IndonesiaBase

When Baris M Hutagalung was in his zone, no body could stop him. Not Max Arie Wotulo, not Arovah Bachtiar, and not everyone else. Baris came out as a convincing winner in the 6th Indonesia National Championship. He collected a massive 10 VP from 12 games for the first place. The runner-ups were Max and Merlep Ginting with 9 VP.

How often do you see a ten years old kid beat a GM? Muhammad Ihsan Siregar did just that in 2nd Lampung Chess Festival. He beat GM Ardiansyah in 53 moves at 8th round. The win also meant a Percasi Master norm for him. Ihsan was not the only player who got a norm. Four players grabbed NM norms and seven ones nailed PM norms.

As part of the preparation for the World Championship Match, Dr Machgielis (Max) Euwe visited Indonesia in 1930. Euwe played many games, literally hundreds of them, at the cities of Sumatera and Java. Beside playing simultaneous exhibitions, Euwe played matches with the best local players on equal terms.

Twenty four cities from seventeen countries participated in this event. Total players was 116 with 18 GMs, 2 WGMs, 11 IMs, and 1 WIM. GM Wesley Barbasa So (2667), GM Yu Yangyi (2652), GM Lǐ Chāo (2646), GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev (2618), and GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (2606) were the top rated players.

The tournament was a double success for Indonesian WFM Lindri Juni Widjajanti. First she got a WIM title. Secondly she won the tournament and went through to the interzonal in Swiss. Lindri actually tied for first with ex-Russian Irina Berezina of Australia. The champion was going to be decided in a play-off but Irina returned home for health reasons.

The final stage had never been played. The cause was something tragically funny. It was ‘funny’ because it didn’t make sense. We said ‘tragic’ since that funny cause was responsible for halting the most important national chess event in Indonesia. The lesson is we should stick to an agreement once it has already been made.

GM Ruben Gunawan was one of the most talented players to have ever graced Indonesia. Many believed his talent was better than that of GM Utut Adianto. Ruben showed his potential at the early age when he won National Championship U16 at Bandung 1982. The achievement gave him the right to play in Asian Junior Championship 1983.