Cerdas leads Bali chess tournament

Cerdas leads Bali chess tournament

JAKARTA (JP): IM Cerdas Barus has taken the lead in the Bali
Jeff-RCA Grandmaster Chess Tournament with 9.0 Victory Points
(VP).

Cerdas, who scored 8.0 VP Tuesday to share the lead with
Filipino GM Rogelio Antonio, now leads in his own right after
beating IM Danny Juswanto on Wednesday.

Antonio added only 0.5 VP after drawing with IM Ruben Gunawan
and is in second place with 8.5 VP..

The match between Cerdas and Danny, both members of the
Indonesian Olympic chess team that played in Yerevan, Armenia, in
1996, was tense as Cerdas continued to attack Danny, checkmating
him in the 48th move of the Catalan opening.

Danny admired Cerdas's performance and said he had a good
defense.

"Cerdas managed to defend himself from my attacks and I could
not penetrate," he said.

With Wednesday's win, Cerdas has to score only 2.0 VP to win
the GM Norm title. It would be his first.

"With four more rounds to go, I have to at least win once and
draw twice. I know it will be a difficult job for me since I have
to face four strong players," Cerdas said.

Meanwhile, GM Edhi Handoko was lucky to get away with a draw
against Vietnam's IM Tu Hoang Thong, who made several blunders
allowing Edhi to force a draw.

"Hong Tong actually had four pawns and should have won the
game. But he made a mistake by making the same three moves and
referee Djauhari ordered the game to a draw," Edhi said.

Other results: NM Hamdani Rudin vs IM Salor Sitanggang 1/2-
1/2, NM Firdaus Maksum vs NM Kifly Tunasli 1-0, IM Bobby
Kurniawan vs NM Tommy Supriyanto 1-0, IM Nelson Mariano
(Philippines) vs GM Ardiansyah 0-1, FM Irwanto vs IM Nasib
Ginting 1/2-1/2.

Rankings: Cerdas 9.0 VP, Antonio 8.5 VP, Ruben 8.0 VP, Edhi
7.0 VP, Danny, Hamdani and Ardiansyah 6.5 VP, Mariano 6.0 VP,
Hoang Thong 5.5 VP, Bobby 4.5 VP, Nasib 4.0 VP, Salor 3.5 VP,
Irwanto 3.0 VP, Maksum 2.5 VP, Tommy 1.5 VP and Kifly 1.0 VP.
(lnt)