Dresden chess olympiad, Round 6

When I woke up this morning to look at the results of the sixth round, my first reaction was wince. It was quite painful to see the type of results that the Malaysian team is getting at the hands of the better teams. Slovenia was the latest team to treat us like a punching bag and only Lim Yee Weng was successfully holding his own against them. It was another draw for him but he missed a very promising continuation in his game). For th rest of our players, however, this was another horror outing. It's puzzling to see that Mas Hafizul is not playing to his full potential despite having gained so much additional experience playing during the whole of this year and getting special coaching in his quest for a GM norm. Both Mok Tze Meng and Jimmy Liew tried hard but their ability to produce results seemed to have declined. As for Edward Lee, well, he hasn't played beyond the earlier games so I haven't seen enough of him to comment but right now, his standard lacks the maturity.

Russia 3-1 England
Ukraine 2-2 Germany One
Azerbaijan 1½-2½ Armenia
France 3-1 Poland
Bosnia & Herzegovina 1½-2½ India
Sweden 1½-2½ Israel
Georgia 1½-2½ China
Romania 2½-1½ Bulgaria
Colombia 1½-2½ Hungary
Netherlands 3-1 Moldova

And these are the results of the rest of the Asian teams:

Philippines 1-3 Spain
Iceland 1-3 Vietnam
Belarus 4-0 Lebanon
Slovenia 3½-½ Malaysia
Australia 2½-1½ Switzerland
Scotland 2½-1½ Japan
Croatia 2½-1½ Indonesia
Venezuela 1½-2½ Bangladesh
Pakistan 1-3 New Zealand
Mongolia 2½-1½ Denmark
Latvia 2½-1½ Qatar
Kazakhstan 3-1 Netherlands Antilles
Iran 3½-½ Yemen
Canada 1½-2½ Iraq
Montenegro 2½-1½ Palestine
Kyrgyzstan 1½-2½ Belgium
Libya ½-3½ Uzbekistan
Tajikistan 2-2 Macau
Hongkong ½-3½ UAE
Syria 4-0 Guernsey
Malta 1-3 Turkmenistan
Singapore 4-0 Cyprus
Afghanistan 1½-2½ Thailand
Nicaragua 2-2 South Korea
Fiji 0-4 Jordan
Botswana 2½-1½ Nepal
Jamaica 3½-½ Papua New Guinea
Barbados ½-3½ Sri Lanka
Aruba 2½-1½ Chinese Taipei

Our representatives in Dresden, Round Six: (left to right) Mas Hafizulhelmi, Lim Yee Weng, Mok Tze Meng and Jimmy Liew

At Table 18, these are the results of the Slovenia versus Malaysia match:

GM Beliavsky Alexander G 2619 - IM Mas Hafizulhelmi 2439 1-0
GM Lenic Luka 2569 - FM Lim Yee-Weng 2396 1/2
IM Borisek Jure 2548 - FM Mok Tze-Meng 2308 1-0
IM Skoberne Jure 2501 - IM Liew Chee-Meng-Jimmy 2306 1-0

Such dismal results cannot be any good for the team and so for the seventh round, our players find themselves pushed down to Table 32 where they'll be meeting Egypt. With two GMs in the Egyptian team, they are not to be dismissed. They are good and they gave Israel a tough fight in an earlier round. So it's going to be another tough battle for the Malaysians. I hope our boys will give their all and not throw in the towel early. Good luck!