Grandmaster- Ability to think followed by courage to act on your thinking.

Have you ever wondered why our IM's cannot get even one GM norm? Sometime back I read a post by IM Goh about his first GM run. How he was shaking so much that he found it even difficult to open a door after the event.

So what does that tell us? We can conclude that it is highly stressful yes? But where does this stress come from? Can you see that the stress originates from self doubt? From making difficult decisions? From finding the courage to do that? Yes?

But there is more. There is more because you also need the right arsenal to go into battle. You need to do your competitor analysis so that you have the right weapon to match with the right opponent. And that is a lot of work and thinking.

And then there is the training. You do not suddenly become an expert in a particular opening unless it has been stress tested many times. You cannot go into a high level tournament unless you have been properly conditioned by playing in other high level tournaments.

So that is the basics.

Now lets come back to why certain people in Malaysia use intimidation, deflection, lies and slander. Can we argue that it is because they do not want you to think?

You see, it is very simple. If they have nothing to hide they will explain, they will reason with you. If they use all those unsavory methods it is simply because they don't want you to think. They suddenly become very afraid of questions simply because they have hidden agendas or just plain incompetent.

But do think on this. Chess is a mental sport. It is a requirement for you to think. It is a requirement for you to develop your courage for that is not an innate gift. At each level more courage is required of you and that is why you train. That is also why you do not take the short cuts.

Can you understand their methods better now? If they cannot explain, if they cannot reason then I think a very logical conclusion is that they must be frauds. And they cannot possible be high level chess players. The technical alone just makes you a hobbyist. When you are really out to compete then you must have all the rest.

Now do you see why they need to hide all these things from you? They have no answers, afraid to look for answers. And so they serve you with bullshit instead. That is also why they need to cheat.