The Online Olympiad for People with Disabilities is now entering its 6th Round with Malaysia Team 1 in 28th position and Malaysia Team 2 in 49th position. For tonight’s game – starting at 10:00pm on www.tornelo.com, Malaysia Team 1 will be going against Canada on Table 16 while Malaysia Team 2 has been paired with Armenia on Table 24.

Both Malaysia Team 1 and Team 2 had very rocky starts losing both of their opening Round 1 and Round 2 games. Team 1 did slightly better after picking up the pace going into Round 3, 4 and 5, but unfortunately for Team 2 – although they did well to win in Round 3, the team continue to struggle in Round 4 and 5.

Malaysia Team 1 started off with a 0.5 point steal from Hungary in their first round encounter and another 1.5 points from Bangladesh in the proceeding round. The team did well in Round 3 to trounce Nicaragua 4-0 but drew with Armenia in the ensuing Round 4. In yesterday’s Round 5 encounter, Malaysia Team 1 did well to beat France 3-1 to amass a total of 5 match points with 11.0 game points. Aqilah Syahira Ahmad has been the highest point contributor for Malaysia Team 1 scoring a perfect 4 points out of 4 games with Saharuddin Mappa, Loo Pin Xie and Norazlin Juarih each contributing 2 points from their played games.

Malaysia Team 2 had a nightmare start losing 0-4 to Colombia 1 in their Round 1 encounter and managed to steal 1.5 points from their Round 2 encounter against Colombia 2. Things took drastic turns in the next 2 rounds – thrashing Kenya 4-0 in Round 3 but losing by the same margin against Bangladesh in Round 4. In their 5th round game against Turkey last night, Malaysia Team 2 drew 2-2. Malaysia Team 2 is now 49th in the ranking with 3 match points and 7.5 game points collected. Top scorer for the team are top boards 1 and 2 – Muhd Ikmal Faiz and Mohd Johar Johari respectively, with 2 points each.

The results and updates for the event can be found at http://chess-results.com/tnr539368.aspx?lan=1&art=63&turdet=YES&flag=30

While it looks bleak for both our Malaysian Teams to qualify for the next round, Team Captains Masrin Erowan (Malaysia 1) and Muhammad Khairy Jansar (Malaysia 2) are optimistic that both teams can improve their final ranking to be in the top 20 for Team 1 and top 40 for Team 2 compare to their initial seeding of 50th and 52nd respectively.

All the best to our Malaysian Team for you have already made us proud on the performances that you have shown. Two (2) more rounds to go!!! GO GO GO #togetherwecan