Donetsk still leads at cities chess c'ship

JAKARTA (JP): Ukraine's Donetsk team held its lead at the World Cities Chess Championship by beating Russia's Moscow.

Dontesk beat Moscow 2.5-1.5. Both teams fielded Grandmasters.

The match between Dontesk and Moscow was decided on the fourth and final board when Moscow's Oleg Korneev ran out of time and forfeited his game to Dontesk's Georgy Timoshenko.

After his clock registered a time forfeit Timoshenko threw the piece he was about to move and stormed off.

Dontesk is hot favorite to take the World Cities title and the US$10,000 first prize having beaten Moscow and Oslo.

Moscow bounced back from its loss to Dontesk by beating the lowly Bandung team of West Java 3-1 Thursday.

But the biggest upset in the Moscow team came from IM Salor Sitanggang who surprisingly beat GM Alexander Onischuk in the 55th move of King Indian opening.

Salor's elo rating is far below Onischuk with Salor of 2410 compared to Onischuk of 2625.

Salor's win was not enough to earn his team a win because his teammates MI Bobby Kurniawan (2410), FM Awam Wahono and NM Cecep Kosasih lost to GM Sergei Tiviakov (2590), GM Sergey Dolmatov (2565) and GM Oleg Korneev (2565) respectively.

Ho Chi Minh, which lost Thursday to the Donetsk team 3-1, lost again yesterday to the Uzbekistan's Tashkent 1-3.

With the win yesterday, Dontesk leads with 15.0 Match Points (MP). Moscow is second with 14.5 MP. Mandaluyung (Philippines) is third with 14 MP, Oslo and Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), which shared the lead until the third round, slipped to fourth and fifth place with 13.0 MP.

The sixth place went to Tashkent with 12.5 MP.

Jakarta A was the top local team with 12.5 MP, while Bandung had 12 MP.

The championships, which end July 14, features 17 Grandmasters, 15 International Masters and three women International Masters.

Twenty-eight cities from 16 countries, including 12 Indonesian cities, are contesting the event. (lnt)

Sixth round results: Dontesk bt Moscow 2.5-1.5, Oslo bt Madaluyung 4-0, Tashkent bt Ho Chi Minh 3-1, Bandung bt Jakarta A 4-0, Depok Margonda bt Jakarta BNI 3-1, Yangon drew Depok Beji 2-2, Palu Intan bt Yogyakarta 2.5-1.5, Bontang bt Ambon 3-1, Sydney drew Medan 2-2, Depok Kelapa Dua bt Raffles City 3.5-0.5, STMIK Jakarta bt Sentosa 3.5- 0.5, Kuala Lumpur bt Kuching 3-1, Bogor bt Mandalay 3-1, Jakarta Enerpac bt Noumea 3.5-0.5, Hong Kong bt Victoria 4-0.

Rankings: Dontesk 15 MP, Moscow 14.5 MP, Mandaluyung 14 MP, Oslo and Ho Chih Minh 13 MP, Tashkent and Jakarta A 12.5 MP, Bandung 12 MP, Jakarta BNI 11.5 MP, Depok Margonda and Yangon 11 MP, Depok Beji, Yogyakarta and Palu Intan 10.5 MP, Medan 9.5 MP, Sydney, Raffles City, Sentosa and Depok Kelapa Dua 9 MP, STMIK Jakarta and Kuching 8 MP, Kuala Lumpur and Mandalay 7.5 MP, Bogor and Jakarta Enerpac 7 MP, Victori 5.5 MP, Hong Kong 5 MP, and Noumea 3.5 MP.