IndonesiaBase

Alexander Alekhine played Prof Willem Wertheim in an unknown event at Surabaya. At that time Alekhine was world champion while Wertheim was amongst the best players in Netherlands Indies (now Indonesia). Alekhine won rather easily. Wertheim lost his queen at move 29 but still refused to resign until 8 moves later.

Three best Indonesian players joined three world class women players to participate in this unique event. Indonesian players were hand in hand to lift Utut Adianto to the top spot but failed miserably. Adianto got 3.5 points of possible 4 from Indonesian players. Another sad day for fair play.

Ardiansyah edged out Fabian Lumentut with better solkoff to grab number one spot. Defending champion Denny Juswanto found himself at 8th. The Indonesian first GM, Herman Suradiradja, was anonymous most of the time. Losing to unheralded players like Hengky Wijaya was simply unacceptable for a player of his stature.

Edhi Handoko rekindled the memory of 1978 National Championship when he won the event as a teenager. New kid in town Nasib Ginting caught everyone off guard by taking runner up position only half points shy from Handoko. Amongst his victims are Ardiansyah and Ronny Gunawan.

Sopiko Guramishvili entered the event as runner up of Girl World Youth Chess Championship U12 2003 at Halkidiki, Greece. Sukandar placed herself at 6-9 in the same event. The gap of class between these two was arguably noticeable as Guramishvili showed her domination throughout.