Wasted talents
Rey Charles C Bantulo
(minor edits made)
FILIPINOS are just as talented compared to other nationalities and yet our government isn’t very keen in showcasing these talents by providing financial support. Many times those who already become popular because they have achieved recognition tend to be noticed late and are still not given enough.
This might be hard to believe but this happens too often and this is because of our CORRUPT organizations not doing their jobs properly.
A great example would be Wesley So, who is a Philippine chess grandmaster who won two international tournaments and wanted to achieve greater heights… The problem arises as Philippines can’t (support what) Wesley was aiming for. He is now eyeing to represent the United States instead, in order to advance.
Now if only National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) didn’t give a non-answer similar to a “no” to Wesley’s requests he wouldn’t have sat out for a year. NCFP was even demanding a compensation fee of about 50,000 Euros.
This was Wesley’s own decision to join and switch federations in order to become a top ten player in the world. He stated that he will not pay any compensation fee to the NCFP.
Because of this request, the NCFP even cut his allowance.
At first glance it would feel like he’s trying to leave our own to represent others and this would make him look like a traitor but someone who has given so much to the country and yet receive so little in return is more like the real story.
More here.
They want to destroy this boy.
Puzzled – there’s no record of any transfer by So, on the FIDE transfer list. Surely any ‘waiting out’ period starts from the date of the transfer request lodged with FIDE?