Indonesia suffers 3rd defeat in chess Olympiad
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian men's squad had their third defeat in the chess Olympiad when they lost to the Czech Republic while their female compatriots triumphed over Lebanon in Calvia, Spain, on Friday.
The men lost by 2.5 - 1.5 points in the four-game match.
They held their Czech opponents to draws in three games but lost in the other with Dede Liu being the unfortunate catalyst.
Dede, who held the white pieces, went down to Zbynek Hracek in 54 moves.
In the game, which was shown live on www.chess21.com, Dede, who has an elo-rating of 2397 against Hracek's 2595, was forced to struggle throughout before he finally surrendered after he found he could no longer defend his pawns in an endgame.
Susanto Megaranto (2439) defended well with black to force David Navara (2620) to abandon the game in stalemate after they battled in 49 moves.
Tirta Chandra (2286) had a slightly better position in the endgame before Tomas Oral (2565) spotted a daring move to salvage his game.
Ruben Gunawan (2467) agreed to a draw with Vlastimil Babula (2571) after playing 29 moves.
Indonesia, which scored three wins, three losses and a draw, collected 16 points.
Although Indonesia is struggling midway down the table, Susanto has been playing impressively.
After an expected loss to Vassily Ivanchuk in Indonesia's 4-0 drubbing by Ukraine, the 17-year-old Indonesia registered four wins and two significant draws. The draws were chalked up against Zoltan Almasi (2650) in Indonesia's 2-2 draw with Hungary in the fourth round, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in its 3-1 defeat by Romania in the fifth round.
"Susanto has made the difference in the team. It was a real achievement for him to be able to hold those two world-class grandmasters," Sebastian Simanjuntak, a chess observer, said here on Saturday.
Indonesia scored convincing wins over minnows Monaco, Jersey and Luxembourg.
The competition features 129 teams from 128 countries with a total of 764 players, including 230 Grandmasters (GMs), 153 International Masters (IMs) and 82 FIDE Masters (FMs).
Ukraine leads with 21.5 points, followed by reigning champion Russia, and Bulgaria and Armenia with 19.5 points each.
Indonesia's women players have also scored three wins, three losses and a draw to collect an overall 10 points. The women's competition, which has 87 teams, plays three boards.
They chalked their third win over Lebanon with Irene Kharisma and Dian Cheri Stefani beating Suzan Mouradian and Youmna Makhlouf respectively on Friday, while Evi Lindiawati lost to Knarik Mouradian.
Reigning champion China tops the standings with 18.5 points followed by Poland and Lithuania with 14.5 points each.