MALAYSIA IN OLYMPIAD (SKOPJE 1972)

Skopje, an old city under the upper course of the Vardar river and with the history that went back all the way before the Roman empire, is the host of 20th 1972 Chess Olympiad.

Malaysia, for the first time, send a men team to this event. (Malaysia did not send a woman team.)

Format
All teams are divided to 8 groups. Top 2 teams from each group will played in Group A, next 2 teams in Group B and so on.

Malaysian Team
Malaysia was represented, according to board order, by

1. Foo Lum Choon
2. Chan Mun Fye
3. Kao Yin Keat
4. Fang Ewe Churh
5. Loh Chee Hoong
6. Ariff, A

In the initial stage, we were place in Group 5. We finished last behind Chechoslovakia, Spain, Mongolia, Israel, Portugal, Ireland and Hong Kong.

In later stage (Group D) we finished at number 12 from 15 teams. All in all we finished at number 59 from 62 teams.

Top 5 and Asean finisher were as below:

1. Soviet Union
2. Hungary
3. Yugoslavia
4. Czechoslovakia
5. West Germany

20. The Philippines

26. Indonesia

49. Singapore

59. Malaysia

Individual Performance

1. Foo Lum Choon (5.5/21) P=2093
2. Chan Mun Fye (9.5/20) P=2223
3. Kao Yin Keat (4/17) P=2029
4. Fang Ewe Churh (0/5) P= 0
5. Loh Chee Hoong (7/18) P=2137
6. Ariff, A (0/3) P= 0

P= ELO Performance

Trivia

1. Chan Mun Fye scored a first draw for Malaysia when he draw against Hasan Hasibul (Hong Kong) on 20th September 1972.
2. Chan Mun Fye scored a first win for Malaysia when he win against Durao, Joaquim Manuel (Portugal-ELO 2295) on 21st September 1972 in 47 moves with black pieces.
3. Malaysia registered it first win on 4th October (against Virgin Island). We won 4-0.
4. Chan Mun Fye contributed more than 33% of points collected by Malaysian team (9.5/26)

Next stop

Nice 1974!