Due to some very unfortunate developments in Malaysia, the Kuala Lumpur Chess Association and its sponsor have decided not to organise this year's Commonwealth Chess Championship in Ipoh, Malaysia. We spent considerable time and effort to find a solution but unfortunately are unable to satisfy the interests of ALL the parties concerned.
Instead, the event will now be organised in Singapore from 9th to 15th December 2009 in conjunction with the 6th Singapore International Chess Festival. Official invitation with full details will be announced by the first week of July 2009. For information, the dates given are dove-tailing several international open tournaments in this region and will be a great opportunity to all players.
I apologise for the inconveniences caused and look forward to your joining us in a festive chess season in the Far East in November-December.
Ignatius Leong
President
Commonwealth Chess Association
Source: FIDE
I took long time to think whether should I write this article & posted in the blog. In the end I decided to write it. As we had seen so many things had happened in Malaysia no doubt from the period of April till now, I'm sadly to say that Malaysian chess had gone to pre-historic age. Another thing last 2 weeks I learnt about Sermon of the Mount in the service. Sermon of the Mount meanings about beattitude (our character) instead of we intend to do. It's regarding life in Christianity. I would like to apologise to the readers whom are not Christian first. I agreed with Gilachess that chess politics is cancer in Malaysia but it seems this 'cancer' had spread into ourself! First we should look at several aspects on the reason of why it becoming like that.
Players
Last few weeks we saw 2 seniors players & some more they also represented Malaysia before had exchanging war of words in one of the local chess blogs. Both of them are respected in local & international chess scenes. I feel this should not happen & if both of them want to exchange war of words, better play best of 6 classical time control to prove who's the winner. What will the readers think of it? When they play with each other, they can give their own respective views of thinking especially to nowadays upcoming juniors. From there juniors can learn from these masters of their own thought & especially nowadays of changes & rapid play of game in terms of techniques & tactical. They should help the juniors like what I saw in Gilachess blog of FM Christi Hon analyzing the junior games which is commendable effort and should be praised upon.
Another unethical scenario which was Andrew Ooi aka Gilachess who mentioned his hp rang during his gameplay against Lim Kian Hwa which ended in the draw at the Selangor Open. No doubt he admitted his mistake in his blog but still I feel it's very unsportmanship & sadly to say we will never go ahead with this kind of attitude. Another thing whether if Lim Kian Hwa claim the win or not, in my opinion he might wants to finish & enjoy the game rather than claiming it. Sorry to Andrew if I mention him. By right he should have resign the game immediately if his hp rang although unintentionally rather played on to the draw & say sorry later. This is my opinion. Look at this example, if a person intends to kill a person & killed him, later can he apologised to the relatives of the murdered person? What makes the difference to this? So what's the reason and why we learn Moral subject in primary & secondary school for? This I let the readers to think back & ask ourselves what type of characteristic we want to be. We need to change our characters first before we can bring development to our junior players especially. We supposed to be the role model to them not change their mindset or act like one! This typical attitude or behaviour normally happens in the chess environment in Malaysia.
Organisers
We also seen some organisers postponed the tournament due to unforeseen reasons especially in last minute. Normally they will cause problem or trouble to the players who had book their time or leave. For example, Datcc chess league which is running for 18 weeks & was postponed 1 week from the actual date because the sponsors were away in the last minute. I feel this is very bad as the organisers can start the event first as it's running for 18 weeks & the sponsors can officiate the ceremony in between.
Another scenario where organisers plan a tournament at certain place and canceled it due to unforeseen reasons. Although he canceled the event, I feel the event should continue to go on with the lower prize money as to encourage more people to participate. It'll make the chess industry in Malaysia grows.
Trainers
In Malaysia there's alot of chess trainers doing coaching job. However these problems often arise within the trainers itself. I said this because a few of the trainers had this kind of mindset. Take example like canceling classes or skipping classes in the last minute. If a trainer got classes to teach, why must he cancel the classes he taught or why he should accepted it in the first place? Where are the COMMITMENT & OBLIGATIONS to the student?! This happened to me where I need to prepare the notes on last minute basis which I hate the most & took over the classes!
Another scenario was a trainer approached the school or centre to conduct chess classes but unfortunately another trainer comes in or even not chess players come in to conduct the lessons! First of all what will the parents think of this particular trainer who had this bad habits! Secondly why must the trainer promotes himself to teach in school while he's NOT even TEACHING IT! Thirdly why must he collect the money or the fees in advance from the school or the students when not even teaching the classes or lesson? Fourthly where are the lessons plan which were supposed to follow originally but due to postponement or cancellation of the classes, what will the children or students benefit? Is this should be called development of chess to our junior players or more towards like CHEATING?
Summary
Sadly to say it's us that we need to be taught 1st before we even can start teaching the juniors in realistically speaking! With this kind of environment, the one that will suffer are the young players like Yeoh Li Tian, Nur Nabila & others instead of US! We are showing all the bad habits & craps to these young generations. Like in the Malay idiom "bapa borek, anak rintik". (Correct me if I'm wrong). I know this time I'm quite harsh but also at the same time these things keep on repeating & repeating without our conscious mind. It seems we are doing Checkmate in 1 move puzzles in our daily lives.
