Indonesia's Irene in top 10 of world chess tournament

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two consecutive wins in the last two rounds earned Irene Kharisma Sukandar a place in the top ten of the final rankings at the World Youth Chess Championships which ended on Sunday in Halkidiki, Greece.

The only Indonesian contender among around 1,000 participants from 79 countries playing in ten age-group categories, Irene ended her competition in the girls' under-12 group with 7.5 points in 11 games.

The girls' under-12 competition was attended by 85 players from 55 countries. Irene registered seven wins, a draw and three losses.

Unrated Irene beat Ozturk Kubra, who has an elo-rating of 1969, in the tenth round on Saturday before upsetting Women's FIDE Master (WFM) Alisa Melekhina, the Pan-American champion from the United States, in the final round on Sunday.

Her point total was equaled by three other girls: Anastasia Bodnaruk (Russia), Maya Gvilava (Russia) and Anna Gordiyenko (Ukraine).

However, her lower Progressive Scores (PS) figure against the other four girls denied Irene a better place than ninth in the final standings. PS is determined by the relative strength of one's opponents using FIDE's ratings.

Ding Yixin of China cruised to the championship getting 10 of a possible 11 points. Ding, with her rating of 2267, beat Lakshmi Praneetha (2024) of India on Sunday.

WFM Sopiko Guramishvili (Georgia, 2119) former champion WFM Tan Zhongyi (China, 2333) followed in second and third place on 8.5 points each.

China had another player in the top ten with Yu Hualin grabbing fifth place with 8 points, equal with Anastasia Savina of Russia, who had a better PS to take fourth place.

Despite failing to win a medal, Irene's run in Halkidiki appeared to be a big leap from any previous campaign made by a young Indonesian girl.

Evie Lindiawati, the only other Indonesian girl to play in the world championships, finished 38th at the 1997 under-12 championships in Spain.

Irene's effort was the best for an Indonesian youngster since Susanto Megaranto landed a bronze at the boys' under-12 championships in 1999.

Kristianus Liem, the Indonesian team manager, looked delighted with Irene's success.

"Thank God. Irene rounded off her world championships triumphantly. She finished in the top ten," he said in a release here on Monday.

Knowing that she had to win to avoid slipping out of the top 10, Irene entered the final round in her best form, Kristianus said.

Melekhina played an Italian defense for which Irene had already had been prepared.

As early as move 11, Irene's trap worked to give the Indonesian an advantage of one piece up, which turned out to be decisive in sealing the victory after 69 moves.

World Youth Chess Championships Girls' U-12 standings No Player Rating Pts Rd PS 1 Yixin Ding (Chn) 2267 10.0 11 61 2 WFM S. Guramishvili (Geo) 2119 8.5 11 57.5 3 Zhongyi Tan (Chn) 2333 8.5 11 53 4 Anastasia Savina (Rus) 8.0 11 51 5 Hualin Yu (Chn) 8.0 11 42 6 Anastasia Bodnaruk (Rus) 2069 7.5 11 50 7 Maya Gvilava (Rus) 2001 7.5 11 49 8 Anna Cordiyenko (Ukr) 7.5 11 45.5 9 Irene K. Sukandar (Ina) 7.5 11 43.5 10 WFM Alena Tairova (Rus) 2221 7.0 11 49.5