More on mental strength.

Mental strength is about being able to see and accept reality and having the strength to change the parts that are unacceptable to us. It's about facing the truth and not about putting someone else down. There is a big difference.

This is also the essence of healthy competition.

I had dinner with Mok during Mal/Sing in Dec. 2010 before our historic win. We talked about his black game and how working on it will make a difference to his playing strength. That weakness again showed up during SEA games selection. So I was hoping that he had used all that time from SEA games to the Olympiad to fix this. Mental strength. To face his fears, to raise his standard.

But our chess culture is about tearing someone else down and not building ourselves up. Attack the training for the juniors, do the back door deals to bypass the strong players, shout and intimidate others so they do not dare to speak the truth. Go back and look at Li Tian's games again this Olympiad. What has happened to the fire? He is playing an old man's game. Simplify to end game just like kup chai Liew.

Actually there is nothing wrong to being weak. Thats just who you are. Nobody elses business how you want to live your life. But there is something wrong when you try to impose that weakness on everyone around you. When you try to break our fighting juniors so they become just like you. That is wrong. Boundaries.

Ref: Here. for example. There is nothing wrong if you cannot make it in the real world of business. But there is something wrong if you now collude to take money away from our Associations. That money belongs to us. It is meant for the development of our players. Not to support your fancy lifestyle and not for you to go on holiday to buy useless fancy titles etc. Ref: Here.

Again it's about healthy competition. Raise your own standard, do the job you are meant to do. Don't try to ban players stronger than those you can produce to hide your weakness. Or fix tournaments. Or arrange suspect games.

Every time you do that, you are betraying our Country. You are taking away from our strong players who want to play competitive chess. You are betraying the entire chess community who wants to see a Malaysian GM. And for some even more than one GM.

So wake up. Work on yourself and not try to bring everyone else down to your low level. Healthy competition. The essence of sports. Or else please leave chess. This is a request. At least do no harm to all our fighters who sweat and toil to better themselves.

Thank you for listening. All my best to you.

Mind Coach.