Irene sparks RI's win in chess meet

Musthofid, Jakarta

Unmatched Irene Kharisma led Indonesia's three-strong young chess team to a 7.5-4.5 point victory over their Singaporean opponents in the Clash of the Future Generation which ended here on Sunday.

Indonesia's points were largely contributed by 12-year-old Irene, who blanked teenager To Li-Cheng for a 4-0 win in the two- day chess contest that played two apiece in the normal and rapid games at the Utut Adianto Chess School II in Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta.

Samuel Siahaan, who took the two games on Saturday, suffered losses in the other two games on Sunday to end his match against Terry Chua in a 2-2 draw while Olrenzo Johan was beaten 2.5-1.5 by Graham Chua.

"Their games are still volatile," Kristianus Liem, a chess observer, said of Samuel and Olrenzo.

"Olrenzo has the ability, as he showed during the games, to discover a very good move. But he may at times make a glaring slip in which he overlooks a clear winning move," Kristianus said.

After sharing the points in the opening day, Olrenzo and Graham Chua entered Sunday's match with a normal game, which allows 90 minutes of thinking time compared to rapid's 25 minutes.

Toward the end of the game, the 11-year-old held an advantage of controlling a better position before he let the winning chance evaporate and had to be content with a draw after Terry overlooked his own chance as well.

Samuel at the other board was dealt a blow, punished by Terry Chua for the former's attacking rush at the King's side.

Olrenzo and Samuel were then unable to lift their performance to end up losing in the rapid games later in the day.

Irene, meanwhile, proved too strong for To Li-Cheng, the 2003 ASEAN champion.

The Indonesian, who finished ninth at the 2003 World Chess Championships, put in a commanding play throughout the encounter to win all four games.

It was a good warmup for her ahead of her match against Sopiko Guramavilli of Georgia, the runner-up in the world championships, over July 12 to July 16.

Tournament director Eka Putra Wirya hailed his proteges' performance, saying that the two sides were considering making the contest a regular meet.

"They (Singapore) will invite us for another match by the end of this year," Eka said, adding that the number of players could be increased to eight per team.