Round 1 pairing for Malaysia

As usual I am right and Gregory Lau has taken over as Team Captain from Hamid. Here is the screen shot from Chess Results

National Master Tan Khai Boon is placed on third board instead of Peter Long. It is very strange because the latter outpoints him by over a hundred rating points. In the women's team, current National Champion Fong Mi Yen has been relegated to reserve. Again I do not understand the rationale. A national champion should count for something , no?

It is a tough first round pairing for our teams , no thanks to their low ratings. By contrast, our neighbour , Singapore,  is seeded seventy-one and rewarded with paring with Senegal. Anything less than a 4-0 score will be embarrassing for them.

Open
85	Malaysia (MAS)	Rtg	-	12	England (ENG)	Rtg
IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	2422	-	GM	Adams Michael	2728
IM	Mok Tze-Meng	2416	-	GM	McShane Luke J	2657
	Tan Khai Boon	2160	-	GM	Howell David W L	2616
FM	Long Peter	2302	-	GM	Jones Gawain C B	2576
Women
72	Malaysia (MAS)	Rtg	-	18	Slovakia (SVK)	Rtg
WCM	Bakri Alia Anin Azwa	1904	-	IM	Repkova Eva	2447
	Nur Nabila Azman Hisham	1829	-	WGM	Pokorna Regina	2370
	Wahiduddin Nurul Huda	2020	-	WGM	Kochetkova Julia	2327
	Marmono Roslina	1933	-	WIM	Mrvova Alena	2253

Looking at this match-up, it will be very difficult for either team to score even a half point. Anyway this tournament is using match points (one point for a drawn match and two points for a won match) so anything less than two points makes no difference.