IndonesiaBase

The world’s youngest GM, 14-years old Wesley Barbasa So of Philippines, continued his amazing streak. A few days after winning 10th Dubai Open, he dominated GM Susanto Megaranto in a one-on-one match at Piramid Building, Senayan Jakarta, in April 2008. The final score was 4-2 for the Pinoy player.

The event would be long remembered. Not only it reached a milestone (10th) and was held in ‘the chess city’ Banjarmasin, South Borneo, but also became a witness to the emerging of the best Indonesian player for years to come. He was 17 years old high school graduate from East Java, Ardiansyah.

The event was a part of Women World Championship 1993-1996 cycle. Seven seats were available towards Candidate Matches. The top seeds, GM Pia Cramling and GM Maia Chiburdanidze with their towering ratings, seemed to have owned the two seats. The rest of players were going to battle for the five left spots.

The more the merrier. The phrase was best to describe the chess event in the 7th Pekan Olahraga Nasional or PON (National Games) 1969 at Surabaya. The PON held chess event for the first time. No less than 152 players of 25 provinces took part. Up to the year of 1969 it went down in history as the biggest in terms of the number of participants.

Indonesia defeated Australia 6.5-3.5 in an internet U16 chess match on April 21, 2012. The Australian team was made up of players most aged 14 or 15. The Indonesian team included younger players between 10-15 who had already achieved Asian or ASEAN titles. The scoreline didn’t even do justice to reflect Indonesian team domination.

The 1967 National Championship adopted a new format. First the participants, 30 of them, were divided into 4 qualification pools. From there 12 players plus the defending champion Ong Yok Hwa advanced to the final phase. Arovah Bachtiar and Ong dominated the final with 9 VP each. In the playoff Arovah beat Ong convincingly 2-0.

Chinese GM with a baby face, Lǐ Chāo won the tournament on a better Solkoff to Anand’s second in the last World Championships, Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly. On the last day of the tournament, round 9, Lǐ beat GM Sandro Mareco while Ganguli couldn’t capitalise anything rather than draw againts the top seed of this event, GM Wáng Yuè.