Round 7 board pairings for Malaysia

Open
86	Malaysia (MAS)	Rtg		72	ICSC (ICSC)	Rtg
IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	2422		GM	Gruenfeld Yehuda	2464
IM	Mok Tze-Meng	2416		IM	Collutiis Duilio	2447
	Tan Khai Boon	2160			Klasan Vladimir	2393
FM	Long Peter	2302			Parfenov Pavel	2242
Women
106	Pakistan (PAK)	Rtg		74	Malaysia (MAS)	Rtg
	Nida Mishraz Siddiqui	1796		WCM	Bakri Alia Anin Azwa	1904
	Wasif Zenobia	0			Nur Nabila Azman Hisham	1829
	Begum Ghazala	0			Marmono Roslina	1933
	Shakir Ayman	0			Fong Mi Yen	1905

Mas gets another grandmaster, his fourth. Earlier I thought that a grandmaster norm was already impossible due to the low ratings of some of his opponents. However I found a clause in the regulations - "A player may ignore his game(s) against any opponents he has defeated, provided he has met the required mix of opponents, and provided that this leaves him with at least the minimum number of games as in 1.41, against the required mix of opponents. Nonetheless, the full cross-table of the event must be submitted." .

What this means is that Mas can drop the two lowest rated opponents he has defeated provided that he plays all eleven rounds. Based on his current score, he is therefore still on track for a grandmaster norm. He has already played two low rated players. So he will need to continue meeting 2400+ players. This is where the team factor comes in. If the team keeps losing, they will meet lower ranked teams and the ratings will not be high enough.

Based on some of my calculations, Mas needs at least three out of the last five rounds to have a chance, plus the opponent's rating should be sufficiently high.

For the record, no player for the mens team has ever made even an IM norm in the history of our participation in the olympiads.

For the women's team, Roslina steps in to replace Nurul Huda. The strategy is to give all the newcomers as many games as possible for exposure and the two older players alternating. Quite sensible.