Irene conquers world champion
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.