Hickl takes over BNI chess meet

JAKARTA (JP): German grandmaster Jrg Hickl beat Indonesian grandmaster Ardiansyah at the 37th move to top the provisional ranking table of the BNI international chess tournament here yesterday with 4.5 points.

Hickl pushed English grandmaster Julian Hodgson into second place in the ranking. Hodgson also collected 4.5 points after a draw with Indonesia's Ruben Gunawan, but he played five games, one more than Hickl.

The German will resume his adjourned match against Indonesia's Danny Yuswanto today, while the other players take a rest.

The other results yesterday were: Indonesia's Ivan Jonathan Situru lost to GM Vladislav Tkachiev of Kazakhstan at the 44th move, GM Ye Jiangchuan of China beat Danny at the 25th move, Indonesia's number one chess player GM Utut Adianto stopped his compatriot Edhi Handoko at the 57th, and Cerdas Barus beat Sjarif Machmud in a match between locals.

Utut, Tkachiev and Ruben shared third place with 4 points each, followed by Ye with 3.5 points. Danny and Cerdas were both in fifth place with 2.5 points each. Edhi and Ardiansyah scored 2 points each, while Ivan had one point and hapless Sjarif half a point. (arf)