The match produced only one decisive game played in a classical time control in round 2 which was won by the Indonesian player. The other games ended in draws. With the results IM Irene Kharisma Sukandar beat IM Almira Skripchenko 2.5-1.5. Sukandar stayed humble as always. She said to a reporter afterwards that Skripchenko’s jet lag might contribute to her defeat.
Piala Raja held the FMs section for the second time. The current edition had more players than the previous one. It involved 10 players with 5 host players alongside 5 guest players. The purpose of the event was to give more playing time and chances to gain more ratings to the host players. The host also pinned their hope to their best player, Muhammad Kahfi Maulana, to race for the championship glory.
The first seed GM Anton Demchenko had every right to feel bad about himself. The champion trophy slipped through his fingers when he looked almost destined to grab it. The Russian GM led the tournament most of the time. He suffered 2 losses in the near end of the tournament that threw him down to the third at the standings. The winner was GM Timur Gareev of USA followed by Chinese GM Mǎ Qún as the runner-up.
The qualification phase for individual and team events was split into 5 zonals: Sumatra, Java, Bali-Borneo, Celebes, and Eastern Indonesia. The Java zonal qualification took place at the city of Cilacap, Central Java. This zonal was undoubtedly the most competitive zonal of all with star studded participants such as teams from West Java, DKI Jakarta, and East Java.
WGM Medina Warda Aulia played Philippine WGM Janelle Mae Frayna in a 5-round chess match. The event was held at the Ministry of Youth and Sport. It was part of Japfa Festival 2018. Medina was the second Indonesian WGM while Janelle was the first Philippine WGM. The question was not who was going to win the match but rather how big the margin of the final scores would be.
Kejaksaan Tinggi Jawa Timur (Office of High Prosecutor General of East Java) in collaboration with Percasi (All Indonesia Chess Federation) held an open chess tournament for the second time. It was very successful with 267 players from 4 countries (Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Philippine, and Malaysia) participating. The driving force behind it was no other than the Head of the Office himself, ESM Hutagalung.
The event was only a section of many of the 6th Piala Raja (King’s Cup) chess festival. The others were open FIDE rated, women, and age groups with more than 200 players involved. Six players participated in this inaugural FMs section: GM Cerdas Barus, IM Tirto, IM Dede Lioe, FM Anjas Novita, and 2 non-masters: Joni Jurmansyah and the local player Iwan Prihastomo.
