1996.06.12-?. Round Robin 9 rounds. 10 players. Rating average 2566. Category XIII. GM norm 5.5. IM norm 3.5.
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. GM Eugenio Torre from Philippines found himself in a rare position. He was among the lowest rating players in the tournament. In fact he was the lowest rating GM. Only host players IM Dede Lioe and IM Ruben Gunawan had lower ratings than Torre’s.
A veteran GM, Lajos Portisch from Hungary, won the event without playing in full gear. He was a full point ahead of the runner-ups. Portisch began his campaign as early as in 1st round when he beat out-of-form GM Jörg Hickl. He collected 4.5 VP in first 5 rounds and drew the rest. His only win not coming from the tail-enders was against Krasenkow in 5th round.
Indonesian top player GM Utut Adianto played one of the most interesting games during the tournament in 2nd round. Behind black pieces he played a novelty in Queen’s Gambit Accepted which put his opponent, Krasenkow, on ropes. Unfortunately some Adianto’s inaccuracies let the Polish GM escape with a perpetual check. Adianto reiterated his will to win against Hickl in 4th round only to lose after tactical oversight. The loss was somewhat a wake-up call. Adianto then crushed hard-to-beat GM Ľubomír Ftáčnik in 6th round. Adianto’s hard work was rewarded with the second place.
Hickl had a complete disaster. Aside from being the bottom of the table, he also lost to Gunawan and Lioe whose ratings were about 200 below his. Would he have a revenge plan on his disposal? No doubt about it. He bounced back with vengeance in Bank BNI GMs a couple months later.