Four players reach 4th round of chess meet

Four players reach 4th round of chess meet

JAKARTA (JP): Four seeded men's players -- Grand Master (GM)
Ruben Gunawan, International Master (IM) Danny Juswanto, GM Edhi
Handoko and GM Ardiansyah -- breezed through the fourth round of
the 34th Chess Olympic Games national selection tournament here.

Ruben, who tied in the first two rounds, managed Friday to
defeat National Master (NM) Nessy Suheri of East Java in 38 moves
by Reti opening.

Danny also won over NM Suyud Hartoyo of East Java in 48 moves
using Grunfeld defense. Both Danny and Suyud went to the fourth
round.

Edhi had to play for five hours before eliminating NM Denny
Sonjaya of West Java in 69 moves by a Scotlandia opening. Edhi
collected two points to go to the next round.

While veteran chess player Ardiansyah had to compete in two
play-offs after overwhelming junior NM Yansen Lokanata in the
55th move using the Meren opening. But experience helped
Ardiansyah win the play-off 2-0.

Two other players who went to the fourth round were FIDE
Master (FM) Hamdani Rudin of West Java following a 2-0 win over
NM Yoseph Majella of Jakarta, and FM Irwanto of Jakarta who won
1.5-0.5 over FM Awam Wahono of West Java.

Four players, IM Dede Liu of Jakarta, NM Sebastian Simanjuntak
of Bali, NM Cecep Kosasih of West Java and FIDE Master Syarif
Mahmud of Jakarta, had to perform in the play-offs after the draw
results. Dede will challenge Sebastian while Cecep will play
Syarif.

Four winners of the tournament will accompany GM Utut Adianto
and IM Cerdas Barus to the Olympics, which will be held in
Istanbul from Oct. 28 to Nov. 14. Utut and Cerdas received
automatic places on the team.

On the women's side, NM Susianah Handayani of Jakarta and the
Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) Master (PM) Yenny
Riayaningrum of East Java took over the top positions with 3.5
Match Point.

Susianah outclassed NM Yulianti Tjindarbumi (Jakarta) in the
69th move by a Queen Pawn opening while Yenny overcame NM Suyati
of Central Java in the 47th move by Sicilia defense. The women's
event employed the seven-round Swiss system.

Separately, Utut topped the standings of the Rapid Chess
Tournament at Leipaja city, some 210-kms away from Riga, the
capital of Latvia. Utut collected 1.5 points, along with GM
Gabriel Malisauskas of Lithuania.

The press release from Utut said six top players -- GM
Alexander Khalifman (Russia), GM Jaan Ehlvest (Estonia), GM
Edvins Kengis (Latvia), GM Aloys Kveinys (Lithuania) GM Darmen
Sadvakasov (Kazakhstan) and GM Maxim Dlugy (the United States)
had just earned one point after competing in the first round on
Thursday.

GM Nordmund Miezis (Latvia) and GM Anastas Zapolskis
(Lithuania) each earned 0.5 points in the tournament in which
each player is given only one-hour to study his moves. (ivy)