Danny, Hamdani draw in third round

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

International Master (IM) Danny Juswanto and FIDE Master (FM) Hamdani Rudin settled for a draw in the third round of the Hamzah Haz Cup open chess tournament here on Monday.

Danny, who held black, opted for a Sicilian-Paulsen defense against his opponent's e4 opening and managed to wrest a slight advantage midway through, thanks to Hamdani's weak maneuver on move 13.

In an attempt to break through the central file, Hamdani, whose rating is 2404 against Danny's 2517, proceeded with an e5 move, but it seemed that he had miscalculated the tactic as Danny proceeded to lay down a punishing counterattack.

"It was a blunder," Hamdani told The Jakarta Post during the post-match analysis.

The slip-up resulted in a clear advantage for Danny, but the following moves saw Hamdani recover enough to bring the game to a draw by forcing a mass liquidation of the pieces.

"We were left with very few checkmate resources," Danny said, an assessment Hamdani agreed with. The two opponents each held a Queen until the end of the game, with Hamdani holding a lame Knight and Danny powerless Bishop.

"There was no need to waste our energy because we have still to go another six rounds," Danny said.

Both players, who are in Pool A, now have 2.5 points after three matches.

In other matches in the same pool, junior players Susanto Megaranto and Tirta Chandra marched ahead with their respective wins and have now amassed three points.

Susanto overcame Reza Achmad, while Tirta upset FIDE Master (FM) Syarif Mahmud, who is a former national team member.

Other top players who finished the third round matches with victories included Cerdas Barus (Pool B), Dede Liu (Pool C), Salor Sitanggang and Cecep Kosasih (Pool D).

The fourth round matches were played later in the day.

The top two players in each pool will qualify for the final stage, in which they will be paired for a single elimination competition with rapid chess matches.