Crisis spikes women players' guns: Eka

JAKARTA (JP): A chess observer has said that this year's target to develop a woman grandmaster could not be achieved while the country was in such economic turmoil.

"We are facing a difficult financial situation. Many of the national chess programs have been stopped including the target of the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) to get an Indonesian woman up to grandmaster status," Eka Putra Wirya, the association's training director said Tuesday. Eka is also director of the Enerpac chess school.

Eka said the economic crisis had caused the association to cancel its target to increase the number of male grandmasters. Several senior players were scheduled to participate in a number of international tournaments overseas in a bid to boost their ratings.

The players are International Masters Ruben Gunawan, Cerdas Barus and Ivan Situru.

Percasi had already canceled the planned training program for women International Masters Maria Lucia, Upi Damayanti and Lisa Lumondong organized by their coach Nikolai Andrianov of Russia. They too were scheduled to take part in international tournaments for their grandmaster titles.

"We have to economize our spending until the country's economy is stable. One of the plans which has to be undertaken is preparing the women players for the Chess Olympics in Kalmykia (Russia) this September," Eka said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Following the economic crisis, Percasi is currently concentrating on improving the junior players who competed in the world junior chess championships in Cannes, France, last December.

Four players, Taufik Hallay, Susanto Megaranto, Evie Lindiawati and Bagas Prama Ananta, competed in Cannes, from Dec. 8 to Dec. 18. They performed well at the world meet.

They are currently undergoing intensive training at Enerpac. Of the four, Eka believes Susanto and Taufik have the most potential.

In the Cannes tournament, Taufik and Susanto succeeded in being ranked among the 10 best players in the world.

"Susanto and Taufik performed impressively. We will continue training them and will send them to next year's world junior chess championships. We hope that they perform better," Eka said. (lnt)