Irene conquers world champion
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian chess teenager Irene Kharisma stunned 2004 world champ Klaudia Kulon of Poland in the 10th round of the girls' under-14 event in the World Youth Chess Championships in Belfort, France, on Wednesday.
The victory brought 13-year-old Irene to fourth place with 7.5 points. Elena Tairova of Russia tops the standings with 8.5 points followed by Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine and Anastasia Bodnaruk of Russia, who are tied on eight points each.
"Kulon accepted the challenge resulting from Irene's sharp buildup of an Italian game, only to get battered by the Indonesian girl in the end," team's manager Kristianus Liem said via email.
"Irene daringly sacrificed a knight on the 16th move to leave the opponent unable to reshuffle her king.
"Through cunning tactical moves, Irene managed not only to win back a piece but take an advantage of being two pawns ahead as well being in a better position. In the rest of the game, Klaudia's king was marauded into submission on move 31," Kristianus said.
Aston Taminsyah, the only Indonesian in competition, also won his 10th round game over Guillaume Lamard of France in the boys' under-10, but the eight-year-old is still struggling at the bottom with four points.
Irene will play Sylvie Genzling of France in the final round which will decide her position in the final rankings. Aston, who recently won the world school championship, meets Bobby Sky Cheng of New Zealand.
From Dieren, Netherlands, GM Susanto Megaranto chalked up his second game at the Open Dutch Championships to join the leading pack with two points.
Susanto defeated Dimitri Van Lennt on Wednesday as Indonesia's traveling contingent experienced mixed results.
Taufik Halay drew with GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov while Tirta Chandra suffered a loss to GM Stanislav Novikov.
The three are on a three-month European tour as part of their preparations ahead of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Manila in November.
The Dieren event is their second stop after a strong tournament in Amsterdam where all three snapped up good results.