Mediocre Eh?
My heart skipped a beat when I saw GilaChess logo on Peter Long’s latest blog post. Knowing Peter most of his comments would not be complementary. In the end it was about Malaysian chess and how mediocrity was celebrated. Hmmm.. I have to agree on him that Malaysian chess at this moment is mediocre. But I do believe it will not stay that way.
The old "Malaysian Chess at it’s best" motto at GilaChess.com has been changed.
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Comments
To call Yeoh Li Tian a prodigy is also stretching it a bit too far. For now, he remains a talent that we must nurture. Lets see in 3 years if we send him to the World Junior.
Now Eng Chiam is also neglected and is fast falling behind. Wake up, MCF!!!!
I think even Li Chao cannot be called a prodigy although he is twice DATMO champion.
Wang Hao can be considered since his progress is very fast. Hou YiFan is another and she is contesting the Women’s WCC currently. Also Koneru Humpy. To see the ultimate chess talent, look at Magnus Carlsen.
To put any Malaysian in that category is laughable. I cannot even consider Wesley So, although he is obviuosly very strong too.
One thing to note is that all these people fully pay for their participation in international tournaments, and any subsidies they get is from the organizer. So whatever results they get is theirs and nobody else’s. Giving comments on their strength, lousy or not(lousy in 99% of the chatbox comments) is really just being a busybody and a lousy critic. Do you sincerely think telling people how badly they are doing will make them improve?
It is easy to explain away the reasons why Malaysians are no good in chess in the international arena… They do not have a future playing chess as their livelihood is not guaranteed.
On deeper reflection, do you really think the Indonesians and Pinoys are better off? Their best players do get some sort of support, perhaps like what Mas gets, but the majority are just scraping by… but they are generally better than our players. Why is that so?
Do you think Ian Udani gets sponsorship? Or Tjin Hau who won the Selangor Open previously (if I rememebr correctly)? All I can say is they are hungry for victory. That is what we lack.
Anand is “dethroned” from Elo top (unofficially). Carlsen is new No.1. Wang Yue enters top 10! This follows Carlsen’s win over Radjabov and Anand’s loss to Topalov yesterday in Bilbao. Wang Yue is top Chinese in history.
01 Carlsen off 2791,3 +16,3 25 3 1990
02 Anand off 2790,9 -7,1 4 1 1969
03 Morozevich off 2787,0 -1 9 1 1977
04 Topalov off 2786,2 +9,2 4 1 1975
05 Ivanchuk off 2781,8 +0,8 44 5 1969
06 Kramnik off 2771,9 -16,1 16 2 1975
07 Aronian off 2754,1 +17,1 17 2 1982
08 Radjabov off 2749,5 +5,5 17 2 1987
09 Leko off 2746,6 +5,6 16 2 1979
10 Wang Yue off 2735,5 +31,5 23 2
1. The population in China is much higher than Malaysia. More people(think probability) will sacrifice their time for the game, so there is a higher chance to create stronger players. For every 1 successful player there you’ll probably find another 100+ other failures. Furthermore, competition there is more intense due to the population.
2. Chess improvement of a country is an accelerating thing. With local coaches that get stronger and stronger;i.e. if Mas becomes a GM and starts coaching others;tutoring will be available more cheaply, and when there is competition for tutors there will be improvement among everyone, affordability will improve and anyone(most importantly the middle and lower-middle raw talents) will be able to get coaching. Singaporeans are filthy rich so they can afford to get international GMs/very strong IMs to be import coaches. But if say, Malaysia has several homegrown GMs/Strong IMs willing to coach, there will be competition for prices and quality among them so the less rich can afford them and the richer can afford many of them, and then we can probably replicate Singapore.
Population is one reason, but you must know the large majority of their players have many obstacles we don’t face in Malaysia.They have to spend a lot of resources in the rural areas to get to play in really big tournaments in big cities. Eg. I think it is a very tedious thing to qualify for the China National Championship and the like. In Malaysia you just pay and you get in. How many Malaysians acually take the trouble even to enter? If they have the same attitude in China or India, I am sure they will have very few good players as well. A big flood or earthquake each a year sets back the ambitions of thousands of ambitious players.
Dato’ Tan played a part in chess development in China about the same time he supported chess in Malaysia in the 1980s. In less than 3 decades China has 3 players topping 2700 while in Malaysia, we don’t even have 3 players reaching 2400. How do you explian that?
Dear Gilachess,
Is this your only comment on what Peter posted? What are your thoughts on this? Surely as a thinking person (must be, since you are a chess player) you can do more than what you have posted? Do you agree/disagree with Peter?
Ok, I’ll bite. I agree with NM/FM/FA Peter Long on the fact that Malaysian chess is mediocre relatively compared to other countries BUT I thought the new slogan reflected what I feel. I definitely don’t agree that we are as bad as he thinks. We are making steps towards climbing out of this rut (Mas efforts included)
I prefer to work towards something positive instead of dwelling in the negative.
What steps are we making towards climbing out of this rut? Since Jimmy Liew obtained his IM title in the early 80s, there has only been one new IM and I repeat just one in the past 23 years. (If I remember correctly Jimmy got his IM back in 1984~85)
Peter definitely knows what he is talking about, having seen the lights of the local chess scene for the past 25 years at least. If you read his article, he says that he actually doesn’t care anymore…”my first in genuine anger at what chess in Malaysia has come to as I thought I had stopped caring…”
DATO tournaments and their likes are good. But producing players to make a genuine challenge is another thing. Just look at Singapore. With their even more competitive academic culture and smaller populations they have far more IMs than us. And they don’t even have a Dato Tan to boot for the past 30 years supporting the local scene. So something is seriously wrong with out setup for the past 25 years.
since *)’s we got two IM actually, IM Mashafizul Helmi and IM Wong Zi Jing. This November we will get another IM - Lim Yee Weng.
There is a heated argument going on in the shoutbox concerning our current NM Edward Lee. Basically, one side calls him a prodigy and the other calls him a flash in the pan. So what is it?
As always there are few people going to volunteer an well argued opinion, so I will lay down what I think the situation is concerning our new chess talent, for comments.
1. EL is a chess talent in the Malaysian context. He won MSSM and then the Malaysian Closed to achieve NM status. He is by default Malaysian champion.
I have said this before. EL is not the strongest player of his time, just like most of the NMs before him. If you go through the list of Malaysian Closed champions (too many to mention), the majority were schoolboys when they won the title. So, EL is just continuing a tradition started by the first NM Chan Swee Loon. So now, where is Chan Swee Loon? He completely left the chess scene, never to return to active competition. This strange behavior was to be continued by many NMs after him.
2.What is EL’s international status? I think Eng Chiam (for his age) has better credentials, but not to say EC is stronger. Anas had a much longer record of good local results, but is now in hibernation. Yeoh Li Tian, at the going rate, has the best chance to make it if he has strong guidance. There are a few others, whom I think have potential too.