Cerdas, Antonio shine in Bali chess tourney

JAKARTA (JP): IM Cerdas Barus and GM Rogelio Antonio shared the lead in the 10th round of the Bali Jeff-RCA Grandmaster Chess Tournament, with each having 8.0 Victory Points on Tuesday.

Cerdas defeated NM Maksum Firdaus in the 33th move of the English opening while Antonio of the Philippines won over IM Tu Hoang Thong of Vietnam in the 35th move.

With Tuesday's victory, Cerdas only needs 3.5 Victory Points (VP) to win the GM Norm of the five rounds remaining.

For Cerdas to achieve the 11.5 VP will be a difficult task as he has to face five good players, namely IM Danny Juswanto, IM Nelson Mariano (Philippines), IM Bobby Kurniawan, Hong Thong and IM Ruben Gunawan.

Mariano and Hong Thong are considered strong contenders to match the local players.

Apart from Cerdas, Ruben is another contender who could grab the Grandmaster title should he score the 11.5 VP.

"I certainly hope to achieve the GM title from this tournament," said Ruben, who already holds the GM Norm for the Bank BNI international chess tournament in 1996.

Ruben scored 7.5 VP after beating IM Nasib Ginting.

Danny continued his victories by outwitting his senior GM Ardiansyah in the 41st move of the Queen Indian opening. Danny collected 6.5 VP.

Other results:

GM Edhi Handoko vs Bobby 1-0, IM Salor Sitanggang vs FM Irwanto 1/2-1/2, NM Tommy Supriyanto vs Mariano 0-1 and NM Kifly Tunasli vs NM Hamdani Rudin 1/2-1/2.

Rankings: Antonio and Cerdas 8.0 VP, Ruben 7.5 VP, Edhi and Danny 6.5 VP, Hamdani and Mariano 6.0 VP, Ardiansyah 5.5 VP, Hoang Thong 5.0 VP, Bobby 4.5 VP, and Nasib 4.0 VP. (lnt)