Chess Olympics

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