A wrong assumption.

Is a very dangerous thing. I have seen 2 bloggers in the last few weeks saying that if you cannot be GM by 15yo, you can forget it. And they "quote" Anand.

Why is this a dangerous assumption? Well for one, it denies the evidence that there are many GM's being produced around the world now that is over 15yo.

It also shifts the responsibility away from the trainers, coaches and put unreasonable pressure on the juniors to achieve an impossible goal. Unreasonable because if you want them to get to become GM, you have to show them the way. The trainers and the coaches. The trainers and coaches have to figure out what is needed and then show the juniors the way. Not abandon them after 15yo and then say "you havent got it. See... thats what Anand says".

When GM Ziaur Rahman was here I spent some time with him and tried to get his feedback on this. In a nutshell this is what he told me. He said we are not playing chess for the love of the game. Learn enough and then the GM will come. It is about learning not quick fixes or unattainable and unsustainable results.

I always felt that Ziaur should have been teaching our seniors and our National Juniors. And even for the juniors only the ones who are more advanced. He was not good at teaching very young kids. We saw that at the Asean initiative. So I felt his talents were wasted when he was reduced to teaching ordinary classes. Wasted opportunity.

At the Asean initiative an offer was also made to the trainers to learn under Ziaur sponsored by FGM and only Jax Tham answered the call.

The role of the Associations is to facilitate the resources to allow for the development of our players. So there must be no misconception there too. The Associations cannot abandon the juniors after they have turned 15yo either as our history shows.

This is a very wrong assumption. Dont misquote Anand to run away from your responsibility, trainers, coaches and Associations. Dont shift the blame on to the juniors, the players, for your own lacking.