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 scoreline 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.
Very disappointing. That sums up the performance of Indonesian players in the 3rd ASEAN Championship. No player was able to achieve more than 50% of VP, let alone won the championship trophies. Yoseph Theolifus Taherr, a last minute addition, was the only one who made a notable result. He scored 50% or 5.5 VP which was good enough to register a 10-round IM norm.
The massive Elo rating favourite GM Sergei Tiviakov failed to assert his domination in the 10th Japfa Festival GMs Tournament. He dragged down himself even further by playing a suspicious game against his student IM Irene Kharisnma Sukandar. He lost easily in a Scandinavian game. Tiviakov tried to ward off the suspicion, “I have taught her everything I know about the opening.”
Monang Sinulingga had a unique style of play. The movement of his chess pieces often surprised his opponents. He did not hesitate to sacrifice the chess pieces that have become the hallmark of the Karo chess. Pieces like rooks or queens were “not very valuable” to him. He has left for good but his golden trails stay with us.
The chess match became an event for the Indonesian hopeful young talent IM Novendra Priasmoro to hunt the Grand Master (GM) title. His current Elo rating, 2495, was still shy away from the minimum requirement of 2500. In this match Novendra was going to play Vietnamese GM Nguyễn Anh Dũng for 6 rounds.
