IndonesiaBase

All members of Indonesian team for Bled Chess Olympiad 2002 participated. They were GM Cerdas Barus, IM Ivan Situru, FM Irwanto Sadikin, FM Awam Wahono, Andi Ahmad Nur Jabal, and Susanto Megaranto. Susanto drew the most of spectators’ attentions. At fifteen he was the hottest rising star in Indonesia.

National Master Jumadi from Semarang City took the number one spot in convincing style. He scored full 5 VP as in many rounds. The preliminaries of the Provincial Games (Pekan Olahraga Daerah) were organised by each residency (keresidenan) of Central Java province to choose its representatives.

National Master Ruddy Lantang sponsored a rating chess tournament. It filled the void of international chess events in Indonesia where non-rated players could play and get ratings. According to FIDE regulations, to get rated in a Swiss System tournament a non-rated player should play at least four players with ratings.

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.

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 event witnessed the birth of a new era when young generation was finally able to catch up the older one. A new generation, led by 13 years old Medina Aulia, had taken over the mantle completely from WIM Upi Darmayana Tamin & co in the women section. Meanwhile, less than half of qualifying players had the age of 40+ in the men section.

The last round’s top five boards featured GM Torre-GM Đào, GM Barus-IM Sadikin, IM Purnama-GM Gagunashvili, GM Barua-IM Liu, and GM Megaranto-Andika. Barus, Gagunashvili, Liu, and Megaranto trounced their opponents while Torre made peace with Đào. The results handed the cup to GM Cerdas Barus from Indonesia.