Juniors win first round

JAKARTA (JP): Three Indonesian junior chess players had a good start in the World Youth Chess Championship in Oropesa del Mar, Spain, by beating their opponents.

"Percasi Master (MP) Andrean Susilodinata, 10, beat Alex Cuevas of Argentina at the 31st move of Caro-Kann defense. He controlled the game from the 16th move," a spokesman of the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) Kristianus Liem said in a fax sent to The Jakarta Post Thursday.

"MP Taufik Halay, 13, also beat his opponent, Himanshu Kumar, of India using the King Hindu defense at the 30th move."

Another victory was achieved by MP Ferry Ferdiansah, 11, who beat Wang Hao from China using the French defense. Wang's king was check-mated at the 45th move.

Unfortunately, MP Susanto Megaranto, 13, had to kneel at the 27th move before his opponent Eduardo Garcia Pichon of Colombia who used Marshall Gambit variation of the Spanish defense.

MP Tirta Chandra, 14, was beaten by Dmytry Maximov of Ukraine at the 52nd move of Spanish defense.

In the second round, Andrean meets Daulet Duskujanov of Kazakhstan, Ferry faces Laszlo Gonda of Hungary, and Taufik meets Sahar Chen of Israel.

Meanwhile, Susanto faces Belgian Luk Vanstreels and Chandra meets Canadian Samuel Lipnowski. (nvn)