Li Tian, a FGM evaluation.

Ref: Here.

I have always admired Li Tian for his fighting spirit but do I see a GM in him? The answer is not yet. It's a long and tough road and there are still many hurdles he has yet to go through.

I have been following his run with interest so let me say now that I have discounted the win in Brunei. Let me explain why.

My first sense of unease was all the pre-publicity before Li Tian even played in Brunei, almost like, in anticipation of something going to happen.

Look at the game yourself and decide if that is a GM level game. Here.

Of course I am not a technical evaluator but I do have access to trusted technical evaluators and my feedback even from people overseas is that the Brunei results must be treated with suspicion. But decide for yourself.

The games from Melaka is more convincing. But do look more closely. Li Tian's opening arsenal is very "drawish", both as black and white. So his main strategy appears to be against people higher rated than him and do not want to draw with this "boy". That and a little underestimation and he can get a win.

That is good in one scenario. But he will face problems when he is playing with people lower rated than him and is content with a draw as we saw during his game with Yit Ho at the last Malaysian close. Yit Ho cooperated to draw the game and Li Tian pushed for the win in a drawn position and lost. So there is a flaw in his training and strategy.

Look here again. Here. I think that fundamentally the situation is about the same. Too many draws against lower rated players.

And what happens when you go for a GM run? Now that is a different kettle of fish. Then you must have winning tools as both black and white.

That is why Li Tian needs to play at National Junior and National Close. Don't take the short cuts. There Li Tian will be forced to win against lower rated players who do not mind drawing with him or he will be left behind. And there he will cut his teeth for the GM run.

Don't commit our past mistakes. Look at our seniors now. I see only IM Mas still fighting. And because of that he still has a chance. He dares to fight in strong fields and for that he deserves our respect.

The other problem that I see Li Tian facing is with Chin Seng's lack of independence as far as Jimmy and Peter is concerned. He has even picked up on Jimmy's methods of fanning hatred. I see that as very dangerous.

Once you start following people who have given up, who stoop to attacking children and you are so blinded you follow unthinkingly, then that too is a big trap.

If Li Tian can navigate out of all those traps, he has a bright future. He is still young. Don't allow and do not transmit your fears onto him.

For that matter so does Zhuo Ren and Sumant. The moment they can cast away their fears and direct their anger appropriately to the people who have actually sabotaged them, they will also have much brighter futures.

And I also say this to all the other juniors. Edward, Nabil, Syakir, Nabila, Jianwen, Roshan, Li Ting etc.etc etc.

By that what I mean is take the fight to them on the table. Tell them their cheap psychological tricks will not work. For the higher levels you will need to have winning weapons. Don't play safe and do the work you need to do.

Good luck in Selangor Open guys and gals.

Follow the way of the fighters and not the quitters or those that go for the short cuts and select tournaments to showcase false results.