Is there such a thing as chess instinct?

Ref: Here.

Instinct is the atavistic response to a real or imagined emotional stimuli. Fight or flight. Two responses to a perceived threat.

Chess is a thinking game. Not a knee jerk response. And so we need to train the mind to reach the higher centers; to find the other responses. To look for out of the box answers, to find new options.

I think Ilham has asked the right question here. To learn more, do go and read "Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman. Here is a very brief and abbreviated version by me.

Instinct is a fear response and a very powerful stimuli. It has a direct loop to the brain stem (which is the old brain of even pre-caveman days.) When fear is triggered the impulses reach the old brain first and not the higher centers ie the neo cortex.

Now the neo cortex is where creativity, reasoning etc is found. But the impulses take a few seconds longer to reach these centers. If you are to continually trigger the fear response, you can drown out the thinking faculty.

Just using this very basic model, do you see why civilisation has tended towards order and rules. Towards education. This is necessary for progress. It is to enable the thinker in you to emerge.

Can you also now see why Lim Zhuo Ren needed to be attacked when he tried to explore for alternative answers; a solution to his current dilemna? Why Sumant and Mark needed to be attacked?

The continuous firing of fear impulses. The drowning out of thinking. Another way of looking at this is that fear prevents your access to knowledge and reasoning. Actually the seniors may have more knowledge than the juniors now. But they have too much fear and that reduces their fighting strength. So the great equaliser is to instill more fear into the Juniors.

An amazing recipe. Now all cannot fight in the real World.

Incidentally, this fear is also injected into the parents. And so we have this vicious cycle. It is not that we do not have World beaters. It is just that we have injected too much fear into the system and into the players.

Does that now explain why some of the Juniors are backsliding? They are constantly attacked. They have no tools to deal with these vicious attacks. And then you blame them when they want to run away. And you attack them further when they want to learn how to fortify their minds. And when you do manage to separate them from their support system, you say they cannot think.

Don't you think this is a little crazy? And to add insult to injury, they now ask where is our World beaters?

Top Malaysian players.

Here.

Is this list representative of Malaysian fighting strength? How can we be more sure?

Beyond the Juniors.

If my suppositions are more or less on the mark, then our Juniors will end their careers as Juniors at around 2100 to 2200 Elo given current conditions.

These are the conditions we are working under.

1. The senior's real fighting strength are only around 2200 in todays chess.

2. Our chess culture is infected by people who attack rather then nurture our talent. The Juniors who are backsliding are a direct result of these people. Make no mistake about this. The moment they try to learn, try to explore new ideas, they are attacked. They attack our hero's; the ones who dare to fight. And they defend and make really dumb excuses for the cowards and those that have checked out.

3. We have unrealistic expectations of medals without doing the work. We point fingers rather than understanding and solving the underlying reasons for our deteriorating performance on the World stage.

4. We resist change for the better.

5. Etc.

So really at the senior stage today, we have a lot of people who are not very far off from each other in terms of fighting strength. It's just that some have worked much harder at creating false numbers than others. At Datmo Nicholas Cheah gave us a very convincing run. And there are many more. Offhand I can think of Nik Farouqi, Masrin Erowan etc. etc. etc.

They are fast improving. Together with the other former and current Juniors, these can form a band of players who can challenge the still fighting seniors given a little more time and more senior selection. From this healthy competition we can squeeze another 100 rating points or more. We need to increase our internal competition to move forward. The way of manufactured ratings or using outdated ratings as basis for selection will just keep us backward.

This will be the spark that will inject more energy into our system. This is our first step forward and we musn't falter now just because they attack the idea of senior squad selection with lies and misdirection.

Note: If you want a clearer sense of the direction we should be heading for, go to IM Goh's site and see what it takes to be a fighting IM. Then compare his knowledge level with our current IM blogger. That is the gap.

ps: What I am really saying is that the barrier now is mainly psychological. Objectively there is little to separate the chess skills at the senior level among our top players. And there are many of them. Just a very very small gap that can be bridged with some confidence and faith in oneself. And correct training of course.

National Rapid at UTP. 1st and 2nd Oct.

We will be going too. See you there. Here.

Some notes on rating.

Ref. in comments here.

I have made some references to ratings as an unreliable tool for selection or measuring fighting strength. Let me try to explain my reasoning here.

Lets start with the age groups first. Perhaps the truest rating we may have on how strong Malaysia is as a chess nation are those gotten from the U12's and below. This is simply because we are fairly successful until we go past that band. So our kids are measured against the best up to that level. So lets give that achievement an arbitrary number of 2100. However even this number is also not totally accurate for fighting strength as you will see when I explain on later.

From U14 onwards, the gap starts to widen. So when our kids start to compete at those age groups they may find their rating reducing even though they are continuing to improve. Why is this? This can be explained from the fact that the kids from other nations are just improving at a faster rate. Even as the kids compete among themselves, they will find that 2100 strength at U14 and above is not the same 2100 strength at U12. Fighting strength is not immediately reflected in ratings.

And so the gap continue to widen. Now you will find that the 2100 from U12 outclassed against the 2100 from the higher age groups. So I submit that all we can conclude from the ratings derived from age groups are their fighting strength within that narrow band. And that is all.

A further complication occur when say a boy/girl from an age group were to only compete in mainly age groups and certain "selected" tournaments and the other fight in strong open tournaments. The other boy/girl will have his/her fide rating dropping further since he/she is fighting a much stronger field. And so as you can now see, even at age groups the numbers are not totally reflective.

So the best way to determine who is stronger is still to fight it out in a tournament. The numbers are not totally reflective. It depends on whether you have been stage managed or not.

In Malaysia the best determinant for strongest Junior is National Juniors. Apart from that there are only age group Champions. Nothing more and nothing less.

Now if we were to extrapolate further, we will find the same anomaly with the seniors. They may have gotten a high rating at one point in history but it is again not relevant in today's chess. As the gap continue to widen the ratings lose further meaning. To get the truest rating these seniors now need to compete against their peers during their age group days ergo World level, not seniors or veterans. However this is no longer possible for obvious reasons.

A truer rating is gotten when they continue to compete in strong tournaments. Within Asean or Asia for instance. But these tournaments also need to be Open where all and sundry can come to compare skills. For example, Asean Masters.

Now you see there are many wriggle spaces for stage managing. I have said before that there is even a Country that easy ratings can be earned. Another way is to play in selected weak fields. Those ratings are false, manufactured and has no reflection on fighting strength in International Tournaments.

So I agree with anonymous. The Malaysian hero's are those that chose to fight in the Open at Datmo. They may have lost rating as a result of that testing. But I will back them anytime, in fair and healthy competition, over those that "cooked" their ratings.

As I said there are some players who have not fought in a local fide tournament in many many years. And they shout and deride our players from the sidelines. The quality of chess worldwide has improved leaps and bounds over the last few years.

So again I submit that if those nay sayers were to compete in an Open strong field, their rating will today be around 2100 or if we are truly optimistic, 2200. That is where we really are. The acid test is of course when we see them fighting among their peers again. I actually don't think they can even survive in todays higher age group challenges. But that is just my opinion again.

So using rating as the basis for any selection will not be true. Especially in Malaysia where there are those who only play to "manufacture" rating. If we ever use them based on ratings alone, they will be an embarrassment to the Country. Our best bet is to play in a selection and bring in new blood. It may be a shaky start but in the longer run, we will have strong players. Made under pressure and able and willing to fight. Able and willing to learn and improve. Real players made in Malaysia.

ps: What I am really saying is that the barrier now is mainly psychological. Objectively there is little to separate the chess skills at the senior level. Just a very very small gap that can be bridged with some confidence and faith in oneself. And correct training of course.

A story for the Juniors.

Back in those days in Japan, the latrines was one long pit. Everyone including the Shogun and his samurai's used it to relieve themselves. There was no privacy. One day the Shogun saw the attendant to his son trying to shoo away the flies when his young son was squatting there.

The Shogun called the attendant over and said to him. "Leave the flies alone. If my son cannot learn to ignore the flies, he will never be Shogun."

Chess tools by gilachess.

Here.

An attack against a Junior is an attack against the Nation.

I have been watching and studying the convoluted logic of Jimmy and his friends for some time now. They keep saying they are patriots and they care for chess. But for today on our Merdeka celebration holiday, lets call a spade a spade. Lets call the traitors who they really are; traitors.

All their arguments have been in the senseless defence of jaded players who are past their due dates. They are no longer able or willing to fight for the Country. All they now want to do is to prevent new players from taking their place with carefully designed lies and schemes.

I explained to some friends at Datmo that we are not India or China. We do not have their vast pool of numbers. All we have are our few Juniors. Iron sharpen iron. And we only have a few possible "irons" in our pool of players to do that and cannot afford to lose even one. The Country, the parents have paid a heavy price to develop them.

Jimmy's friends attack them without rhyme or reason and then they say they are only helping them. They cause them senseless anguish and pain and then say it is for their own good. So for today at least lets be honest. Jimmy and his friends are only out to protect that glass ceiling.

They do not want us to progress or develop. This is just about their ego and their free trips overseas. And they don't care who they destroy as a result of it.

So what are we to say or think about the one or two parents of Juniors who are also their supporters. My guess is that they have been promised the back door too. I can see no other reason why they will support those traitors otherwise. So you may see that they too will avoid playing strong competitions and start cooking the numbers. Same formula as their teachers.

Today I want to wish our fighting Juniors happy Merdeka. Fight for your right to play for Malaysia in healthy competition. Improve your chess. Tomorrow is yours. Break through that glass ceiling and don't look for the short cuts. It doesn't exist. Then go out there and make Malaysia proud of you.

Marina's wish list.

Here.

Is it possible to avoid being attacked?

I think the answer to this question is very important. The answer will tell us where we need to place our energy. So lets consider this today.

If you are good and you are close to breaking through the glass ceiling, you will invite attacks from the people who have set that ceiling. Why? A lot of effort has been placed to construct that illusory ceiling. Twisted arguments of rating being the basis of playing strength, you are all washed out after 15yo etc. etc.

You are out to win tournaments, to improve your chess, to training and they are out to inflate their rating by carefully avoiding strong tournaments or meeting strong players to preserve that illusion. Some have not even played in a proper Fide tournament in years and yet they shout from the sidelines that you are weak.

Then they argue that they are more deserving of a place on the squad because they have the bigger number.

If you now stand for selection, how do you think they will react? Aren't you threatening to burst that bubble?

Now lets look at the converse. You give up, you cave in to the attacks. What do you think they will now say? Will the attacks stop? I dont think so. Now they will say, look we were right. Those guys are weak. And then they will ridicule you.

So what can you do? You will be attacked either way if you try to excel, to succeed. You may notice that the average players are not attacked. They are not in the radar. They are no threat. So a possible solution is never to excel.

But is that the way? Is that how Malaysia will come up as a chess nation?

I suggest the best way is just to focus on your chess and face up to those that want to keep you down by beating them on the table. There is no need to go down to the gutter level that they are in and no need to apologise to them for trying to be the best.

Understand this and understand this deeply. They will not stop attacking you. They have given up and they do not want anyone to overtake them. So place your energy well. Train hard. They cannot avoid you forever.

Selection is new to us especially for the senior squad. It is working but it needs a little more time to succeed. At the end of this run we may become a nation where our chess warriors are only around 2200. So be it. Better a genuine 2200 than inflated and manufactured numbers. That is real and that will tell us what we have to do to get ahead again.

Then we will be sending out our best to fight for the Country. And who knows, there may even be giant killers among the new breed. Players who will fight and take down opponents 300 rating points above them. Isnt that what we have seen in so many other chess nations?