2014 Chess Olympiad - Round 4

Round 4 of the 2014 Chess Olympiad is in progress. The round is getting to its first hour mark.

So, which teams that the Malaysian teams are facing right now?

Men : MAS vs GUA

Scoring 0.5 point when playing against 79th ranked South African team in the third round, in the fourth round, the Malaysian Men's team is paired against 93rd ranked Guatemala. 

Women : MAS vs VIE

Whereas the Malaysian Women's team is paired against the highest rank ASEAN teams which is Vietnam. It is an uphill battle to defeat the Vietnamese ladies. But who knows, with the high spirit after defeating higher seeded Chile with 3 - 1 score, Malaysian women chess team can make an upset.

GiLoCatur is very impressed with the third round results for both Women's Indonesian and Philippines teams. Indonesia led by WGM Irene Kharisma Sukandar defeated the 6th seed Romania by 2.5 - 1.5 score. Both Medina and Chelsie, Indonesian 2nd and 3rd board respectively, upset their higher-rated opponents. GiLoCatur believes the 10th seed Armenia which is the Indonesian ladies are playing against at this moment will not under estimate the strength of the Indonesian women team.

Whereas, the Filipino ladies managed to draw with their 8th rank Poland opponent. At this moment, they try to make an upset against 11th rank Spain. For information, the Philippines is ranked 43rd.

Best of Luck to both Malaysian teams - Men and Women.

SYABAS & TAHNIAH PASUKAN CATUR OLIMPIAD WANITA MALAYSIA

Syabas & tahniah to the Malaysian Women's team (below picture) in the second round of the Chess Olympiad currently being held in Tromso, Norway.

(from left) Li Ting, Nur Nabila, Mrs Zazaluma, Nur Najiha & Puteri Rifqah
photo from Puan Zaza's facebook

Women's section, Round 2, Board 43, MAS vs UGA

UGANDA (left) versus MALAYSIA (right)

They managed to win over UGANDA with 3 - 1 score. 

Now, focus on and prepare for the next round.

2014 Chess Olympiad - Round 2

Round 2 of the 2014 Chess Olympiad will begin in about 15 minutes. If yesterday Round 1 kicked off at 3.00 PM Norwegian time, today Round 2 will begin at 2.00 PM or 8.00 PM Malaysian time.

Both Malaysian teams just managed to score half-point against their respective higher seeded opponents. In the Men's team, only Aron Teh who plays on the second board managed to draw with his opponent. While, in the Women's team, only Nur Nabila managed to get the draw. She plays on the third board.

So, who the Malaysian teams will face today? 

It is KENYA for the Men's team and UGANDA for the Women's team. GiLoCatur hopes that both the Malaysian teams able to win with big margin playing against lower-ranked  opponents. The first board player for both teams will rest today. It means that Ahmad Fadzil Nayan and Puteri Rifqah Fahada Mohd Azhar will play the last / fourth board. 

Any big upset or interesting result?

Not many as GiLoCatur sees it. One interesting result that GiLoCatur notices is the match between the first host team which includes the world champion, Magnus Carlson and Yemen. The 100th rank Yemen managed to score 1.5 to 2.5 based on the results at chess-results.com. Yemen's 2nd board player managed to draw with his 2600-opponent while its 4th board  player who has 2254 Elo ratings upset his 2528-rated opponent. 

Let's follow and watch the second round.

The Photos of Malaysian Teams - 2014 Chess Olympiad

Below are the photos of the Malaysian teams - both Men and Women, that will take part in the 2014 Chess Olympiad held in Tromso, Norway. The first round will start in less than 7 hours.

Malaysian Women team captained by Mr Greg Lau (most left)

The opening ceremony

Malaysian Women team captained by Mr Nik Farouqi (most right)

note : All the above photos are courtesy of Mrs Zazaluma Harun.

2014 Chess Olympiad - Kick Off

GiLoCatur is excited to follow the 2014 Chess Olympiad which will kick off today at 3.00 PM Tromso's time. Since Tromso is behind six hours of the Malaysian time, it means that the first round kick off will at 9.00 PM Malaysian time. 

That means, GiLoCatur can follow the event closely from home. 

The team pairings for the first round has been published in the chess-results.com. So, what the opponents for the Malaysian teams would be? 

source : chess-results.com

Our Men's team is paired against the 16th seed which is SPAIN. Based on average ratings, it would be 2100 versus 2600. 500 ratings difference. Ofcourse, it would be an uphill battle. But anyway, as the popular saying, "LAWAN TETAP LAWAN".

source : chess-results.com

Whereas, our Women's team is paired against FRANCE, GiloCatur's favourite World Cup team. France which is the 9th seed in the women's section has the average ratings of 2389. 

BEST OF LUCK to both Malaysian teams. Give the best fight. Do not give respect too much to the opponents.  

2014 Chess Olympiad Is Around The Corner

Today is Tuesday, 29th July 2014.

It is the second day of Eidul Fitri, one of the Muslim's festive celebration.

Four more days before the kick-off of the 2014 Chess Olympiad held in Tromso, Norway.

logo

There are 139 countries competing in the Women's section in the event as per in the chess-results.com. China who is led by GM Hou Yifan is the top seed followed by Russia and Ukraine at the second and third spots respectively.

How about among the ASEAN countries? What is the starting rank for Malaysia?

Malaysia is seeded 75th out of the total 139 teams. Vietnam is leading the ASEAN countries in the ranking. It is ranked 20th with 2309 average ratings. Ranked 22nd with average ratings of 2281 is Indonesia. Philippines is the third best ASEAN countries in the starting rank. It is ranked 44th with average ratings of 2153.

Top 10 + ASEAN
Click here for full list

INA team

MAS team

PHI team

THA team

VIE team

BEST OF LUCK to the Malaysian women team in the 41st Chess Olympiad. Make our country proud. Being in the Top 50 is a reasonable target and achievement for the Malaysian team for GiLoCatur. 

MALAYSIA BOLEH!

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