Foreign chess grandmasters to play here

JAKARTA (JP): Three Indonesian grandmasters will entertain four visitors in a chess tournament scheduled from July 8 to July 22, the Indonesian Chess Association announced yesterday.

The three Indonesians are GM Utut Adianto, GM Ardiansyah and GM Edhi Handoko. Their guests are Julian Hotson of England, T'kachiev of Kazakhstan, Dibyandu Barua of India and Ye Zhiang Chuan of China.

Four other Indonesian chess players with Master International titles and another one with a FIDE Master title will also take part in the tournament, which is being sponsored by the government-run bank BNI. They are Cerdas Barus, Ruben Gunawan, Denny Kiswanto, Ivan Jonathan Situru and Syarif Machmud.

Utut, Ardianshyah and Edhi arrived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Sunday for an Asia-Pacific intercity chess tournament which began on Tuesday, June 18 and ends on July 2.

Utut and Edhi, together with Master International titleholders Salor Sitanggang, Awam Dahono, Hamdani and Cecep Kosasih, represented Bandung, the capital city of West Java province.

Jakarta, on the other hand, is represented by Ardiansyah, Ruben Gunawan and Denny Kiswanto.

The association's secretary-general, Djamil Djamal, said that Jakarta, as defending champion, was expected to retain its title.

"But Jakarta is now weaker, since Utut has moved to Bandung. We just hope that either Jakarta or Bandung will be able take the title," Djamil said.

Meanwhile, one of Indonesia's top women chess players, Lisa Karlina Lumongdong, tied with Georgia's female grandmaster Nana Alexandria at the 25th move in their four-match duel at Hotel Indonesia yesterday.

As a result, Nana now leads 1.5-0.5, as Lisa lost out to Nana at the 49th move of their first-day duel on Tuesday.

Lisa is Nana's third Indonesian opponent. Previously, Nana has beaten two other top Indonesian women chess players, Maria Lucia and Upi Darmayana Tamin. Upi is projected by the association to be the first Indonesian woman to earn a grandmaster title. (arf)