Chess Olympics
Having closely followed all the biennial Chess Olympics held between 1978 (in Buenos Aires) and 1994 (in Moscow), I must say that the Indonesian men chess teams have made a significant improvement. The average elo rating of the six players in the team has increased from 2335 in 1978 to 2390 in 1986 and 2455 in 1994. And although the latest Indonesian ranking based on the results of the just concluded Moscow Olympics may appear only moderate (28th out of 124 participating countries), it is actually an improvement on the previous best ranking of 18th achieved by Indonesia in the 1986 Dubai Olympics. This is so because of the recent emergence of at least 14 powerful national teams originating from the break up of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
To improve the standing of Indonesian chess further, I would like to make the following suggestions.
* Send two of our talented young players, namely International Masters Cerdas Barus and International Master Jonathan Situru (perhaps together with Grand Master Edhi Handoko) to top class tournaments in Europe and USA in 1995, with the objective of raising their elo rating by at least 50 points. Indonesia could belong to the top 10 countries in the world, together with such chess giants as Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus and England, if the average elo rating of our national team could be increased, say, over the next five-ten years, from the current 2455 to at least 2550
* Since there is only one chess school in all of Indonesia at present, more chess schools with affordable fees should be opened, particularly in big cities like Jakarta, Medan and Bandung. If possible, chess should also be taught as an extra curricular subject in some primary and secondary schools, or even through television.
* The Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) should organize chess competitions with interesting prizes more frequently, including tournaments involving foreign players. It should also endeavor to have the 1998 or 2000 Chess Olympics in Indonesia.
In conclusion, I believe that internationally Indonesia is more likely to excel in an intellectual sport such as chess, in which we suffer no disadvantage, rather than in such highly publicized sports as soccer and basketball, where Indonesians are obviously at a physical disadvantage compared to Europeans and Americans.
MASLI ARMAN
Jakarta