Gunadarma invites seven Grand Masters

JAKARTA (JP): The University of Gunadarma has invited seven Grand Masters (GMs) to take part in the Wotulo Memorial Cup chess tournament to be held here from March 20 to March 31.

"The organizing committee has invited Wu Shao Bin of Singapore, Villamayor Bong of the Philippines, Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam, Zaw Winlay of Myanmar, Perry Schaner of Australia and Ljubojevic Ljobojeve of Yugoslavia," the vice chairman of the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi), Bunawan, was quoted by Antara news agency as saying on Friday.

"Meanwhile, Indonesia will field International Masters (IMs) Denny Yuswanto, Cerdas Barus, Awam Wahono and Dede Liu. They grabbed the Asian students' title late last year representing the university," he said.

Separately, the agency quoted chess observer Kristianus Liem as saying the event was an opportunity for Indonesia to secure Grand Master titles for more of its players.

"The world chess governing body FIDE has classified the event as category IX, which allows players with IM titles to be promoted to GM provided they can meet certain percentages," he said.

"Indonesia only has a limited number of GMs, such as Utut Adianto, Ardiansyah, Eddi Handoko and Ruben Gunawan.

"Indonesia still lags behind China and India in chess, and is equal only to the Philippines. Having more GMs will give mean competition for our chess players," he said. (nvn)