Danny Juswanto wins Enerpac Fair Play

JAKARTA (JP): International Master (MI) Danny Juswanto won the Enerpac Fair Play chess championship after outclassing his closest rival, MI Salor Sitanggang of West Java in the 40th move of the Sicilia Paulsen defense.

Danny said after the match on Friday night at the Utut Adianto chess school in Bekasi that he understood Salor's play because both players had met many times. The result puts Danny on top with 7.5 victory points (VP).

Using the Ben Oni opening, Danny immediately blew Salor's white pawn at d4 in the third move and formed the Sicilia Paulsen defense, which, according to Danny, was unfamiliar with Salor.

But in the 22nd move, he sacrificed his pawn in b5 to break through Salor's solid defense. He dropped another pawn in the 27 Bxd7 to enable his black queen to penetrate into the f2 to block Salor's move.

Danny's castle helped attack from the second row to force Salor to give up. There was no other choice for Salor except to surrender in the last 40th move after Danny's castle in b8 demanded Salor to give either his knight or bishop.

Tournament spokesman Kristianus Liem said second place went to National Master (MN) Suyud Hartoyo, the 1998 national champion from East Java, who beat MN Arthur Paat in the 51st move of the Gambit Benko opening. Suyud collected 7 VP.

MI Dede Liu upset MF Awam Wahono in the 34th move by using the Sicilian defense while MN Sugeng Prayitno beat the 1999 national champion MI Cerdas Barus in the 39th move with the King Hindu defense.

Dede and Sugeng earned 6.5 VP each, but Dede bettered Sugeng in the victory point in each match. Dede won six matches and only drew once while Sugeng won five and drew three times.

Young player MN Taufik Halay outshone MN Haryadi Sucipto in the 30th move of the Sicilian defense. He collected 6 VP along with Cerdas Barus, Salor, Awam and Arthur. (ivy)