Irwanto dreaming of world c'ship qualification

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Irwanto Sadikin, who won the Gunadarma Chess League at the weekend, will head to a qualifying tournament in Vietnam with the dream of participating in the 2004 World Championship.

The Vietnam chess tourney will feature participants from Asian Zone 3.2a, which comprises the countries grouped in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), plus a number of neighboring states.

The 2004 World Championship will be staged in the Netherlands, and Indonesia has pinned its hopes on GM Utut Adianto. The country's number one player secured his berth after finishing fifth at the Asian Championship in Doha last month.

The Vietnam outing will be Irwanto's second attempt at world qualification after an unsuccessful run in Kuala Lumpur back in 1996.

Despite the tough competition traditionally posed by the players from Vietnam and the Philippines, the 33-year-old Indonesian said he was anxious to give it another try and hoped things would turn out better than in Malaysia.

"I know it will be undeniably tough out there. But I nurture hopes, albeit slim, that I'll get through to the world event," FIDE Master (FM) Irwanto told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The Vietnam qualifying matches, which provide two qualifiers for the World Championship, will run from June 20 to June 30 and Irwanto, whose Vietnam trip comes as reward for his victory in the Gunadarma Chess League, said that with around three months still to go he would set out on a tough preparation regime.

While being aware of the stiff competition likely during the tournament, Irwanto will go to Vietnam with a second target should his qualification bid fail: he is eager to collect enough points to upgrade his FM title to that of International Master (IM).

He has moved a step closer to attaining the IM title after he managed to chalk up his first IM norm in the Surabaya international event last year.

Irwanto scraped through to win the inaugural Gunadarma Chess League after defeating GM Edhi Handoko in the final matches here on Saturday. It was his first victory after his national championship win in 2001.

Irwanto should not be alone in his Vietnam outing as the Japfa Chess Club is planning to send four players: GM Edhi Handoko, Susanto Megaranto, GM Cerdas Barus and IM Salor Sitanggang.