Do you find this post by Peter and the comment by Jimmy there offensive?

Do have a look. Here.

These are my thoughts. Both Jimmy and Peter are very good at criticizing and knocking down the players that are the products of other trainers and coaches. I think they feel that by doing that those players may go to them.

That is also called poaching.

I think it is fair comment to say that we still have a lot to learn as trainers and coaches in this Country and I think the very first step is to fix the selection criteria to get rid of the deadbeats before there is any incentive to raise our game. Where is the incentive for trainers and coaches to improve when selection for the national team is not based on skill but by talking to Greg etc etc?

If you guys are so concerned as to the state of our chess then why didn't you decline representing Malaysia without selection when you both know that there are far better players than you two in Malaysia? Why keep trying for side deals even when you come out dead last or not played a Fide classical event in over 10 years?

But I also have another question. Peter and Jimmy, can you please tell us the names of the players that you have identified and raised as a player? I know you guys specialise in trying to get the limelight by promoting certain players after the fact. And some may think by dubious means too. So I mean by teaching chess.

But really, who did you raise? From what I can see any player that goes to you, even for a short time, end up badly.

Peter and Jimmy, can you name us the players from the tournaments that they have played so we can see the results? As far as I know none of your players have done well. And even more sad you do not even announce their names before or at the tournaments that they have played in. Are you ashamed of them? Do you not have any confidence in your abilities as trainers?

You do not get credit from merely criticizing others, you get credit by being a better trainer, a better coach. And that comes from the results of the players you have raised. So why don't you guys just do that instead of talking rubbish?

Do you think I may have answered your hidden question as to why the top players in Malaysia won't use you 2 fellas? If it were up to me, I wouldn't allow either of you within a 100 feet of any child who wants to play strong chess.

So what earthly use is there for FGM to exist?

Ref: Here.

I can't fix things for you. In fact I won't fix things for you even if I can. Your progress must be based strictly on your understanding of chess and nothing else. So if you do join FGM you may never play for the Country even if your chess is good. In the past they have attacked my players. They have even tried to ban them.

All I can say is that if you are victimised as a player of FGM, I will stand with you.

But is that all? I say no. I will say that I will endeavour to teach you all these other things too from chess. Here. I will say that if you learn those lessons from chess, you will be a better person and you will know your self worth.

I will say that with those lessons you will be able to stand tall in whatever arena you set yourself in later in life. Lets be honest, not all of you are meant to be or want to be a GM. Your calling in life may be in other things. But you would have learnt from your time in chess on how to succeed.

I will also say that those that have taken the short cuts will never amount to much. They won't go much further than representing the Country in a few events. And then they will fade away. They will not have what it takes to succeed in a competitive environment. For it will be truly hard to fix the whole world so that you can still win with lousy chess. Although I hear that one may be trying to do just that in this region. It's like trying to hold back the river with one hand. So I won't take you there.

But you on the other hand, if you don't take the short cuts, will have the option to either become a GM if you want, for it is only further up the road that you will travel in when you really learn the correct way. Or you can take those lessons to succeed elsewhere.

Why do you also know this? You know this because you can see the end result of our 30 plus years of trying the same short cuts, the same back doors, in chess. 30 years of failing and they still don't learn. So why would you want to be like them?

The question for you is what do you want in life? What do you want for yourself or for your child? Are you thinking short term or long term. Then decide.

We cannot stop others from using the back doors without a change in MCF as they have worked hard for over 30 years to ensure that they can put in whichever player they want. (Whether they play good chess or not). And they will always have their supporters in parents and players who wants the short cuts too.

But you can decide to see clearly that in the end they will amount to nothing.

So don't despair if you cannot make the squad when it is fixed. It is not a reflection of your skill in chess. Life is a marathon. You will be ahead later on.

This is not a physical sport with a shelf life. This is a mental sport from which the lessons well learnt, will hold you up for life. 

That is the reason why FGM still exist today.

Ponderings.

During Malaysian Open this year one parent said that sometimes my articles seem angry.

And sometimes I wonder why so many parents seem to be able to train themselves into seeing and hearing no evil even when it is so blatantly obvious. Sometimes I wonder how they have become so helpless that they choose to live under the tyranny of these chess officials rather than protect their own children.

Sometimes I wonder how certain parents can tell such blatant lies to steal the rights from other children to benefit their own child. And then I wonder how is it that they can do such things with such a sense of pride. What kind of damaged people can steal even from children?

I have said below that when it involves adults I rarely want to get involved. Adults are adults because they can make their own choices on how they want to live in this world. But is it wrong to feel angry when there are helpless children involved?

And why should we honour adults who perpetrate these crimes? And why should we honour their child who have benefited by robbing other children? Isn't that twisted?

Isn't it more correct that we only honour those that have achieved their successes honestly? What is the message?

The malign of Malaysian chess.

Ref: Here.

I have been asked this question so many times before that I have lost count. Why is Malaysian chess in such decline? As if it is somehow that our chess is different from what is happening all around us. As if it is only our chess that is in decline and everything else is rosy. I don't think so. I think our Nation has lost much ground in terms of competitiveness all round. I think we tend to look for the shortcuts and not prepared to put in what it takes to compete in a globalised world.

And the evidence is everywhere. But still a few people with vested interest continue to resist change by trying to distort the true picture. I have argued right from the very beginning that in chess we have a subculture where we have a better understanding than most in our society that healthy competition is the way to develop ourselves. It promotes experimentation to find new ideas in order to develop further.

I read a study sometime back about why the chinese from China were so selfish and seemingly void of any values. The study postulated that the reason was because they perceive that there are no rules from the State that protects them. So it's a dog eat dog world. And that is why they behave as they do. Maybe we can take a page from that study.

I postulate that why we have such ingrained funny "going ons" in Malaysian chess is that there are no proper rules to protect the players who really want to learn competitive chess. The "rules" seem inclined to protect those that have access to the back doors. We may even have an industry or developing one that facilitate back door entries. Do you think there is any truth there?

My opinion developed from observing for many years in our chess arena is that we have many strong players without high ratings for many interesting reasons. And so I have suggested that we do an experiment. Stop giving easy passage for those players who have gone for ratings in their various ways and make them compete. After all when they represent our Country what would we want? Would our goal be that they come back with higher rating or would we want them to fight for our Country with pride and dignity. Which would you prefer? Which do you think is better? What happens in a team event when all our players fight to protect rating? Are you seeing the picture?

Read this again. Here.

We can use what we can learn from chess to contribute back to our Nation. So let us not follow the general malaise but instead be an example for our Country to make a fight back to reasoning and progress.