Indonesia sports at major crossroad
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia trounced Lebanon 3.5-0.5 in the ninth round of the Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia, on Monday, while Hungary upset pacesetter Russia to reduce the gap between the two to only half a point, it was reported on Tuesday.
Ivan Situru was the only Indonesian team member to fail to register a full point against Lebanon, being held to a draw by Fadi Eid in 48 moves.
The matches can be viewed live at www.35chessolympiad.com.
Indonesia's Cerdas Barus, Awam Wahono and Irwanto Sadikin all posted victories over their Lebanese opponents.
Cerdas, the sole unbeaten team member, needed 40 moves to register his sixth win and his fourth on the trot.
Faisal Khairallah conceded victory to Cerdas, with the Indonesian ace holding a clear advantage a pawn up and his two rooks well-connected to the queen, putting an array of mating offenses at his disposal.
Cerdas has now collected 7.5 points from six wins and three draws.
Awam completely dominated Nassim Sakr in their game, which saw the Lebanese scramble from one forced move to another throughout. Awam's clear advantage began as early as the 21st move, but only after another 30 moves did he put Sakr in checkmate.
An exchange of queen for a bishop and a knight in the early stages marked Irwanto's enterprising play against Mahmoud Abdulaziz. The compensation for Irwanto was that he enjoyed more space to mount an attack.
Halfway through the game, Abdulaziz was forced to trade a rook for a bishop. He was in even direr straits when he was forced to liquidate his queen for a rook on move 42, before the game ended eight moves later in Irwanto's favor.
Indonesia, which will take on Brazil in the 10th round, has amassed 19 points to claw its way up the standings to 53rd.
In the game between the tournament's two top teams, Hungary gave Russia its first loss by a score of 2.5-1.5, with seldom- used Robert Ruck deciding the matter with a shocking win over highly rated Peter Svidler.
Russia, which has lined up world number one Gary Kasparov for its Olympiad campaign, still leads the 141-strong field, but now its lead has been cut to just half a point -- Russia 25.5, Hungary 25.
In third is China, followed by Bosnia Herzegovina and India. China and India continued their charge to the top with wins over Slovakia and the Czech Republic, respectively.
Meanwhile, Georgia is at the top of the women's category with 22 points, followed by China, the United States, Russia and Hungary.