Twenty four cities from seventeen countries participated in this event. Total players was 116 with 18 GMs, 2 WGMs, 11 IMs, and 1 WIM. GM Wesley Barbasa So (2667), GM Yú Yāngyī (2652), GM Lǐ Chāo (2646), GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev (2618), and GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (2606) were the top rated players.
The tournament was a double success for Indonesian WFM Lindri Juni Widjajanti. First she got a WIM title. Secondly she won the tournament and went through to the Interzonal. Lindri actually tied for first with ex-Russian Irina Berezina of Australia. The champion was going to be decided in a play-off but Irina returned home for health reasons.
The final stage has never been played. The cause was something tragically funny. It was ‘funny’ because it didn’t make sense. We said ‘tragic’ since that funny cause was responsible for halting the most important national chess event in Indonesia. The lesson is we should stick to an agreement once it has already been made.
The tournament was jam packed with seven 2600+ GMs out of ten participants. Top flight GMs like Michał Krasenkow, Mikhail Gurevich, and Ivan Sokolov were on the list. Veteran GM Lajos Portisch won the event without playing in full gear. He was a full point ahead of the runner-ups, GM Utut Adianto, GM Eugenio Torre, and GM Krasenkow.
The event witnessed the birth of a new era when young generation was finally able to catch up the older one. A new generation, led by 13-year-old Medina Aulia, had taken over the mantle completely from WIM Upi Darmayana Tamin & co in the women section. Meanwhile, less than half of qualifying players had the age of 40+ in the men section.
The last round’s top five boards featured GM Torre-GM Đào, GM Barus-IM Sadikin, IM Purnama-GM Gagunashvili, GM Barua-IM Lioe, and GM Megaranto-Andyka. Barus, Gagunashvili, Lioe, and Megaranto trounced their opponents while Torre made peace with Đào. The results handed the cup to GM Cerdas Barus from Indonesia.
Eight teams from cities/regencies of East Java province battled for Percasi Cup. As predicted Surabaya team won the cup. The only team who gave them a fierce challenge was Jember. Surabaya performance was highly boosted by their third board player, Machfud. Machfud excelled from the rest of pack by scoring 100%.
