Cerdas, Awam draw for four-way lead in Pusam Cup
Cerdas, Awam draw for four-way lead in Pusam Cup
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Samarinda, East Kalimantan
Grand Master (GM) Cerdas Barus drew with FIDE Master (FM) Awam Wahono in their sixth-round match on Thursday, thus preventing anyone from pulling ahead to the top of the Pusam Cup chess tournament.
The two chess masters had been jointly leading in the tournament, having defeated their respective opponents in the fifth round late Wednesday, and having entered their game on Thursday. Another win by either player would crown him king.
The battle came to a compromise, and they had to be content with a half-point each, which allowed GM Edhi Handoko and Denny Sonjaya to catch up, with 5.5 points each on top of their provisional standings.
During the post-match analysis, Cerdas, who has a speech impediment, showed that he had overlooked a good move in the middle game, when he should have opted to move the queen to a3 instead of bishop to e3.
Cerdas, who played White, demonstrated how the queen move would have destroyed Black's queen-side to his advantage.
Awam said holding a Grand Master player like Cerdas to a draw with Black was a modest ending for him. "With us holding the opposite-colored bishops in such a position, a draw is unavoidable. I'm satisfied with the result," he said.
Edhi, who faced Cecep Kosasih, and Denny, who was paired against Salor Sitanggang, showed better composure over their opponents, each managing to establish an edge of one pawn ahead in the endgame for their wins.
Edhi devised a sharp Tarrasch Variation in defense and capitalized on Cecep's weak move to launch a lethal counteract. During the endgame stage, he trickishly exchanged his rook with bishop to pave way for an unstoppable promotion of his advancing pawn on the a-file.
Denny accepted a pawn sacrifice by Salor in the opening stage, while Salor established better spacing for his moves as compensation and advanced with pressure.
However, he faltered in the next moves, and Denny wrested the initiative and his plus-pawn decided the game.
Reigning champion Susanto Megaranto continued his rising performance by beating Laksana Agusta to collect 5 points, equal to that won by International Master (IM) Ivan Situru, Sudung Tampubolon and Sugeng Prayitno.
His junior teammates Tirta Chandra and East Kalimantan-based Taufik Halay also chalked up wins to stay half a point behind him, with 13 other players including GM Ardiansyah and FM Hamdani Rudin.
The participants played the seventh-round matches late on Thursday. They are to have a break on Friday before resuming play with the last two rounds on Saturday.