Olympiad Round 5 - Updates

In the Open - Malaysia was paired against Bolivia. Based on ratings, we have the advantage on winning against Bolivia. But however, it looks like IM Mas can only draw his game (fatigue perhaps Mie?), same like Peter who is obviously aiming for a draw on fourth board. While bravo Tan Khai Boon drew against a higher rated opponent (phew). Unexpectedly, Mok lost! I thought he was winning.

Malaysia 1.5 - Bolivia 2.5

In the Women - Malaysia vs Iraq. Alia, Fong Mi Yen won, Nabila and Nurul Huda drew. Overall we won by 3-1. Good job Ladies!!! I was a bit worried because of the lost yesterday. Glad that today they got the victory. To Ladies, forget about what people said back home. Just play your best! Its you on the board, its you that struggle during the games, so play like you play back home!

Tomorrow is the rest day for the players. Round 6 will resume on monday. Have fun!

Olympiad Round 4 - Pic

**Pic courtesy from Roslina. Thanx Jie!**

It is almost autumn there in Khanty-Mansiysk

The tournament hall

IM Mas is perhaps pondering what to play against GM Pelletier (SUI). The GM manage to get the draw against Mas. After 4 rounds Mas is still undefeated. An impressive score against 3 GMs so far. There are still many rounds to go. Keep it up Mie!

The ladies before the Round 4 started. They were up against Sri Lanka. Who would thought we suffer defeat from the lower rated Sri Lankan! Only Alia won her game.

A group pic of the Malaysian Ladies.

Olympiad Round 4 - IM Mas's Game

At 10.25pm - watching IM Mas game, and i find it funny! Coz the GM is the one that is looking for a draw against Mas!

Olimpiad Round 4 - Pairing

In round 4 at 5pm Malaysia time :

86 Malaysia (MAS) - 47 Switzerland (SUI)
IM Mas Hafizulhelmi (2422) - GM Pelletier Yannick (2592)
IM Mok Tze-Meng (2416) - GM Gallagher Joseph G (2517)
Tan Khai Boon (2160) - IM Kurmann Oliver (2452)
FM Long Peter (2302) - IM Buss Ralph (2433)

74 Malaysia (MAS) - 83 Sri Lanka (SRI)
Bakri Alia Anin Azwa (1904) - Muhandiram R M M U (1744)
WCM Nur Nabila Azman Hisham (1829) - Basnayake I U (1746)
Wahiduddin Nurul Huda (2020) - Premanath Dinushki (1853)
Fong Mi Yen (1905) - Ranasinghe S D (1822)

I was up late last night, and have a brief chat with IM Mas. Hope he is not tired today, I slept at 3am imagine how late was it over there! When I asked him who will be the first board line up for the swiss, he said GM Pelletier. And he was right, it is GM Pelletier! Yesterday's opponent, he studied his opponent game and he is familiar with the lines, hopefully he manage to study against Pelletier and will create another impressive performance!

Since Roslina is not playing today, hope I can get the pic of players as she promised me last night :-))

All the best!!

p/s - i found this interesting blog check it out , it was funny, esp on the part the octopus got fried in the end for the wrong prediction.. hahaha

Olimpiad Round 3 - UPSET!

Our Men drew with Lithuania in Round 3, where our opponents not just rated higher than us but with 3 GMs and 1 IM as their line-up, clearly most of us predict that Msia would have lost this round. Although that is the prediction, as the fan of Msian team when IM Mas is playing, I was hoping that Mas could encourage the others with his play.

And yeay! Mas won!!! He made the upset against that GM, while Mok drew his game with another GM and Peter drew too. Mas salvage the lost of Tan Khai Boon to give Malaysia a 2-2 draw against Lithuania. I bet Lithuania wasnt expecting this outcome, eh!

Congrats guys, esp to Mie!

Meanwhile, as the whole nation (the chess fans) celebs the victory of Mas, the ladies on the other hand produce a different result (cant see any bloggers commenting any games on the ladies - but only on comments of the result, I guess non of them interested, so ladies do something will ya!). They lost to Austria by 3-1, Nur Nabila and Fong Mi Yen drew, while Alia and Roslina lost.

Olympiad - Round 2

Here is the round 1 photo. I was browsing thru the official website and found this. It was also posted in the Hairulov's blog. (My father was asking me that day is he could see her daughter in action, I guess thanks to the organiser for the pic).


IM Mas vs GM Michael Adams (ENG) - who was once on the top ranked of the world. It is truly a surprised to us Malaysian, but for those that familiar with IM Mas, the upset (he drew with the GM) is just something that he can do at any moment when he sees it coming! (just like the time when he beat GM Korchnoi in the previous Olympiad). Lets just hope he maintain the momentum for the rest of the games there.

My sis in action. She lost her first round yesterday. My bro and I was looking at the position expecting that she could turn the position, but obviously her opponent is too strong for her. She will have her first rest today, and her spot for board 3 will be placed by Roslina, and Fong Mi Yen will be playing her first game.

Today at approximately 5pm Malaysia time, we get to watch live our players in action. I try to watch the games just like yesterday :-))

I was wrong by assuming that the fielding of Malaysian Women is based on the Malaysian women master tournament. Only Alia and Nabila remain on the top 2 board, while Fong Mi Yen was put as the reserve. Perhaps the captain think she is inexperience compared to others.

All the best to the players! Bring home 4-0 victory, will ya!

Round 1 - Olympiad

Did I just mentioned "can someone bring home at least half point from the english?" I think someone out there hear my thoughts while I was writing this blog.. hahaha.. and truly Mie did hear it! I was at the meeting during the game was live on the internet. But I take time off for few minutes to catch result as often as I could (hope my boss doesnt read this.. hehehe)

Yes, Malaysia lost on both Men and Women. But we lost with high spirit! The guys got themselves half point from the english (not bad, considering we are the underdogs here!) From the way the games were played, it looks like they underestimate the malaysians. Well, that half point sure going to cost them later on!

I am obviously cheering for the Malaysian Women since my sis is playing too. I thought she will not play in round 1. As what I understood the priority is for the 3 juniors, while the 2 seniors are there more as a support system. But something must have come up that Fong Mi Yen wasnt able to play in the first round.

In round 2 - The men will play against Hong Kong while the ladies is up against Ethiopia. Sounded easy huh? But, to me all that came to Olympiad are with high hopes to make upsets, so the malaysians still need to be careful and dont take whoever the opponent lightly (but 4-0 win ok?)

All the best!!

39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010

39th Olympiad has just begun yesterday with the colourful opening ceremony. I think Malaysian Team had just arrived in time to catch the opening. You can catch the report at chessbase
Lucky me, I was up last night and while browsing thru the internet looking for something else, I juz remember about the opening ceremony, and it was broadcast live (well for few minutes). You can find more info on the official website .

For the first round at chess result Malaysian Men team is up against England on Table 12! Whoa! it is certainly a tough challenge in the first round. Lets hope we wont get thrash with the likes of 4-0, can someone bring home at least half point from the english? Malaysia will definitely line up the top 4 players (if I am guessing correctly, Greg Lau will not be playing at all unless someone is sick and cant play). It looks like Nigel Short is taking the rest against Malaysia.

In the women section Malaysian team will faced Slovakia on Table 15!. Top 4 Malaysian Women will definitely play. It seems like Fong Mi Yen is taking the rest today (wonder why?), and our Alia is up against IM Eva Repkova. (the name does sound familiar, I think I played against her in the World Junior 1991).

And the first round will start at 3pm daily in Khanty-Mansiysk, as Hairulov mention in his blog, is it about 5pm Malaysian time. All the best guys!