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 Jurmansah 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 2nd Japfa 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 speculation, “I have taught her everything I know about the opening.”
NISB (Nederlands Indische Schaakbond) had since established a chess championship called Bondswedstrijden (Club Championship). The event had been held regularly from 1916 to 1940 at the big cities of Java. In the 1927 edition at Semarang, the pre-championship favorite Dirk Bleijkmans played strongly to win the crown for the 7th time.
The city of Medan, North Sumatera, had an honour to host the 1st Indonesia National Age Group Chess Championship. Erwanto Wahjoewidajat represented DKI Jakarta. Tommy Supriyanto and Edhi Handoko played for DI Yogyakarta and Central Java respectively. South Borneo and three provinces in Sumatera also sent their players.
Mission accomplished. WIM Irene Kharisma Sukandar successfully registered her first WGM norm. She was assured of the norm after settling for a draw with Slovene WGM Jana Krivec in the last round. Earlier in the half way of the chess tournament the WGM norm prospect looked bleach for the 16-year old Indonesian.
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.
