Olympiad R6-R8

R6: MAS-SMR

4-0. Good.


R7: MAS-ICSC

Well, our performance was overall mediocre, let's call it below par. It wasn't a disaster, but definitely not great either. We were more or less evenly matched on the first 2 boards, and had a rating advantage and disadvantage on the last 2. I had predicted a 1.5-2.5 loss, but we got 1-3. Not much difference in terms of match points anyway...

R8: SRI-MAS

I have one question for the Malaysian team:

Was Mas really THAT tired? Or have you guys really gone mad?

You must be kidding me, fielding a player who has not played a rated game in like, 7 years. The only chess he's been playing lately is blitz, and he's no good at it either. He has a peak rating of 1800 on playchess.com, or so I've heard.

Alright, so I was in the midst of writing this, and Greg just won. But that is not going to change what I think. First and foremost, just so we're clear, the fact of the matter is that Greg won just because he was lucky.

Honestly, how much time did you guys spend thinking of this? You fielded a player who has not played a serious game in over 7 years. Even Peter Long, who has been dormant for over a decade until just recently (2 years, which is not exactly 'recent') is not playing up to the standard that he used to have. How much more for Greg? Seriously, what winning chances did you think he had?

Seriously, is it so difficult for Mas to play? It's just a 2016 opponent; a lower rating than his 2085 Hong Kong counterpart. How much trouble did he have winning his R2 game? Yes, maybe it's arguable that his Sri Lankan opponent might be an underrated up-and-coming player, but based on what I see in his rating growth, the absolute maximum real strength I would ever possibly say he has is 2150, assuming his losses against players below 2000 never happened. How much energy do you need to beat a player more than 200 points below your not-inflated rating?

But then again, if we argue that the Sri Lankans are underrated, then it would be suicide to put Greg in anyway.

Now, I understand that it's incredibly tiring to play 8 games in a row; Humans who play proper chess come close to dropping dead at this point. But being experienced players who are playing a game associated with the question, "How many steps ahead can you see?", if you know this is coming, please plan ahead. Make this substitution in R2.

There is a rather high degree of batshit insanity involved when you have your first rated game in almost a decade against a person with a rating equal to yours. If you hope to win, that is.

Well, all this is based on the assumption that Mas was not sick or anything. If he really was sick, then sorry, ignore what I said. But otherwise, really, what were you guys thinking?

And now, for R9, we have Malaysia paired with Andorra. Their 4th and 5th board players are on a downward rating trend. If Greg plays this round, if he plays in the same way he did yesterday, I can only predict a draw for him at best. On the other hand though, neither of his potential opponents have won with black in the tournament...