1993.02.??-?. Swiss 11 rounds. 20 players. Rating average 2351. IM norms: Cerdas Barus, Ronald Bancod. FM title: Ronald Bancod.
The event was to choose the FIDE Zonal 12’s representative for Interzonal Championship held at Biel in July 1993. Only one player would qualify.
The first seed GM Ian Rogers of Australia won the event with a full point cushion from the runner-ups, IM Darryl Johansen and FM Cerdas Barus. The final standings don’t tell the real story. In fact Rogers earned his victory a hard way.
It wasn’t clear who was going to win after the 7th round had finished. No less than six players still had realistic chances to win. Three players led with 5 VP: Rogers, Johansen, and IM Ruben Rodriguez. Following closely behind them with half a point adrift were Barus, FM Yang Xian, and GM Utut Adianto. The tension was mounting for the remaining four rounds. In those rounds Rodriguez, Yang, and Adianto could only registered 2 VP while Johansen and Barus grabbed 3 and 3.5 VP respectively. Unfortunately the achievements of the last mentioned players was not good enough for the first place. Rogers scored 100%, 4 VP from the last 4 rounds, to win the tournament.
The host players had a mixed success. Indonesian top player Adianto failed to win. In the other hand no Indonesian players scored less than 50%. Aside from IM Edhi Handoko, all Indonesian players gained rating additions including two FMs with the lowest ratings, Denny Juswanto and Ruben Gunawan. Barus even successfully fulfilled the IM norm.
Pinoy player Rodriguez was the giant killer of the event. He beat the two GMs, Rogers and Adianto. The veteran player, who was born in 1948, was a true fighter. He played without reserve: won 7 games, lost 4, and no draws.