Young Susanto leads national chess competition<\/p>\n
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Sixteen-year-old Susanto Megaranto is assured of becoming the
\nleader of the national chess league after the competition
\ncompleted six of its planned eight legs at the weekend.<\/p>\n
The official standing has yet to be released, but, given the
\nsixth leg's matches, in which Susanto came out runner-up behind
\nFIDE Master (FM) Irwanto Sadikin, his climb to the top of the
\nleague is unstoppable.<\/p>\n
Edhi Handoko, who had led the league after five legs, was
\ndoomed to lose his place when he fell to a disgraceful mid table
\nin the sixth leg's matches.<\/p>\n
The two-day matches were staged at the Sumanti Chess Center in
\nTanah Abang, Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The inaugural chess league, which was launched in August last
\nyear, is played in a monthly cycle, each being staged for two
\ndays, usually on Saturdays and Sundays.<\/p>\n
The matches are being played over nine rounds in rapid chess
\nwith 25 minutes of thinking time allowed for each player.<\/p>\n
The top 24 players in the master division and top eight in the
\nnon-master division will qualify for the knock-out stage of the
\ngrand final in March.<\/p>\n
The league had an initial entry of 140 players at the start,
\nbut the number has been reduced by more than half since then.<\/p>\n
\"The players with only slight chances of advancing to the next
\nstage are beginning to abandon their matches. It's deplorable.
\nI'd love to have them in the competition throughout,\" Bunawan,
\nthe tournament director, told The Jakarta Post here on Monday.<\/p>\n
The weekend's matches featured 66 players.<\/p>\n
Bunawan also complained about a lack of interest on the part
\nof national top masters although the league offered overseas
\ntrips to the winners.<\/p>\n
Grand Master (GM) Ruben Gunawan, GM Cerdas Barus, and
\nInternational Master (IM) Danny Juswanto are among the Indonesian
\nchess masters who have decided to skip the competition.<\/p>\n
Edhi Handoko is the only GM in the tournament. He lived up to
\nhis status by winning the fourth leg in addition to his generally
\nconsistent performance in the other legs.<\/p>\n
However, the 42-year-old crashed at the weekend, collecting
\nonly 5 points out of a possible 9.<\/p>\n
Irwanto, who took the third leg, finished top after amassing 8
\npoints. Susanto, the winner of the first and fifth legs, came
\nsecond with 7.5 points followed by Reza Achmad a point behind.<\/p>",
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