Most of the work is done before you even get to the table.

Over the next few days I will share with you the basic method that has brought an unknown player from Perak to National Age group U18 number 2 and National Junior number 2 in 2010 in about 11/2 years and National Junior number 5 last year. The same method that helped another Junior break into the senior squad in a proper selection for SEA games.

This will be my contribution to my readers and the fighters that will be at our National Close 2012 which has been announced as the criteria for the Olympiads although details are not out yet. I wish all of you the very best. Fight hard but fight clean as the officer and gentlemen/women that you are or will be in the future.

Let me start by telling you that openings have no meaning. Why? It has no meaning unless you know who you are. It has no meaning unless you know who your opponent is. And it has no meaning unless you factor in the time control you are playing in.

The basic premise is this. Everyone is gifted differently. So if you are a natural attacker, having defensive weaponry is a misfit. There are also those born with photographic memory, the born calculators, the conceptual  thinkers, the natural defensive players. Are you starting to see what I mean? So the game of chess also helps you to discover who you are.

Isn't that fantastic? Many don't have an idea of the answer to this question even late in life. But chess can start answering this question for you very early in life.

If you do it right.

So this is the problem for many players in Malaysia who goes to trainers who can only teach their favourite opening. If you are lucky you will be taught the correct opening for your personality type and gifting. If not you will be lumbered with a tool that does not fit you. And you will stall eventually.

The first step in FGM is to profile you. What would be the right tool for you. This understanding will also later form the basis of competitor analysis. Can you accept what I have said so far? If you can, then come back tomorrow and I will explain further.

All my best.