Awam wins, but fails to lift team over Brazil
Awam wins, but fails to lift team over Brazil
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia's Awam Wahono beat Darcy Lima in the ninth round of the
Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia, on Tuesday, but the win was not
enough to lift the team over Brazil, according to reports.
Bandung-based FIDE Master (FM) Awam, playing the black pieces,
devised a Catalan defense and took control of the queen's side
after 15 moves.
Lima shifted his pieces to the king's side for a possible
counterstrike, but Awam was able to fight off the danger. The
game ended after 45 moves.
Despite Awam's win, the Indonesian team could not avoid defeat
at the hands of the Brazilians, falling by the score of 1.5-2.5.
Fifteen-year-old Susanto Megaranto and Irwanto Sadikin lost to
Grand Master (GM) Rafael Leitao and GM Henrique Mecking,
respectively, while the match between Ivan Situru and GM Giovanni
Vescovi ended in a draw.
After allowing "outsiders" to move to the top of the
standings, European participants have begun to dominate the
tournament, with Russia, Hungary, England, Germany and Georgia
taking over the top five places in the standings.
China and India are lurking just out of the top five following
their defeats by Russia and England in the ninth round
respectively, each by the score of 1-3.
After resting in the ninth round, Cerdas Barus is set to
return for Indonesia's match against Iraq. It is hoped that
Cerdas will be able to continue his unbeaten run to push himself
closer to winning a GM title.
However, chess columnist Kristianus Liem said despite his
unbeaten streak, which has earned him an overall 7.5 points so
far, Cerdas should not expect automatically to be granted GM
status.
"It is still an outside chance for him (to win GM status)
because most of his wins have come at the expense of unrated
players or those with lower ratings than his," Kristianus said in
a release.
"If he fails, he will have to be content with being the
highest scoring player on board three to win a gold medal," he
said.
With the tournament having another three rounds to go,
Indonesia's has dropped to 62nd place with 20.5 points, tied with
Iraq, which played to a 2-2 draw with Venezuela in the 10th round
on Tuesday.