This is where the legendary Japfa Festival began. Following the successful chess events that they held in the past, Japfa Comfeed Indonesia decided to hold a giant chess event. They dubbed it as a festival rather than a tournament and they really meant it. The inaugural Japfa Festival broke the record as the chess event with the most participants in Indonesia. It was attended by 556 players.
Romanian IM Alina l’Ami, a familiar face to Indonesian chess public, became the top seed. She was followed by Georgian WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and Philippine WGM Janelle Mae Frayna as the second and third seed respectively. The host expected that their players, especially the ones with the most wordy names WIM Chelsie Monica Ignesias Sihite and WIM Dewi Ardhiani Anastasia Citra, to register a WGM norm.
One of the oldest chess clubs in Indonesia, Tunas Jaya, held a FIDE rated tournament for the first time. It attracted 72 players with 9 FIDE titled ones among them. FM Johan Gunawan and IM Tirto became the top seeds. The unrated and untitled Agus Santoso emerged as the champion. Agus had the best tiebreaks in a 4-way tie with Hasian Panggabean, Gerald Pramoedya Priguna, and Ricky Rismanto.
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 afterwards. She said to a reporter 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.
