Mission accomplished. WIM Irene Kharisma Sukandar successfully registered her first WGM norm. She was assured of the norm after settling for a draw with Slovene WGM Jana Krivec in the last round.
Earlier in the half way of the chess tournament the WGM norm prospect looked bleach for the 16-year old Indonesian. Her only full point came from the tail ender WFM Thandar Aye Win of Myanmar. Sukandar scored 2 VP in total meaning she needed to score 4 points for the last 5 games. She stunned everyone, herself included, by doing just that. She demolished the eventual champion WGM Lǐ Ruòfán in a 23-move miniature en route to her norm.
Filipino woman number one Catherine Chan Pereña too had a successful outing. She clinched her maiden WIM norm with one round to spare. She claimed victories over Thandar Aye Win and Jana Krivec in two consecutive rounds, 8 and 9.
The champion Lǐ Ruòfán of Singapore had justified her high rating. She took over the lead as early as round 2 and stayed on course until the end. Even her defeat to Sukandar in round 9 wasn’t enough to unseat her. Her closest rival was WGM Regina Pokorná of Slovakia who scored half a point back.
Sukandar needed only a few months to complete her full WGM title. She nailed other WGM norms in the 5th Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open in August and the Dresden Women Chess Olympiad in November to cap the year of 2008 as her annus mirabilis.