Cerdas on brink of win at Japfa chess tourney

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Grand Master (GM) Cerdas Barus is on course to win the Japfa Chess Festival after pulling half a point clear at the top of the nine-round tournament, with the last round still to play.

Cerdas beat Aris TLS in the eighth round on Sunday to collect seven points. Seven players are tied behind with 6.5 points each, including Susanto Megaranto, whom Cerdas will face on Monday.

Cerdas, who is seeded second behind 16-year-old Susanto, will need only an additional half point to secure victory.

The other six with 6.5 points are GM Edhi Handoko, International Master (IM) Danny Juswanto, IM Ivan Situru, IM Dede Liu, IM Salor Sitanggang and FIDE Master (FM) Hamdani Rudin.

On Sunday, Susanto drew with Edhi, one of the latter's mentors at his Japfa Chess Club. Danny, Ivan, Dede, Salor and Hamdani moved up the standings after chalking up wins in their respective matches.

Looking ahead to his next game against Cerdas, Susanto appeared to be coy about his prospects, given his bad head-to- head record in which he lost in their previous two meetings.

However, Susanto might hope for some improvement this time around as he will take on the 2002 Olympic gold medalist with white.

"He is still one class apart behind Cerdas. However, with white, he may expect to steal a point," said Danny Juswanto, who once trained Susanto.

Susanto will have to beat Cerdas to stage a possible chance for the championship.

Edhi will try to build his own championship odds through his game against Ivan, who defeated Sukirman Teddy on Sunday.

Danny, who beat Yoseph Majella, will join the race among the outsiders when he faces Dede Liu, who bounced back from his defeat by Susanto to beat Iqra Moesa.

The other top pairing pits Hamdani against Salor.

Meanwhile, 2002 national champion Ai Zakiah is the likely winner in the women's competition, to enter the last round with seven points, one point ahead of her close rivals Evie Lindiawati and Sumaryani.

Ai will be content only with a draw against Evie to scrape to overall victory.

The U-20 competition will be a race between Surya Wahyudi, who helped the national junior champion win the bronze at the 2002 World Youth Championship, and Hastomo.