Selection is the key to unlocking that first GM for Malaysia.

So long as there is selection at all levels, our GM will come. Let me share some of our experiences here. When Mark won the U12 Championship in MSSPK in 2005, he made it for 5 years consecutively as a State player which made him the longest staying male player to ever play for Perak. After his surprise win in 2005, the match fixers did all they could to displace him in the subsequent years. From fixing the pairing to singling him out to change his clothes while playing the later half of a game etc etc etc.

Even after each setback we fought back to still make the team. We never bargained with the match fixers. We just continued to play chess albeit a game or more down. And then we lodged a complaint after the selection.

I think there is a lesson here for all of us. You cannot be stopped so long as there is a selection. If you can rise again even after upsets caused by match fixing, you can still make it; if you remain mentally strong instead of sitting down to whine.

With that experience from Perak we made our climb up the National circuit. Of course we did not have the resources the other players had and to this day we are still trying to catch up on technical knowledge with whatever time we have between studies. A ten year head start by his peers among the Juniors cannot be overtaken overnight.

But we still made it to both U18 and National Junior number 2. And of course MCF still refuses to give Mark that cert to acknowledge his achievement. That is normal. They did the same thing in Perak when he won the U12.

But again I emphasize, so long as there is selection, we can find the way to climb despite whatever they do to fix the games. And now you understand why they needed to bring in the unjustified bans.

Now this is the interesting bit. The initiators and supporters of banning without grounds are trainers who purport to know how to train a GM and parents who think their children can be IM's etc. Now isn't that strange? How would they do it without clean and fair selection? Are they going to fix it all the way to the IM and GM title? Is that even possible? Can a GM title be bought?

If the answer is NO, then what is there to worry about? If they can be so afraid of even Mark to do all these things, how can they help you make that GM run? By taking away selection they weaken their own players. And they cannot create the conditions to match fix their way to the GM title. Even if they succeed those GM's will be pariahs in the chess world. Are they not only killing themselves? We will just continue to improve our chess and get mentally stronger the more obstacles they put in our way. And we will play overseas to continue to climb if necessary. Can they ban our strong players all over the world without any grounds? This I would like to see them do.

So the key here is selection. So long as there is selection, you can make it to the top no matter what they do. That was what I also tried to tell the boys at SEA games training. Don't let them break you. Don't take their short cuts and back door entries. They are just taking the GM out of you. Don't take their way. They are just failures trying to make a failure out of you because they see you having something they do not have. Self belief and fighting spirit.

Note: So it is very easy to see those who are in collusion to set that glass ceiling to keep Malaysian chess backward and who really cannot help and do not want Malaysia to have our own GM unless it is them. You can see it from their stance and their position on the issue of selection and banning without grounds. Even a kindergarten child can see that selection is the way to go unless they subject the child to intense fear. When that happens the child will see what they want the child to see. Now you know why they also spew such venom yes? Then the lies, evasions, misdirection works. Then black becomes white, darkness becomes light.