Peter Long on Chess

Malaysia at the World Chess Olympiad  Ranking Up/Down Notes Baku 2016 134 -64 Worst Result Tromso 2014 72 -8   Istanbul 2012 64 +28   Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 92 +4   Dresden 2008 96 -16   Turin 2006 80 -10   Calvia 2004 70 +5   Bled 2002 75 -11   Istanbul 2000 64 +10   Elista 1998 74 -10   Yerevan 1996 64 +32   Moscow 1994 96 -18   Manila 1992 78 -5   Novi Sad 1990 73 -15   Thessaloniki 1988 58 -16   Dubai 1986 42 +8 Best Result Thessaloniki 1984 50 +7   Lucerne 1982 57 -8   La Valetta 1980 49 +8   Buenos Aires 1978 57    

www.asianchess.com

The ASEAN+ Age-Group Chess Championships, now approaching its third decade, has has been acknowledged to be the single most important catalyst for young talent development in the ASEAN region. Practically every leading young star, most who are the top players in their countries today, got their first international exposure in this event and many grew over the years in intense but friendly rivalry and competition together! In fact, many tasted their first success at the ASEAN+ Age-Group Chess Championships. Full article at:  http://asianchess.com/news/19th-asean-age-group-chess-championships-2018-to-be-held-in-davao-city-philippines/

The end of April 2017 saw my setting up the Institute for Chess Excellence at the request of the leadership of the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) to also serve as a National Chess Academy to facilitate much needed "education and training" for the local chess community. Good or bad, just some three months later, in July, I also ended up as MCF Secretary, a post that I did not ask for or want, as I told MCF President Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin but reluctantly agreed to as "national service". Of course, when I take on something, I put everything into it but as I have always reminded everyone, I serve only by appointment and/or as long as the MCF Council needs me and so by the first quarter of this year, not only was it impossible financially, but the job was interfering with what I really wanted to do and I was looking to exit. MCF, like Malaysia, is in great need of structural change and that requires a paradigm shift in values and an end to vested interest