Saturday, May 26, 2007

Wake Up Philippines Chess!

This might take a little while to load, and I've no idea what's wrong with indochess.com, but the May 6 issue of Bobby Ang's column is worth a read. It's actually written by guess columnist Manny Benitez.

Let’s call a spade a spade. We Filipinos are too conceited to admit our weaknesses. Why, our players don’t even want to have their games published because they fear that their chess “secrets” will be known by their rivals! What secrets are they talking about? If they mean their bankruptcy of ideas, then I agree.

One solid proof of how Philippine chess has stagnated is the fact that we still rely on Torre to take up the cudgels for the rest of our so-called masters who may not even know who Ruy Lopez was or that chess originated in Asia. Ignorance—that is the bane of Filipino players!

One can only hope that this excoriating attack will, indeed, be enough for a wake up call to RP chess leaders. Well, let's pray.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

He he he...Indeed RP should wake up from its long slumber. The problem with the local chess scene is that "politics" and "sports" are mixed together. Players suffer most of their blows

Anonymous said...

We need a Susan Polgar to revive the anemic chess in the Philippines. The technology is there so we need new leaders to rev up interest in chess.

Anonymous said...

Its not just Phillipines chess that has problems. Just look at adult chess in NSW and see how shabbily it is run by the NSWCA!

Anonymous said...

Why do people keep making anti NSWCA comments in threads that have nothing to do with the NSWCA?

Anonymous said...

Gotta agree with the comment about the NSWCA running NSW chess shabbily. Surely we must be worse off than the Phillipines? Brian Jones and Vasil Tulevski ran the SIO and got 140-150 players and would have had more if not for venue size. NSWCA ran John Kellner tournament and only got 30 and most of their weekend comps have been getting around 30 players this year. NSWCA website is hopeless, NSWCA promotion of tournaments is hopeless, NSWCA newsletter is hopeless, NSWCA "ancien regime" is hopeless. Is there any light on the horizon for the long suffering NSWCA members?

Anonymous said...

How about you ask Amiel to start a NSWCA thread rather than continue to post NSWCA stuff in a thread that has NOTHING to do with the NSWCA! GRRRR!

Anonymous said...

I am Anon #3. In response to Anon #4, all I was doing was essentially making a short [3 lines] point that Filipino chess is not the only place that has problems and that we just need to look in our own back yard of NSW [where me and TCG are based] to see evidence of this. I thought it was a relevant point to make, but obviously Anon #4 feels differently and I respect Anon #4's opinion.

I cannot speak for Anon #5, but I have noticed [and I have done it myself in other TCG threads] that once one chess player understandably complains on TCG about yet another NSWCA incompetence then it triggers other NSWCA members to relate their own experience with NSWCA incompetence and so we have this flow on effect. I suspect that this is the case with Anon #5, but I cannot speak for Anon #5.

Anonymous said...

This is Anon #3 again. I agree with the point that Anon #6 raises. How about it TCG? I suggest a NSW/NSWCA thread which is permanently at the top of your blog where NSW chess players can complain/praise/comment on NSW chess [which after all is the home of TCG]. I cannot speak for other NSWCA chess players, but I do not enjoy making complaints against NSWCA committee. Yet I cannot see any other way that things can change in NSW chess unless NSW chess players stand up and be counted. By criticising NSWCA incompetence the NSWCA committee will eventually get the message and change their ways which is what I want to see.

Anonymous said...

what do you call a Grandmaster who doesn't know that chess originated from Asia?

Grandmaster

PaoloDM

Rook Quo Rook Quo said...

It is truly disheartening to hear these sorry state of RP and Australian chess. The gov't and huge private companies are not supporting chess because they can't get anything from it. Afterall, only a few % of its population or customers are interested. It's some kind of a chicken and egg thing.