State of Malaysian Chess

“I’m sad to see the state of Malaysian Chess. So much disagreement. So much fight.” –> I disagree with your statement, the word you have choose to use is too strong to describe your view. I would say there is no disagreement or fight. At most, I believe is “different in opinion” may be based on our country democractic system philosophy.

Btw, your comment on this blog will lead to new people who are relatively new in the chess circle to believe it’s true picture which indirectly gives chess a bad publicity. In addition, your comment may frighten away general public to get involve in chess.

I agree with Tse Pin. Andrew used words that are too strong and has exaggerated the situation. I think Andrew does not fully understand the situation.

Some of us see the recent MCF General Meeting and Intchess’ entry into Malaysia as watershed events in Malaysian chess. These brought several issues into focus, especially on how to move Malaysian chess forward. It is normal to have diferring views in the discussion process.

Some put their views across strongly or fiercely, while others are more subtle. All views are welcome. Hopefully when the discussions have settled down, everybody will pull in the same progressive direction helping in whatever ways they can with their respective expertise. There are so many things to be done but so few people willling to help out.

Andrew has been privileged to listen in on some but not most, of these discussions and the summary view as posted by Andrew does not give the right impression of things. I dare say that there are many more aspects to the issues under discussion and happenings that Andrew is not even aware of. I guarantee his jaw will drop if somehow he gets to know and understand these other aspects.

I personally think the current state of Malaysian chess is the most interesting it has been in a long time. Malaysian chess needs this and I am just hoping that concrete and progressive actions come out of all this.

From the perspective of my 10 years active involvement as a organiser in Malaysian Chess, people at any one time have many ideas on how Malaysian Chess can move forward as a whole (may be classified as differences in opinion, but not “Disagreement or Fight”).

However, how many people actually dare to implement their ideas without depending on other entity or expect people in chess authority to accept those ideas and implement it on their behalf. Let us take CAS from the late 90’s till today as an example, I believe some unorthodox way of marketing chess is needed. Back then, I had formulated couple of unorthodox ideas on how chess events should be categorised where some people did not agree with me to an extend some of my critics condemned my action behind me. Today, they are among the strong supporters of CAS.

As the years gone by, the formulas with some enhancements along the way with the help of my colleagues has transformed CAS in many ways. CAS has churned out many juniors representing the country and some of them are National Champions in National Closed and various age-group categories, and has played an active role in the revival of chess interest in Klang Valley since the ecomonic turmoil era.

Today, CAS true success doesn’t confine to players’ achievement alone, CAS has managed to achieve more than RM 8K++ surplus (profit) from a modest turnover of RM 40K++ for the last consecutive two years. Btw, CAS belongs to the members like you who come from Malaysian Chess Community.

Personally, I believe CAS is the most successful chess club in the country. However, this doesn’t mean CAS way is the only way for the betterment of Malaysian Chess where I strongly believe that any positive / optimistic ideas offered by others can also work.

Bottomline, let the people in the Malaysian Chess community to contribute in whatever capacity they think is good (just like what you do in setting up gilachess.com) for the betterment of chess without DISRESPECTING OTHERS in the same chess community.

Age-group events have achieved so much prominence in the last 20 years that open adult events have been pushed to the background until recently. Is that the reason for stagnation in the adult game? We have all sorts of age-group champions who never make it in adult game. Of course, naturally some champions do come from their ranks, but I feel much more attention should be placed on adult events.

The disagreements among members of the chess organising fraternity have always been there, and the situation now is not particularly different from what it was decades ago. Only the people are different. This applies to all sports as well.

The main motivators are money (which makes the world go round, and makes the impossible become possible), position(recognition by their peers) and power (to do what one desires) within their own tiny chess universe. If there are 2 or more people who want the same things, there will be self-created problems and disagreements. That’s the real world.

Malaysian Chess has been fortunate with the generous monetary support from Dato TCN. Even the government has been half-hearted with its support for a “game” which has little “sporting value” and low spectator support. Chess is in the Asian games. Too bad Malaysia is not in. Speaks volumes, doesn’t it?

GilaChess has nothing to apologise about. He is not expected to be master of all info about chess organisation in Malaysia. Neither is he privy to such info which rightfully should be made known to members at large through various channels, but obviously was not.

When a general reporter reports on something which is apparent, he is not bound to investigate deeply into the matters as if he is doing an investigative research. Anyway, GilaChess is entitled to express his own opinion and I don’t see why anyone should be great enough to tell him what to write except for obvious errors of fact. Don’t forget this his his blog and don’t be rude with choice of words.

I think gilachess gives some interesting comments regarding MCF annual mtg. His opinions are straight forward and honest, without having any twist and turns like most “political” statement given. You should write more news like that without interference from other “closely” related individuals with MCF. Im not saying writting statement which will degrade other ppl in general but more of your own feeling and opinion of whats going on overall. Think of it as a wake-up call for other chess fan out there. Keep up the good work!! you may not notice it but without your site, chess in Malaysia has never been the same. Dont let other ppl bully you. You have done a lot for chess in Malaysia compared to other ppl. To be honest i can see “others” are taking all the benefits from your dedication. Fortunately we are not blind. Hopefully you will be the next malaysian version of “bobby Ang”.

There is just too much politics in malaysian chess. That is all i say from what I had ExPerienceD myself. To be fair however, there are indeed many individuals that continue making even personal sacrifice(es) just to promote and push malaysian chess to a better level. To close this rather lame rambling by a rather (or very?) frustrated ex-player, it is appropriate to use this particular malay peribahasa. Kerana nila setitik rosak susu sebelanga. Fullstop.

PS: Being transparent is the key word

i Can*

hi Frustrated Player, jangan laa sedih bila kenangkan politik catur.Cuba ambil contoh cam SM nii, dulu SM marah tak tentu pasal tentang MCF laa,PCMM laaa dan orang2 tertentu cara mereka mengendalikan pentadbiran catur.Tapi sekarang itu semua sudah SM atasi dengan buka syrikat catur sendiri.Tahun depan jee,SM sudah ada 100 unit jam catur,chess set,dan masukkan modal RM40K dalam syarikat untuk buat aktiviti catur kalau SM ada mode nak buat,hehehe. Tak perlu lagi bayar suhairi beribu2 lemon semata2 nak minta tolong anjur kejohanan catur anjuran SM.

Buat apa SM risau tentang politik catur sedangkan SM boleh sendiri buatnya.Boleh buat tourney sendiri,sekarang boleh buat training pula sendiri.Dulu tahun 90an,SM memang jurulatih terhebat dan tergelemor di malaysia.hehehe. SM pula sekarang boleh main catur dimana2 di malaysia tanpa gangguan dan halangan. Tetang nak wakil malaysia pula apa nak dirisaukan.Kalau kita dah cukup kuat,nak dapat hadiah banyak saje dah boleh dapat kalau main chess di Malaysia sahaja.Tapi kalau nak habis duit,wakil laaa negara sebab sekarang memang kena pakai duit sendiri kalau nak wakil negara,paling okey pun separuh ditaja oleh MCF,hehehe. Kalau SM nak naik rating FIDE pula,keluarkan laaa duit sendiri sikit untuk pergi luar negara untuk cuba naik rating.

Tentang anak murid pula,SM sudah ada beberapa anak murid baru darjah 1 tapi baru seminggu ajar sudah boleh check mate beratus-ratus kali tak sampai 20 move guna 2 bishops check mate king.Dijangka adik perempuan nii akan jadi juara kebangsaan bawah 10 tahun lagi 2 tahun. Itu pun SM nasihat keluarga mereka apa yang nak dirisaukan keluar duit beribu2 ringgit semata2 nak wakil negara,juara catur di malaysia pun dah cukup dan kurang belanja.nanti anak dia dah cukup kuat dalam masa setahun,semua kejohanan catur remaja anaknya boleh menang beribu2 lemon dan boleh dapat duit banyak dan hadiah banyak.Tapi kalau nak wakil negara memang kena pakai duit lebih sikit.Cuma bayar juralatih sahaja untuk jadi kuat. hehehe