Fire on board.

Yeoh Li Tian vs Kamluddin. Here.

I have always been a big fan of Li Tian and have written about him in the past. I am glad to see him back and fighting. And I hope he will continue to thrill us with his chess for many more years to come.

But today I want to shift the focus to the people behind him. His parents. I have an inkling of what they must have gone through to bring this boy up to be the strong player that he is today. The heavy sacrifice of time and money. The costs of overseas tournaments.

There are a few relief's to this burden. One of them is when we have International Tournaments on our own shores. This reduces the costs and give us a small respite.

That is why local organisers cannot be allowed to play God. There must be good grounds for the exclusion of any player. And the reasons cannot be the organiser does not like the parent/trainer of a player. Ref: Here.

Article 4 of the constitution of MCF states that:

The objects of the Federation are:

b) To uphold the Laws of Chess as adopted and published by The Federation Internationale Des Echecs from time to time.

c) To adopt, vary and publish rules, regulations, bye-laws and conditions for the management of Chess Tournaments, competitors and other events played under the jurisdiction of the Federation and to take all such steps as shall be deemed necessary for enforcing such Rules, Regulations, Bye-Laws and Conditions.

We each need to do our part. The KL Open/Masters is a good event and should be supported. But it should also be regulated. Parents, Coaches, Trainers, Associations and Organisers need to work hand in hand. Then we will see progress. I hope MCF will look into this. This will be an important milestone for Malaysian Chess.

PS: This story is not about Li Tian or any one particular player. This is about all players(parents/trainer) and an ordered environment where so long as the player follows the rules, they are accorded a level playing field without favoritism or victimisation. Also ref: Here.