Aggressive play backfires as Irene crash in greece

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An aggressive move backfired on Irene Kharisma Sukandar as the 11-year-old Indonesian girl crashed to her second defeat in the sixth round of the World Youth Chess Championships in Halkidiki, Greece, on Tuesday.

Irene went down to Evelien Moernaut of Belgium in 45 moves of a French game in the girls' under-12 competition at Hotel Pallini Beach in Halkidiki, reports said here on Wednesday.

It was her second loss, the other coming at the hands of Krishna Inapuri Ramya in the fourth round.

Irene, who has also booked three wins and a draw, remains on 3.5 points to drop out of the top 20 in the provisional standings, with another five games to play.

Women's FIDE Master (WFM) Sopiko Guramishvili of Georgia consolidated her grip on the top with a perfect 6 points after she beat rival and defending champion WFM Tan Zhongyi of China.

China, which is fielding four players in the U-12 category, still has Ding Yixin in strong contention with half a point behind the leader. Hazel Smith of Canada followed in third on 5 points.

Irene, who played the white pieces, apparently played too aggressive against a French defense developed by Moernaut, according to her companion Kristianus Liem.

"Gaining a chance to take a pawn and a prospect of destroying the opponent's king's side as well, Irene promptly used her g2-g4 pawns to realize her offensive tactics," Kristianus said.

"Such a frontal attack normally needs accurate calculation of moves and the player shouldn't stall in maneuver. However, Irene made a mistake by needlessly moving her queen to d3," he said.

The move, he said, gave Moernaut her chance to counterattack.

"Evelien always looked to have the right counteract moves. On the other hand, Irene faltered with a fatal mistake on move 26 when she played a bishop to e3 square in effort to shun a check by a rook on e8.

"She should have defended with her own rook on e2, which might have brought the game close to the end.

"Consequently, Irene had to give up her queen with only a rook and a bishop as compensation. The game was then totally under Evelien's charge," Kristianus said.

Irene seemed to be shocked by the defeat. "I was pressuring with a pawn up when I made a mistake which turned out to jeopardize my position," she said, failing to hold her tears.

Kristianus said that the defeat had not completely shut out Irene's chances of taking a place in the top ten as she was aiming for.

"If she can take four points from the remaining five games, the target would be safe in hands," Kristianus said.

Irene will face Jessica Drobrzenski of Brazil in the seventh round.

Irene Kharisma Sukandar-Evelien Moernaut 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Qb6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.a3 c4 7.Nbd2 Nge7 8.b3 cxb3 9.Nxb3 Nf5 10.Bd3 Be7 11.Qc2Kh4 13.Nxh4 Bxh4 14.Bxh7+ Kh8 15.Rb1 Qd8 16.Qd3 f6 17.Qh3 fxe5 18.g5 Kxh7 19.Qxh4+ Kg8 20.Qh3?! Qe8 21.Rg1 Qg6 22.Rb2 exd4 23.cxd4 e5 24.Qh4 exd4 25.Nxd4 Re8+ 26.Be3 Re4 27.Nxc6 bxc6 28.Qg3 Rg4 29.Qxg4 Bxg4 30.Rxg4 Qe6 31.Rh4 Qe5 32.Rc2 Re8 33.Kd2 Qd6 34.Ra4 Rc8 35.Bc5 Qxh2 36.Rxa7 Re8 37.Bd4 Qf4+ 38.Kc3 Qf3+ 39.Kb2 Rb8+ 40.Kc1 Qh1+ 41.Kd2 Rb1 42.Rxg7+ Kf8 43.Rb2 Qe1+ 44.Kc2 Qd1+ 45.Kc3 Rc1+ 0-1