OF MALAYSIAN'S OLYMPIAD CHESS TEAM

1.In local banking , announcement from Bank Negara Malaysia on OPR (Overnight Policy Rate) is eagerly await by bankers because it will determine the BLR (Base Lending Rate) and to customer, indirectly it will determine savings/FD Rate or loan rate. Most of the time there will be no changes in OPR but what bankers will do is to study the OPR statement religiously, virtually word by word, to determine BNM's focus so bank could adjust itself accordingly (Prophylaxis !). example if Negara 'monitor the inflation closely'..hmm, this mean maybe Negara is toying to increase the rate or if 'to encourage domestic spending'...this mean Negara is thinking to lower the rate.

2.In local chess, announcement from Malaysia Chess Federation on player to represent Malaysia in Olympiad and other major event, is eagerly await because basically from it we can see MCF focus, or MCF inner thought. Is it to send the strongest team, elo wise? is it to gain experience? or is it depend from selection? or on some previous occasion, if i am not mistaken, sadly, depend on who could pay for the trip...

3. But most likely at the end of the day, we cannot really see the MCF focus from the list of 6 players because the final list will be differ from the original list of players that MCF have in mind. This is because most of the players are non professional, and some could not make it because of work/study commitment ...but ofcourse if MCF could let the public knows the list of players they have in mind with the standby list... that surely will be great for transparency...and even greater for transparency if there even a record on reasons why those players who have been chosen to represent Malaysia but could not make it.

If in other sports we could know the 'story' behind final list of players, who cannot play because of injury...who because want to focus on other tournament...who want to play but is not chosen...who is out because of discipline etc, why can't chess?

But ofcourse in chess i have never heard of National player who is not chosen to represent Malaysia because of discipline...

4. Having said above, i am still of opinion that players with experience, actively playing, good past records and lots of great potential should get to represent Malaysia without going through selection, if there is one.
I am ofcourse totally against the likes of old incident where one Anwar, who out of nowhere, 'represent' Malaysia in 1982 Chess Olympiad and later pushed not a single pawn at all. Here.

5. Last but not least,i do hope that Li Tian could make it in this Olympiad and equaling Mashafizul who first made his Olympiad debut at 1994 Moscow Olympiad (scoring 7.5/12 on board 6), aged 13.