Indonesia loses to Moldova in Chess Olympiad

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia placed the wrong line-up against Moldova by resting its ace player Utut Adianto at the 34th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul on Sunday which resulted in a 1.5-2.5 Victory Points (VPs) defeat in the eighth round.

Ruben Gunawan -- who had only one victory and one draw from five previous matches -- had to bow out to Dmitri Svetushkin 0-1 in the 35th move.

Second player Denny Juswanto managed to oust Vasile Sanduleac by winning 1-0 after a hard match which ended in the 56th move.

Cerdas Barus -- who has never won in his previous five matches but only had four draws -- also had to lose to Viktor Somliakov 0-1 in the 45th move.

Rudin Hamdani managed to force a draw against Alexey Khruschiov after the 34th move.

Utut, the best Grand Master Indonesia has ever had, has never lost in his four previous matches.

So far, Indonesia collected 17.5 VPs to finish in the 40th place while Moldova earned a total of 18.5 VPs to stay in the 32nd position.

Germany still leads with 23.5 VPs followed by Russia with 22.5 VPs and Ukraine with 22.0 VPs.

In the women's side, Indonesia was powerless against Wales losing 1.0-2.0 VPs.

Upi D. Tamim forced a draw with Abigail Cast while teammate Evi Lindiawati also managed a tie with Annie Powell. Unfortunately, Yeni Riayaningrum had to lose 0-1 to Deborah Evans-Quek.

Indonesia finished in 58th place after collecting 11.0 VPs while Wales is in the 48th position with 12.0 VPs.

China still leads the women's standing with 19.5 VPs followed by Georgia with 18.0 VPs and Russia with 17.0 VPs.

Indonesia's men's players were scheduled to meet Vietnam on Monday in the ninth round while the women's players were to challenge Japan. (yan)