Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Round 11: Malaysia meets Norway!

The final round of the Tromso Olympiad will continue on Thursday, 14th August 2014 as today is a rest day. History awaits Malaysia as we are drawn to meet Norway! As the home team, Norway is always playing on the third boards and their matches are always covered on their local TV stations. Our boys will be in the limelight in the final round.

I hope Carlsen will play and give our IM Lim Yee Weng a chance of a life-time to play with a world champion in a proper tournament. Carlsen lost to Ivan Saric in the 10th round so he may not take another risk to lose more rating points.

China is poised to make history as she has a one point lead over second placed Hungary. China plays Poland which has done much better than its original ranking. They beat Bulgaria in the 10th round. A draw may be enough for China to take gold on tie-breakers as they have beaten their nearest rival, Hungary.

The Chinese team have been outstanding on all boards. They only lost one game (Wang Yue against Leko)! GM Ding Liren and GM Yu Yangyi making their first olympiad appearance is the revelation of the tournament. They are not that known on the world stage, although they are familiar names in Asia. Ding Liren is performing at 2801 while Yu Yangyi is at a staggering 2902 and this shows that China fully deserves to be at the top.

Hungary meets Ukraine for a shot at the silver. Ukraine must win to have any medal prospects. Top seed Russia meets third seed France and this is also another possible medal match. All in all, this will be a most exciting finish to the Tromso Olympiad.

4 comments:

Ilham said...

Whatever the result against Norway is...you guys already create a sensation....makes me proud to inform my daughters and friends 'hey, I know them all...malaysiam heroes at chess olympiad! '

Anonymous said...

Wang Yue lost to Peter Leko in Round 3, not to Kramnik.


Jimmy Liew said...

Thanks, I have made the correction.

Simon said...

Unfortunately, Magnus Carlsen is not playing ...

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