Handoko won a category X tournament for the first time in his life and he did it in convincing manner. He won five games and let only one loss. He topped the table ahead of many strong GMs: Vladislav Tkachiev, Grigory Serper, Zbyněk Hráček, Pavel Blatný, and a bunch of Chinese best players Xú Jùn, Yè Jiāngchuān, Xiè Jūn, and Yè Róngguāng.
The triumph also meant that Handoko got his third GM norm and nailed the title that used to elude him. Did he finally came to age? Hardly to say so. Handoko had already been 34 but the fact that he got his GM was such a relief. It would be a crime should a player with an enormous talent end his career without it.
In the past we had players wasted their GM norm because they could not complete it to full title in the required time span. The examples were IM Ronnny Gunawan (got GM norm in Jakarta 1986) and IM Denny Juswanto (Wotulo Memorial 2001, Makita Lakoni 2004).