The chess parent- A fictional story that bears no resemblance to reality.

A light interlude after all that heavy stuff. Enjoy.

The chess parent comes into chess because of their child's enthusiasm for the game. And because of this we devote our time to helping out, volunteering in the committees, bringing in our contacts to sponsors.

Then we are shouted at in tournaments, we are sacked by devious methods when we start to ask questions, we are given positions and then not acknowledged.

And yet we take it. We pretend it doesn't bother us. We take it when a sponsor of a mere RM1,500 for an entire contingent tries to exert his importance when each one of us have spent far more than that for that single event. We finance a big chunk of chess activities. Go and count. How many events would have happened without us?

And hey, we even provide the players for the State, for the Country. We can be attacked in the most public and offensive ways. But we cannot retaliate, we cannot say what you are doing is rubbish. Why? Because it is not good for chess. (We need other suckers to come in you know, wink wink)

All parents are open game with the word idiot written on their foreheads. Say one word against the "annointed" ones and you have committed the world's biggest sin.

But they can abuse us again and again for years and years. You know why? Because we come and we go and we don't talk about it; for we fear for our children; we dont want them victimised. Then the new sucker comes along. Times up.

These people have no respect for you and your contributions. They just see another fat check, another person they can twist and intimidate. And so the chess world continues to turn. And then those parents disappear and fresh meat come into the picture. And those get fleeced again.

This is just a story of course. We parents here are just too smart to be used like that, they quietly tell themselves.

But since this is just a story, I'll give this story a happy ending ok? Then one of the parents stayed and he learnt all their tricks. He even became a coach. And then he told all the other parents about those tricks. And the parents in this fictional story said no more to the bums and kicked them out. And everybody smiled and lived happily ever after in this GM land.

Then I woke up. :)