Why rating cannot be used as the basis for selection.

A big part of the blog wars have been about selection and Jimmy, Peter , Najib and their cronies have argued that I do not have the bona fides to talk about chess and a lot of lies have been spread about my training. So lets examine the evidence again.

Ref: Here.

The above is from an independent blog and the event was National Junior 2010. Remember that the PICA elections was in 2009 according to Eddy Fong. In 2009 Mark had just entered the National circuit.

The truth of the matter is that by the SEA games selection in mid 2011 Mark was already Sumant's and Zhuo Ren's peer. The boys were in training with FGM because they wanted to learn how FGM training can bring up a player so quickly and from nowhere.

So lets define the difference between a trainer and a coach again.

A trainer is a technicalist. He goes through the syllabus of the things you must know. The coach teaches you how to win. He helps determine the strategy, he discusses with his players which weapons to use for which scenario ergo competitor analysis. And he tunes their mind for the win.

Read this again. Here.

Compare the difference between Sumant's attitude and Zhuo Ren's. One believed he could win and accepted the strategy and began working. The other didn't. The fact is their technical knowledge is about equal.

Now, if Zhuo Ren had not been attacked the way he was and I had been able to continue working with him, he would have eventually understood what I had been telling him during my training for SEA games selection. He would have seen the result of the selection.

And more will shatter that glass ceiling. Now do you understand better why my training needed to be attacked? Why Peter and his behind the scene supporter is so desperately trying to ban Mark?

Part of my training is not to worry about rating. Use all side tournaments to train new weapons and strategies. So what if you get to selection with a smaller number? You get a better chance to win the selection itself. That is compensation enough isn't it?

The point is there are no coaches in Malaysia apart from some parents who coach their own children. FGM is the only one that have brought coaching outside of family. And in that short time we have produced better results than the technicalists.

Why? The syllabus is all over the net and in books. Just learn to read. Much faster. It is the coaching that we need to move to the next level.

Understand this and I will write about the biggest con ever perpetuated on the Malaysian chess community in tomorrow's post.