In a long post, as if having his forefinger firmly pressed on the trigger of a .50 calibre machine gun, fellow blogger and Asian chess heavy Peter Long (who is sometimes a guest on TCG) pours cold water over one of his countrymen's quest to be a grandmaster and on Malaysian chess in general. Perhaps of some interest to our local Aussie readers is that one of Peter's targets is none other than our own legend GM Ian Rogers!
Peter Long: "5. Ian Rogers (can easily be accused to be professionally dishonest and even of being in it for the money and/or to curry favour with Dato Tan)".
Look, I won't make any judgements here as only Peter and some insiders in Malaysian chess really know what's going on. But to accuse GM Rogers of being "professionally dishonest" is surely one hec of a bold statement. Mr Long may exhort his readers to judge "just the facts and not the inside story", yet I see no facts whatsoever in relation to his statement regarding Rogers. Can you?
Over back to you Pete. And thanks to the mob over at Australian Chess Enterprises for the tip.
UPDATE (4:07PM, 15 Sep): Over the last couple of hours, Peter Long and I have had a little back and forth on this matter. He did happily write a reply. However, one aspect of his post has got me in a bit of knot because something about it isn't easily verifiable.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Peter Long seems to regard his blog as a licence to make false claims and abuse all and sundry.
Although I have been advised not to bother replying, I wish to make the following points:
(i) According to Mas, there was never any agreement with Intchess to coach Mas, so there was no agreement to break. Certainly Mas stayed well away when he heard that Intchess' proposed coach for him was Zurab Azmaiparashvili, one of whose many claims to fame is that he won the European Championship by taking back a move.
(ii) Peter Long's entire post is based on a false premise; over his last five tournaments, Mas' average performance rating has been just under 2500 and he narrowly missed a GM norm in two events. He's not GM strength yet, but he is certainly improving.
(ii) Contrary to what Peter Long told Petronas in a communication which could have sabotaged Mas' Petronas sponsorship, poverty was never given as a reason why Mas wanted free accommodation for a tournament in the Philippines. MCF secretary Hamid proposed an exchange agreement, where Mas would get accommodation in the Philippines and a Filipino would get accommodation for a tournament in Malaysia. This was rejected by the Philippines.
(iii) As for Dato Tan Chin Nam's four decades of failure - I would say that he is more responsible than any single person for China's rise over the past three decades, so Peter Long's attack on him is particularly ridiculous.
Incidentally a number of Malaysians have already apologised to me for what Peter Long wrote, feeling that his defamatory attacks also reflected badly on Malaysia. However I realise that Peter Long's sad abuse is a reflection on himself only.
It is a pity however that his ramblings are given oxygen by a reputable web site like the Closet Grandmaster.
Ian Rogers
Hi Ian
What follows ain't any good to you (or anyone else) from an evidentiary POV, nor is it any good from a good ol' debating perspective either, however I'd simply like you to know that as far as I'm concerned your reputation is more than sufficient to carry the day. I'm certain my sentiment is held by many.
Carry on! Please.
Post a Comment