Saturday, September 25, 2010

MALAYSIAN CHESS OLYMPIADS TRIVIA

Since everybody is now in Olympiad fever, I have decided to wake up from my blog retirement/hibernation and join in this circus and write about Malaysian chess Olympic.

Introduction
Malaysia has participate in 19 Olympiads since 1972 (Skopje). We did not participate in 1976 Haifa Olympiad and ofcourse being a regular Olympian, we have a fair share of interesting trivia. Some of it...

First draw: Chan Mun Fye on 20th September 1972 when he drew with Hasan Hasibul (Hong Kong) in Skopje. On the next day, he scored a ....

First win:Chan Mun Fye on 21st September 1972 when he won against Manuel Duroa (Portugal)

Most Outing: Mok Tze Meng, 8 Olympiads (From 1990 Mok took part in all Olympiads except for year 1994, 1998 and 2002)

Most Games: Jimmy Liew, 84 games from 7 Olympiads (Well, Mok Tze Meng, minus Kalmykia, has played a total of 74 games. Looks like this record is going to be broken soon!)

Best individual result: Ng Ek Teong, 1986 Dubai, scored 6 out of 7, Elo performance of 2510, undefeated and duly won best board prize (2nd reserve)

Best individual Elo performance: Mas Hafizul, 2000 Istanbul, Elo performance of 2527, scored 9.5 from 14 games. He played all games and lost only once!

Best games: Jimmy Liew wins against Yrjola Jouni (Dubai)

Most memorable game: Mas wins against Korchnoi.

Best placing: Dubai 1986, finished 42 out of 108 teams

Best upset: We beat Canada team in Turin 2006

Malaysia 2330 3½ : ½ 2468 Canada CAN
IM Hafizulhelmi 2412 1 - 0 2510 GM Charbonneau
FM Mok Tze Meng 2361 ½ - ½ 2531 GM Bluvshtein
FM Lim Yee Weng 2330 1 - 0 2466 IM Zugic
Chuah Jin Hai 2216 1 - 0 2364 IM Livshits

Worst placing:Moscow 1994, 96 out of 125 teams. 4 years later (Elista 1998) we 'equaled' this record by finishing 96 out of 147 teams. This makes me worry, we never played well in Russia... (Anon pointed out that in Dresden 2008, we also finished at 96, thanks anon)

We have also on 5 occasions, fielded players that eventually never move a pawn

  • Laurence How (1978)
  • Fang Ewe Churh (1980)
  • Anwar Zainal (1982)
  • Chew Soon Keong (1984)
  • Hamid Majid (1998)

2010...?

5 comments:

  1. Malaysia also finished 96th out of 154 teams in Dresden 2008. Mas, Mok, Yee Weng & Jimmy were the main players with Edward as a hardly-played reserve.

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  2. Thanks anon, yeap we finished 96th at Dresden. Include this info already together with new trivia...Malaysia's best upset!

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  3. Bro, i think beating Swiss 2.5-1.5 in turin Olympiad 2006 is probably the best upset compare to beating Canada. What do u think?

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  4. Yes, Switzerland was a stronger team then Canada

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  5. Sorry guys, i beg to differ. Though Switzerland was a stronger team, the score when we beat, sorry whitewashed Canada (3.5/0.5) is simply amazing

    It has been listed as number 3 in Olympiads upset of all time!Statistaclly wise, we are 'expected' to lost 1.5 vs 2.5 See below
    Quote
    Biggest match upsets: what was biggest difference between result predicted from Elo tables and OTB result ever? The table bElow lists top 10 upsets where all players on both sides were rated. More interesting matches are listed in the lower part of the table, as well as some of biggest upsets where not all of players were rated (marked with asterisks)

    Olympiad match result exp. result diff
    Elista 1998 Faroe Islands - Nigeria 4 : 0 1.64 : 2.36 +2.36
    Novi Sad 1990 Colombia - Canada 4 : 0 1.69 : 2.31 +2.31
    Turin 2006 Malaysia - Canada 3½ : ½ 1.24 : 2.76 +2.26
    Istanbul 2000 Portugal - Myanmar 3½ : ½ 1.25 : 2.75 +2.25
    Elista 1998 Faroe Islands - Portugal 3½ : ½ 1.31 : 2.69 +2.19
    Turin 2006 Mongolia - Tunisia 3½ : ½ 1.32 : 2.68 +2.18
    Bled 2002 Luxembourg - Brazil 3 : 1 0.86 : 3.14 +2.14
    Dubai 1986 Portugal - Australia 4 : 0 1.90 : 2.10 +2.10
    Novi Sad 1990 Paraguay - Austria 3½ : ½ 1.40 : 2.60 +2.10
    Dubai 1986 Spain - England 3½ : ½ 1.41 : 2.59 +2.09
    Turin 2006 Morocco - India 3 : 1 0.98 : 3.02 +2.08
    Buenos Aires 1978 Austria - Australia 4 : 0 1.94 : 2.06 +2.06
    Calvia 2004 Cuba - Slovenia 4 : 0 1.97 : 2.03 +2.03
    Unquote

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