Indonesia sports at major crossroad
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.