Budget cut

Chess

By QUAH SENG SUN

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Budget slash a setback for development of chess in schools.
SO it happens yet again. The rumour that I have been hearing for the past few months has been confirmed. Chess is out from this year’s national schools’ sports programme, a victim of the drastic cost-cutting measures by the Education Ministry.

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According to a news report last week, the ministry had slashed its annual grant to the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) from RM6mil to a measly RM1.5mil. As a result, the MSSM is forced to reduce the number of sports in its calendar from 24 to 13.

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Of course, I’m disappointed with the consequences of the budget slash. Who wouldn’t be? A student’s all-round education should encompass both academic and non-academic activities.

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While emphasis should rightly focus on academic results, non-academic activities should not be overlooked. This nation is not built on bookworms alone.

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So chess is one of the sports affected. There won’t be an MSSM chess tournament at the national level this year. No doubt, there may still be some school chess tournaments on a state-wide level if the states can find the funds themselves, but without a school competition at national level, it will never be the same.

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More than 10 years ago when the country was hit by recession, chess was also a convenient victim. Funds were also withdrawn from chess at the MSSM and it was only many years later that the game was re-instated into the programme.

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In the process, we lost more than a generation of chess players. The luckier states like Selangor and Penang were able to continue nurturing their young crop of players but in most of the other states, chess development in the schools was practically at a stand-still. These states suffered the most.

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Losing this generation of chess players meant that many of our young citizens never had the opportunity to uncover or develop their full potential. Goodness knows how many of them were wasted.

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Then, when chess was re-introduced into the national sports programme a few years ago, it took a while before the game got back into its natural groove. No doubt, the same thing is going to happen again. There’ll be another generation lost.

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The only comfort which chess players can perhaps derive from this setback is that we are not alone. Together with chess, other sports like bowling, squash, archery, table tennis, rugby, cricket, sailing, softball, handball and cross country have been axed from the programme.

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But is this the time for self-pity?

No! Not for chess or any of the other games that were taken off the MSSM calendar. If anything, this is the opportunity for the state sport associations and the national sport federations to do something positive on their own to maintain the interest and momentum in the sport they profess to represent.

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If a state education department cannot organise a state-wide school chess competition, come in with your expertise to hold your own state-level age group tournaments. If there is no MSSM competition for your game, the federation should step in to help out with a national age group event.

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In this sense, perhaps chess is a little fortunate because the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) has had an annual national age group chess competition running for a few years already. It started about the same time that chess went off the MSSM radar in the last decade.

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It just grew from there. The national age group competitions never stopped, even when chess was re-instated into the MSSM calendar. They simply co-existed, one event complementing the other.

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So this year, the national age group competition in March will be taking on a special importance again. It will be a premier junior tournament to judge the chess abilities of our youth on a national platform. I would urge them – all the chess players who are still below the age of 18 – to come and give your support to this event. It will be your chance to demonstrate that scholastic chess can continue growing despite this momentary setback.

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Incidentally, I shall be in Kuala Lumpur this weekend to attend a meeting at the Datuk Arthur Tan Chess Centre – initiated by the grand old man of Malaysian chess, Datuk Tan Chin Nam – of interested chess parties in an effort to find a common ground for chess organisations and chess personalities to grow together.
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I laud his efforts in organising a brain-storming session. We have to take the cue from the axing of MSSM chess. It is imperative for everyone connected with chess to cooperate and take the game to the next level. In the face of shrinking grants, chess in this country should look to more efficiency. By working together, we’ll find that the chess pie is large enough for everyone to share.

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See you at the meeting on Sunday morning.

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Source: The Star