Jakarta chessmen prevail in inter-city team torney in KL

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