RI beats Turkmenistan in final round in Bled

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia beat Turkmenistan 3-1 in the final round of the Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia, on Sunday, said an official of the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi).

Eka Putra Wirya, who is Percasi's executive chairman, said that the Indonesian team achieved the victory through Ivan Situru, Susanto Megaranto and Irwanto Sadikin, while Awam Wahono lost to his opponent.

Even though the team was deprived of the country's number one player, Utut Adianto, it earned an overall 30 points, and according to Eka, placed it between 46th and 51st in the final standings.

Utut, who won a gold in Turkey two years ago, opted to play as a representative from Asia in the Cap d'Agde in France, which ran at the same time as the Olympiad.

Eka had said that he wanted the team to avoid a finish beyond the 44th position, a ranking Indonesia could only chalk up in its appearance in Turkey two years ago.

However, he said he was satisfied with the team's performance this year.

"After unexpectedly losing to Iraq and tying with Zambia, the team managed to win the last two games. This has virtually pushed the team upward," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"It shows they put on a fairly good performance. I'm satisfied," he said.

While praising Cerdas Barus, who achieved his own success in winning a gold as the best scoring player on board three, Eka regretted the narrowly missed chance for the other two team members to make a name for themselves.

"Susanto and Irwanto were just half a point shy of attaining their International Master (IM) titles," he said.

Susanto defeated FIDE Master (FM) Annaberdiev Meilis in the Turkmenistan tie, and Irwanto collected 6.5 points each from eleven rounds. Irwanto defeated FM Ovezov Artek on the same day.

Cerdas, who did not play on Sunday, amassed 8.5 points from ten rounds, winning seven and drawing three games. Eka said that the collection of points had also earned the Jakarta-based player a GM title.

The 2002 Chess Olympiad, which featured 141 teams from 139 countries, closed on Sunday.

Russia came out on top with 38.5 points followed by Hungary, at just a point behind. Armenia, Georgia and China made the top five rankings.

China won the women's division with 29.5 points, or half a point above runner-up Russia. Poland, Georgia and Hungary finished close behind.