The city of Medan, North Sumatera, had an honor to host the 1st Indonesia National Age Group Chess Championship. Erwanto Wahjoewidajat represented the Special Capital Region of Jakarta. Tommy Supriyanto and Edhi Handoko played for the Special Region of Yogyakarta and Central Java respectively. South Borneo and three provinces in Sumatera also sent their players.
The late Anniswati was the wife of the then Percasi Chairman, Machnan Kamaluddin. The tournament under her name sought to rejuvenate Indonesian women chess. Indonesia placed as high as 11th in the 1996 Women Chess Olympiad. But since Upi Tamin’s victory in Asian Championship a year later, Indonesian chess had been in decline.
Gunadarma have been relentlessly treating Indonesian chess fans with a plethora of chess events over decades. In the year of 2002 they came up with an event in a new format, an individual chess league. The league was planned to have 8 legs. The best 24 players from master and 8 from non-master group would go to the grand final.
The 17th Indonesia National Chess Championship introduced many new faces. IM Ardiansyah, Jacobus Sampouw, and Arovah Bachtiar still sat down on top but Monang Sinulingga, Ridwan Gozali, Mukmin Panggabean, MHS Nainggolan, Abdul Azis Riduan, and the other usual suspects were nowhere to be found in the big 20. The reigning champion Herman Suradiradja didn’t participate since he was playing abroad.
GM Yuri Lvovich Averbakh of USSR visited Indonesia for the second time. The first was in 1956. This time he wasn’t alone. He was accompanied by a promising player Vladimir Konstantinovich Bagirov. Percasi (All Indonesia Chess Federation) held two 8-match tournaments to pay tribute to the players.
The host chess players registered a huge success in this event. Three players nailed new titles. Bayu Suharjito (48-year old) and Pasek Budarsa (51) grabbed an FM title and a new Elo rating of 2318 while Iin Kadek Dwijayanti (27) secured a WFM title. The other Bali player FM Zulkifli Tunasly went to the top to capture the tournament trophy.
The Indonesian-first-GM-to-be Herman Suradiradja won the 1975 National Chess Championship and deservedly so. He left a big chasing group one full VP behind. The pre-tournament favorite and defending champion IM Ardiansyah, Arovah Bachtiar, and seven other players belonged to that group.
