The 1967 National Chess Championship adopted a new format. First the participants, 30 of them, were divided into 4 qualification pools. From there 12 players plus the defending champion Ong Yok Hwa advanced to the final phase. Arovah Bachtiar and Ong dominated the final with 9 VP each. In the play-off Arovah beat Ong convincingly 2-0.
Chinese GM with a baby face, Lǐ Chāo won the tournament on a better Solkoff to Anand’s second in the last World Chess Championship, Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly. On the last day of the tournament, round 9, Lǐ beat GM Sandro Mareco while Ganguli couldn’t capitalize anything rather than draw againts the top seed of this event, GM Wáng Yuè.
The chess event was designed thoughtfully to pave away unrated players to get ratings. The list of participants showed a good balance between the number of rated players and the non rated ones. The number of rounds was unusual long 11 for a Swiss System tournament with only 50 players participated.
At first the chess event was in danger of being downgraded to an IM level tournament. A few days before it started, none of the invited GMs had ensured their participation. GM Balinas couldn’t make to Jakarta. Neither could Belgian GM O’Kelly. GM Torre still enjoyed his honeymoon. GM Quinteros had to be back immediately to his country.
We have to admit that Indonesia doesn’t have many chess periodicals. It’s even sadder to learn that most of them had only a brief appearance. The exception was Tijdschrift Nederlandsch-Indischen Schaakbond which had 25 years of lifespan. Here we list chess periodicals that have ever been published in Indonesia.
Perusahaan Listrik Negara (State Power Company) sponsored the event. It was no coincidence since the chairman of the company, Eddie Widiono, was also the chairman of Percasi (All Indonesia Chess Federation). For Slovene WIM Jana Krivec and Indonesian WFM Irene Sukandar, the tournament was a hunting ground for the WGM title.
Tan Hoan Liong, aka Tan Hiong Liong, has a special place in Indonesian chess history. He was the first Indonesian to hold International Master title, or any international title awarded by FIDE in that matter. Tan got the title after his achievement in Hoogovens Tournament at Beverwijk, Netherlands 1963.
