Round 9 results for Malaysia

89	Andorra (AND)	Rtg	2.5-1.5	85	Malaysia (MAS)	Rtg
GM	De La Riva Aguado Oscar	2521	1-0	IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	2422
FM	Simonet Marc	2277	0.5		Mok Tze-Meng	2416
FM	Garcia Raul	2236	1-0	FM	Tan Khai Boon	2160
	Santamaria Vicens	2085	0-1		Long Peter	2302
Women
72	Malaysia (MAS)	Rtg	01-Mar	19	Netherlands (NED)	Rtg
	Bakri Alia Anin Azwa	1904	0-1	GM	Peng Zhaoqin	2400
WCM	Nur Nabila Azman Hisham	1829	0-1	IM	Lanchava Tea	2342
	Wahiduddin Nurul Huda	2020	0.5	WIM	Schut Lisa	2288
	Marmono Roslina	1933	0.5	WIM	Van Weersel Arlette	2174

Both teams crash to defeat. Mens team lost narrowly to Andorra. Mas is not his usual self and lost too easily. Both Khai Boon and Mok Tze Meng again showed they are not prepared in the opening. Mok only drew against a player he should be expected to beat on ratings alone. Khai Boon blundered a pawn in the opening and as they say, the result was never in doubt.

Peter played his usual Reti/English setup and won rather easily, in fact I think he is the first to finish. What he showed is interesting and should be of value to others and those who will play in future olympiads. You do not have to do anything special to beat weaker players. Just playing to your strength is enough. It also helps that he is a positional player and not rely on too much tactics which can rebound on you.

Both the senior women players showed why experience matters when they drew their games to give Malaysia a point against a strong Dutch team.

Alia did not have a worse middle-game position but time trouble and inexperienced lead to a defeat. A draw would have given the young girl her first WIM norm. But she stands very good chances because a win in the next round will be sufficient for the norm.