The link between myths, superstition and science.

Is there a link at all? Isn't science the polar opposite of myths and superstition? Lets examine closer. Actually they all have the same source of origin.

All 3 observe the same phenomena.

But myths and superstition takes the more convenient answers. The one that goes with their preferred dogmas, the ones that gives them the most comfort or the ones that needs the least amount of thinking.

Science is rigorous. It accepts no cheap answers. It forms assumptions, build theories and tests it again and again in as many scenarios as possible. Until it is proven.

But again I say, all 3 have the same origins. The ability to observe and discern a phenomena existing in reality. It's just that the methods, explanations and answers differ.

In Malaysian chess we have a few people that cannot see any realities. They cannot see that attacking the training program for the juniors does not help Malaysia. They cannot see that breaking the spirit of our juniors is not a good thing. They cannot even see when selection has actually been withdrawn and its now the back door policy again.

So lets make a distinction here. Lets call those that hold to myths, superstition and those that practice science as above the line. And those that cannot see anything, that live in a totally delusional world as below the line.

Now lets assume we start a debate among them. I submit that there is always the possibility of coming to an agreement with those above the line with sufficient evidence and engagement. And I also submit that trying to convince those below the line is impossible. They have left reality. They cannot see anything.

The top group still exists within reality and the group below the line has left reality altogether. They live in a world of imagined fears. For a deeper investigation, read this. Here.

Unfortunately for us. A few people from below the line has entered chess and taken control positions. And they are trying hard to remold the thinking sport into their image.

I submit that without being able to face reality, our GM won't come.

The power of the Secretary of MCF.

Ref: Here.

Superficially the power of the Secretary of MCF is all encompassing. In relative terms it is almost akin to the powers of a dictator.

It is within his power to stop unjustifiable banning of national players. Or Not. It is within his power to discipline those that spread lies on the internet just by issuing a warning. Or Not. It is within his power to have proper selection. Or Not. It is within his power to have a development program. Or Not. Etc. etc. etc. His powers are almost absolute.

So how did he come to this power? Simple. There are no guiding policies or rules in MCF. And this is taken maximum advantage of. They choose Presidents that have no clue of what is happening by witholding information or giving misinformation. This is fairly easy since there are technicalities involved and the issues can be very easily confused. The Secretary has this power because he can either call for a meeting. Or Not.

Let me give you one recent example. There was a meeting scheduled to discuss the selection for the Olympiad. And that meeting was canceled without explanation. So no meeting, no guiding policies and Jimmy and gang got in the back door. Hey Presto, all the strong players are sidelined. There is no respect for the fact that you applied for leave, that you trained, that you used your savings to come to KL to play for a place.

An aside: They have no respect for us but they demand that we respect them or they will try to hammer us to the wall. And that has worked for many years. You have seen their methods now very transparently displayed on the internet. On the blogs and facebook. They try to play God by telling you who is strong and who is not despite the evidence on the table that tells us they are weak. And so they need the PR campaigns and suspect games to build the illusions. They need the tool to ban you without grounds in case all else fails.

So you can now see that those awesome powers that the Secretary now has is used to keep the truth from us. And those same powers are also used to break the spirit of our players and to intimidate the parents and not for building Malaysian chess.

This is all very self evident. All it needs is a superficial look with an open mind.

But is that all the story? If it is, it is not too difficult to fix, is it? Unfortunately there is more beneath the surface. Let me tell you more from my insights during the close association with Greg when we both worked together to bring selection for the SEA games. After reading that I think we will be in a better position to form some conclusions. Not all is what it seems.

Next: My experience with Greg.

ps: Pay attention to this. The real fight is for the Secretary's post. The President is just there to pay the bills when they overspend all the money that could have been used for development. I have covered this topic before so look back if you are interested. But I will probably repeat it again. The best President for them is one with deep pockets and is too busy to ask any real questions.

COS: The Sports Police.

Almost without exception I find 2 types of emotion whenever MCF is discussed among the people who love chess. Either intense anger or deep resignation. Some vacillate between the 2 states. However both states are framed in the negative and not helpful to finding a solution.

I was once heatedly accused by a parent of a National Junior of defending racism when I did not declare that Dato's sponsorship of Li Tian was about racism. And another parent of a National Junior recently said to me that the only way to have a leg to stand in Malaysian chess is to be the undisputed champ.

I have stated my understanding of Dato's sponsorship a few times on this blog so I will move on. As for the view of the other parent, read this again. Here. If you follow my reasoning of the current structure, then you will see that after 20yo, the players won't have a chance to represent the Country anymore unless they are also among the highest rated in Malaysia. And for that they have to compete against historical rating from a different age and a system that is devised to keep certain rating high. So if you look really carefully, it's not about chess anymore. It's about this. Here. The deal.

Note: Without a chance to compete for a place you cannot even get sponsorship to play, and so you really really have no chance at all. Even if you have the finances yourself, you will find that to reach that rating in today's chess is very very difficult. Totally different from yesteryear. Very well sewn up to prevent challenges. The Jimmy method.

So I can understand the frustrations. No solution for donkey years and so the pent up anger or sense of resignation. I submit that this is because the highest authority we appeal to is MCF and MCF is rotten to the core. In my experience all our appeals disappear into a bottomless pit. For instance I was asked to produce the constitution of PICA for MCF to examine. And a few months later I am told that it has been misplaced. So it is useless talking to them, I know that too.

My sources tell me that there is an Authority that we can go to. And that Authority is the Commissioner of Sports (COS). COS has disciplinary powers. They can suspend an Association if they do not follow the rules. I am also told they can even barr an individual from office if they can establish that the individual has abused his/her authority. When I received this feedback recently, I felt this is the much better way for those of us who are not looking for office but want healthy competition all the same.

But it works like this. Let me use an analogy. If a member of your Residents Association were to go to the police and ask for more patrols in your area, the police will check against the statistics of the reports of the incidents of crime in your area to see if it justifies the allocation of more manpower. If there are no reports then no additional resources can be allocated.

I am told that COS will and can take action if there are genuine reports. But I am also told that so far there are no complaints from chess.

So this is the address and website:

Sports Commissioner Office , Level 3, National Aquatic Centre 
National Sports Complex, Bukit Jalil 57700 Sri Petaling, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-8994 4800/01 Fax: 03-8994 4810 , Email : pps@kbs.gov.my,  

http://pps.kbs.gov.my/

Go to the site and see for yourself.

I will write more about this later but I suggest that the first report can be about the bogus selection. I think those who took part in the selection have the right to write in. And those that feel that they have been swindled out of their place in "selection" have the right to write in.

COS has been set up by our Government for the very reasons of the type of problems we are facing The Department has been set up to bring Malaysian Sport to a higher level. Apparently this gangster type mentality is also happening in other sports. So write to them if you cannot get satisfaction from our Associations. Allow COS to take action by lodging a complaint. 

For me that is the better solution than anger or just giving up. Our sport shows us this clearly. Chess is the thinking man's sport. The mind game. Anger and frustration just allows them a cheap win.

ps: Please help me spread this message to those in need of this information. Thank you.

Why rating cannot be used as the basis for selection.

A big part of the blog wars have been about selection and Jimmy, Peter , Najib and their cronies have argued that I do not have the bona fides to talk about chess and a lot of lies have been spread about my training. So lets examine the evidence again.

Ref: Here.

The above is from an independent blog and the event was National Junior 2010. Remember that the PICA elections was in 2009 according to Eddy Fong. In 2009 Mark had just entered the National circuit.

The truth of the matter is that by the SEA games selection in mid 2011 Mark was already Sumant's and Zhuo Ren's peer. The boys were in training with FGM because they wanted to learn how FGM training can bring up a player so quickly and from nowhere.

So lets define the difference between a trainer and a coach again.

A trainer is a technicalist. He goes through the syllabus of the things you must know. The coach teaches you how to win. He helps determine the strategy, he discusses with his players which weapons to use for which scenario ergo competitor analysis. And he tunes their mind for the win.

Read this again. Here.

Compare the difference between Sumant's attitude and Zhuo Ren's. One believed he could win and accepted the strategy and began working. The other didn't. The fact is their technical knowledge is about equal.

Now, if Zhuo Ren had not been attacked the way he was and I had been able to continue working with him, he would have eventually understood what I had been telling him during my training for SEA games selection. He would have seen the result of the selection.

And more will shatter that glass ceiling. Now do you understand better why my training needed to be attacked? Why Peter and his behind the scene supporter is so desperately trying to ban Mark?

Part of my training is not to worry about rating. Use all side tournaments to train new weapons and strategies. So what if you get to selection with a smaller number? You get a better chance to win the selection itself. That is compensation enough isn't it?

The point is there are no coaches in Malaysia apart from some parents who coach their own children. FGM is the only one that have brought coaching outside of family. And in that short time we have produced better results than the technicalists.

Why? The syllabus is all over the net and in books. Just learn to read. Much faster. It is the coaching that we need to move to the next level.

Understand this and I will write about the biggest con ever perpetuated on the Malaysian chess community in tomorrow's post.

What is a chess Association?

The Association exists to serve the chess community. It's only agenda is to promote the game of chess. There can be no other private agendas.

So the chess official is not there to serve a few players but all players. The official is not there to serve a few parents but all parents. And the officials are elected and entrusted to do that job. And they are empowered to act on behalf of all the members to enter into negotiations and contracts with sponsors and suppliers to fulfill that obligation.

So it is not for an official to say who should play for the State or the Country. That is his personal opinion. He just has to follow the agreed guidelines. For in truth the official is not a boss. He is there to serve the entire chess community impartially. Ergo he is a servant. This is the simple and apparent fact.

If the official wants to be a boss, then he has to go out into the world to fight for his rightful place as a boss. For it is not easy to be a boss. You have to prove yourself in the market place. You have to compete with other bosses and come up with good product and services to survive. And if you make it, you finally get labelled a boss. For that is a label of achievement.

As a boss you have more rights. You have earned your money in the market place. You have paid the price. None can question how you now choose to spend your own money.

But if you choose to remain in Association you are a servant official. And if you do your job well, you will be a respected public servant.

This is the clear and apparent truth.

Next: How did we get so twisted as evidenced by the blog wars. A clue. A friend called me and asked why I bother with such nasty people. My answer was, it is because they are nasty. If they were decent people then there is nothing for me to write. I don't think it is right for our children to be victim to their nastiness.

What happened after FGM SEA games training.

Note: Please follow the sequence of event carefully to see if my train of reasoning carries water.

Hours after Zhuo Ren returned to KL his email appeared on Jimmy's blog. The speed was astounding. I was informed but didn't read it until the next day. So I called Zhou Ren and asked him why he couldn't just call me to say he had changed his mind about joining FGM instead of a public attack like that? Btw, I feel this is a relatively minor point since I already know the attitude of some of the trainers here.

FGM has the audacity to actually train our players to meet and take on the IM's on the table. Hard for some of them to take since they think the juniors should wait until they retire.

Sumant had left his helmet at Zhuo Ren's place so I asked him to give me some feedback when he met Zhuo Ren. He told me that when he saw Zhuo Ren, he was crying and Zhuo Ren said that he has a deal with the IM's to draw with him if he cooperated.

Now this is more alarming. But this is also almost impossible to prove. So when I heard this, I called Sumant's dad, Greg, Najib and Yee Weng. Selection must be a clean fight. Otherwise why train? With Sumant's dad and others monitoring the selection, we had the results that we did. Sumant made it on merit.

So at this stage Zhuo Ren has left FGM. And I have only 2 players left. Sumant and Mark. Sumant who is the first junior to make senior squad via selection and Mark who was the U18 number 2 and National junior number 2 that year. So FGM is starting to show results from our hard work.

But it's not over. Next came the Malaysian Open. Sumant was suddenly dropped from the Malaysian Team in the team event. Now follow this closely. I called Greg and explained that this would be bad for Sumant's morale but Greg did nothing.

Now the hands are beginning to show. The message was getting clearer. Cooperate like Zhuo Ren or we will fix you. I formed a team around Sumant when he was dropped but that was not enough.

One of his parents explained this to me. They don't like FGM. There are whisperings that Sumant would be dropped from SEA games squad unless he distances himself from me.

Now lets reason this out. There is one IM and one FM in Malaysia that talks about how weak our junior players are. And now one junior has taken the fight to them and won a place on pure merit. And he is dropped from the team event at Malaysian Open!? And he is attacked on the blogs. His parents are quietly warned.

Think about it. If they really wanted strong juniors how would they have greeted Sumant's achievement? Why the need to attack FGM?

And so finally Sumant made that public apology. To Sumant's credit, he took the flak for a long time till his parents were warned. What does Sumant need to apologise for? For training? For trying to win his place in fair competition?

And FGM is left with one player. And then they try to ban Mark.

Now understand that none of this can take place without the collusion of Greg. Nobody but him can determine the Malaysian team and nobody can drop Sumant from the squad without his consent. Nobody can ban anyone without reason except with his OK. He has shown his hand.

And this is very very alarming.

So my case is if we want to see that GM, if we want to progress, then the leadership must be changed.

No other trainer/coach have produced players with our results. FGM has the best track record so far in the short time we have been around. So they need to knock us out with their dirty tricks.

And now what can FGM do? They ask me on facebook why don't I continue to do more. Look at our history. First training for our juniors before International representation. Attacked. Thematics. Attacked. Our players attacked.

So until we can find a way to stop this we have to stop our activity. Otherwise it is not fair to our players. For in actuality it is MCF that is attacking them. Or more directly Greg, the hidden hand.

What happened at FGM SEA games training 2011.

Sumant had been training with us for some time even before SEA games selection. We will sit down and discuss meaning of strategy etc etc. Ref: Here.

Since I normally assess both Mark's and Sumant's performance at most tournaments they go to together, my evaluation of Sumant was that he lacked discipline to train and he also did not carefully think through which opening to play with each player.

The strategy agreed for SEA games selection was that he must win against the lower ranked players and take down or draw with at least 2 of the IM's present. Of the IM's present we chose Jimmy, Mok and Yee Weng to study since we could not find the right weapon for Mas.

Now, as you remember, Zhuo Ren also asked to come. But he did not agree with the strategy. He kept saying that Mok was unbeatable and so he did his own thing. I guess it shouldn't have been much of a surprise when his email came out on Jimmy's blog.

With Sumant we helped to evaluate the best possible line against Jimmy if he had played French. But Jimmy switched to Philidor and Sumant lost.

The choice of line that we looked for are lines that take the fight to the IM's and not play passively.

With Mok, we found that Sumant also did not have a good line and then the boy's contacted an IM friend of theirs and he provided a line that we felt Sumant can win with. And so Sumant won.

Up to now, our contribution is mostly to get Sumant to train and to methodically go through each line with each player, as both white and black, that was in for the selection.

And we acted as his sparring partner and sounding board to challenge his assumptions.

But this is where we contributed technically. We also found that Sumant did not have a fighting weapon for Yee Weng.

Mark came to me quietly. He told me he had a personal line for Yee Weng that he felt was also good for Sumant. But he wanted to keep it for himself. So my advice to him was that when you work together, you need to give your best to each other. We were there to help and so I advised him to share but it was his choice. Mark shared his weapon with Sumant and Sumant got a draw from a winning position.

And so history was changed by this training. A junior won his place on the senior squad, in a selection, and the IM's here now know they will have a fight on their hands in the future.

The sequence of events after this will show you just how frightened certain IM's and trainers became as a result of this training. Next post.

The training of a National Junior- Cont.

Ref: Here.

My starting paradigm is that while technical is an essential component, it is not the most important facet in the building of a Champion. I believe that the mind set takes precedence, together with the correct training. And I believe that competitor analysis is an important cornerstone. And from the 2 elements of competitor analysis of knowing your opponent and knowing yourself, the much much harder part is in knowing yourself.

My views were in part formed after our exposure to GM Ziaur for those few days of training prior to Asean 2010. It was very instructive from the view point on how to train but we found that the openings he recommended to us were not the right ones for Mark. Why is that? My conclusion is that Ziaur is not Mark. Each have different giftings and different styles. So even a GM will not be able to help with openings unless he has a very deep understanding of his student. And that takes not only the willingness and ability to understand the student but also the required time to do so.

From this and other observations of technical trainers is that they normally teach the openings and style of play that they are familiar with and not necessarily what the player needs.

My methods.

I engage my players. I question them after every game and every tournament. I question them about the openings/response with each player they have encountered. What the problems were. I then assess if the problem is technical or mental. Whether it's a failure in courage, a lack of discipline or bad judgement in changing pre-agreed game plans.

If it's technical I then refer them to the trainer with the correct skill sets to solve that particular issue.

The most important criteria for me is in helping the players to make good decisions and to know where they should go for the correct solution. And I am very careful about engaging any technical trainer for the greatest danger to the players well being is in engaging a trainer who instead of aiding in technical knowldege instil fear in them instead. For fear causes the players to implode and self sabotage in time. So I only choose trainers that do not put down the players or who shows a lack of emotional restraint.

I have seen many instances of that and I believe that is the major cause of the players failing after U14 when the damage begins to show. That and the use of backdoors. Diamonds are formed under pressure. But the players need to be taught how to do that. How to take pressure and thrive. Not take the short cuts. That never works and we have 30 years of evidence to prove it.

And so in my sessions my players can question anything. I can question their assumptions and reasoning and they can question mine. And so another lesson is also taught. How to question with civility and without rudeness. And with this other disciplne I find that they learn to understand and manage their emotions and make better decisions. And they are also able to transfer this discipline to the other issues and problems in life.

That is the true power of chess and the lessons held within it.
For chess is the exercise of reasoning under pressure.

Read this again. Here.

Next: After the weekend, I will talk about what took place in the SEA games selection training in my home.

"If you are scared, get out of business"

I remember those words clearly like it was yesterday. Those words were told to me by my late partner and mentor Dato Hisham Albakri, who was the architect for Pan Pacific, Bank Bumi Headquaters, National Library etc etc.

The context was this. I was preparing a contract and faxed the draft to Dato. In reply he made some changes. After 3 attempts I finally called him, in some frustration, to explain that the contract had been vetted by 3 lawyers.

In the conversation I said "Dato, this clause is necessary, I'm worried about ......"
In reply he said those words to me. "If you are scared, get out of business."

His basic lesson to me was you cannot pen in all your worries about things that may go wrong. You need to believe in your ability to solve problems as a businessman or else get out and seek employment.

How does this relate to our chess community?

I think those words also mean if you are scared don't play competitive chess, don't try to represent the Country via the backdoor. Give those who still have fight the opportunity to develop. Play chess as a hobby instead.

It also says, if you have entered in the business of chess then stay away from the associations. Don't milk them dry till they have no money to perform their task which is to serve the chess community.

We now have the situation where our chess activities fund business people who cannot compete in the open market. So the only way they can survive is by colluding with certain officials in associations.

These practices have kept us backwards for many years. If we want that GM, then we need the associations to do what they should do and the private organisers and academies should do what they should be able to do.

Note: For instance. MCF is unable to fund proper training for our players and yet they will sabotage any attempt to get the training to our players. I submit that this is because of the trainers in the association that feel threatened. Isn't that the only reasonable inference? The interests are co-mingled and this sets up a conflict that keeps us backwards simply because they cannot do it but they will also not allow anyone else to do it.

If they are scared to compete, I suggest they close down their businesses and join the associations as volunteers instead. But taking over associations for private interests or colluding with officials to strip the associations of their funds is not the right way.

On the other hand, if you joined an association for money making schemes, then I suggest you go into business where you can make all the money you want legally. If you are any good that is.

The associations are not there for you to strip of funds. They are there to serve the chess community. Hobbyists as well as serious competitors who want to go out there and fight the fight. So why are you taking money not meant for you?

Why is competitor analysis so important.

When I first mentioned it on this blog, I was surprised at the adverse reactions. New anonymous blogs were formed to attack the idea.

I asked why don't we do competitor analysis? More importantly; against our neighbours. We need to benchmark, to know what we are up against, to measure the gap and then to find the training to narrow it. I thought this was obvious.

But now I see better why they were so fearful of that suggestion. You see, the moment we do competitor analysis, we start to learn about ourselves, who we are, what is our gifting? Are we natural attackers, defenders? Do we like high tension games and complexities or we like to simplify? Are we conceptual players or calculators? Etc etc etc.

Simply put, we measure our competitors relative to ourselves.

So that is one thing more thing that terrifies certain people. Once you do competitor analysis your self delusions will have to go. Competitor analysis is about reality not fantasy.

Once you do competitor analysis and see the gap, you cannot say I want to be GM and it is easy anymore, you cannot claim to be one of asia's best player anymore, you cannot say they are all washed up by 15yo anymore etc. Those type of people need their delusions like addicts need their drugs.

And so now you know why a few people will foam in the mouth at that word. But don't be fooled, they are not chess players who can compete? At the most they are club level players or hobbyist today. Now do you see another reason why we don't have a GM?

So don't let them stop you. Those people live in "No GM" land. A fictitious la la land that does not exist. It can be done but we must base the effort on reality not fantasy.

Democratisation of chess.

Almost every nation in the world have chosen one variety or another of democracy. The common wisdom is that with democracy positive energy is released. Stakeholder interests are protected. There are measures of accountability and transparency. Questions can be asked by the people and leaders elected.

Everywhere except Malaysian chess it seems. Somehow they missed us. Here in one of the last bastions of tyranny anyone can be sacked without rhyme or reason, no questions can be asked, parents are tricked year after year into volunteering their services and then dumped like disposable tissue.

Players chess history can be rewritten, players banned without reason, funny people writing national policies, officials that seem to have life tenure and unlimited power to change rules as and when they want etc etc etc etc.

And all this is done without any resistance. Nobody dares to question. WHY? WHY? WHY?

Chess is our strongest mind sport. When I said that chess can teach you all these things, few seem to be even aware of the lessons. Here.

When I talked about competitor analysis, a veteran senior player started to attack the idea. When we tried to train the juniors, the attacks were so venomous that the training had to stop.

Now how can a mind sport progress when it is ruled with tyranny? Where certain officials can do anything they want and all the other stakeholders have zero say.

Question. How are we to have a GM when all they want are pliant parents who can be used, pliant players who jump when you say boo?

Note: They repeat this mantra that there is no money in chess and so you do it for free and then they rob us blind right in front of our noses. Why do you think there are no accounts from MCF? Why did they have to zero their books?

Think about it. Chess players need to think. This is also part of your training. This is really really important. What conditions will bring us that GM. What type of character does a GM have? Is he one that will trust his own decisions? One that cannot be intimidated no matter who he faces across the table? One that has discipline and is accorded proper support and training? Etc etc.

Now isnt it obvious? We are sending broken people out to play against tough people. Of course they cannot compete. They are already broken here.

So how can we change things? I have suggested that we change the very top. We need to do this if we continue to want to have a GM. Without doing this we have no hope in hell.

We need to get the self delusional people, the tyrants with zero ideas on how to bring progress, to accountability. Otherwise we give up that hope. 30 years have already shown us that tyranny does not work. So let democratise chess.

Don't you think that's a reasonable suggestion? Is it a wonder why we are falling further and further behind?

The training of a National Junior the mind coaching way.

I realise many States are now active and want a National Junior of their own. So I would like to share a little of our journey. How a young boy from sleepy Ipoh, Perak made it into the top 4 of NAG in 2010 and the number 2 in both the U18 as well as second placing for all the juniors under 20 for the year 2011 in the National Juniors.

When he made top 4 in 2010 he was the first male junior from Perak to break into the National squad in over 10 years. He has since represented Malaysia for Asean, Asian youth and was part of the team that won that historical event against Singapore for the first time in 10 years again in 2011.

It is not easy to break into the top 4 in order to win a place among the National Juniors. From the top 10 onwards, the kids are improving at a very fast pace. And it gets much faster among the top 5.

There has not been any player outside KL, Selangor and Penang who has succeeded in that journey for a long time as far as I know. So this is for the players in the up and coming States. Allow me to share how you can take the fight to them.

Note: When I first talked about trying to win by going to tournaments in KL, the President of the Perak Chess Association told me to give up on the idea. "They are different in KL" he says. "There is no way you can make it there". Obviously I didn't listen to him.

How you can come from a State without a strong chess culture, fight discrimination, match fixing etc and still make it to the top. And we did it without the traditional trainers. We did it the mind coaching way.

I will be busy over the next few days so I will probably continue this after the weekend.

To give you an indication of the journey, when Mark finally played his first Malaysia/Singapore, it was already Sumant's 10th. They are both the same age. So how did we close the gap in around 2 years?

Note: I would not even be writing this without the help of Sumant. He came to my house for a week and helped Mark in his chess at the outset of our journey. He also gave us all his online materials on chess. For that we are always indebted to him. I fear I may have let him down when I could not protect him against all the attacks after he won his SEA games place in the senior squad. For that I will always have some regrets.

More on remuneration and Melaka revisited.

Ref: Here.

I hope that it is now clear that MCF officials must negotiate for the best of MCF. MCF need the funds in order to do the work they are supposed to do. And that is to develop chess in Malaysia.

From Asian Amateur we also see that MCF does not need an event manager. The only way to justify outside expertise is if the expertise is beyond the resources of MCF. But this is very rare and cannot be justified for a tournament. International or not.

In an International tournament MCF has to do extra work by publicising to other Federations and so it can justify charging an endorsement fee.

As we have seen in past practices there are some people hoping to wrongly benefit from the confusion surrounding this issue. The first time I was made aware of this was during the Asean training 2010. This attempt at extortion succeeded and they were paid under protest. This was tried again at Asian Amateur but this time not so successfully because this event was under another MCF official who did it the correct way.

Now any money that should justifiably go to MCF to undertake its work and is diverted away is corruption. So it is important for MCF to investigate the officials in charge of the negotiations. Did they negotiate for the benefit of MCF or was the deal structured to funnel the money away for private gain?

For any money given to a "expert" who is not neccesary is stealing from MCF and stealing from the Malaysian chess public. My concern is that this diversion of funds has also succeeded in Melaka.

Note: This is not disparaging the organisers and sponsors in Melaka. They are new to organising International tournaments. They rely on the advice of MCF. So it's a good event. However whether they got the correct advice or not is my question. It's not too late to correct things now. The event is still a distance away. I hope we get it right. This is important for the future of Malaysian chess. For if we fail to correct this MCF will never have the funds to develop chess in Malaysia. All the money will have been leaked away. So I hope there will be an investigation.

Structure of private remuneration. An important article.

This is perhaps the biggest illusion cast about Malaysian chess. That there is no money in chess and that certain people are only doing it for their love of the game. Actually this is the mantra to knock down the people who can do something about developing us. Let me try to explain.

Now if you have read carefully what I have been saying about the actual role of MCF, here, then you will see that its already a big job. Even setting the policy guidelines and aiding the affiliates will take a lot of work. But it makes sense. You release new potential by developing the States and you also ensure we do not lose good officials or players from unfair practices. All that and still run the National events. There is enough money for this as I have just explained in the post below. Here again.

Now comes the other problem. How do we develop a GM? It takes a lot of financing and know how. This is, in my opinion, the role of private bodies. Read this.

That is of course business at a very high level but the principle is the same. It's about giving value and establishing track record. So lets us start by looking a little closer at our private academies.

Private Academies.

Perhaps a good example for us to look at for comparison is Chess Kidz from Singapore. What are they doing that is different? We see their coaches coming with the players for tournaments. They provide guidance and give tips on how to win where it matters; in the tournament. Isn't this obvious? It cannot be done from a classroom.

What do we do instead? We get GM's to do the training for beginners when it has already been shown from the Asean 2010 training that this is not suitable. You do not use a professor to teach kindergarden. Now I hear we are bringing in a super GM to do the same. That is not their job. These practices will only be self defeating in the longer run as the people who coughed up the money will not have been given value.

We have "trainers" with zero record of success going around asking for investors etc etc.

The Academies here have not thought through what is training and what is coaching and so they are close to failure. So this needs to happen. We need them to figure out the difference between just technical training and developing a winning mindset. We need them to start to understand what is competitor analysis etc etc.

And if they can do that they can also be successful. It is not that chess cannot earn them a living. It is because they do not give value but instead try to sell the hype. But the players do not improve on hype do they? They will be tested on an International field and found wanting. (And so the backdoors, the sabotage etc).

Private Organisers.

Remember I said that Dato Tan asked Hamid and Najib to go to the sponsors themselves if they wanted the last Malaysian Open to happen? I think this was the intention. Dato wanted them to learn how to do things properly and to understand the work involved. True, Dato directed them to his own companies and his allies which does make it easier. Still the lesson was, it is not easy. You need to deliver or they will not be there the following year.

So this is the lesson for private organisers. You need to develop your own business contacts, do the work of writing your own proposals to sponsors and make sure your tournaments deliver what private sponsors want. There is money if you get it right. Give value.

But again what is our practice? We learnt from our own Asean 2010 training that not only will "MCF" move against us and ask players to go to another tournament but again operational people, in this case the supplier, will charge the event, management fees when they did not do the work.

What I am saying in the above paragraph is our focus is on undermining, sabotage, taking money from others that we did not work for. So no energy is given to doing the work that matters.

We need the private entities to go about their business without hindrance for they perform a very important role. Only they can have the resources to develop our GM. The expenses and expertise is beyond the resources of MCF. So MCF should do what MCF needs to do and allow the private entities to do what they are best suited to do.

Lets look more closely at the repercussions of our current system in my next post.

Asian Amateur- The windfall.

What is different about Asian Amateur? Remember I said that MCF already have ready cash to fund it's activities if it organised National events? Then if we add endorcement fees from private organisers of International events, it should have enough to fund its operations.

Now Asian Amateur is a windfall. An event that was given to MCF by the Asian Chess Federation. They secured the prize money. All MCF did was to secure local sponsors. Now this is important.

I have argued that it is the securing of the sponsors that is the difficult work. The rest is operational. The tournament director and the arbiters are merely operational staff.

So what was correct about Asian Amateur? Zuhri who acted as the deputy President of MCF and in his official capacity got the sponsors. That means MCF got the sponsors and MCF became the event manager. The money from the collection then went into an MCF account. And MCF can now disburse to the operational staff.

Do you see what I mean? An official of MCF must negotiate on the behalf of MCF and for MCF's best interest.

An aside: And this is where the dispute with Najib came from. For some strange reason he thought he was the event manager. Now is it conceivable that he had expertise that MCF does not have? MCF gets the players by writing to the other Federations in the region. MCF did the work of coordinating with the Asian Chess Federation as well as liasing and securing the local sponsors? So where does Najib come in? He was the tournament director, one of a few that could have been chosen and paid for his role. That's all.

So MCF got the money. Now what happens to the money is another matter. That will be an MCF internal matter of course, since the money was correctly paid to MCF. But I am curious what actually happened to the money that MCF made from the Asian Amateur? I heard from Zuhri directly after the event that there was a big surplus and that he wanted to use it to fund the National Junior Champion. The answer to that question will I think reveal why we need a change in leadership.

Next I will talk about private organisers remuneration structures and then I will conclude with using these 2 models to ask more questions about what is happening with Melaka among others. By understanding this I hope we will begin to see the extent of the rot in Malaysian chess.

There is no excuse for MCF to say they have no money to fund proper activities. National tournaments, endorcement fees from International events (in part because of the work MCF must do to write to other Federations in order to inform their players etc) plus these windfall tournaments like Asian Amateur and perhaps the Melaka event would have kept MCF fully funded. So what is happening to the money? Additional information. Here.

Question. Is the help from the Asian Chess Federation or from Fide in the form of the Campomanes fund meant for private gain or for the overall development of Chess in Malaysia?

Remuneration structures- MCF ref: Asian Amateur

I would like to start with the Asian Amateur and to use that as a model to analyse the correct role and renumeration due to MCF.

As we know, MCF is the NGO charged with the development of chess in Malaysia. In this regard MCF is fortunate for the existence of MSSM which do a lot of the grassroots work of bringing chess to the schools.

So what else is MCF supposed to do? Well MCF is entrusted in doing the fide rating for the players in the Country. They have State affiliates and another parallel system of tournaments to enable our players to play in International Fide rated events.

In order to do all these well MCF needs good guidelines and policies and need resources to aid the affiliates in their development. MSSM does the work to school level, MCF is supposed to carry on the work after school as only MCF has the tournaments to enable that. Tournaments like Malaysian Close to continue the process of growing our players.

Well we know that there are almost zero guidelines and policies, very little support for the States, no proper training for our players before International tournaments. In fact written selection only came for the seniors in 2011 and for the juniors the year before.

So yes MCF do need funding for them to do this work. But they need more than just funding. They need a change of leadership. I have shown previously and will continue to show in my next posting that MCF can acquire the funds to do a good job. But some of the officials are just looking at how to "earn" money from big tournaments. And none of the other essential work is done.

Next: Asian Amateur, the model structure.

On remuneration structures, MCF and Private organisers.

This is Najib's article in 2003. The one that he wants us to see. Here.

After this post I will explore what is the correct remuneration structures for both MCF and private organisers. I hope to demonstrate that what now exists is detrimental to the development of chess in Malaysia and is probably illegal. In the meantime do read Najib's piece. Good luck.

So what is the correct structure?

MCF should be the governing body with its own income in the form of National events and endorsement fees. They should focus on policies and guidelines to aid the development of chess.

But is that enough? No it isn't. Private academies and private organisers need to be allowed to develop. Now this is the interesting issue. Najib still says that there is no money in chess. Actually there is but you must know how to get it. I have explained here to Najib that if you want to charge professional fees you must bring in your own sponsors.

That means that you must have the support of business. And businesses will only support other good businesses. Now that is the crux. That means you must have a good track record of successful ventures. So in Najib's case, charging FGM project management fees for a project he did not manage is already a strike against him. He says that he understands the amount of work needed in writing proposals to sponsors and the many many meetings to get a project off the ground and yet he grabbed what is not his. So that is not the way.

If you want to do well in a chess academy, it is about your training methods. If your academy brings up strong players, people will come to you and then you can make money. But again track record.

Look around you. There are many successful chess ventures and many are making money out of it all around the world. Some are even exporting their methods here. So why cant we do it here in Malaysia?

If you look carefully you will understand why the things that are happening have been happening. That is the direct cause of our structure. What do we have know? Think about it. I will try to explain next week and hope to show that this is the logical result of the wrong leader and the wrong structure.

The evidence is all around you. A clue. I have explained to Najib where he has gone wrong and why he is not making money. Now why would I do that? Could it be I feel that healthy competition is good for me. Keeps me sharp. So I share.

ps: I think I will continue my arguments here. I think Najib holds my response and releases it at funny times. Anyway the funny people are there. I prefer to know who I am talking to.

The grandmaster Jedi mind trick.

This is a good trick if you do not want anyone to reach their goal. You either build an illusion around the problem by telling people that it is very easy when it is not or you tell them they are not good enough without any basis or you help them with their delusions by telling them they are great when they are not.

I have been hearing people saying that one must not say negative things etc. So lets look at what that means today. Remember my past writings on half full/half empty cup? Now when the cup is only a quarter full you do not say half full. Are you following?

Real encouragement is based on reality. Properly measured. However when it has been measured then the positive perspective ie half full is empowering. Is that clearer? The positive slant on reality. Being able to see the silver lining.

But you dont go running around telling people that becoming a GM is such an easy thing when you do not dare to look and measure the problem. And you do not tell someone they are great when they are not. Actually telling them quietly and at the appropriate time that they need to buck up is the kindest act that you can do. But it is also a difficult thing to do. For they will strike back. Illusions and delusions are very addictive. Psychologists call this act cathexis.

We need to get this right. Because otherwise we cannot evaluate. If we look at a problem and we cannot mention the things that are not going right; we cannot get a balanced picture.

Everytime you point at an obvious weakness that needs to be fixed, somebody will shout you down and say you are negative.

Hey the bridge is collapsing, nothing negative about that if it is true. (Say it is just about hanging on the last support).

Hey we dont have the support system for a GM. Nothing negative about that.

Hey, we dont have a head. :) Really, there is nothing negative about that. 30 years into the game and we still havent figured out who gets paid for what in a tournament, we still dont know who is in charge of national policies, if any, etc. etc.

When we can admit to this, we can now look for the solutions. We take the half full perspective. We look at what we have and how to build what we dont have. But first we must look and measure the problem.

Note: This problem became clearer to me during SEA games selection training at my home. One of the players refused to admit that he was weaker in tactics. He claimed equal strength in all aspect of the game although it was obvious he was not. So immediate roadblock.

An accurate appraisal need to look at both strengths and weaknesses. And only after that can we design the training.

How fear kills your chess. Decision making.

Dedicated to my muse.

Apart from fear overwhelming your mind and shutting it down completely as we saw in the Malaysia vs England games in the last Chess Olympiad what else does it do?

Lets go back to chess here for some insights. Lets say you have the technical to win a game if you had made the right decision but you fear your opponents end game, what would you do? Is it possible that you may twist and turn and try to contort yourself into trying to avoid the end game? And in doing so you do not play the game that gives you the best percentage chance to win? In your twisting and turning you also provide the opponent the opportunity to ambush you in unfamiliar territory.

Lets put it this way. Think of a pin ball machine. Lets say that you have done your competitor analysis objectively and decided on your best course of action. Now think of all the different unresolved fears as the rings that the ball bounces against. Can you now see that your decision now bounces all over the place as your "decision" hit the rings of fear? Your decision can even wind up in the drain.

So instead of using reason to make decisions you now bounce around like a pin ball. Actually that is the main reason why our players have not done better in International circuits. Too many fears.

You will find it is the same in business and in life. Imagined fears distort your decisions. And as we know in Malaysian chess, a lot of that fear originate from the leadership. Previously it was no written selection to facilitate back door entries. Nothing to do with your chess. Now maybe it's, if you are aligned to me I will find a loop hole to get you in even if you did not make top 10. Now its, if you are getting to be too strong and better than my own players I will ban you.

As we know chess by itself already carries a lot of stress. When you add all the other instilled fears, it's like the straw that broke the camels back. We do not train before we go, fear. We do not know what to train before we go ie zero competitor analysis, fear. We need to kowtow to certain officials although they only put us down or try to victimise us, fear. All these fears swimming in our heads.

Now play and win us that medal!!!!!

So how do we get rid of that fear? Speak up, defend your rights. Think about it. If you can be intimidated by bent petty officials and cowered, then how will you fight properly in an International field of strong players? How will you make that GM run?

So change the leadership. It's the only way. Be brave, have courage and you will find that reflected in your game too. Be intimidated by small men/women and that too will be shown in your game. Learn to decide with reason not fear.

Technical just forms the baseline. Learning how to win, mental toughness and good judgement produces Champions. Making good decisions without fear and winning in chess go together.