Malaysian Chess Team Selection In The Pipeline

7 February 2011, Kuala Lumpur – News is rife that the Malaysian Chess Federation is now considering the selection criteria to pick the team players for the Malaysian Chess Team for the premier South East Asian Games or better known as the SEA Games. Or selection to the future Chess Olympiad held every two years.

Indonesia has done their special selection chess tournament to pick up the most desirable and outstanding team players. Singapore has based it on their ASEAN Chess Tournament held recently. What is Malaysia’s selection criteria?

Maybe, it is time that MCF takes a different approach and be more transparent and call a special news conference to announce their selection criteria for the Malaysia chess community to know clearly their direction. It is time for chess to take its proper place in the local sports scene and let chess be known as a Malaysian sports event for Malaysians to sit up and take note. It is time for a change for chess.

Ideally the future Malaysian chess team from my point of view should reflect Malaysia’s true intrinsic chess strength currently and for the future. This team should reflect both old and new, both veteran and youth, both experience and rising stars. It should be a balanced and dynamic chess team.

What better way to do this than to do a proper selection of those who really want to carry the Malaysian flag at the SEA Games and who are willing and deserve to shoulder responsibility as a team member that supports each other and are open to ideas of its team members.

If Malaysia aspires to be a developed nation in the year 2020, then the Malaysian chess scene has to change and evolve to be more transparent to the public so that the future direction of chess is clear.

If Malaysia has its Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) then chess should have its own transformation programme.

Best of luck to the future new Malaysian chess team.