Indonesian chess body puts faith in juniors

Indonesian chess body puts faith in juniors

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The upcoming US$6,000 Wismilak International Grandmaster chess
tournament may show the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) to
be overly confident following its inclusion of two junior players
among the senior contenders.

"We will simply be pushing for Andrean (Susilodinata) to
strive to stay on the balance to avoid his point being deducted
at the end of the tournament," Percasi's executive director Eka
Putra Wirya said during a press conference here on Monday.

Andrean, who is 12 years and four months old, is one of the
two junior players the Wismilak organizers have included in their
12-strong list for the July 22 to July 29 event in Surabaya, East
Java.

The other junior is 15-year-old Susanto Megaranto.

While Susanto has already matured in his play, many still
doubt that Andrean, whose rating is 2242, will be able to hang on
against the seniors.

But Eka defended the choice, saying that the decision had been
taken based on long-term goals.

"Andrean is the future star. We have to give him an early
chance in a strong tournament so as to build him up mentally," he
said.

"So long as Andrean can hold his nerve, he should be able to
play his best. As the player with the lowest rating, it may be
enough for him to take four points," he said, referring to the
lowest number of points Andrean should strive for if he wanted to
keep his rating intact.

Turning to the other junior hopeful, Eka appeared to higher
expectations of Susanto.

"Susanto must have a target. He has to win at least six
points," he said.

Susanto, whose rating is 2364, was the 1999 bronze medalist in
the U-12 category at the World Youth Chess Championship in Spain.
He also won the 2002 Pusam Open, a strong tournament among
seniors.

The press conference was attended by Percasi chairman Machnan
Kamaluddin, national chess icon Utut Adianto, Stefanus Handoyo
from the sponsor, and a number of the players.

The other six local players for the Wismilak tournament
include Edhi Handoko, Ardiansyah, Danny Juswanto, Hamdani Rudin,
Cecep Kosasih, Irwanto.

Irwanto took the last berth for the tournament after beating
Yoseph R. Majella 2-0 in a two-match, one-day playoff on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova, Mayanmarese Zaw Win
Lay and Nay Oo Kyaw Tun, and Filipino Enrique Pacienca were
confirmed to arrive here on July 20.

To coincide with the grandmasters event is the Wismilak
Invitational with 32 local players set to compete for a total of
Rp 35 million in cash prizes.