After 2 rounds of 70 boards each, Malaysia 56 - Singapore 84 :P
OK, so I actually contributed Point No. 18 to Singapore on Saturday when I lost to SS, but I managed to bounce back and win a point on Sunday against AL, the girl I met in last year's tournament in Singapore..
I knew that when Malaysia lost 28-42 to Singapore on Saturday, it'd be impossible to erase the 14-board deficit on the second day.. But I never expected Malaysia to lose by the same margin on Sunday :P
But one thing I can truly vouch for is Singapore's fighting spirit.. Their coach, whom I presumed is called Nick, even had this special motto for their contingent.. The 5 Ns : Nick says Never be too Nice to our Northern Neighbours.. Very catchy.. haha :)
But then again, I guess we can predict who would win this year's challenge from the (lack of) preparations done by both countries.. Singapore had a 4-day training session prior to the meet, while most of our Malaysian players only got called up to play a few days before the actual date..
Last year, there was a full furore in Chess Malaysia, a mailing group for Malaysian chess.. Almost everyone was pointing fingers at everybody else over why we lost 64-76.. I'm sure the Singaporeans must be laughing their socks off.. One year later, not only did we fail to progress, we even regressed more than 2 folds :P
OK, so maybe I should take responsibility over the 1 point that I lost last Saturday.. Maybe next year, when I definitely won't be taking part, we'd have a better chance :/
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NHA at 1:15 PM ::
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