NAG is now organised by MCF.

Here.

Maybe it's working. Maybe they are reading my blog. It didn't make sense for NAG to be organised by Datcc.

Now the only question left remaining is where do the money go to. If paid into MCF directly, what happens to the money after that?

Correction: I just double checked. This is even more confusing. It is organised by MCF but the payment goes to Datcc. The mystery deepens. A major source of income for MCF and the money is paid to a private entity. Now how can that be justified?

I think this makes it more important that Melaka is carefully scutinised. Now who do we bring this up to so that there is an investigation?

MCF AGM

When is MCF having their AGM? Why all this secrecy? Even political parties tell their own members when their AGM is. MCF is behaving more like a communist cell. So what are you really MCF?

I remember that when they wanted to sack me at PICA, they chose the date for the meeting when they knew that I was in KL for a chess tournament. But why do this? Afterall we are in the same committee and we are all doing it for the love of chess.

So you see, they have perfected the art of sabotage over many years. I can only postulate that they want to spring a surprise AGM. Make sure certain people are not present. Somebody said the AGM was in March. But still no announcement.

This sounds like deep conspiracy. Maybe there are really some huge mega bucks in this. Even political parties announce their AGM early. Why so scared? What do you have to hide? We are all doing it for the love of chess. If you are so scared then how are you going to get us that GM? By running away? By playing hide and seek? Chor Tai Tee? Is that how you compete?

Article by Marina.

Here.

I wonder. How do we get vibrant youths in a culture of lies, of fear and intimidation? How do we have vibrant youths in a culture of silence?

Who are these people who say they love chess and go around promoting the game by telling others that chess opens up the mind etc. And then they perpetuate the use of fear by telling the players they cannot explore new ideas on training, kowtow or we ban you etc. Who are these people and what are their lies?

Should we still be looking up to them as our model? Do we tell our kids that they will grow up to be just like them?

What are they really doing? For who's benefit? What do the lies achieve?

Why we need to talk about it.

I was asked at the debate on facebook why I was so direct on my blog. We are a small community...

So let me list a few reasons here.

Shortly after my unjust sacking from PICA in 2008?, I got to meet Greg. He sounded sympathetic and asked me for the details. So I gathered all the evidence and gave it to him. Many emails then followed and many meetings were called. In Penang and in KL. So you can imagine my surprise when he told me last National Junior 2011 that it can be easily solved. What can he possibly mean?

I went about my own business and did the training for the youths for Asean 2010. I went about my own business and did the Thematics etc.

But guess what? The attacks don't stop.

And so when Zuhri did the Asian Amateur, I quietly watched on the sidelines. History repeating itself?

I have come to the conclusion that these attacks are not personal in nature. Actually it is orchestrated by a few people for their personal benefit. I think most of us more involved in chess know that deep inside.

Now the actions of these people are not for the good of chess. We are all stakeholders and we have all contributed and so we all have a say.

So my question now to the guy who asked me that question is why is it that they can attack without rhyme or reason and that is OK?

How can we learn from past mistakes if we dont talk about it, share our experiences so that we can improve?

At least I don't hide in the dark and stab anyone.

I wonder if we realise that we got selection only because we all joined our voices together. I wonder if you realise that Zuhri is the only official I have spoken to in my 8 years in chess that actually even tried to do something. And his name is not even on the MCF blog. Is he the deputy President or not? So this is what they do. And we need to know so that things can change.

Btw in case you are wondering, I am not close to Zuhri. There is no conspiracy here to take the Presidency. I have stated the qualities I think we need. It is up to the delegates. In fact Zuhri doesnt even approve of this blog and was upset when I published the fact that he asked for a meeting after Peter Long started issuing National policies.

But I think this blog is still needed. Maybe one day when we can talk to an official and get some action, this blog can close down. I look forward to that day. We have tried the whispering in the corners, arguing our case, sending out emails, letters. Phone calls and attending meeting after meeting. None of it works.

I am still trying to get Mark's National Junior 2010 cert. I have asked and asked and asked. Has anyone else still got issues outstanding with MCF?

We need the pressing issues solved or it is just pure self delusion to think that our GM will come. Who is telling you that? Or what about the story that you cannot be GM after 15yo? Oliver Barbosa is in his late 20's and he got his GM title here in KL.

What does our 30 plus year history tell us? Ooops, sorry. We are not allowed to talk about it. Hmmmm. Maybe that is not quite right. We can talk about anything, spread any lies. Anything but the truth.

We need to stop this or there will be many more casualties for the next 30 years. They are bleeding MCF dry while they tell you there is no money in chess and they are only doing it for the love of chess. Look at Melaka and ask what happened to the money at Asian Amateur.

Note: Actually the same con has been perpetuated for so long only because we haven't spoken about it. So each new victim is without the benefit of past experience. Another trick they use is they blot out history, change or distort it.

And in that way, black becomes white and con men become heroes. Illusions.

I go one step further and say your chess cannot be good if you can fall for the illusions. Blue pill or the red one. Which will get us to that GM? Remember Malaysia vs England at the last Olympiad?

In fact your chess cannot be good if you do not have the courage to challenge that illusion. Think about it. What do you need to win when you have sufficient technical? You don't suddenly develop courage on the board when you are easily intimidated. When you do not have the stuff to stand up for a child, for what is right, for your rights, you won't find in on the board. Don't fool yourself. That is really why we don't have a GM. Too much fear.

Speech by Tun Hamid Mohamad

This speech really touched a cord with me. All we can do in life is to continue to try to be better men/women. We need to try to see the injustices perpetuated on our children and we need to learn to see the frauds. And we need to learn to speak up. It's a journey.

Excerpts:

"On the other hand, a person may not be able to define integrity. He may not be able to give lecture on it. With the fitrah that Allah has given us, with right upbringing, right surrounding, a person would know, what is right and what is wrong. True enough that right and wrong could be subjective, greatly influenced by your religion, culture, society and law. Yet, when it comes to honesty, the core ingredient for integrity, I do not think there is any room for a difference of opinion. So, lack of integrity is not due to ignorance. You know integrity but the question is: do you have it? Whether you have it or not depends on you, on what you do throughout your life. In other words, it boils down to our character. But, we are all human. Everyone has moments of weakness and indiscretion. However, what makes the difference is how serious and how often. When such moments of weakness and indiscretion become the norm rather than the exception, what more when those “wrongs” have become “normal”, then there is something really wrong with the person."

“A person is not given integrity. It results from the relentless pursuit of honesty at all times.” - Unknown.

“Integrity is what we do, what we say and what we say we do.” - Don Galor

“Integrity is the essence of everything successful.” - Richard Buckminster Fulleriii.

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.” - Anonymous.

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” - William Clement Stoneiv.

“Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” - Spencer Johnson.v

Read the rest here.

MCF's Sun Tsu President.

In the past the general wisdom was that we needed a President who had vast contacts with sponsors. But that may not be the case today. I hope I have shown you that MCF can generate more than sufficient funds to do all the work that it has been mandated to do. Ref: Here.

In the model I described, the President who has access to sponsors is just a bonus. What do we really need? Here.

What stands out to me is the lack of a clear vision. A clear vision is expressed by proper guidelines and policies(command). Without it the concubines will laugh. Right now MCF is leaking money and they are interfering with private ventures. There are still unresolved issues with what happened to the surplus at Asian Amateur.

If you look carefully you will see that all the funny going ons in the past has their basis in this. That someone is trying to use MCF for private gain. And that is illegal. So you saw the attack on the first training for juniors before International representation, the attack on the Thematics (maybe also because this is too close to the type of training provided in China). So they are acting against development of chess in Malaysia.

If you look back at our last selection for SEA games you will see the inclusion of players that were not in the top 10. So backdoor entry is not over. It was just contained a little with written selection. My belief is that we may see a reversal if we are not careful.

And we also see funny people making National policies and the unfair banning of National players. The concubines are laughing. It is not chess that they love. It's their pockets and in the case of the banning, a way of knocking out better players than they can produce. You saw the attacks on the juniors who attended a training outside of their norm but which has produced outstanding results but were told, "Juniors wait your turn or you will make enemies". And if you dont kowtow, banned.

Don't be fooled. They will continue to drain MCF of its resources if we allow them to continue. Strong players, good organisers, academies who provide real value are our national assets.

So the first thing we need is a clear command. And for that we need a President and Deputy President who knows chess and have a passion for chess. They also need to understand structures and guidelines. A good way is to empower the entire committee. Right now we have a President who do not know what is going on and is unable to control his officials.

But I have also said that the current officials can remain. Why? Without clear command, it is the fault of the general. So we need to change the top first.

The blue or the red pill? Which will we need to get our GM?

In the techno-apocalyptic hit movie, The Matrix, the hero John Anderson (eventually renamed Neo) was given the choice of two pills by his mentor, Morpheus. There was the blue pill, which would keep Neo within the illusory realm of the computer-generated world of The Matrix.

Or, he could take the red pill and plunge down the rabbit’s hole of the truth (that the world as he knows it is nothing more than a software being run and he’s really stuck in a gel-based bath-tub with two dozens wires plugged into him).

Blue – to stay inside illusion. Red – to have one’s eyes opened to truth.

A new President and a story about Sun Tsu.

Just after writing his treatise on "The Art of War", Sun Tsu went to the King and asked to command his army. The King was bemused and decided to make fun of him. So he told Sun Tsu, "If you can command my concubines in the palace, I will allow you to head my army".

Sun Tsu accepted the challenge. So the concubines were assembled and Sun Tsu chose 2 of the King's favorite concubines and appointed them as officials. And he gave his first command. Everyone broke down in laughter. So Sun Tsu said to the King, "If the command is not clear then it is the fault of the general".

So he went over his commands again to the officials until he was sure they understood. And then he gave the command again.

But again the concubines broke out in laughter. So Sun Tsu said to the King, "If the command is clear and the officials do not obey, then it is the fault of the officials."

And so he ordered the beheading of the 2 concubines. The King was in shock but he allowed it. After that Sun Tsu appointed 2 new officials and issued the command a 3rd time. And they all obeyed.

Sun Tsu got to head the Kings army.

I will write on the qualities we need in our President in my next post. Do think on this story. It is quite enlightening.

More on remuneration and Melaka revisited.

Ref: Here.

I hope that it is now clear that MCF officials must negotiate for the best of MCF. MCF need the funds in order to do the work they are supposed to do. And that is to develop chess in Malaysia.

From Asian Amateur we also see that MCF does not need an event manager. The only way to justify outside expertise is if the expertise is beyond the resources of MCF. But this is very rare and cannot be justified for a tournament. International or not.

In an International tournament MCF has to do extra work by publicising to other Federations and so it can justify charging an endorsement fee.

As we have seen in past practices there are some people hoping to wrongly benefit from the confusion surrounding this issue. The first time I was made aware of this was during the Asean training 2010. This attempt at extortion succeeded and they were paid under protest. This was tried again at Asian Amateur but this time not so successfully because this event was under another MCF official who did it the correct way.

Now any money that should justifiably go to MCF to undertake its work and is diverted away is corruption. So it is important for MCF to investigate the officials in charge of the negotiations. Did they negotiate for the benefit of MCF or was the deal structured to funnel the money away for private gain?

For any money given to a "expert" who is not neccesary is stealing from MCF and stealing from the Malaysian chess public. My concern is that this diversion of funds has also succeeded in Melaka.

Note: This is not disparaging the organisers and sponsors in Melaka. They are new to organising International tournaments. They rely on the advice of MCF. So it's a good event. However whether they got the correct advice or not is my question. It's not too late to correct things now. The event is still a distance away. I hope we get it right. This is important for the future of Malaysian chess. For if we fail to correct this MCF will never have the funds to develop chess in Malaysia. All the money will have been leaked away. So I hope there will be an investigation.

Genius can be taught.

What type of chess culture will allow us to do that? Here.

A conversation at Asian Amateur.

Towards the end of Asian Amateur, I said this to a friend. "Now that they have a taste of what's it's like to pitch to major sponsors for the Malaysian Open and they can now also see how much money MCF made from Asian Amateur, I wonder what they will do next."

Will they continue to develop their contacts and skills at pitching to the corporate world as a private entity and be the best organiser or academy that they can be?

Or will they try to find a a way to milk the money from MCF by taking a shortcut?

One road leads to excellence and the other corruption.

Did you see Rocky Balboa on TV2 last night?

"When you meet a worthy adversary and you face him head on you discover the greatest type of respect. Self respect".

"Your competition will throw everything at you. When you can take it all and still move forward, you will have the heart of a champion".

"You know everything there is to know about technical, now you need to find the way to win with what you have". (Not by might, not by strength but by the spirit.)

Note: This means no cheating or backdoors.
He had a coach, a team on his side and he did his competitor analysis and he trained; he trained hard.

And then he stepped into the ring with his coach in his corner, to claim his place in history. Is that the same way our GM will come?

Structure of private remuneration. An important article.

This is perhaps the biggest illusion cast about Malaysian chess. That there is no money in chess and that certain people are only doing it for their love of the game. Actually this is the mantra to knock down the people who can do something about developing us. Let me try to explain.

Now if you have read carefully what I have been saying about the actual role of MCF, here, then you will see that its already a big job. Even setting the policy guidelines and aiding the affiliates will take a lot of work. But it makes sense. You release new potential by developing the States and you also ensure we do not lose good officials or players from unfair practices. All that and still run the National events. There is enough money for this as I have just explained in the post below. Here again.

Now comes the other problem. How do we develop a GM? It takes a lot of financing and know how. This is, in my opinion, the role of private bodies. Read this.

That is of course business at a very high level but the principle is the same. It's about giving value and establishing track record. So lets us start by looking a little closer at our private academies.

Private Academies.

Perhaps a good example for us to look at for comparison is Chess Kidz from Singapore. What are they doing that is different? We see their coaches coming with the players for tournaments. They provide guidance and give tips on how to win where it matters; in the tournament. Isn't this obvious? It cannot be done from a classroom.

What do we do instead? We get GM's to do the training for beginners when it has already been shown from the Asean 2010 training that this is not suitable. You do not use a professor to teach kindergarden. Now I hear we are bringing in a super GM to do the same. That is not their job. These practices will only be self defeating in the longer run as the people who coughed up the money will not have been given value.

We have "trainers" with zero record of success going around asking for investors etc etc.

The Academies here have not thought through what is training and what is coaching and so they are close to failure. So this needs to happen. We need them to figure out the difference between just technical training and developing a winning mindset. We need them to start to understand what is competitor analysis etc etc.

And if they can do that they can also be successful. It is not that chess cannot earn them a living. It is because they do not give value but instead try to sell the hype. But the players do not improve on hype do they? They will be tested on an International field and found wanting. (And so the backdoors, the sabotage etc).

Private Organisers.

Remember I said that Dato Tan asked Hamid and Najib to go to the sponsors themselves if they wanted the last Malaysian Open to happen? I think this was the intention. Dato wanted them to learn how to do things properly and to understand the work involved. True, Dato directed them to his own companies and his allies which does make it easier. Still the lesson was, it is not easy. You need to deliver or they will not be there the following year.

So this is the lesson for private organisers. You need to develop your own business contacts, do the work of writing your own proposals to sponsors and make sure your tournaments deliver what private sponsors want. There is money if you get it right. Give value.

But again what is our practice? We learnt from our own Asean 2010 training that not only will "MCF" move against us and ask players to go to another tournament but again operational people, in this case the supplier, will charge the event, management fees when they did not do the work.

What I am saying in the above paragraph is our focus is on undermining, sabotage, taking money from others that we did not work for. So no energy is given to doing the work that matters.

We need the private entities to go about their business without hindrance for they perform a very important role. Only they can have the resources to develop our GM. The expenses and expertise is beyond the resources of MCF. So MCF should do what MCF needs to do and allow the private entities to do what they are best suited to do.

Lets look more closely at the repercussions of our current system in my next post.

Friday reflections

Here.

I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I'll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all.

Note: I say we show we love ourselves when we can say no to the abuse. When we can stand up for our children against the bullies. When we can reclaim the game of Kings from the gutter level that it's now in. This game was meant to teach our kids how to be leaders and decision makers. What is it being used to teach them today? Kowtow or we break you. Start by apologising to shadows.

What say you?

Asian Amateur- The windfall.

What is different about Asian Amateur? Remember I said that MCF already have ready cash to fund it's activities if it organised National events? Then if we add endorcement fees from private organisers of International events, it should have enough to fund its operations.

Now Asian Amateur is a windfall. An event that was given to MCF by the Asian Chess Federation. They secured the prize money. All MCF did was to secure local sponsors. Now this is important.

I have argued that it is the securing of the sponsors that is the difficult work. The rest is operational. The tournament director and the arbiters are merely operational staff.

So what was correct about Asian Amateur? Zuhri who acted as the deputy President of MCF and in his official capacity got the sponsors. That means MCF got the sponsors and MCF became the event manager. The money from the collection then went into an MCF account. And MCF can now disburse to the operational staff.

Do you see what I mean? An official of MCF must negotiate on the behalf of MCF and for MCF's best interest.

An aside: And this is where the dispute with Najib came from. For some strange reason he thought he was the event manager. Now is it conceivable that he had expertise that MCF does not have? MCF gets the players by writing to the other Federations in the region. MCF did the work of coordinating with the Asian Chess Federation as well as liasing and securing the local sponsors? So where does Najib come in? He was the tournament director, one of a few that could have been chosen and paid for his role. That's all.

So MCF got the money. Now what happens to the money is another matter. That will be an MCF internal matter of course, since the money was correctly paid to MCF. But I am curious what actually happened to the money that MCF made from the Asian Amateur? I heard from Zuhri directly after the event that there was a big surplus and that he wanted to use it to fund the National Junior Champion. The answer to that question will I think reveal why we need a change in leadership.

Next I will talk about private organisers remuneration structures and then I will conclude with using these 2 models to ask more questions about what is happening with Melaka among others. By understanding this I hope we will begin to see the extent of the rot in Malaysian chess.

There is no excuse for MCF to say they have no money to fund proper activities. National tournaments, endorcement fees from International events (in part because of the work MCF must do to write to other Federations in order to inform their players etc) plus these windfall tournaments like Asian Amateur and perhaps the Melaka event would have kept MCF fully funded. So what is happening to the money? Additional information. Here.

Question. Is the help from the Asian Chess Federation or from Fide in the form of the Campomanes fund meant for private gain or for the overall development of Chess in Malaysia?

Building character through sports.

Sorry that this reached you too late. It was just forwarded to me. They talk about empowerment through "Dare to dream". Do we need this in Malaysian chess, the mind sport? What is happening to our players?

Here.

Remuneration structures- MCF ref: Asian Amateur

I would like to start with the Asian Amateur and to use that as a model to analyse the correct role and renumeration due to MCF.

As we know, MCF is the NGO charged with the development of chess in Malaysia. In this regard MCF is fortunate for the existence of MSSM which do a lot of the grassroots work of bringing chess to the schools.

So what else is MCF supposed to do? Well MCF is entrusted in doing the fide rating for the players in the Country. They have State affiliates and another parallel system of tournaments to enable our players to play in International Fide rated events.

In order to do all these well MCF needs good guidelines and policies and need resources to aid the affiliates in their development. MSSM does the work to school level, MCF is supposed to carry on the work after school as only MCF has the tournaments to enable that. Tournaments like Malaysian Close to continue the process of growing our players.

Well we know that there are almost zero guidelines and policies, very little support for the States, no proper training for our players before International tournaments. In fact written selection only came for the seniors in 2011 and for the juniors the year before.

So yes MCF do need funding for them to do this work. But they need more than just funding. They need a change of leadership. I have shown previously and will continue to show in my next posting that MCF can acquire the funds to do a good job. But some of the officials are just looking at how to "earn" money from big tournaments. And none of the other essential work is done.

Next: Asian Amateur, the model structure.

On remuneration structures, MCF and Private organisers.

This is Najib's article in 2003. The one that he wants us to see. Here.

After this post I will explore what is the correct remuneration structures for both MCF and private organisers. I hope to demonstrate that what now exists is detrimental to the development of chess in Malaysia and is probably illegal. In the meantime do read Najib's piece. Good luck.

Have you seen the series "Lie to me"?

I like that series. Monday nights 8.30pm Ntv7. It explores how lies are manufactured. There is a standard tool liars use. It's called deflection. They don't answer the questions directly. They laugh, they call you names or they lash out with counter accusations. Ref: Here and here.

But they always avoid the issues or the questions.

By the way where did Oliver Barbosa get his GM norm? Does anyone know? When? How old was he? And when did he become super GM?

This is a good article to read for those that want to give value in their businesses. Here.

So what is the correct structure?

MCF should be the governing body with its own income in the form of National events and endorsement fees. They should focus on policies and guidelines to aid the development of chess.

But is that enough? No it isn't. Private academies and private organisers need to be allowed to develop. Now this is the interesting issue. Najib still says that there is no money in chess. Actually there is but you must know how to get it. I have explained here to Najib that if you want to charge professional fees you must bring in your own sponsors.

That means that you must have the support of business. And businesses will only support other good businesses. Now that is the crux. That means you must have a good track record of successful ventures. So in Najib's case, charging FGM project management fees for a project he did not manage is already a strike against him. He says that he understands the amount of work needed in writing proposals to sponsors and the many many meetings to get a project off the ground and yet he grabbed what is not his. So that is not the way.

If you want to do well in a chess academy, it is about your training methods. If your academy brings up strong players, people will come to you and then you can make money. But again track record.

Look around you. There are many successful chess ventures and many are making money out of it all around the world. Some are even exporting their methods here. So why cant we do it here in Malaysia?

If you look carefully you will understand why the things that are happening have been happening. That is the direct cause of our structure. What do we have know? Think about it. I will try to explain next week and hope to show that this is the logical result of the wrong leader and the wrong structure.

The evidence is all around you. A clue. I have explained to Najib where he has gone wrong and why he is not making money. Now why would I do that? Could it be I feel that healthy competition is good for me. Keeps me sharp. So I share.

ps: I think I will continue my arguments here. I think Najib holds my response and releases it at funny times. Anyway the funny people are there. I prefer to know who I am talking to.

Debate can now switch to Najib's site.

Thank you Najib for allowing the debate on your site. To follow the rest of the debate pls go here.

I hope others will join in too. Real people not anonymous wrecker.

ps: Maybe not. I dont think much of the quality of the debate there. He laughs in the face of serious questions rather than trying to reply. I guess it's hard to break a 30 year old habit. A little like Nero who played the fiddle while Rome burnt?

My reply to Najib's latest post.

Here.

I think my reply there has been blocked so lets do the debate here.

The problem with MCF as I have said before is that it has never done things the right way before and so maybe they don't know what the right thing is. Lets see what will happen after this debate.

From Najib's own description it shows that you only get projects directly from the Secretaries of MCF (past and present). Now is that right? What is the actual role of the secretary? I propose that the Secretary of MCF is supposed to execute the guidelines and policies of the full committee of MCF. That is why we have the committee. The secretary is not MCF. This is a major distortion. Think about it. What is the job of a secretary?

Some of us have suggested many times that the projects be tendered out by a fair and impartial tender committee that chooses the best proposal.

Why do you think the committee has never met to discuss such important policies and guidelines so far? In fact why was it only in 2011 that we have had written selection?

There is a reason why NGO's are not allowed to make profits by law. And there is a reason why private organisers are allowed to make profits. Isn't this the same scenario that is causing the hue and cry across Malaysia? People who go into goverment not to govern but to put their hands into project funds. Isn't that corruption? Is that the same reason why people covet the post of Secretary of MCF?

And I don't only mean financial corruption.

In the past was it the best players who represented the Country? Or was it the people who was in favour who got the opportunity? Isn't that corruption again. What do you think that has done to the fighting spirit of our players? Now that we have written selection, how long do you think those players will last? The ones who need the backdoors.

How will the projects be parcelled out if the best tenders win? Will some organisers bite the dust because they cannot write proper proposals that define who earns what? And will not good organisers rise in the wake? Najib, you say you do not want others to steal the benefit of your work. Havent you been doing that yourself?

When I pushed for fair selection I was accused of doing it to benefit my son. I failed to see the logic. Is that the depth of their thinking? How on earth does my son benefit from that??!!!

Now that I am asking for a transparent system of tendering and for MCF to play their proper role as facilitators, Jimmy is accusing me of trying to put people in to benefit me. Does he know Mr Lee and Zuhri to accuse them of this? How does this benefit me directly? And how does this destroy MCF? Are you losing it Jimmy?

Doesn't Mr Lee's or Zuhri's track record speak for themselves. Don't you think they know what a secretary is supposed to do? Aren't their combined knowledge better than someone who don't know anything about chess and cannot control his own secretary?

So who actually benefits from the current system?

Any payment to MCF officials directly constitutes corruption. I have said that MCF should organise their own events. There should be enough money to pay them if they organise national events like NAG, National Junior and National Close since players play and pay for the honour of playing for Malaysia and not for prize money. Combined with endorcement fees from big events by private organisers this should be sufficient. If not there is still National rapid and blitz to consider.

Note: I am sure there will be people willing to do national service for purely MCF events so expenses can be very minimum.

But keep your hands off private ventures. Do not interfere or hinder. Do not try to grab what is not yours.

I suggest that the people who support the current system are people who want the backdoor in. To play for the country without having to compete or to get their hands on projects they didn't work for. (Did you read what Greg said to me when I said I was looking at doing an International project for Perak?)

They want it the easy way. No need to compete. That too is corruption isnt it? Corruption of the fighting spirit. Could this be the real reason why we have slipped so far behind? I have heard a rumour debated on facebook that the National Close has been postponed. Is that true? Why would that be? I am curious.

Isn't chess about competition? Can we really play chess if we are afraid to compete? And what are these people who are so afraid to compete doing in a competitive mind sport?

So what is your relationship with MCF again, Najib? Do you even know the implications of what you are saying? When will you mature Najib? You say you wrote on this in 2003 and you still havent figured it out yet.

ps: And so the illusions work again. In finality lets ask this rather strange question after all I said. Did you really benefit Najib? You seem just as lost now as 2003. Did you benefit Jimmy from this system that you defend so hard? Or have you lost much more than you gained. Who actually benefited? Can you name someone? Funny isn't it...how life works. Is that why you laugh?

The grandmaster Jedi mind trick.

This is a good trick if you do not want anyone to reach their goal. You either build an illusion around the problem by telling people that it is very easy when it is not or you tell them they are not good enough without any basis or you help them with their delusions by telling them they are great when they are not.

I have been hearing people saying that one must not say negative things etc. So lets look at what that means today. Remember my past writings on half full/half empty cup? Now when the cup is only a quarter full you do not say half full. Are you following?

Real encouragement is based on reality. Properly measured. However when it has been measured then the positive perspective ie half full is empowering. Is that clearer? The positive slant on reality. Being able to see the silver lining.

But you dont go running around telling people that becoming a GM is such an easy thing when you do not dare to look and measure the problem. And you do not tell someone they are great when they are not. Actually telling them quietly and at the appropriate time that they need to buck up is the kindest act that you can do. But it is also a difficult thing to do. For they will strike back. Illusions and delusions are very addictive. Psychologists call this act cathexis.

We need to get this right. Because otherwise we cannot evaluate. If we look at a problem and we cannot mention the things that are not going right; we cannot get a balanced picture.

Everytime you point at an obvious weakness that needs to be fixed, somebody will shout you down and say you are negative.

Hey the bridge is collapsing, nothing negative about that if it is true. (Say it is just about hanging on the last support).

Hey we dont have the support system for a GM. Nothing negative about that.

Hey, we dont have a head. :) Really, there is nothing negative about that. 30 years into the game and we still havent figured out who gets paid for what in a tournament, we still dont know who is in charge of national policies, if any, etc. etc.

When we can admit to this, we can now look for the solutions. We take the half full perspective. We look at what we have and how to build what we dont have. But first we must look and measure the problem.

Note: This problem became clearer to me during SEA games selection training at my home. One of the players refused to admit that he was weaker in tactics. He claimed equal strength in all aspect of the game although it was obvious he was not. So immediate roadblock.

An accurate appraisal need to look at both strengths and weaknesses. And only after that can we design the training.

Today's Contemplation.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face...you must do the thing you think you cannot do.

-- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 - 1962)

13th Asean Age group Championship.

This is a tournament where anyone who wants to try out in International chess can apply directly. Get more details here.

Why was this coach fired?

Here.

He is just ranting and raving. Isn't that normal? So why would anyone be upset by that? Does it demoralise the team? Which is louder? The one who rants and rave or the one who quietly tells you the truth? The one is louder on the outside but the other rings loud in the mind, maybe? Or is the lie more comforting?

Could the answer be that the one that rants and rave is destroying and the one who quietly tells you the truth is actually building!!! Can you tell the difference? Both seems loud right?

Or have we gotten so used to the ranting and raving, it is normal for us? And it is the quiet truth now that seems so loud.

Malaysia's first GM.

I was just invited to a facebook forum where I was asked if Malaysia has any strong players and if I think any of them can be GM. My answer to the forum was no. I do not see a Malaysian GM yet.

Let me explain why I said that more thoroughly here. Yes, we have strong players but no I do not see a GM yet. A couple of years ago when I was putting together the training for the juniors going to Asean, I consulted with a few people to get a better idea on how to structure the training. I asked IM Lim Yee Weng this question among others. I asked him what will it take to become GM and his answer to me was that if he knew he would be a GM.

Now that Yee Weng has beaten Megaranto twice I said in another post that maybe the technical gap isnt that big now. So where is the problem? Lets explore this further.

I have said that we need to be mentally tougher and I have also said we need a better understanding of competitor analysis. Lets see why I said that. Yee Weng has sussed out Megeranto to an extent. But in that 9 rounds he also needs to suss out the other opponents in the field in the same manner. And he would probably find that he would need other tools to achieve the same kind of success with different types of players. So Yee Weng will need to analyse them and they will also analyse him in depth. Cat and mouse. And to do that better you need a deep understanding in profiling. Competitor analysis.

Mental toughness. I am sure you realise that beating one person of that strength is very very tough. And you need to do it many times to achieve one GM norm. And after that you need to do it twice over to make GM if you are not already too traumatised by that one run.

Imagine the work and time involved. Imagine the discipline needed. Not only Megeranto but the other players as well. How much more work do you think? How about the training? Same type of training to beat Megeranto as it is to beat the others in the field?

Now is it becoming more obvious that we do not have that type of support system? Don't you think that the player may need a coach, a manager with him or do you expect him to do all that by himself/herself and still stay competitive? Do we have the type of training so he is even ready to go and have a fighting chance?

So there is still a lot we don't have. Yes, we have strong players. But untrained and unsupported to play at that level. Do we know what the true gap is? What is the measure? Our players now need to find the financing themselves, do the training themselves and act as coach, manager and player all by themselves.

So the answer is no. I do not yet see a GM. We do not have the conditions yet. And those conditions will not come so long as we bury our heads in the sand and "hope" a GM will come by accident if we keep running here and there like a chicken without a head. Get what I mean?

No head, no leadership, no planning. No guidelines, no policies. We are still trying to figure out who gets paid what for tournaments. See here. We are spending a lot of time to figure out how to ban players stronger than our own and still not sure who is in charge of National policies. See here.

Chess is a very real game. So lets get real here. We don't even seem to have the courage to look hard and define what our problem is. We need to do that first before we can even attempt to structure the solution.

Quotation

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.

-- Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

When reason fails.

When reason fails then the cause of the problem is usually something else. A good place to search for the answer is for the fears surrounding an issue.

Today's Contemplation.

It doesn't matter where you've been, it only matters where you are going.

-- Brian Tracy

Peter Long no longer heads MCF policy committee.

Here.

I see the conditions where you must be a member of State Associations etc is not present in KLCA's latest posts. Maybe Peter no longer heads the policy section. It was good for a while though. At least somebody was putting some thought into it. But I guess we are back to no guidelines and policies again. Is it a step backwards? Lets see.

You still have to write to Peter. Last year Peter said in Jimmy's blog that he never saw the "players" email to request for information. Just for your information, there is no need for the player to write personally. The parent can write, the manager can write, the chess academy can write. So last year he didn't see the emails although I wrote 4 or 5 times. Not only that but I also cc'd Greg, talked to Hamid as well as write to the President of KLCA. But nobody seems to have seen the emails either.

According to some people I spoke to at that time, Peter has also done this to other players. Organisers in this region also wrote to me to tell me about the disgraceful way he conducts himself overseas. So this is not new for Peter.

I suggest we try this for this year's event. When you write to Peter, cc copies to the other members of the MCF committee too. CC also to the bloggers that you know. I will be also doing the same thing at a later date. If he still wants to ban so be it. We will cross that bridge when we get to it. But he needs to at least acknowledge your email and tell you why he has banned you.

MCF has a duty to protect all players in Malaysia. Nobody can simply ban without proper grounds or reason so long as the National body is involved. Last year nobody saw any emails. How convenient. This year make sure as many people as you know sees your email. Then lets see how many times they can say they didnt see anything.

Good luck.

Note: The real reason why they want the players to write personally is so that they can "play" with them and bring them to heel. That is how they try to control and break our players. I have seen it happen too many times. Cheap trick. I think it may be better for them to try and train their own players properly than to try to damage others who are better.

If you have done nothing wrong then you do not need to kowtow. Personally I think even if you have done something wrong there is still no need to kowtow. Just correct the mistake. It's simple really; when you kowtow to bullies you can never be a strong player.

Note: Peter Long is not in the committee of MCF but seems to be making national policy decisions. See MCF committee members here. Actually there even seems to be some confusion over who the deputy President is.

On the relationship between private organisers and MCF.

Ref: Following from the post just below and this post. Here.

Maybe I should explain the genesis of my concerns about the Melaka event. Towards the end of last year I spoke to Greg about some business friends of mine wanting to do an International chess event for our State, Perak. We are still looking at the financial and logistic viability of this venture. Greg warned me that I was not to be a spoiler. That he has an event planned for Perak!!!

Now this may not seem obviously wrong since we have not been doing things the right way for such a long time but lets look at the implications of this warning. Firstly, let me say that any properly constituted company that was formed to promote chess like FGM, is legally entitled to that pursuit without interference. MCF as the national body is to support such private endeavours and not hinder.

Look at it this way. We are businesses in Perak wanting to do an event to promote our State. Why is a national official telling us that he has his own private designs on events in our own State?

So I wondered if the Melaka event is also mislead in the same way. My view is that so long as the private organiser has the State's support and sponsors, there is no need to bow to Greg's threats. So long as you are legally constituted MCF cannot impede your event. And there is no need to pay any MCF official. Their legal mandate is to support all events that promote chess.

In fact if any payment is made to MCF officials privately this will, I believe, constitute corruption.

I hope this will clear matters up as I have also been contacted by Catur Melaka on my post about the Melaka event. I do wish the Melaka event every success. I wish Najib's company every success. I am just saying that so long as we do things the right way, then MCF officials are to do their job correctly. That's all. In fact I am sure Melaka will wish us the same success when Perak has it's own International event.

Some comments by Najib.

Do join in the discussion if you have something to contribute. Here.

On NAG, National Junior and International events.

It seems to me that NAG, National Junior and maybe even National close now (minimum prize money last year) are cash cows for MCF. There is no prize money for NAG and NJ and players play for the honour of representing Malaysia. So the money should go straight into MCF accounts to fund other needed activities like training and development.

International events like KL Open, Malaysian Open, Melaka Open should pay a premium to MCF and straight into MCF accounts too. Why? So MCF can now have funds to do little things like train our players before they go overseas to face tough players.

Doesnt that make much more sense? Now what is happening? Why is NAG organised by Datcc? Where is all the money going? Do we want another 30 years of our untrained players going out to be thrashed? Another 30 years of MCF training which means the players go and play card games and a few rounds of chess just for show?

Note: More thinking needs to be done about National rapid and National blitz before it is just given away like that.

Jimmy Liew gives back.

Here.

If more and more of us do something to build instead of tearing down, Malaysian chess can only move forward.

Is this what we need to build our own players?

Here.

Today's Contemplation.

The only thing that stands between a person and what they want from life is often the will to try it and the faith to believe it's possible.

-- Rich DeVos

New chess blogs.

Check it out. Here.

And here.

More on Melaka International.

Here.

Reflections

Here.

Is success in chess also a similar journey?

Another view of corruption.

Here.

There is hope yet.

Here.

A case of too many rules?

Here.

How does this compare with no rules?

Some musings on thinking.

Was talking to Mark last night. I told him some things require a lot of thinking. To consider the many aspects that define the problem. For example, like how do we get a GM? How do we construct a proper system of openings etc?

In chess we also say we need to identify and deal with the turning points in a game. Critical decisions.

But some things are obvious and do not need much thinking. Actually you just need to do. So it was a puzzle to me when an MCF official told me at the last National Junior that the solving of my unjust sacking from PICA was an easy problem. Then why hasn't it been solved after all these years???

To me this demonstrates a type of problem in thinking. Easy problems taking years to "solve". But difficult decisions that require thinking is done in a knee jerk manner.

Upside down. Have you seen this in our chess? Rush the difficult problems and sit down and think and think over a simple problem till the time runs out?

Why do you think that is? Could it be fear? If our chess is to improve, we need to understand why this is so, don't you think?

National Age Group.

Here.

How fear kills your chess. Decision making.

Dedicated to my muse.

Apart from fear overwhelming your mind and shutting it down completely as we saw in the Malaysia vs England games in the last Chess Olympiad what else does it do?

Lets go back to chess here for some insights. Lets say you have the technical to win a game if you had made the right decision but you fear your opponents end game, what would you do? Is it possible that you may twist and turn and try to contort yourself into trying to avoid the end game? And in doing so you do not play the game that gives you the best percentage chance to win? In your twisting and turning you also provide the opponent the opportunity to ambush you in unfamiliar territory.

Lets put it this way. Think of a pin ball machine. Lets say that you have done your competitor analysis objectively and decided on your best course of action. Now think of all the different unresolved fears as the rings that the ball bounces against. Can you now see that your decision now bounces all over the place as your "decision" hit the rings of fear? Your decision can even wind up in the drain.

So instead of using reason to make decisions you now bounce around like a pin ball. Actually that is the main reason why our players have not done better in International circuits. Too many fears.

You will find it is the same in business and in life. Imagined fears distort your decisions. And as we know in Malaysian chess, a lot of that fear originate from the leadership. Previously it was no written selection to facilitate back door entries. Nothing to do with your chess. Now maybe it's, if you are aligned to me I will find a loop hole to get you in even if you did not make top 10. Now its, if you are getting to be too strong and better than my own players I will ban you.

As we know chess by itself already carries a lot of stress. When you add all the other instilled fears, it's like the straw that broke the camels back. We do not train before we go, fear. We do not know what to train before we go ie zero competitor analysis, fear. We need to kowtow to certain officials although they only put us down or try to victimise us, fear. All these fears swimming in our heads.

Now play and win us that medal!!!!!

So how do we get rid of that fear? Speak up, defend your rights. Think about it. If you can be intimidated by bent petty officials and cowered, then how will you fight properly in an International field of strong players? How will you make that GM run?

So change the leadership. It's the only way. Be brave, have courage and you will find that reflected in your game too. Be intimidated by small men/women and that too will be shown in your game. Learn to decide with reason not fear.

Technical just forms the baseline. Learning how to win, mental toughness and good judgement produces Champions. Making good decisions without fear and winning in chess go together.

What is corruption?

Many of us think that corruption is just about money and you need to catch someone with the money before there is corruption. Actually that isn't the case.

Lets look at the meaning of the word in the larger sense first. To corrupt something means that something is diverted from its intended purpose. And it is referred in the positive sense. What I mean is that the intended purpose is always to build. When something is meant to destroy we do not say that it has been corrupted when it is turned to build instead. Get what I mean?

So, if you agree with my definition that corruption is any action that diverts from the true intention of building we can now look at these questions.

Is it corruption when an Association that was meant to serve the local chess community is hijacked by a business?

Is it corruption when a National event is given to an unscrupulous organiser that bans as and how he wants and sets national policies? (If he has the right to ban at all then it can only be for his own private events). Once the national body is involved then is it corruption that the national body now does not impose conditions that help build our chess players?

Is it corruption if an event is given to an individual as opposed to an Academy or Association which is against MCF "rules"?

Is it corruption if a National Official uses his post to selectively give tournaments to his inner circle only?

Is it corruption if that National Official now profits from an event when profits is forbidden by law for NGO's?

So the big question now is do we need to catch them with money in their pockets or is there sufficient evidence of corruption? Is abuse of the power and authority meant for the building of chess in Malaysia also not corruption?

Today's Contemplation.

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

-- John F. Kennedy

A wish list by a fellow blogger.

Here.

Happy Thaipusam.

FGM wishes Happy Thaipusam to all our Hindu readers.

Malaysian Chess-Strengths and Weaknesses.

For us to progress we need 2 essential elements. A strong vision which provides the forward momentum by energising the chess community and a will to unblock the elements of resistance that keep us backwards. If the resistance is stronger than the vision we will go backwards vis-a-vis the rest of our neighbours. If the resistance is equal to the vision we will stay on the same spot while our neighbours still move forward.

When Yee Weng beat Megaranto not once but twice, I believed that it is possible that we do not have much more to learn in terms of technical knowldege. With the internet today, we have access to almost as much technical knowledge as anyone else.

So where does the malign lie? We do not have a winning mindset. I propose that we are stuck because we habitually self sabotage. We have no sense of purpose and we only focus on tournaments. I see MCF has put in some "training" this year. But isnt it the quality of the training that counts? Not one that is just put up for show.

Lets put it this way. The training needs to foster mental toughness. And that can only be achieved if the training is at least on par with those that our opponents are receiving. For that leads to belief. Belief that we can win. And that leads to training harder.

This is simply because it is the players who must have that belief before they are willing to pay the price.

I therefore believe that a change of leadership is important. Right at the top. We also need leaders who believe that Malaysians can win. That we have the talent if we dont allow them to rot and if we dont kill them off in our petty jealousies. We need to put rogue organisers and associations in their place by having proper guidelines and policies.

What is happening now is a step forward from the past. We now have written selection although it is still not perfect and subject to manipulation. And it is not enough. One tiny step in 30 years and brought to us from the bottom up is not enough.

Note: Written selection criteria was hard won from the efforts of a few parents and bloggers. It was not initiated by the leadership.

Our neighbours are just moving forward at a faster pace than we are. And so in time we will find we are still behind even with our first tender step forward.

We are still very far behind others in the understanding of competitor analysis and then designing the requisite training to narrow that gap. Here almost zero work has been done compared to our neighbours. In fact we have not even publicly acknowledged its existence yet.

The future of Malaysian chess is now in the hands of the few delegates at the MCF AGM. If they can make decisions with courage then this will augur well for the rest of us. Simply put, if our leaders act with courage and wisdom then so will the rest of the chess community. And so will the players. And that is what I call the winning mindset.

Our strengths? We are blessed with a tremendous pool of vibrant talent if we can but see it. Dont let them become like most of the older players we now see. Broken and beaten down because they were never given the correct and proper chance to shine. Ergo, not the "shortcuts" tangled in front of them to rob them of their fighting spirit or arbitrarily banned. False hopes and promises. Broken and beaten down not by their opponents but by their own side.

MCF Calender of events.

Here.

Did you see "Winning Favor" on TV2 last night?

A small community brought forth 2 Champion basketball players because the community supported the entire team and not the individual players. That way they could rally sufficient support. Is there a lesson there for us? Can we get more traction by supporting the positives?

Pls see updates on FGM chess academy on our vision and philosophy. Here.

Is there a Chess Association supporting KL?

Here.

Is there a chess association supporting KL or has it been hijacked?

Ref: Here.

Today's Contemplation.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

-- Helen Keller

Potential Secretaries.

I think my choice here will be controversial. But I will state it anyway. There may be 3 possible high profile candidates. Greg, Hamid and Najib. Of the 3, I would only consider Greg. Yes, Greg. I still stand firm to my evaluation that he is the best possible Secretary we have for the time being.

If you read the story below closely, you may see that there is still a possibility that he can be a great Secretary who can help make new Malaysian chess history. But only if he has good guidance. Recently he has been making really erratic decisions that can change whatever good he has done. Or worse he may land up on the wrong side of the law.

Now why have I discounted Hamid and Najib? In them I only see a good tournament director and a good arbiter. Simply put, in all my many discussions and talks with the both of them, I have never once heard them ask for change or say that there is anything wrong with what happened to Malaysian chess over the last 30 years. So my belief is that if they ever get the helm, they will bring us right back to "the good old days".

I have not heard one progressive idea or opinion so I think it will be difficult for any visionary President to work with either. They will just put on the brakes or worse go in reverse. They are best placed where they are now.

There are some concerns of the new tag team of Haslinda, Greg and Najib of course but that is another story.

ps: There is one other for the post of Secretary, Eng Seong from Penang. He has great but undeveloped potential too. So let's see.

A true story.

I want to talk next about the important post of Secretary of MCF. But before I do I would like to tell you a true story. Some years back a friend of mine asked me a question. He had a company and he put his cousin in as CEO. His cousin was later found to have committed CBT to the tune of millions.

My friend's question to me was this. Why did he do it? "I took him from the masjid where he was sleeping without a home and I gave him a fresh start".

My answer to my friend was that it was not his cousin's fault. The man was not responsible enough to hold down a job, pay his rent and conduct regular life. Then he was plucked from nowhere and given a post of high responsibility with a lot of money and opportunity to steal going past his way. He was tempted beyond his ability to withstand.

I said we must instead improve our judgement about who we put in positions like that. So the burden is more on us to select and guide wisely.

Today's Contemplation.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

-- Sir Winston Churchill

Letter from Mark Zukerberg.

Here.

An amazing story. A must read.

A quote from the article.

"Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services".

Today's Contemplation.

Tension is who you think you should be.
Relaxation is who you are.

~ Chinese Proverb ~

Possible Presidents.

We have a lot of problems but there will not be any change in MCF unless there is the correct leadership. It will be up to the delegates at the MCF AGM. So I hope they will choose wisely. A good first step will be to write in to the Honorable Secretary to propose inclusions to the Agenda. This is important or the proper issues will not be discussed.

We need a leader who is not only passionate about chess but also with a strong vision. So for today I would like us to imagine we have this line up in the top leadership. What will this mean for MCF and the future of Malaysian chess? I see 2 possible candidates. Mr Lee from Penang (current vice president) and Zuhri (current deputy president) from KL. Both have strengths and weaknesses which I will discuss a little below.

Note: This is purely my personal opinion and I have had no contact or discussion with the 2 mentioned above on this matter.

I think that without doubt Mr Lee from Penang is the person with the best track record of success. So if we were to vote on doability then he is the man that can lead us. Perhaps a failing is that Mr Lee is not very strong in communication and many find him unapproachable. So that will probably be why he may not garner enough votes if he went for the post.

Zuhri on the other hand is the new kid on the blog. He has had one event, the Asian Amateur which was a spectacular success. But I believe that he may not have the experience to handle the vicious politics of Malaysian chess yet. If you go to the MCF blog, you will see that his name is not even up if you get my drift. Still I see him as a man of courage and moral conviction. When he was appointed I remember him saying to a few of us that if we had any problems, to write to him and he will take action on it. Well I put it to the test. When KLCA came in with their "national policies", I wrote to him. And to his credit he actually called for a meeting. I dont know the actual outcome of the meeting but I think this is the first time in my 8 years in chess where I got an affirmative action from an official after just one email.

Side note: I am still trying to get Mark's 2010 National Junior winners cert. And at the last national junior an official was still talking to me about my unjust sacking from PICA!! Can you imagine that? I dont even remember what year that was now and he said to me that it was an easy problem to solve!!! Really?? Just a heads up on what it's like to deal with MCF currently.

The outcome of the meeting called for is another matter. To get action through the committee, you need the support within the committee. And MCF committee listens to the President.

And so we have 2 possible good candidates for the top post. Both with different strengths and weaknesses. So my suggestion is to use the combined strengths of both. I think Zuhri is winnable if he went for the top post and I am quite certain Mr Lee is doable. Just look at what he has done for Penang. Impressive. If we have that sort of leadership at the national level I am confident Malaysia will regain past glories.

So my suggestion is either Mr Lee or Zuhri for President and the other for the deputy post. Winnablity and doability. Both essential ingredients for success. I do hope the delegates will consider this. We need good strong leadership or we will be here for another 30 years and I dont think I will be blogging then.

So lets take this chance to change for the better. MCF committee, arent you fed up of being critisized by the chess public continuosly? People whispering behind your backs and saying bad things about you. Why not have success and people coming up and slapping your back and saying well done for a great job? Well this can happen. Choose the right leaders.

Can you imagine what it can be like?

Can we investigate KLCA?

I have always wondered about KLCA. Is it really an Association? What is an Association supposed to do? Isn't it supposed to build the grassroots? Provide opportunities to play chess to their local community etc. And for that service, they get to vote at the AGM of MCF as part of the fraternity of Associations.

Actually what does KLCA do? I know they organise an International tournament once a year. But is it only to serve certain business interests? If that is the case is it ok for business to masquerade as an Association? Is there a reason why there is a difference between having NGO's and businesses? If you are a business then why not declare you are a business? Why this way?

Can we speculate that this is also to give them a vote at MCF's AGM. But that vote is for Associations and not for businesses. Maybe the first item for discussion at MCF's AGM is to determine who is allowed to vote. Personally I think only genuine Associations should have a say. So is KLCA an Association?

Note: Right now KLCA is even making national policies. Who are they really? What is really happening here?

More on why we need a change in leadership.

Tournaments are good. But tournaments alone is not enough. So let me turn back the clock again. When FGM organised the Asean training 2010 for the juniors, I was informed that a certain official was going around saying that FGM was making MCF look bad.

Lets pause here. I didnt understand the reasoning too at that time. This official even went to the extent of calling up the players parents to go to another tournament instead of Asean. What could possibly be the motive? What is the consequence of this type of thinking.

In my mind I thought we were providing a valuable additional service to the chess community. Heavily subsidised training. I thought we were making MCF look good. Not the opposite. How can we expect our players to do well without adequate training? And how can MCF look bad if our players do well? So we took the first step.

Then we organised the Thematic training tournaments. I am informed that there are similarities to the type of training conducted in China. Note: I only learnt about this during the last National Junior end 2011. And even this was not supported to put it mildly.

Now why would this be? My conclusion now is that someone in MCF does not want to support training unless it is conducted by certain officials and his inner circle. And they make money. Isnt that an abuse of authority?

And they do not want to provide national training because they want to focus on the big money but they do not want anyone else to do the training either.

So not only do they not build but they tear down as well. Is this called leadership? Is that how we are going to progress?

Tournaments by itself is not enough.

So now that FGM has surrendered that ground to them since they want it so much, what are they doing about it? OK, we wont organise any more training for MCF but what are they going to do for training now? What is this official's plan now to develop our players?
Note: There was no training for Asean 2011 and the parents paid a large sum for their air tickets.

If nothing, shouldn't he be replaced? What is he really doing in that position? All decisions seem to be based on what money can be made from their private ventures. Not MCF mind you, only certain individuals and certainly not anybody else outside. And they only want to focus on big tournaments which incidentally only go to showcase how far we are behind the rest of our neighbours when once we were ahead, on par. Does this make any sense at all? Does this make us feel proud?