Edhi wins final game to become Japfa champion
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A convincing win in the final round has earned Grand Master (GM) Edhi Handoko the top place in the men's master competition at the nine-round Japfa Chess Festival, which ended here on Monday.
Edhi defeated International Master (IM) Ivan Situru in their ninth round match to collect an overall 7.5 points.
GM Cerdas Barus, who had led the standings into Monday's pairings, could only tie Susanto Megaranto to end up in third place behind IM Dede Liu in second.
Dede and Cerdas, along with FIDE Master (FM) Hamdani Rudin, who came in fourth, each amassed equal points with Edhi but had inferior progressive scores.
The inaugural Japfa Chess Festival featured about 500 players divided into five categories: the men's masters, women's masters, U-20, U-14 and non-masters.
The men's master matches, particularly those of the top pairings, appeared to draw interest with their tough fight given the large chess-crazed audience packing the playing room inside the third floor of the KONI building in Central Jakarta.
Among the top pairings, Edhi's game against Ivan was the first to complete with the grand master stopping his IM opponent in 39 moves of a Petroff game.
Playing black, Edhi capitalized on his opponent's defensive play to control the game almost from the start.
"Instead of the a-4 move, he might have been better off with c-4, which would mean sacrificing a pawn but he'd be compensated with activating his two bishops," said Edhi from the Japfa Chess Club.
It was not until the middle game that Ivan, who is in the East Kalimantan-based Pusam Club, broke away with an open game, but he must have miscued the position as Edhi carried on with his punishing blow to the king's wing.
A win would have kept Cerdas on his perch. However, he found a resistant play in Susanto and had to be content with an addition of half a point and third place.
Putting behind him his loss at the hands of Susanto in the seventh round, Dede continued his winning streak with IM Danny Juswanto being victimized, while Hamdani was given the reward of joining the top place after defeating IM Salor Sitanggang.
Susanto followed behind with seven points, along with Aris TLS, Tirto, Jamaluddin and GM Ardiansyah.
Ai Zakiah tied Evie Lindiawati in the final round to cruise to the women's master championship with seven and a half points, followed by Tuti Rahayu with six-and-a-half points and Evie also with six-and-a-half points.
With an overall eight points, Surya Wahyudi won the U-20, beating Hastomo for second place, thanks to the former's better progressive score.
Aris Haryanto was the winner of the U-14 field with a perfect nine points, followed by Yusuf Maulana and Boy Reinhard with seven and a half each.
Hendry Heriyanto, Dodi Guntoro and Suryana ended their non- master matches with eight points each, but it was only their better progressive scores that put Hendry at the top and Dodi over Suryana.