First, let’s measure/ compare in size
Country Size 
Malaysia           329,845 km2             
San Marino                 61 km2
Population       
Malaysia          28,000,000
San Marino              30,000
Maybe the figure above is too one sided, to make it simple, in term of size 14 San Marinos equal to our one Perlis. For population, 8 San Marinos equal to our one Perlis.
Too make it even simpler, all they have is the population of Maybank’s staff.
OK forgive me. Maybe above comparison is not accurate, our Singapore neighbour might disagree if we want to measure strength with size or population. So let’s measure in pure chess power
                                                                      
Fide’s world rank
Malaysia                                          77
San Marino                                    128
Olympiad seeding          
Malaysia                                        86
San Marino                                   118
Fide’s number of active players
Malaysia                                       163         
San Marino                                    1
Fide’s number of inactive players
Malaysia                                     269      
San Marino                                  7
Guess from above, there is no need for me to go for the overkill and compare the numbers of titled players each country possessed (though from the list of their players I suspect San Marino got more CMs compared to Malaysian two CMs) 
Third, let’s measure in chess duels history
In Moscow 1994 we met San Marino and we won 4-0
In Elista 1998 we met San Marino and won 4-0 again
We always met San Marino when Olympiad is played in Russia but the big question here is whether we can always achieve the 4-0 result.
The only advantage San Marino has against us is they have 5 playing players while so far we only have 4 playing players.
Very interesting, Ilham.
ReplyDeleteMalaysia leading 3-0 now so its up to Khai Boon to maintain the tradition.