Dresden chess olympiad, Round 4

The honeymoon is really over for the Malaysian team which found themselves out of their depth again in the fourth round. Like I mentioned yesterday, the match against Slovakia would be a tough one and it proved to be true. Except for Lim Yee Weng, our three other players did not acquit themselves well. But again, because of Yee Weng, the team avoided a complete whitewash. Somehow, I just felt that their opponents were playing only very logical moves and our players got themselves into trouble by themselves. Nothing really complicated about their games. Just that their opponents had better feel of the positions.

Coming back to the Olympiad, these are the results on the top 10 tables in the fourth round. Nothing really surprising about them except that I expected the Azerbaijan-USA results to be closer:

Ukraine 2-2 Armenia
Spain 1½-2½ Germany One
Norway 2-2 England
Russia 2½-1½ India
Romania 1-3 Hungary
Azerbaijan 3-1 USA
Faroe Islands 1½-2½ Netherlands
Malta ½-3½ Poland
Ireland ½-3½ Bosnia & Herzegovina

And these are the results of the remaining Asian countries. China is trying to roar back into contention but they still have 11 teams placed ahead of them.

Macedonia 0-4 China
Malaysia ½-3½ Slovakia
Denmark 2½-1½ Bangladesh
Greece 2-2 Philippines
Bulgaria 3½-½ Mongolia
Vietnam 3½-½ Japan
Brazil 2-2 Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan 2-2 Turkey
Belarus 3-1 Tajikistan
New Zealand 0-4 Slovenia
Costa Rica 3-1 Indonesia
Austria 3-1 Turkmenistan
Iran 4-0 Nicaragua
Pakistan 2-2 South Africa
Nepal 1-3 Qatar
Syria 3½-½ Surinam
UAE 4-0 Macau
Kenya 0-4 Kyrgyzstan
Thailand 2-2 Jordan
Yemen 3-1 Guatemala
Luxembourg 3-1 Afghanistan
Uruguay 2-2 Palestine
Mauritius 1-3 Lebanon
Guernsey 0-4 Australia
Barbados 0-4 Iraq
Mozambique 1-3 Hongkong
Nigeria 2-2 South Korea
Libya 3-1 Sri Lanka
Jersey ½-3½ Singapore
San Marino 3-1 Chinese Taipei
Uganda 2-2 Papua New Guinea
Fiji 2-2 Rwanda

Our representatives in Dresden, Round Four: (left to right) Mas Hafizulhelmi, Lim Yee Weng, Mok Tze Meng and Edward Lee

At Table 15, these are the results of the Malaysian team:
IM Mas Hafizulhelmi 2439 - GM Ftacnik Lubomir 2571 0-1
FM Lim Yee-Weng 2396 - GM Markos Jan 2557 1/2
FM Mok Tze-Meng 2308 - GM Petrik Tomas 2487 0-1
Edward Lee Kim Han - IM Vavrak Peter 2478 0-1

For Round Five, Malaysia has been pushed way down to Table 41 and they'll be playing the Dominican Republic. Boys, forget about the last two rounds. Nothing to fret about. You played against good teams. Let's go for the future. Good luck!