WHEN I was down in Kuala Lumpur last weekend for this year’s annual Malaysia-Singapore chess challenge, I was reminded of a book that I read in the late 1970s.
It was a relatively thin book by William Hartston, one of Britain’s celebrated international masters. But unlike most of his other chess books, this one, with a tongue-in-cheek title of How to Cheat at Chess, took a light-hearted and irreverent look at this ageless game.
For example, the fourth chapter of this 95-page book was the shortest you would ever find written: just a page long. And its contents were even shorter. This chapter was called Friendly Games, and its single paragraph – single sentence, actually – simply read: There is no such thing as a friendly game of chess.
How apt a description for the chess match between South-east Asia’s two closest neighbours! Though both sides went to great pains to emphasise on this friendly tradition and de-emphasise the results, what went on on the chess board was anything but friendly.
Everybody knew that the Singaporean players were here for our blood. Though Malaysia held a comfortable 9-to-6 lead going into this year’s match, the Malaysian grip had been loosening in the past three years.
There was a time when the Malaysian youngsters, boys and girls, were consistently far ahead of their Singaporean counterparts in all the age groups contested in the annual matches. We could depend on our youths to score the points and bring home the bacon for Malaysia. But we became complacent in the process.
In those few short years, what did Singapore do? They knew that if they needed to improve on the results, not only in this annual match but also when their players play on the regional and world stage, they had to begin a coaching programme to train their players from young.
Bringing in the foreign masters and grandmasters and having a structured training programme in place were, however, only part of their game plan. The other game plan which was not so obvious was a decision to commercialise the training and coaching, which had to be self-sustaining to succeed in the medium term.
Of course, commercialisation can only be successful if there is enough buying power and parents are ready to pay for their children’s training. But as we have seen thus far from the Singapore experience, parents there are willing to fork out princely sums to ensure their kids would get the best training. (I am sure Malaysian parents will also do the same.)
Put this down to their perceived kiasu attitude if you like, but it is very clear that they are reaping good dividends. Singapore’s young players are now generally out-performing Malaysians on the regional stage at youth tournaments. Both our countries have our young stars but when it comes to the ability to draw on a wider talent pool of resources, this is where we have fallen behind.
As far as I can see, only the Klang Valley has a sustained annual programme to nurture players from young. Penang used to be successful in this several years ago, but I do not see new emerging talents that are impressionable enough. Perak are starting to create more playing opportunities for their youths, which is good for the long term, but I do not hear of any similar programme elsewhere in the country.
The other day, right after the end of the first day’s play which saw Singapore winning the 70-board match by a lop-sided 42-28 margin (note: the Singaporeans also won the second day’s match by this same score), the Malaysian officials were already openly in post-mortem mode, talking about how to arrest this slide.
Despite all the “what if’s” and “what should be done”, we are unfortunately no closer to an answer.
Should we also emulate Singapore and bring in foreign coaches? Would they be effective? What if they do not perform and are here only to enjoy themselves? And the most ludicrous question of all: would they not threaten the livelihood of our own local coaches? Questions were obviously aplenty.
In the midst of the impromptu post-mortem, unfortunately, we tend to forget that the Malaysian Chess Federation has a development sub-committee that can play a big role here. This sub-committee is supposed to draw up development plans but to be honest, I do not know absolutely what is developing or at what stage their proposals may have reached.
But what I do know is that we cannot afford to wait for long. I started this week’s column with a quotation from a book. Let me end with another quotation, this time from one of my favourite authors, Professor C Northcote Parkinson.
I will not bore you with the details but he suggested with remarkable accuracy in one of his books that: Delay is the deadliest form of denial.
What this simply means is that the more we delay in doing anything, be it starting a project or making a decision, it is as good as denying the opportunity to do it at all.
UP NEXT
Brunei open
The Brunei Chess Federation (BCF) will be organising an open chess tournament on Jan 14-20. According to the federation, the total cash prizes have been increased to more than US$5000.
In addition, the first 10 grandmasters or woman grandmasters to register before the end of this year will be provided with full board and lodging. The first 10 international master or woman international master will be given twin room sharing and breakfast.
More information is available from the BCF website at http://www.bruneichess.org.bn.
