No player left behind.

When are you being set up for failure?

Whether it's Eng Chiam, Nabil, Syakir, Sumant, Kaushal, Mark Siew, Edward Lee, Justin Ong, Nabila, Zhuo Ren, Tariq etc. etc. etc, no player should be left behind after 12yo.

Here's why. We are very far behind the other chess nations. We have very little idea of what it takes to make a GM. Or for that matter today's FM's and IM's. At this moment those(above) are the players who are closest to breaking new barriers.

Lets take a hard look. The training for the juniors before International competition is sabotaged, competitor analysis is not acknowledged, the thematics is not fully used as a tool for development, sponsors are attacked etc. etc.

With the dropping out of any player we lose a big pool of knowledge. Knowledge hard earned and paid for with a heavy price. And Jimmy is telling you that only he and his friends have the answers. And if you do not agree, they attack you, they try to ban you.

But let me ask you this. What have they contributed recently? They only talk of their past achievements.

And yet they tell you that you are finished when you are not GM by 15yo. The truth is we still have a long way to go. The very first step is to hold those people responsible for the sabotage accountable for their actions. They have no answers and yet they tear down any new ideas.

They want to go back to focussing on the U12 simply because then they do not need to improve. They just have to tell our older juniors that they are lousy.

If we allow them to do that, then we are setting ourselves up for failure again. All our new players will hit 12yo and then start to fade away again. And then they will say, see..I told you so. This is the same stuck tape we have been playing for years. And if you look carefully it has been constructed to protect a glass ceiling.

Take away our energy and focus from our older juniors and we will fall into their trap. There is zero reason why we cannot develop a GM at an older age. We still have much to learn and we still have strong forces that are against progress. Step by step. But lets take action against the saboteurs first, lets take off the brakes.

Note: There is a rule of thumb when you choose a mentor, a trainer or a coach. They must first believe in you; themselves believe that it can be done. This is important.