Burns me up
Here’s what I overheard from what was said by one Singapore official to a Malaysian official in the Malaysia - Singapore 2006 friendly match :
Can we just leave the challenge trophy here?
It’s sooooo heavy to carry it back (to Singapore).
Let’s just take a picture and bring that home.
This was said even before the first round ended.
Of course the Singaporeans did win by a big margin at the end but I think it was a little arrogant saying that before the halfway point is reached. They already assumed that they will win again. Granted this was said in jest but I can’t help feeling burnt by this comment. 
Singapore has one weakness.
Their chess players are reaching saturation point.
Of course they can still add more talents as well existing talents will be improving in their squad. However, I personally feel that new blood addition will be slowing down. Malaysia however, has the advantage of tapping into a larger pool of potential chess population. Let’s say Singapore penetration rate in schools is 10%, I’m sure Malaysian’s percentage is about 10 times less like 1% or 2%.
It’s easier for Malaysia to increase that number as it’s an untapped market. I hope the planned efforts from IntChess and MCF to go into schools will increase the pace of chess adoption among students.
Watch out Singapore!! Next year Malaysia will go to Singapore and bring back the challenge trophy. Heck, we’ll even give the Singaporeans the picture of the trophy to keep 
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Comments
yes, it seems a bit arrogant to say sth like that when the first round hasn’t even finished. well, hopefully malaysians won’t be too offended about it since the words came from only one particular person/official - hence, not representing the thoughts of the rest of the S’porean contingent. well, its glad that malaysia had reduced the deficit by quite a margin compared to last year. i guess, the only way forward is to nurture new young talents n make sure they continue with steady progress throughout the years. i’m sure academies like intchess, stonemaster or even mcf itself would lead the way forward for our chess development. from my point of view, chess in malaysia is certainly rising in popularity. i’m sure we would beat the s’poreans like the old days. give ourselves the next 4-5 years.
If i am not mistaken, last year i heard from someone that they were exhausted from their journey( they slept in the bus at night and played on the same day!) probably that is why they lost by a greater margin last year. So probably we did not improved??!!
Oh,i hope that our improved performance means we are increasingly having more talents without any chess academy!!
Um. . .it ain’t braggin’ if you do it