RI gets chance to show its stuff against world's best in Chess Olympiad
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia expects a tough challenge in its first ever participation at the World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad in Kuala Lumpur, which will commence next week.
"Given the participating countries coming from around the world, we are in for some stiff competition in Kuala Lumpur," team manager GM Utut Adianto told a media conference at the F. Sumanti Chess Center in Central Jakarta on Thursday.
As many as 30 countries already confirmed their appearance, according to Utut, including powerhouse Russia, China, India, the United States and Vietnam.
"Our players are technically and mentally prepared for the encounter. They are already itching to get to the board," he said, as he was accompanied by Machnan Kamaluddin, the chairman of the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) and vice chairman Eka Putra Wirya.
Indonesia is set to send four players to the tournament, which will run from Aug. 20 through Aug. 28. Called the Japfa Indonesia Plus team, the team comprises Susanto Megaranto (15 years old), Tirta Chandra (16), Taufik Halay (15) and Surya Wahyudi (14).
Susanto, who attained international master (IM) status at last month's international chess event in Surabaya, and Tirta have been training under Utut's supervision at the Japfa Chess Club.
The four players were introduced to the media before carrying out warmup matches against senior players from Gunadarma Chess Club later in the day. The second preparatory match was scheduled for Friday, against the BNI Club.
Looking ahead for their proteges' potentially tiring matches, Utut looked optimistic and assured of his managerial skills.
"We will be vigilant against a possible drop in fighting spirit. We will have to ensure that their team work is not disrupted. That's the task of the team manager," Utut said.
"Our participation in Chess Olympiad is part of our strategy to accelerate the development of the junior players in their campaign to pursue higher world ratings such as international master (IM) and grand master (GM) titles," he said.
The team was going to take five players, but Andrean Susilodinata was removed last week due to differences between the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) and Andrean's parents.
Andrean (12) is considered to be overly dependent on his parents, a mental attitude which, according to Percasi, could become a barrier to Andrean's chess career in the future.
Percasi has a policy to achieve a degree of separation from parents as part of efforts to increase a player's psychological maturity.
Given his modest runs both in domestic and international tournaments, Andrean's absence could undermine the team's strength. But Percasi said it had faith in the current foursome's ability to succeed.