What is healthy competition?

I was talking to a friend in Taiwan when I realised that maybe I need to explain why I feel healthy competition is the way forward. Why so many including Obama talk about it. So I'm going to juxtaposition healthy and unhealthy competition to see what the difference is.

To me healthy competition is about being the best we can be. By and large we have a relatively level playing field with the advent of the internet. Todays world is not so much about exclusive information. We can see games played around the world in real time. There are eBooks and articles on all aspects of chess available freely online. Today the challenge is being able to use the information. It's about being able to learn and learn fast. It's about change.

Healthy competition is inclusive and has room for cooperation. In healthy competition it is good to have a strong field. It is good to help one another improve. Iron sharpen iron. Then we are headed in the right direction to that GM. It is good that we have strong players in neighboring Countries. Then we do not have to travel far for the competition we need to improve. We can see that we need to pool our resources to form good teams for that is the way to maximise our chances.

Our success is not dependent on others. Our success is dependent only on ourselves. Whether we use all our advantages or we dont.

Look carefully. This is what our National Juniors have now. They share and learn together. That is their strength and why they do well. But also observe that they are under increasing pressure as they grow older not to share and the learning slows down and eventually stop. In my mind that is another reason why we start to fall back after 12. Do you think I have a point? There is a maxim in training that you learn most from your peers. Think on it. If you agree with me, how can we change things so we can succeed too?

Next posting is on unhealthy competition.