Welcome back Jonathan Chua and Marcus Chan.

Here.

Very slowly the real chess players are moving back into the active list. I think there were no good reasons to continue chess on the senior level before. This is very good news for Malaysia indeed. If this continues we will finally see the end of the deadbeats and the unproven.

Although this may actually mean that there is less chance for those with ratings not reflective of their playing strength to enter the senior squad, I would still like to advice caution by MCF. I had a chat with Nicholas Chan after this year's selection to ask if he was called to play in the Masters. And he said no.

So that means that the people in charge of calling the players did not do their job properly. Why did I suspect that? Actually that is a well practiced trait in Perak. They just simply skip till they get the players they want. Selection did not mean much those days if there even was one. They may have changed since the recent Perak Close but that is yet to be seen.

With Jonathan and Marcus coming back to the circuit I think this opens up new possibilities of yet another Masters.

But to get the very best players we would still need at least the top 15 from National Close to compete with the top 10 from the active list.

The reason is that there is a good chance that there are more than a few players from the top 15 in the National Close with lower ratings who can take the fight to the top 10 in the recently active list.

Caveat. This is only a good idea if the top 10 active list is strictly followed. Someone must audit this.

And then the top 8 from the Masters challenge get selected for the senior squad straight down the line from the top. Period. No more twisting the criteria.

And we will see the beginnings of a strong Malaysian Team.

Note: I hope we can see clearly from this how strong players have been sidelined in the past by a few people out for pure personal gain.