The Malaysian Women’s Team of Chua Jia Tien, Ding Dao En, Divyadarrshini Loganathan and Agnes Chong Kai Ni almost made it to the Semifinals rounds, but their last round encounter with the team from Down Under proved to be too much for our girls. Had the girls won – by any margin, it would have been glory for our girls but sadly, they missed the opportunity.
Coming into the 7th round, the Malaysian were paired against Myanmar on the 3rd day of play and did well to trounced their much higher seeded opponent by a score line of 3.5 – 0.5. The following Round 8, Malaysia were paired against our southern neighbor Singapore and were held to a 2-2 draw in a very interesting match which was a rollercoaster ride – losing at some point but surprisingly, it evolved into winning positions.
For their final round outing, the team were paired with Australia in the last round and if the girls had won – even my the smallest of margin, and depending on the scores of the other team, Malaysia might just be able to squeeze through to make history by advancing to the Semifinal rounds. But it was not meant to be – the girls started on a 0-4 score in their first round encounter and lost the last round of the tournament by the same margin. But all in all, the girls did us proud to finish in 16th placing – 5 places higher than their initial ranking, winning 4 matches and drawing 1, to end with 9 match points out of a possible 18.
WFM Chong Kai Ni was Malaysia’s best performer, bagging 7 points out of 9 rounds.
For the Men’s Team, the final 3rd day continued to provide challenges for the team to rise. Although the team did reasonably well to finish the first two days of play with 6 match points from 6 games, they only manage to add 2 more match points in the final day of play after a surprise loss to our northern neighbor Thailand in Round 7 and another loss to Syria in Round 8. The team were lucky to salvage a win in the final Round 9 against UAE who forfeited one game allowing our boys to edge 2.5-1.5 for a narrow win.
At the end of the tournament, Malaysia were placed 26th which justify their initial 25th ranking from 38 countries participating. Poh Yu Tian was Malaysia’s best performer earning 6 points out of 9 rounds.
The Malaysian Chess Federation congratulates all players for the commitment and effort while participating in the event, and look forward to their continuous progress and development in the years to come. MCF would also like to thank captains Subramanian Sivanesan and Chua Jia Tien, and MCF HOD Iwan Schani Ibnu, for managing the team throughout the competition duration.
