Peter Long on Chess

As a parent, helping your child reach his or her fullest potential - and to grow up happy! - is perhaps the most challenging and difficult task (job?) you would ever have. And yet in today's world with ever geater demands of time due to technology and globalisation, often both parents struggle with full time careers while still bringing up a family. Now, throw in the extra component of nurturing young sports talent, even if real as opposed to imagined or hoped for as is often the case (!), it is a miracle indeed if it does not end up a complete mess! In chess (and it must be the same for other sports), the game's administrators, tournament organisers, and especially the professional coaches clearly further complicate the mix, and yet where it comes to recognising which parents are failing their little "talents" in realising their potential, there seems to be an immediate consensus! But let me perhaps try and offer some perspective for the chess administrator, tourn

ChessASIA aims to provide comprehensive coverage of major chess events in the Asia-Pacific, and in doing so, to document the exploits and achievements of the talent emerging from the region. Where possible we seek to establish event marketing partnerships with organisers to offer our media services on site during tournaments - including helping with daily press releases and generating daily bulletins. In short, ChessASIA desires to facilitate promotion of national and international events held in Asia both online and through the use of other digital technologies where available and possible. Our content is available without charge to all official media organisations and tournament organisers, and through our international media partner Chessdom .

I first learnt last year from Mas Hafizulhelmi at MAIGOC (Macau Asia Indoor Games) that he had been given 18 months paid leave by his employer Petronas (the Malaysian National Oil Company) to pursue his dream of becoming Malaysia's first grandmaster. With encouragement from Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) Deputy President Ibrahim Abu Bakar who was present there as their team manager, we met with FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong (at my very personal request) to discuss how best we could help him achieve this and so the following plan was developed (after Mas was warned by him that than 18 months might not be enough time): 1. Senior Trainers from the ASEAN Chess Academy would begin reviewing his games and in the meantime we would arrange for him to play in a number of tournaments to get games for much needed practice against top level competition. 2. After 3-4 months, we would review his performance, subject the games to detailed analysis and if necessary, do any required re