Pakistan's Prospects at the Chess Olympiad: Pakistan vs Qatar
Pakistan vs Qatar
Welcome to yet another piece of your favorite series on the internet, the olympiad review. I am going to be covering my home countries matches that they play in the 45th chess olympiad being held in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. In the last episode we met the team and its players, and unfortunately the boys got a meeting against a top European chess powerhouse, Bulgaria, which has produced the likes of Topalov. There were some bright spots that included FIDE master Amer Karim drawing against a much higher rated gm. This time the men's team took on Qatar, while the women took on the rainbow nation of South Africa. Let us delve in.
Team News
Pakistan kept the same 4 players from their encounter against Bulgaria, while the women's team did the same.
Here is the lineup:
Men's team
Board 1: Mfaaz Khalid vs International Master Aziz Hussain
Board 2: Fide Master Amer Karim vs Erfan Mohammad
Board 3: Momin Fayzan vs Muhammad Al Qasabi
Board 4: Mudassir Iqbal vs Turki Al Qawwari
Women's Lineup
Board 1: Sehba Shah vs Jesse February
Board 2: WCM Zenobia Wasif vs Chloe Badenhorst
Board 3: WCM Mehak Gul vs Julian Robyn Klassen
Board 4: Ayat Asmi vs Davida Strong
So without further ado, lets get into the men's match
Board 1: Team captain Mafaaz Khalid vs International Master Aziz Hussain
Mafaaz Khalid being the strongest player for Pakistan despite his low rating unfortunately met his match in the IM. But props to him for fighting till the end. The bright side is, this is the only loss that Pakistan incurred in this team match.
I feel bad for Mafaaz, but The International Master outplayed him.
Board 2: Fide master Amer Karim vs Erfan Muhammad
Another Easy win for Amir Karim.
Board 3: Momin Fayzan vs Muhammad Al Qasabi
This was going to be an easy win considering Momin was 500 ratings points higher. And its safe to say he pulled off a safe victory
A resounding win there. Well done.
Board 4: Mudassir Iqbal vs Turki al kuwari.
Mudassir is 500 up rating points, so another convincing win for the Pakistani team. Well done again. Pakistan won the team match 3 to 1, and The boys will face Kyrgyzstan next in what is going to be a Stan derby. Can't wait to see it.
Women's Team.
While the Men's team pulled off a resounding performance, I am sorry to report that Pakistan got defated by the South African women's team. In three matches South Africa pulled off convincing victories, whlie Woman Candidate Master Mehak Gul managed to salvage a draw. I do not want to discourage our players, but The rating difference between the rest of the world and our team on the women's side is just too low to not being noticed. Board 4 has a 1400, and though I dare say all of them are definitely better than me, its just too low to not notice. This does call for the awareness of chess and the empowerment of playing chess in Pakistan to produce better players. But I am hopeful for the next match, which is against Seychelles.
Board 1: Sehba Shah vs Jesse February
Unfortunately an easy win for team South Africa.
Board 2: WCM Zenobia Wasif vs Chloe Badenhorst
That was a shocking game.
Board 3: WCM Mehak Gul vs Robyn Klassen
That is a great game, and both sides did not have an outright advantage.
Board 4: Ayat Asmi vs Davida Strong
I dont wanna be too harsh on this game, as the rating difference was too much, so it's not a big problem. Hope the young prodigies learn from their experience and continue to benefit Pakistan in the future.
Thanks for tuning in, and tune in next time for a new blog.
