Jakarta chessmen prevail in inter-city team torney in KL

JAKARTA (JP): Facing weak opponents, chess wizards from Jakarta maintained their reign in the Asian chess inter-city team tournament with a total score of 26 points in Kuala Lumpur on Monday night.

The Indonesian chess masters prevailed over George Town from Malaysia in the last round of the competition with three wins and one draw (3 1/2-1//2).

The winners - made up of national players including Grand Master (GM) Utut Ardianto, GM Edhi Handoko, Master International (MI) Nasib Ginting, MI Cerdas Barus and Master Fide Rube Gunawan - never lost a round in the entire nine rounds of the tournament.

Their success this year was similar to their victory in the same tournament in Dubai, Abu Dhabi two years ago.

Antara reported that the real star of the event was Cerdas Barus, who emerged as the only undefeated player during the tourney.

Odds-makers had picked defending champion Jakarta as the favorite for the title because there are only two other teams which are armed with GM chessmen. Two GM's come from Chizchik, Uzbekistan and the other is from Quezon City, the Philippines.

The other contenders were mostly relying on MI players.

The Jakartans, nevertheless, were stopped in two rounds, both in draws by unrated teams Neyveli (India) and Santosa (Singapore).

"Outcomes in matches sometimes run contrary to what the pundits predicted on paper," Edhi Handoko said. (hdj)

Results (the first 10 out of 24 contenders):

1. Jakarta (Ina) 26 VP 2. Bishek (Kyr) 24 1/2 VP 3. Hangzhou (Chi) 23 1/2 VP 4. Quezon City (Phi) 23 1/2 VP 5. Chizchik (Uzbe) 22 VP 6. Pavlodar (Kha) 20 1/2 VP 7. Dushande (Taj) 20 VP 8. Kuala Lumpur (Mal) 19 1/2 VP 9. Rasht (Ira) 19 VP 10. Neyveli (Ind) 18 VP