IndonesiaBase

Indonesian number one, Utut Adianto, played a match of his life. He led until the penultimate round by winning one game in normal time control and another in rapid. Anatoly Karpov levelled the scoreline after winning the last round played in blindfold. Karpov rode his luck when finally he won the decider in a blitz game.

Overseas players dominated the arena. No Indonesian players were found in the big ten. The best Indonesian player was Denny Juswanto at 11th. A consolation prize for the host came from Sebastian Simanjuntak. He secured IM norm with Myanmar’s Zaw Win Lay and Philippines’ Luis Chiong Romero.

The tryouts involved three clubs and two DKI Jakarta teams. The members of DKI Jakarta PON (Pekan Olahraga Nasional or National Games) team were Ardiansyah, Sutan Aritonang, Sarwan Ginting, Herman Kusnadi, and Denny Juswanto. Ardiansyah didn’t participate in these tryouts since he was playing abroad.

Indonesian ace Utut Adianto Wahyuwidayat added another highlight to his already glittering résumé although this time he had to share it with Jörg Hickl, an eccentric player from Germany. For Hickl the win should be relief after his disastrous performance in another tournament in Indonesia that left him in the bottom of the table.

Salor Sitanggang took the title in the expense of much higher rated players such as Ardiansyah, Edhi Handoko, and Ronny Gunawan. The way Sitanggang handled the end games reminds us of a 2600+ rated player. The elo favourites, Edhi Handoko and Ronny Gunawan, were surprisingly out of sorts, only placed in 4th and 9th.

World Microcomputer Chess Championship (WMCCC) was an annual event organised by the ICGA. In this 14th WMCCC in Jakarta, Stefan Meyer-Kahlen’s Shredder from Germany became the champion. Israel’s Junior had been denied entry to Indonesia and as a result a number of programs pulled out in protest.

Male players in a women chess event? Indeed. Irwanto Sadikin and Edhi Handoko played ruthlessly and placed themselves on the top two. The tournament winner, Sadikin, let only two draws and trounced the other nine. The best female player was Evi Lindiawati from Indonesia at fourth.