Open message to Jimmy Liew.

While all right thinking members of the chess community are appalled by the way the Olympiad selection has been manipulated to facilitate back door entries and private deals, nevertheless you and your team members now represent our Country. This event was meant to showcase and benchmark Malaysia's achievements in International Chess to date but now it is likely to show how far we have regressed over the years.

But allow me to say, I still wish the team well and that incident is now water under the bridge. Hopefully we will have a new leadership after the coming AGM and this disgraceful state of affairs will finally be behind us.

So I would like to offer some constructive suggestions for now. Face your fears Jimmy. This is basic mental training for all top athletes as I have described in my much earlier postings. You have too many imagined fears. It is too late to do any serious mental work now as that is a long process but you can do this one thing that I think will be the best thing you can do before the Olympiad. Get out of your escapist mindset. Play at the Individual rapid at Datmo. Win or lose there, it doesn't matter. You need to see where you really are in a relatively strong field playing today's chess. You need a realistic appraisal so you can strategise better for the team at the Olympiad.

Face your fears here before you go or it will all come out under pressure there. You cannot run from it. You carry it with you. And facing it here is better than facing it there when you need to perform; when your team needs you for guidance.

As for the Malaysian goal, I think the minimum should be to try to stay at current position at world ranking. If that is not even possible then don't allow it to slip too far. Do this for your Country. While this team may not have the ingredients for spectacular success, you can still make the job easier for the future Captain of the Malaysian Team.

I hope you can at least try your best to do this for the Malaysian Chess community of which you belong in. In a Team event, sometimes the Captain has to sacrifice himself for the good of the team and the Country. All my best.

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An aside: This is for when you come back. Have you thought about what has actually been going on? Can you not see that your fears have been used against you. You are the sacrifice while the real player has kept his hands clean. He can now just claim that he misjudged you.

Think about it. You have actually done something for Malaysian chess although that was in the past. The damage that have been inflicted on you was not all your fault. In a very real sense, MCF let you down. We cannot send our players out without adequate support and preparation. You were a victim but now you are used to make other victims among your fellow chess players. This you can stop.

Think about it again. What has that guy done for Malaysian chess? Why are you letting him play you like a puppet. Do think about it but do this only after you return.

Now do your job as Captain of the Malaysian Team. Protect your players. Use them well to achieve the goal. The Malaysian goal. Not yours.