Olympiad Round 8. Singapore pipped 2.5-1.5 by Belgium by Junior T

Facing a higher rated team for the first time, Singapore went down narrowly to 41st seed Belgium. Ravindran uncorked a brilliant novelty, temporarily sacrificing a Knight in the Open Ruy and was poised regain it with equality when he soon allowed an intermezzo which simply wins a pawn by force. There was no respite for him and he got ground down after his opponent forced massive exchanges.

Daniel F on the other hand, took the fight to his opponent, playing the sharpest continuations at every opportunity. His opponent shed pawns to stem his initiative and Daniel proceeded to return most of them to reach a winning Rook and Pawns endgame.

GM Zhang Zhong's game with GM Dgebuadze had both sides refusing to give way and no one could prove an edge and the resulting draw with bare kings sums it up aptly..an even fight!

Li Ruofan played uncompromisingly too. She engaged her GM opponent in a tremendous street brawl and only in the late endgame did she falter and miss the draw. Even with her losses, the local online viewers were impressed with her never say die attitude!