Announcement

There will be much reduced activity on this blog till after National Close which is on the 20th of March.

Tomorrow will be NAG and we hope for a good outing. We have learned a lot from our International exposure as well as the session with GM Ziaur Rahman. I hope that our preparation will be paid in spades. You can only move forward if you use all the knowledge that you have in your possession. In my experience, that is always enough.

Over the last 2 years we have moved forward in little strides. We have written selection for National Age group, National Junior and now SEA games. I hear it will also be selection for the next Olympiad. These are significant solid steps.

But is that enough? I dont think so. All of these gains can be reversed. How? First you must understand that MCF committee is elected from the Associations and so it is at the Association level that change must also occur. The changes now are driven top down. So once the leadership is changed everything can go back again to what it was.

Many of us have done a lot of work over these last 2 years with some gains and some reversals. There is very strong resistance to change in our chess community. There is also a lot of confusion caused by lies, misinformation etc.

We cry for sponsorship and we wonder where the sponsors have gone. They come, if they can get in, in the first place and then they run away as fast as they can.

FGM has a Vision, one that I am still hoping can come true.

I believe we can have full sponsorship, in time, for our players to play in International Tournaments. I also believe that we may even be able to secure Scholarships to Higher Institutes of Education for those who excel in Chess. Many things are possible if we continue to forge forward. We can have bigger tournaments with plenty of sponsors.

But first we have to fix our house. Our next step should be to bring into account errant officials and Associations. You all know that I have been sacked from PICA. I could be in the wrong but where are the charges? As a sacked State Official I have made an appeal to MCF for a hearing. It's now more than a year and still no action.

I hope I have demonstrated that there are some in our chess circle who is beyond reasoning. If we cannot reason then we need proper governance.

If this does not happen, new sponsors will not come in. Big sponsors need a plan, they need to see our house in order ie accountablity or they will not invest.

So is this final step within reach? All rests with MCF now isnt it? Some of you still tell me that you do not trust Greg. :)

But I say this. Forget about personalities, personal likes and dislikes. Look at the work. I think he has shown us work, shown us progress. So I continue to think he still deserves benefit of the doubt.

We have also shown that we can influence written selection when we use our combined voices focused on an issue. We can use this voice again.

Do think on this. See you at NAG and National Close.

All my best to the competitors. Fight well, fight hard and fight like officers and gentlemen/women.