Mixed results for Indonesian teenagers in world chess meet

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Andrean Susilodinata of Indonesia won his eight-round match at the World Youth Chess Championship in Oropesa del Mar, Spain, on Monday, but Susanto Megaranto miserably drew after twice squandering his winning chances.

Andrean, making his debut in the U-12 category, beat local hopeful Ivain Bruned to collect an overall 6 points for the fifth place on the provisional standings.

The Indonesian was just half a point behind the leading pack of FM (FIDE Master) Dmitri Andreikine of Russia, Maxime Vachier- Lagrave of France, Krisztian Szabo of Hungary and FM Sergey Karyakin of Ukraine.

With another half a point, Susanto has now accrued an overall 6 points, and is still nurturing hopes of winning his U-14 campaign with three rounds remaining in the championship.

Viktor Erdos of Hungary was the sole leader with 7 points followed by IM (International Master) Evgeni Tomashevsky of Russia and Radoslaw Wojtaszek with 6.5 points each.

Meanwhile, Boy Reinhard, in the U-10 category, slumped to a further defeat, losing to Shiyam Thavandiran of Canada in 39 moves of the Benko Gambit game.

Susanto was caught in let-ups in his game with FM Borki Predojevic of Yugoslavia, which ended in a draw but the result, as the Indonesian team claimed, should have swung in its favor had Susanto not made two seemingly unforgivable mistakes.

The first winning chance for Susanto came in the 29th move, at which stage he should have swapped the Bishop on e6 followed by a Queen move to b3.

"And a win was palpable and would have been too beautiful for the live TV footage to miss it," Kristianus Liem, a team official, said.

Instead of the suggested line of moves, Susanto opted for his own by taking a pawn on the f-file. But the following imminent exchanges gave the opponent's pieces, which had by then been cramped in passivity, more space for an attack.

The second chance came in the 32nd move, in which he overlooked an otherwise strategic position of the Queen on the c5 square.

The most likely scenario was that he would be able to win a minor piece by a thorough tactical calculation Kristianus was sure Susanto was capable of.

"The problem was that he was running out of stamina. He did not have the energy left that he needed to calculate the variations. He couldn't think of any more ideas," coach GM (Grand Master) Utut Adianto said.

"When the game runs for a long time, Susanto always runs into difficulties," he fumed.

Susanto and Predojevic were involved in a grueling four-hour Sicilian game in 58 moves.

Kristianus said the signs that Susanto had become lethargic were obvious during the post-mortem analysis. The 13-year-old was visibly running out of steam.

Megaranto, S (INA/2234) - Predojevic, B (YUG/2352)

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Ba7 7.Qe2 Nc6 8.Be3 Nge7 9.Bxa7 Rxa7 10.c4 e5 11.Nc3 d6 12.0-0 0-0 13.Rad1 Be6 14.Nd5 b6 15.Bb1 Ng6 16.Qe3 Rb7 17.g3 Bh3 18.Rfe1 Nce7 19.Nc3 Be6 20.Bd3 Nc6 21.Bf1 Nge7 22.Rd2 Qb8 23.Red1 Rd8 24.f4 f6 25.Nd5 b5 26.c5 Nc8 27.cxd6 Rxd6 28.Nc5 Ra7 29.Nxf6+? gxf6 30.Rxd6 Nxd6 31.Nxe6 Re7 32.f5 Nd4 33.Nxd4 exd4 34.Rxd4 Qb6 35.e5 Kh8 36.Qf2 Rxe5 37.Bd3 Re1+ 38.Kg2 Qc6+ 39.Kh3 Re5 40.Qg2 Qxg2+ 41.Kxg2 Nxf5 42.Bxf5 Rxf5 43.Rf4 Rc5 44.Rxf6 a5 45.b3 a4 46.Rb6 Rc2+ 47.Kh3 Rxa2 48.Rxb5 axb3 49.Rxb3 Kg7 50.g4 Ra5 51.Kh4 Kg6 52.Rb6+ Kg7 53.g5 Ra4+ 54.Kh5 Ra2 55.Rb7+ Kg8 56.h4 Ra4 57.Rb6 Rc4 58.Rb1 Kg7 1/2-1/2