Jakarta flops in Asian Cities team chess tour<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Without grandmasters Utut Adianto and Edhi
\nHandoko, Jakarta could not defend its title at the 10th Asian
\nCities Team Chess Championship in Dubai, the United Arab
\nEmirates, which ended on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Jakarta, which won the biannual tournament in 1992 and 1994
\nfinished fifth with 21.5 points. Tashkent and Samarkand of
\nUzbekistan came first and second respectively after both scored
\n25.5 with a solkov difference of 10. Solkov refers to the scores
\ncollected by one's opponents.<\/p>\n
Ashkabad of Turkmenistan and Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam
\nfinished third and fourth. The two cities also ended up with
\n22.5. A solkov difference of 8.5 put Ashkabad ahead of Ho Chi
\nMinh City. As winners, Tashkent, Samarkand and Ashkabad were
\nawarded US$6,000, $4,000 and $3,000 respectively in prize money.<\/p>\n
Jakarta lost Utut, currently the country's number one
\ngrandmaster, and senior grandmaster Edhi, to Bandung. The capital
\nof West Java has the right to include Utut and Edhi in its team
\nbecause both Utut and Edhi live in Tangerang, one of Jakarta's
\nsuburbs in West Java.<\/p>\n
As a result, Jakarta's team was weakened, Jakarta's team
\ncaptain Danny Yuswanto told The Jakarta Post from Dubai
\nyesterday. Even though Jakarta's third and fourth players
\nremained as strong as they were in 1992 and in 1994, without Utut
\nand Edhi, they could not achieve much.<\/p>\n
Bandung could not make it either. Its new acquisitions, Utut
\nand Edhi, are fine as its first and second players. But its third
\nand fourth players could not fully support them, Danny said.<\/p>\n
Until the sixth round, Jakarta was running fifth with 17
\npoints, half a point ahead of Bandung, Danny said. But in the
\nseventh round, Jakarta was beaten by Tashkent with 3.5-0.5 and
\nBandung only managed to draw with Singapore for a 2-2 result.
\n\"This meant that in order to win the tournament, we had to beat
\nthe other former republics of the Soviet Union 4-0, which was
\nquite impossible,\" Danny said.<\/p>\n
Jakarta fielded a full team in the last two rounds, the eight
\nand the ninth round. But Bandung, realizing it stood a very
\nremote chance of winning, fielded only reserve players and
\nfinished eight with 20.5 points.<\/p>\n
The only consolation for the Indonesians, however, was in the
\nrapid chess tournament held alongside the championship. In the
\nrapid chess tournament, Bandung won first place with 27 points,
\nfollowed by Samarkand with 24 points. The Kazakhstani city of Pav
\nLodar, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta finished third, fourth and
\nfifth respectively.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian squads are expected to arrive home tomorrow.
\n(arf)<\/p>",
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