Understand that everybody wants the National team to do well.

I feel that no matter what, the players earned their right to represent Singapore.

They produced the results during Quan Guo Sai. Despite much controversy and debate over the lack of number of rounds (seven as compared to the more ideal 9 or 11 or even 13), we should respect that these players earned their right fair and square over seven matches to enter the top four.

If we were to replace some of the players now just because they played poorly in friendly matches, it would prove detrimental to their morale. They have fought hard during quan guo sai to get into the national team.

If they were replaced now, what kind of signal would it send to future aspiring chess players hoping to break into the national team? As it is, the A division is already facing shortage of participants, struggling to get 20 plus players each year. Would graded chess players still be motivated to join the A division in future.

It is true that the national team has underperformed in friendlies, but I believe when Asian cup arrives, the team will be driven by national pride to do well in their home ground.

Just my two cents worth of opinion.

When piggy888 wrote the post, we could all understand he's talking about this year score not trying to underestimate all players in Singapore. Therefore I think the add-ons are quite unnecessary. Otherwise if people continue and continue to add on, the sentence eventually becomes something like this and even worse:

<Based on this year's national open result, they are the 4 best players [out of all those participants {who had time to and dare play group A this year and who had no direct evidence in this competition showing them stronger than any playerer from group B or Ladies and who had drunk too much mineral water during this competition and wasted precious time to go toilet and...}] we have for this year>.

I guess you didn't play the tournament this year and missed a lot of fun. :P

add ons may be unnecessary as they are just words. The main part the meaning in the addons. Guess you intepreted it as just addition of nouns and adjectives and made fun of it.

In piggy's post he said that the top 4 in national open deserves to represent sg as they are the best 4 in SG.

I merely commented that in other words, the statement is doubtful.

i think that best 4 in national open means that they are the best 4 out of people who participated, however there may be people thinking that the results are unreliable due to tournament system.

However piggy did mention that the so called 'better players' are not guaranteed better than top 4 in national open.

That is why the more they are currently still not deemed the best 4 in SG.

Best 4 is best 4, its a matter of determining them out.

what jidu was trying to say is that the best 4 should be given the benefit of doubt and not by saying that the best 4 in the competition is the best 4 out of those that participated the reason is because of piggy's previous post of trying to ENCOURAGE and trying to tell people to suppport the national players. Here you are telling people that they are top 4 "only for that year" and only for "those that participated" can u tell me why this statement is necessasary? Do you have a better way of selecting the top 4? Maybe u wanna organise another national competition.
All systems are flawed some have more some have less. Which is the best is still hard to say. This current system might be to a disadvantage to some stronger players but it has also a very good way of training the players mental and also helping players adjust to different systems more importantly it gives different players more opportunity to represent Singapore. I think people like ruizhan deserve some credit instead people are asking people to give up their place to others. For whose sake? The countries? Anyone can gurantee who can play very well? as i mentioned in the previous posts one of the top players in singapore Lai han soon represented in 2004 and got 5 losses one draw. who expected that? Its all about form.

Although I feel a little disappointed with the performance of our national team in the recent friendly matches, I believe this is not the time to pressurize any player to quit. Rather, we suit try our best to help our players to do well in the competition. Like what I did was to annotate some of ruizhan's games and point out his weakness in non mainstream opening so that he can work on it. Although I do not think that our national team will get into top 6 this year, I do hope they inflict a few upsets to those traditional strong team.

I feel that once the rules are set, be it selecting the representatives with 7 or 9rounds, we should not change them last minute. However, if this year Singapore do not do well. I hope xiangzhong might want to review the selection criteria. Actually I think that the selection method used 2 years ago was quite good. If this year Singapore do not do well, its not the fault of the players, but the fault of SIXGA and coach.

Sorry you guys may think its unnecessary but i still think that whatever i have posted are still facts necessary to balance piggy's post out. Please recall that piggy said that top 4 in national open means best 4 in sg, thats why i just said what i posted to correct that statement.

I do not have a better way to select the best 4 players that is why i ended my post that way.

Who can guarantee someone can play very well? nobody can do that, but at least we can do our best to INCREASE the chance of winning. Everyone would want the best for our country.

And if you want to say this i can also say who can guarantee kids under 10 yrs old cannot play well in competition??

Now the thing is how to choose best 4 which is a tough problem but i agree with what bls said that in his post <I agree with Piggy and we should not change player last minute.>

Specificed in my previous post. Being 2 time Singapore champion at that time who would expect the results hansoon produced? If a 2 time singapore champion can produce these sort of results, who can u expect to produce results? of course it's not his fault i believe it's about his form being affected by other factors. What makes you think that sending a better player would produce better results? Of course sending a better player would play a part but thats not the most crucial part. Speaking from past experience, Playing in an international competition wouldn't really matter much if your standard is more or less there you just need to have a weapon and must not be too weak in the other parts of your game and form is the key to sucess.

i also agree with jidu that he said that they dared to play so those that did not play for whatsoever reason should not be taken into consideration thats why i say given the benefit of doubt. And on the trophy it does say QUAN2 GUO2 DIAN4 JUN1 OR QUAN2 GUO2 GUAN4 JUN1 not BI3 SAI4 GUAN JUN OR BI SAI DIAN JUN for ur info.

"i can also say who can guarantee kids under 10 yrs old cannot play well in competition??" You are not comparing apples to apples u are comparing apples with something else. We are talking about the A division not the under 10 division. Of cos if people like liuyihao play well next year he will get a chance to represent but thats beside the point.

难道两年来没有想到要在自家门前夺银/铜牌（金牌就甭讲了）？

老实说，我真不希望举办亚洲杯只是为了举办而举办.还有一个多月，希望象总能给国家队一个很好素质的赛前准备。。
如果国家队能在新加坡得到好成绩，这对象棋的推广将起很大的帮助，也会引起媒体的注意。

do i get something deducted when i am issued yellow card?

just an ID only!

记得二十几年前，象总派出一位在分组循环赛中，初赛名列榜尾的棋手，代表我国出席亚洲赛。当时，我还是那个小组的优胜者，有资格进入决赛，而那位棋手在和我对垒时，还是我的手下败将。那时，年轻气盛的我，连同我的师兄李庆先，还有许多年轻棋友，都因此感到愤愤不平，在象总举行一年一度的会员大会中，猛烈轰击当时的象总领导人，询问他们究竟是根据什么标准，遴选那位棋手代表？
很显然的，当时的象总领导人，并没有根据任何的客观标准，而作出这个荒谬的决定。因此，为了避免以后相同的事件再度发生，当时出席会员大会的会员们，提出了一个较客观的标准，就是全国赛前三名，代表出席亚洲赛。这个议决案最后被通过，成为往后遴选亚洲赛代表的标准。
但随着时间的消失，这个由会员大会通过的议决案，已经渐渐被棋友们遗忘了，而年轻一辈的棋手，根本不知道有这个议决案的存在。然而，随着时间的证明与考验以及个人年龄的增长，我渐渐的体会到，由一次全国赛的成绩来决定亚洲赛的人选标准，也不是完全正确的。它应该像其他的运动项目一样，由一个杰出的教练，根据客观的分析与主观正确的判断，了解个别棋手的实力与水平，从中遴选出适当的人选。而他也必须对棋手表现的优劣，负起责任。
我曾经再三重申，象总为了避免因决策的出尔反尔而遭受到棋友们的恶评与误解，因此不会轻易剥夺国家队选手的代表权。但如果以我个人多年来作为一名棋手的观点来看待这个问题，我的想法是：我如果输了棋，我会首先分析我输棋的原因究竟在哪里？是不是因为：
（一）只是偶尔失手；
（二）工作或家庭烦恼；
（三）身体健康不佳；
（四）对手实力太强；
（五）在尝试新的布局或棋路，不把胜负看得太重；
但是，我如果连输多场，以上几个可能出现的因素，应该都不是理由，这时我就会仔细的思考：以我目前的水平，是不是有足够的实力代表国家？有没有把握争取到好的成绩？如果还有其他水平比我好表现比我稳比我强的棋手，我是不是应该让贤？还是要赌一把，去参赛以证明自己的实力？要是赌的结果我还是不行，我会不会被人臭骂？磨练赛明明已经证明不行，还硬硬要代表，不自量力，？但如果我让贤，那不是自己告诉别人自己的棋不行，那不是一件很丢脸的事？
综合以上的考量，如果是我，不管棋赛是在国内还是国外举行，我都会鼓起勇气，绝定让贤。虽然，承认自己不行，是一件很痛苦很丢脸的事，但如果还是要坚持代表，结果个人战果欠佳，连累了队友，连累了国家，那时，我会觉得更加丢脸，更加内疚。
也许，你会反驳说，派别人去，也不一定行。在这个世界上，没有人会知道明天会发生什么事，没有人能够保证，他所挑选的代表，一定能够取得好成绩。我们不能预测将来，但我们能够根据棋手过去与现在一路来的表现与成绩，不要像以往的象总那样荒唐，很客观很公正的选出一位棋艺优秀棋手，代表国家出席比赛。至于他参赛后成绩的好坏，那是没有人可以预先预测得到的！！！
我写这篇文章，可能会得罪到许多棋友，也可能会使到许多棋友，对我的印象改观，但为了我国的象棋，为了亚洲赛的成绩，尽管会得罪许多棋友，我还是要大胆的鼓起勇气，讲出心理的真心话！！！
我在此还是必须再三声明，以上所写的，纯粹是我个人的观点与论点，与任何人或任何团体无关。同时，如果，我没有记错，“全国赛前三名，乃亚洲赛必然的代表”，还是我在会员大会提议与通过的。

2008国家队实力已在2008全国赛证明。


代表国家出席比赛，参赛成绩的好坏是没有人可以预测的！


客观的观点来看待这个问题，也许棋一生提出了往后遴选2009国家队。。。。2010国家队。。。。2011国家队。。。。的问题。

棋力觉得不好的退出就应该，是让贤，棋力觉得好的想退出就sms给与警告?

我认为象总既然定下四强代表的条例，就证明象总是通过开会认为四强最适合跟最好。
如果棋手下得好，象总会觉得这次做得好，大家有功劳，如果他们下得下好，象总是否应该在
不怪棋手的情况下承认制度错误，认真检讨，下次改进？