Chinese School of Chess secret
From one of my talks with a Chinese player who quotes that many of the top chess juniors are fully focused on chess and if they do not do well in it they will not have any other job or profession to fall back on. That is one of the fears of young kids who are part of the Chinese academy. The reason is that all their time and effort has gone into their junior years and although they do attend school, chess is their number one priority. Chinese juniors are worried if they do not do well in chess, they have no future doing anything else. Sounds bleak but perhaps that’s the Chinese School of Chess secret. Studies take second place. So does career.
So that is the common reason accepted by most when explaining why Malaysian chess is mediocre. Does that mean that we will see strong juniors who can make GM strength only if they sacrifice studies and traditional career/jobs ?
Viewed 56 times by 25 viewers
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Related posts:-
- The Deadly Chess Cycle
- Two GM team
- Colin’s record breaking Simul
- Does Studies interferes with Chess?
- Chess - not a game, not a sport
Comments
Russian Olympiad Team:-
GM Vladimir Kramnik, GM Alexander Morozevich, GM Peter Svidler, GM Alexander Grischuk and GM Dmitry Yakovenko
A top 3 finish?
Malaysia’s Olympiad Team:-
Mas, Lim Yee Weng, Edward Lee, Jimmy Liew, Mok Tzs Meng
I guess a top 50 finish.
US Olympiad Team:-
GM Varuzhan Akobian, GM Gata Kamsky, GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Alexander Onischuk, GM Yury Shulman
A top 10 finish?
China’s Women’s Olympiad Team
Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue, Shen Yang, Tan Zhongyi, and Xu Yuhua (or Ju Wenjun)
First????
This statement here is totally wrong lah…
“Does that mean that we will see strong juniors who can make GM strength only if they sacrifice studies and traditional career/jobs ?”
There are doesn’t of players out there who combined successfully their academic studies as well as made the ranks of IMs, GMs, eg GM Dr.Wong Meng Kong, GM Pascal Charbonneau, GM Dr.John Nunn, Dr. Helmut Pfleger, GM Dr. Karsten Müller, IM Dr. Hsu Li Yang, IM Terry Toh, GM Maxim Dlugy, etc etc…
So there is really no reason for chess players to get sacrifice their academic studies, jobs, they should be able to do both if they are talented enough.
Well it’s not a statement but a question 
Thanks for taking the other side and showing that the costly studies/career sacrifice is not needed.
Of course finding the balance is going to be the biggest challenge and many will find that difficult. It’s natural human tendency to sacrifice something just to get the extra reach or advantage to achieve their aim.
China’s Olympiad Team :-
GM Bu Xiangzhi, GM Ni Hua, GM Wang Yue, GM Wang Hao and GM Li Chao
I guess a top 3 finish.