Short report from the end of Perak Close.

Mark lost to Yit San as black but both boys ended with 8 points out of 9 rounds. Please read this again. Here. And so Yit San is Perak Champ and Mark is runner up.

So let me try to explain again what I mean by healthy competition. Iron sharpen iron. Healthy competition means that it is a contest of skills. Not of cheating. Someone asked me after the tournament if I was happy with the result. I said yes. Our evaluation is that Yit San is still slightly ahead in terms of understanding and so he deserved the win.

I also see a deepening of friendship between Yit San and Mark. You see, this can only happen when it's purely a contest of skills. Yit San and Mark have been sharing knowledge for many years now. It is a serious but friendly contest and of course Mark will try his best to win again the next time they meet.

It would be a different situation if one won because of cheating. It is that simple.

Healthy competition simply means that each try to be the best that they can be. And not by dragging the other down but by trying to learn better and faster. It is not so hard to understand although this may be a new culture for Malaysian chess.

That is how our future strong players will be made. That is the culture of excellence.

Overall we feel that we are on track in our preparation. Our training goal is National Close. And we believe the gap is closing with each passing day. I am confident that Yit San will also do his best to try to stay ahead of the game. And so both will improve. Iron sharpen iron.

We will never get players with this type of drive and character so long as we keep allowing for the back door players. It was the back doors that made the old crop of seniors weak. And then they resolved to keep the other players down to maintain their places on the National squad. And then we developed the culture of talk to Greg. You know what I mean.

So fix the selection criteria. Do not use the active Fide list at all. The numbers there are not reflective of playing strength today and some of it is "manufactured". Make sure that our tournaments are clean by taking measures to contain the suspect arbiters. Use National Close as the sole determinant. Fight there or DO NOT represent Malaysia. No more side doors, back doors etc.

And we will have a new Malaysian team. A fighting team. A learning and sharing team because they know that each player there deserves to be there. No Malaysian team can do well by carrying the deadbeats. They drag the results down. They demoralise the other players.

And then our GM will come. Fix the above first.

Will post the full results once I receive it.

Another evaluation here.