FIDE Master Ruben beats Ardiansyah

JAKARTA (JP): Using the popular Sicilian opening, FIDE Master Ruben Gunawan beat Grand Master Ardiansyah 1-0 at the 19th move to take the lead in the eighth round of the second leg of the Gunadarma International Master Chess Tournament yesterday.

Ruben, whose elo rating is 2,345, collected 6.5 points, qualifying for an international master (IM) title. He will obtain the IM title if he manages to repeat yesterday's result at another international tournament, the match's referee, Mukmin, announced yesterday.

During the sixth round completed on Sunday, Ardiansyah, who has an elo rating of 2,425, tied with Ruben as they both collected five points.

Mukmin said the other Indonesian players who still have a chance to qualify for an international master title during the ongoing tournament are FIDE Master Denny Juswanto and Dede Liu. At present, Denny and Dede have an elo rating of 2,325 and 2,315 respectively.

Up to the end of the eight round, Denny played a draw at the 10th move with Cerdas Barus, one of the six men's chess players, whom the Indonesian Chess Association has picked for the Moscow Olympics from Nov. 30 to Dec. 17. Dede fell 0-1 to Sebastian Simanjuntak at 42nd move.

The international tournament, sponsored by the Gunadarma computer school, has been on since Oct. 26. It will finish on Nov. 2 at the school's chess center in Kelapa Dua, Depok, Bogor.

Six countries, China, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia and host Indonesia, are taking part.

The ninth round, slated for today, will feature six matches. These will include Singaporean Teo Kok Siong versus Andi Suhendra, Filipino Bancod Ronald versus Ardiansyah, Nathanael Situru and Ruben Gunawan. (arf)