Ardiansyah downed in Pusam Cup

Ardiansyah downed in Pusam Cup

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Samarinda, East Kalimantan

Former national champion Grand Master (GM) Ardiansyah went down in a humiliating defeat against non-rated Achmadi Said in the second round of the Pusam Cup chess competition here on Tuesday.

The tournament's third seed, GM Edhi Handoko, was another top- level player who failed to live up to his billing. It was simply pure luck that he was able to narrowly escape a second shock later in the day when he found a move repetition to end the match in a draw against Risman Siahaan, who is also non-rated.

The pair chalked up easy wins on the opening day over little- known players, but on Tuesday they seemed to face different and surprising moves from outsiders.

Edhi, who played with Black, looked under pressure during the middle-game stage. But Risman failed to hold on to his advantage and inadvertently allowed Edhi to salvage the day with the latter's king retreating to a safe square.

Fifth seed Ardiansyah had to pay dearly for underestimating his opponent. He sacrificed a piece in the middle of the game only to find out that he had miscalculated the position and the opponent, who on the other hand, was unexpectedly skilled enough to recognize the plot.

In the end-game stage, Ardiansyah, who has represented Indonesia many times at the Chess Olympiad, was on the defensive with three pawns up, but it did not compensate for the loss of his piece. With his time control starting to fall, he endured a blistering attack and was forced to surrender in 54 moves.

The third grandmaster at the tournament, second seed Cerdas Barus, got off to a winning start with a perfect two points from two rounds. So did 16-year-old Susanto Megaranto, who is the reigning champion and top seed at the tournament.

After overcoming Nanang Abrani on the first day, Cerdas was still too strong for Lukman Effendi in the second round matches. He blunted Lukman's attempt of developing his pieces from the start and carried on for an easy win.

Susanto capitalized on a series of weak moves conceded by Asmuni Tanji to register his second win following his crushing defeat of Hanafiah in the opening round.

Another group of 25 players also ended the second round matches with a perfect two points each. Among them were Susanto's junior teammate Taufik Halay, FIDE Master (FM) Hamdani Rudin and FM Awam Wahono.