MALAYSIAN PLAYERS (MEN) AT OLYMPIAD

In General
Malaysian Men Team performed better than expectation. We are seeded at number 86 and finished at number 64, a beautiful number to a chess players...a beautiful ranking to be for Malaysian team.

Record Breaking
Several records have been broken...

Most Olympiad Outings
IM Mok increased his Olympiad outing records from 8 to 9.

Most Olympiad games played
IM Mok increased his Olympiad games records from 85 to 95. One more Olympiad and IM Mok will hit a century.

Most decisive personal encounter.
IM Mok's win against GM Loek van Wely (Elo 2691). Previously it was Mas' won against GM Korchnoi (Elo 2611)

Most Elo gains
Lim Zhuo Ren...61.

Best Olympiad performance?
With performance of 2503, is IM Mok performance at Turkey 2012 is the best ever?...Sorry Mok, it is not. Ng Ek Leong/Teong performance at Dubai 1986 is 2510. 

For record, Zhuo Ren's performance is 2500.

Performance
IM Mok
Mok is doing what Malaysian has not been doing for a long time...a run for GM norm. With a good  start...2.5 points againt 4 GMs...unfortunately a few fighting losses (he must have over pressed himself) during mid rounds have cost him the GM norm dearly.

Still his wins against GM Loek van Wely is a legend stuff that will be discussed and talked for years to come...

On live Malaysian Rating, IM Mok is now Malaysia number one with 2373.

IM Jimmy
Not one of the good outing for Jimmy. He lost a few ratings here. I suspect...being a captain, he surely spent more times preparing his team member's games then preparing his own.

IM Yee Weng
IM Yee Weng performed better than expectation. Scoring 5.5 out 10 of, he gains 13 elo points...and moved his ranking from Malaysian number 5 to number 4.

There are lots of excitement in Yee Weng's games (as to be expected from Dragon's rider)...games that keep me glued to the chess engine to know what is going bon since without it, i was just totally lost in the sea of complications...

Li Tian
Li Tian's lost some points here but for Olympiad rookie...his performance is not that bad. To be in the tournament in which you played Kramnik's Catalan...only a few metres from Kramnik himself...one can simple be awe by the occassion.

Still it is a good learning experience for him and this I believed, will make him stronger.

Lim Zhuo Ren
What can I say to someone who on in his first Olympiad adventure...gained FM title and IM norm in a single journey...gained a massive 61 points elo points....and the best part is, he make it looks oh, so easy...

LZR performance reminds me of Usain Bolt's 100M dash...slow start (2 draws and a lost) before blitzing off with 6 wins!...a bit of show off there, 'sacking' his first few rounds but still achieved the norm :)

But knowing him (ever notice, now everybody claimed to know LZR...myself include :) ), he is a humble young man.

All i can say, Zhuo Ren, twenty...thirty years from now when Malaysian chess citizen already forgot the points, ranking and maybe name of players of Malaysian Team that took part in 2012 Turkey Olympiad (hopefully they will not forgot about bloggers that wrote about it...)...things that they will remember, still remember, about 2012 Olympiad is an Olympiad in which you, NM Zhuo Ren, Olympiad's first timer boy that went to Turkey to fight and come back home two weeks after that, bruised, scars all over...as a warrior.

For all this and more...congratulations FM (Fighting Machine) Lim Zhuo Ren!