The Vision, the goal and the Deal.

If you train in the martial arts you are taught to punch through the target and not at the target. There is a reason for this. Lets see what this means in chess.

If your target is to be National Master or National Junior Master then that goal is too short term. You are trying to punch at the target. And that is also the trap. Why do I say that? You have now made room for the deal.

Now you may need the stronger players to give way to you if you lose your confidence; if your support system is not strong enough.You may need certain trainers or officials to pave the way. And so you can be intimidated and possibly broken. And they know this. So they will attack your weakest link if they cannot get to you. Can you see this? I have seen Champions fall that way.

But if your goal, if your target is further. Say if your target is to be a GM, then you have to look further. You start to look at competitor analysis, you start to look for new ideas to improve, you start to train. You have no time for the deal and cannot be intimidated.

And funnily, if you do that you also increase your chance at the National titles. Can you see that?

Actually that is also the way forward for Malaysian chess too. We need to benchmark against our foreign competitors. And we start at the Asean level, then Asian and finally the World.

If we do that we won't have time to fight among ourselves. Too much work. And we will be stronger as a chess Nation. Is that what MCF is doing?