. A slower method I'm sure but still I think there is value in it.

Now, how things work? It is fairly apparent that we have few clues as to what makes a GM. And yet we seem fixated on trying to get one from a young kid. I find that thinking a little flawed. For our First GM, does it matter if he comes in at age 30? Why dont we just sit down and figure out what is missing? Explore more. Why dont we spend less time on perfecting dirty tricks which doesnt really work in the International arena and focus on what will work ie developing strong thinkers?

And when we get our First GM, we then work on getting the next one faster, earlier, younger. Make sense?