38 chess players compete in first series of Master Circuit
JAKARTA (JP): Thirty eight chess masters competed in the first series of the McDonalds Chess Master Circuit, which kicked off on Wednesday at the Utut Adianto Chess School in Bekasi.
The organizing committee chairman, Eka Putra Wirya, said during the opening ceremony that all international and national masters were given equal chances to compete in the Rp 8 million (US$1,081) competition, which will use the Swiss system.
The second series will take place in Padang, West Sumatra in March, the third series will be staged in East Kalimantan in July and the fourth series will be held in Bali in October.
The Indonesian Chess Federation (Percasi) executive director, Machnan Kamaluddin, expressed hope that Indonesia could create world-class chess players as the sport would be exhibited in the 2001 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur and would be officially featured in the 2003 Games in Vietnam.
Machnan expressed hope that Percasi would be able to stage an elo rating tournament next year as an effort to boost players' form.
The National Sports Council (KONI) secretary general, Rudolf S. Warouw, said in his opening speech that Percasi must increase its competition schedule if it wanted to create more world-class players such as Grand Master Utut Adianto in the future.
Utut, whose elo rating is 2,615, just broke the world record in simultaneous playing against 833 players in Surabaya on Sunday.
"Percasi will only achieve results from its impressive performance if it consistently stages national competitions and sends athletes abroad for international tournaments," he said.
The opening ceremony featured an exhibition match between world junior second runner-up Susanto Megantoro and Master International Cerdas Barus, and had Ruy Lopez in attendance.
Susanto, 12, had to bow out to Cerdas in the 44th move.
Chess observer Kristianus Liem said Susanto should have taken over Cerdas's fort in the 41st move but he moved his horse instead of taking it. (yan)