Why did Malaysia lose?
This year is possibly the worse results Malaysia has managed to get in the 19 series of “friendly” matches that we have had. My personal prediction that the margin of win/loss will be small was way off. It was disappointing to say the least.
It is also not comforting to note that Singapore was “playing up” the juniors (moving them to play in higher age categories) because they were that strong.
What went wrong?
Systematic training?
Intchess has totally dominated the Singapore coaching scene meaning there is only that one chess centre that almost every strong Singaporean will go to for chess training. They had the time to come out with a different set of syllabus for chess players of different chess strengths. Perhaps we should streamline and get local coaches to sit down and at least come out with some standards. But realistically that is a hard thing to achieve as every coach will want to teach in his own style. Perhaps a general guideline can be agreed by all?
Too many one day allegros?
We have this almost every week with so many association and new chess parties coming up such as Stonemaster, Rakan Muda, Seremban, IIU, Perak etc hosting their own one day competition. I’m not against this idea as it promotes interest in the chess public and is lots of fun but it probably doesn’t do much in chess improvement for the young ones. We need more tournaments of longer time control for serious chess improvement. This is not something new but has been mentioned time and again by so many people but we still see few serious time control tournaments in Malaysia.
Just got this from the chess-malaysia newsgroup..
In recent tournaments,
1. FM Mok lost to a 13-year old Singapore Boy in the match against Singapore Round 1
2. IM Mas lost to a 14-year old Singapore Boy in the Singapore Masters Round 1
What is happening?
Fluke?
I don’t think it’s any fluke. Our neighbours have been improving fast while we have stagnated.
Anyway, I think Mas is just waking up. He has been out of competitive chess for so long he would need these tournaments and more serious training / self examination to get his engine in high gear again.
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- Pinoy brain drain?
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- Another Johor Tourney
- Taylor’s Open (22/06/2008)
Comments
You are right. It’s the same as in last year. If we had fielded our stronger lineup, things may have been different. Then again, Singapore did not field their strongest either. But does this cancel things out? Perhaps Malaysia has the bigger number of above average strong players.
It appears that the issues are serious and numerous:
1. Too many rapids
2. Lack of interest by senior players
3. Absence of systematic training
etc, etc.
Given this apathy, it was no wonder that Ignatius Leong (SCF) had announced that he is no longer interested in a 20th version. His reasons: Dont waste time and money. There are also better opponents.
The comments are rather blunt. Can someone prove him wrong?
hmm, did he actually say those things? kinda undiplomatic for a president. He could have suggested a more open event that is open to anyone from SEA instead of just SIN and MAS.
Actually, I don’t find what Singapore is doing now to be anything special. It is always best to start young and countries like China have known this long since, and compared to them, neither Singapore nor Malaysia are anything to speak of really. Singapore could have been much better earlier, if chess was more ‘profitable’, it just boils down to a matter of money and the huge opportunity cost incurred for the Singaporean context at least. Now that Singapore has somehow managed to get more funding in recent years, one can notice an increasing number of events that provide stimulating competition (i.e. chance to boost the elo and norms) for the juniors. Of course, there is no stopping Malaysia from doing the same thing. Either way there is a need for both countries to expand the player base and churn out more and more strong players (IM and above) that can produce results, raise the profile of chess as a whole and hopefully makes it easier to secure funding. As a friend and visitor to the site, I would just say not to get too emotional with a relatively unimportant event.
:lol:
Hi,
Actually I’m more surprise with our team line up.
It almost seems like a Malaysia B to me. Where is the Malaysia A team? I’m sure we can win if we put all our top players.
Siti, Ronnie, Nicholas, Marcus, Yeoh Li Tian/Yuan, Victor Hong, Shazwani, Yee Weng, Zijing, Jimmy Liew, Kamaluddin Yusof, Eng Cheam, Jonathan Chuah, Chuah Heng Meng, Leong Mun Wan, Abdullah Che Hassan, Tze Han…
Where are they?
Just my personal opinion. Hope nobody is offended.
Rgds,
Mohd Maulana Maulani