I got an angry phone call last night.

A good friend of mine called me last night and accused me of being a turn coat for having congratulated MCF for what looks like a promising calender. Apparently that is the consensus he arrived at after talking with another close friend of mine. He now accuses me of being aligned to Greg.

Now why is this? When did I do an about turn? What is the struggle that FGM's been engaged in?

I spoke up about the sabotage of the training of the Juniors for Asean 2010 that appeared to have originated from within MCF. I spoke up about the abuse of selection criteria where players outside the criteria were brought into the play off. I spoke up on the reversal of selection for last year's Olympiad. And I spoke up about the need for money to not disappear from MCF.

It's has always been about issues. It has always been what is good for Malaysian chess. I have never said that I hated Greg or Hamid or Jimmy or Peter. Yes, I have used their actions as examples so that we may learn from it. But what if any good is done by Greg or Hamid or Jimmy or Peter? Isn't that what we want? Right is right and wrong is wrong. We encourage the right actions and we criticise the wrong ones.

If you go back to all my writing I believe you will find that when they do something good, I give it equal weightage. Surely the point is to do what we can to improve MCF so that our players are given the best chance to do better in the International arena.

And so I have given support to the people that have echoed those issues in the committee of MCF. Does that mean that I like one person better than another? Very frankly I am fond of Greg and Hamid but I will oppose any action that I feel is not correct. It's about right and wrong. It's not about hate.

I want to see Jimmy back on the saddle and fighting for his place on the senior squad but I will oppose his attempts to get in via the back door. And I will direct people to his site to show how he had attacked the Juniors. And to show how he crosses all boundaries of decency by attacking my son. Have I ever brought his family into the equation? It's about his actions that have and still are damaging Malaysian chess while pretending to do otherwise.

I want to see Peter become a better trainer if it's at all possible. Why? Because we need good trainers for us to get out of the rut we are in. But I will oppose and expose the fact that he is abusing an entire State Association and using the banning of players stronger than what he can produce to hide his deep weaknesses. It's about the right way and the wrong way to succeed.

I have even made appeals to all the parties concerned to talk nice within MCF. Why? Because while we should be struggling about issues on how to improve and not sweep it under the carpet we still need to try to talk nice for after the struggle we are still on the same team. After this struggle we will still be Team Malaysia versus the others on the International arena, isn't it?

This also applies to our chess players. If you have won your place in healthy competition then there is a greater chance that the players will work together in a team event overseas, there is a greater chance that they will share knowledge to fight players who have better support and training from their Federation overseas. There is a greater chance because there will be less ill feelings.

I saw the spirit of our Juniors in NJ2010 among the 6 players during the play off. That spirit of 1Malaysia is to be cherished. I saw that spirit after we beat Singapore in Jan 2011 among the parents and players on the train ride back. But how quickly we forget.

What am I saying? I am saying that dirty tricks do not foster this spirit. We foster this spirit when we work together to succeed. We foster this spirit when we know that every member on the team deserves to be there.

And our aim should be to repeat those conditions where we have seen success rather than the failures that we see when we use what I call the "Jimmy method".

So if MCF now genuinely supports the issues, should we not also support them too?

So FGM salutes the members of the committee that have stood up against many verbal abuses and sabotage to continue speaking up. And FGM equally salutes those that have been responsible for many of the bad decisions to now have the courage to correct things so that all chess players in Malaysia have a chance to succeed by playing good chess and not by learning how to use the back doors.

If you think about it, I am sure there are still people who will oppose any change for the better, selection etc. So a new dynamics is forming slowly within MCF because of this struggle on the real issues. We should encourage this shift. Lets encourage those that support improvement and lets continue to oppose those that only want to manipulate MCF for their selfish gains.

So once again. Well done MCF for a good calender. I hope you will also have selection for the next Olympiad as well. And I hope that you will have good selection criteria and not "fixed" ones to allow a non fighting team to represent Malaysia again. And I hope you can stick to the selection criteria this time and not import players from outside it like you did for the last SEA games.

But that is the struggle for the next step. For now we at least have selection again.

All my best to Malaysian chess for the year of change, 2013.

So my friend, if Greg does something good, do we still oppose him? Then it's not about the issue, is it? That's the type of mindless opposition we see on Jimmy's blog that we have all been so critical of. And if we do that too, then won't we become just like him? Hate filled and mindless. Then where is the change?

Denial is an unhealthy form of hidden aggression.

Think about it. You are trying to fight reality.

Isn't that what Jimmy, Peter Long and their supporters in and out of MCF are really fighting? And you thought it was me right? Well, it isn't. It's actually the truth that frightens them.

Monday evening musings.

So after the Olympiad selection National Close, are you going to go up on the podium and tell us all how much you love chess? Talk about no parachutists as I heard was the speech given at the Selangor AGM. Are you going to be dressed up in all your finery? Will you be able to say that you have done your best for Malaysian chess; that you have made all those sacrifices for chess?

Will you be able to stand tall and look us in the eye when you say all these things? What do you think we will be thinking? Is that what you want?

Evening musings.

I even publicize your blogs for you. I don't cut and paste. I don't want my readers to miss any juicy bits about why FGM is so lousy that you do not have the confidence to meet my players on the board. Why you must attack my players and their parents. So I send all my readers to you. And you do not do the same for me. But that is ok by me.

I don't even ask for commision from your advertising revenue for this service. I appreciate you. I appreciate you revealing your thinking to me. I appreciate you opening so many doors to subjects I wouldn't and couldn't have opened without your kind assistance.

You have helped me and my readers greatly in understanding the Malaysian chess scene. I thank you for this. So why are you so angry with me? I couldn't have done this without your help.

Why so much fear? I don't even know how to play chess as you say. You have all the advantage don't you?

Can you help me out with this Jimmy?

Musings

Ref: Here.

Been following the results of Selangor Open. Isn't it sad to witness the dimming of once raging flames?

Musings- Where is the rubbish?

I wouldn't agree to coach a player I thought was rubbish. I wouldn't invite you into my house if I thought you were rubbish. I wouldn't waste my time.

And yet some of you place your trust in people who calls you rubbish, who say you are all washed up by 14yo etc. Do you think they will give you their best if they think you are rubbish or all washed out?

They can't be talking about you right? So if you are not rubbish then is it fair to say that the rubbish must be them?

Musings.

So in theory we can have a supplementary income stream as they say in business.

Rob the players of their confidence while making money "teaching" them, call them stupid, threaten them to know their place, give them goals they cannot achieve etc. etc. etc.

Then we say come to me. "I can help you fix things. I can show you the back door and little tricks to make you look good. You don't have what it takes". All extras ok?

Interesting isn't it? But of course we don't have that in Malaysian chess. Here we have principled people.

Musings.

It is pretty apparent that people like Jimmy and his cronies think that parents are stupid. That all of us are stupid. I wonder how did they come to this conclusion?

Have you ever noticed that this is the way of liars? They deny all evidence and explanations.

In fact that is the acid test for detecting liars.

With selection the glass ceiling is being shattered. I wont be surprised if we see a new line up of the senior squad for the Olympiads. (Provided we have a clean fight at Malaysian Close and the basis of representation is just on merit and they take out that arbitrary basis of "ratings" and other dubious reasons).

Sumant punched through at SEA games selection. Let's follow his example. They are just paper tigers. Take the fight to them. Don't let them hide behind numbers and titles. It doesn't mean a thing. It's been proven by FGM training. Read this again. Here.

Musings.

Ref: Here.

Do look at the comments there and the related one in the link on the top of the posting. This conversation has tickled my thinking since. These are the questions on my mind. How can Greg stop Mok from getting his RM5,000 if Dato really wants to give it to Mok? Why didn't Mok just call up Dato directly?

An aside: I did, when Dato asked me to do the tournament for KLK in Perak. I was still in PICA and I heard that Hamid was discussing with other committee members of PICA over the same thing. So I just rang him and said if he wanted Hamid to do it then do so by all means. No problem but at least inform me of the fact. All academic by the way since I was sacked a few days later. So Jimmy, here's another small snippet to your question. Will answer more comprehensively later.

So it seems to me that it is Dato that doesn't want Mok to have the money for whatever reason. It's his money after all. But I would be curious to know the reason.

Christmas Musings.

You need knowledge to draw the game and you need courage to find the win.

Musings from Jimmy's shoutbox.

Ref here again.

Since I have a little spare time this morning, I wonder how helping Sumant get a place in the SEA games squad is beneficial to Mark? I wonder how asking for clean and fair competition and selection is prejudicial to others? I wonder how I tried to sabotage LZR by allowing him to come to our training, at his own request and showing him our methods?

As I said, no capacity to reason. Just hate filled rantings, distortions and lies. All that is offered is tearing down. No building, no guidance. As they say, birds of the same feather...

ps: Have you ever wondered why the real abuses are not mentioned? Isn't the omissions super glaring? What they don't say?

Pure speculation.

Amazing back pedal and further twisting. Now see the convoluted reasoning here.

Jimmy and friends really think we are all stupid. So just to speculate a little here. What do you think are their motives? And why do most of them hide? In competitor analysis we not only have to learn their methods but also the why's ie the motive behind the actions. Then we begin to understand. Since I can't open up Jimmy's brain and see inside, let us speculate here.

Why would Jimmy go to such lengths as to conjure up so many anonymous sites with so many different names with the express purpose of attacking FGM? Why would they need to attack one young boy who has just turned 18yo.

Jimmy has said I am a nobody. Yet he spends his free time learning how to do a video. A good one too. For your entertainment here it is again. Here. Between the video making, coordination of his anonymous bloggers as well as comments on the shout boxes, does he have a life left??

I got my first clue when Mark was Champion at MSSPK the first time he entered. I was new to chess so I didn't know many things. This was in 2005. Suddenly I noticed that a few people were very angry. I couldn't even get his Champions cert until I finally went to Unit Sukan after chasing around for 6 months. From 2005 till 2009, almost every trick under the sun was thrown at this young boy and still he managed to stay in the Perak team for 5 consecutive years. Finally emerging as U18 Champion in Perak again in 2009. An almost unheard of achievement. In 2010 he made the National squad.

To answer your question Jimmy and to ask you a few of my own. We made it to the National squad despite the odds. Yes I know Marina and family and yes I know the Perak Royal family. We have been friends for many years. And yes I am talking to them now. I have fought our battles and our achievements are our own and we got to where we are without any help. Can you say the same? So you can speculate why I am talking to them only now. Question: Anyway what concern is it of yours when old friends talk to each other? What are you so afraid of that I will say? You stand behind your truth right?

There has been no truth to any of the lies and slander that Jimmy and friends have been spreading. But they tried hard. Why?

Could it be because a boy from "backward" Perak with a non playing father has got to National number 2 in not only the U18 but the U20 as well? And this boy's father spouts strange mumblings like mental strength, fighting spirit and a even stranger term called competitor analysis.

And this boy didn't get any training from the established technical "wisdoms" in Malaysia apart from a little training from Ziaur Rahman during Asean in 2010. It is now known that this boy has begun new classes with a GM. So I speculate that Jimmy and friends are afraid. Afraid of this one boy from a "nobody" father.

And since they cannot knock this boy or his father out with all their tried and tested dirty methods; they invent lies and slander, they now try to ban him from competitions. Luckily not all are like Jimmy and friends. Or Malaysia will have no hope of progressing.

Incidentally Jimmy, I did not directly equate your actions to Peter's. Surprisingly I surmised that from his non answer to my emails all by myself. Plus also some phone calls to MCF officials to follow up on this case since June. Hate to disappoint you here.

But then I am just speculating here. Healthy competition Jimmy. Learn to play chess and we'll meet you and your friends across the table. No more dirty tricks. If you have the confidence that is. Lies are the cowards way out. Learn to face the truth.

ps: Another question Jimmy. Why do you need so "many" anonymous bloggers/commentators to defend your stance? Doesn't it get confusing? Isn't there too many funny pseudonyms to remember? Why don't you just play chess and let us see how strong you really are? Take a break. Have a kit kat. Play chess. Just a passing thought.