The effect of traumas on the players.

What trauma does is it sears that memory into the person. That memory becomes more vivid than other memories.

Lets take the example of that girl who was forced to take that draw. She had set her heart on being State Champion that year and she came prepared to fight. On paper she stood a good chance.

I remember that moment vividly too. I was standing outside the hall when I saw her coming out in tears. I asked her what happened and she told me. Now I ask you this question. In the years to come, will she remember this moment more vividly than her past victories? Add a few more injustices like this and what do you think will be her memories of chess? Will she quit altogether?

Chess is an intense game. It is highly competitive. So we are to expect that right? Lets think on this. If you lose fairly do you experience the same trauma? You don't, do you? It needs to be accompanied by an act of injustice.

Sometimes it could be unreasonable expectations. Not properly trained and pushed to get medals. And then you get unfairly vilified. It all adds up.

The million dollar question I want to ask now is do you think the perpetrators of these actions are aware of the traumas they inflict on the children? The power to terrorise. If not then why would they want the power to arbitrarily reject without grounds? I hope you will observe carefully from now if you don't know this answer.

A clue: I ban you because you beat my daughter to the post of President in the school chess club. I ban you because I do not like your father. I ban you because I do not like your trainer. I ban you because you left my chess school.

They are bullies. They want power over the helpless. And this has to stop if we want our children to grow strong in chess. New rulings need to be put in place or we will lose another generation of players.

Note: Unfortunately it is always our best and smartest that get this treatment. They want the control over our strongest players and they cannot get it any other way.

This is a quirk of memory. Test it yourself. Do you remember the traumas more than your victories? So lets stop this. Lets have proper rules. Without arbitrary rules to terrorise our players they will need to find new ways to attract players. Ways like increasing their skills perhaps. Whether they do or not is up to them. But we need to stop the traumas they inflict.

An aside: Jimmy, one more question to you. Do you remember the times you were hoping that Dato will give you a chance when he had his eyes on someone else? Didn't you wish you were just given a fair shot? Now why are you supporting the arbitrary banning of players? You should know better right?