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.