Crisis spikes women players' guns: Eka

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)