Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Our chess community

Chess Ninja is right when he says that we must raise awareness. But the awareness we must raise is not the abuses only. The awareness that also need to be raised is that we are a community.

When I was the coach in Asean, I paired every senior player with a junior. I told them that the success of this outing is also dependent on the weakest amongst us. The kids saw that and I feel proud that they all did their part.

Our struggle to get our community on its feet must not degenerate into character assasination. It needs to be based on issues. That means if Hamid does something right we must defend him. If Greg does something right we must also do the same. This was also my message to PICA. If they want the bad publicity to stop, then do the right thing. Stop the abuses.

But we have a distance yet to travel. Let me tell you a real story. When Mark was still U12, there was another boy who was one year older and at that time a stronger chess player. In many open tournaments they competed. This boy was also the son of a high ranking PICA official who himself is a strong chess player. When Mark was abused by the officials this boy will protect Mark. And they became close friends. But Mark was catching up with the boy. Match fixing was never proven but I remember the boy going up to Mark and telling him that Mark was really the stronger player despite him winning the tournaments. We understood what he meant. The pairings and results seem off too many times. Over the years this boy dropped off from chess and I heard he since became highly unpopular with the kids. I often wonder what happened to that gentle boy I knew who became a bully. In my personal estimation they were about equally gifted but this boy was not allowed to win his own battles. Every win in his mind was not his and he lost his self confidence.

There are many elements to this story. I went to his fathers office when I was in PICA. I tried to tell him that it was the fixed tournaments that killed off his son's interest in chess. Now, I have no doubt that this man loves his son but he was not aware of the consequence of his actions. He was not aware of his responsibility as an official and he was not aware that chess can give his son the gift of confidence.

Can you imagine how he would feel if he came to that awareness after supporting the abuse for so many years? If he begins to realise that he was partly responsible for how his son turned out? Do you think he will resist any attempt to stop the abuses? Is he a "bad" person? What do you think will happen if he is continuously made aware when he sees other parents bringing up strong kids from healthy competition? Does this explain why PICA officials and many Perak players almost never leave Perak to go to tournaments? How can we help them if we truly care about the chess players in Perak? In fact how can we help these type of officials who are not necessarily "bad" but more misguided? We can only be as strong as our weakest link.

So it is not just the love of the game and of our children that can bind us. It is also our awareness of our individual role that will make this community work.

I see the very same people who cry abuse from the officials then go to fixed tournaments, the same people who complain about MCF continue to sponsor them. So it is about our own self awareness. Stop pointing the finger as though it is not our responsibility as well. Stop writing wish lists. Do something. However small. It is our collective consciousness, an individual at a time, that will change things.

If you vote not to go to a fixed tournament you are doing something to make change happen. If you vote not to sponsor an event unless the other partys carry their responsiblity too you are also doing something to make change happen. If you stand up for one abused kid, support one abused official that tries to do something right, change will come.

But if you just sit down and hope they will change, nothing will happen. When we become more aware that we are a community and that what happens to one of us can happen to all we will have the leadership we deserve. Right now we have the leaders we deserve. We have empowered them. So stop complaining and just do something. Be aware of how a community works. Each of us has a role. And the GM will come.

10 comments:

  1. The power of a group can exceed the sum of its parts.

    Read here for the full story:

    http://thechessninja.blogspot.com/2010/10/power-of-all.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unprocessed anger blinds you to the realities in front of you. You need to clear your mind before you can be of any use.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Do you always talk to yourself like this? I hope you can see beyond emotion. No one is angry here. I have pointed out everything objectively. Maybe you can try to be useful by accepting new ideas and synthesizing them, because you are supposedly very good at it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is it imagined fears ,the story about Mark.
    In a competition, even at the highest level, you meet all sorts and eventaully the better player will overcome all these fears and distrctions.
    As for fixtures fixing, most experince players can actually figure out where their standing is. It is not so easy to fool people. The PICA story should be easy to verify.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My friend, do you not see your own anger? It comes out from every word you utter. You seek to destroy. So you get Hamid, then what? We have lost a good tournament director. Try instead to build. It is a lot harder but at the end you have something to show for your effort. Cant you see that you are part of the disease that have kept us backward? Try this. Dont use your pseudonym anymore. Come from courage. Own your words and stop hiding. You are behaving just like how you say Hamid behaves. So what is the difference between you guys if what you say is true? Be responsible. Use your name.

    ReplyDelete
  6. To anonymous. Many people are already in the know. I even wrote about it when I was the webmaster in PICA. But really the point is about the kids. Can you see that? They are knocked off before they can be strong. Most anyway. Mark and Fadzil may be the exceptions. It should not be the players job to worry about abuses. It is the officials job to make sure that the tournament is fair. Does this make sense?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Actually the evidence is still there. Go to the PICA site and go to clearwater in 2009 for an example. Note the use of PICA rating. There are many more if you care to sieve through the archive.

    ReplyDelete
  8. And ninja, it is not your plan that we are interested in. It is the plan of every stakeholder that has the power. The plan must come from them and not from you alone. You are just repeating past mistakes. You are becoming what you say you detest.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Even if my plan is to empower the whole group, which are the stakeholders? By providing the stakeholders the information they need to make the right decisions?

    All I am doing is provide information. I have said it before. I am a pawn in this grand scheme of things. I want everyone to be aware of the facts and truths. I hope our future generation can make decisions with all the information they need.

    You preach about accepting ideas, and learning to synthesize, but you fail at the most basic level, which is to comprehend. That is why I am willing to spend so much time on you. You have yet to understand my point despite my persistence. But it is OK. I was lucky to be born patient.

    Resisting is a good sign. It means you are still trying. Keep looking for the dots. You will find the right one to connect the whole picture some day.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you for your patience with me Ninja and also for your optimism that I can change. A negative outlook is just another assumption.

    ReplyDelete