RI suffers loss to Iraq at Chess Olympiad
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia's prospects at the Chess Olympiad now under way in Bled, Slovenia, became gloomier on Wednesday after another upset loss, this time during the eleventh round.
Meanwhile, Russia established a two-point lead over close rival Hungary after a big win over Germany on the same day, while Hungary won over England albeit by a slight margin.
It was the unknown Iraq that inflicted Indonesia's sixth defeat at the tournament, which is featuring 139 teams from 141 countries.
Indonesian players, whose ratings average is 2399 compared to Iraq's 2267, went down with a score of 1.5-2.5 points with Irwanto Sadikin labeled the villain of the team.
Irwanto (2416) fell victim to Ahmed Abdulwahab's (2265) cunning play, surrendering after 50 games in a Scott game.
The other three boards ended in draws, in which Ivan Situru was paired with Ahmad Aziz Jwad, Susanto Megaranto with Ali Gatten and Awam Wahono was paired with Jaefr Haidar.
The defeat condemned Indonesia to 67th place with 22 points on the provisional standings.
As the team has not yet given an indication of a rebound performance, Grand Master (GM) Utut Adianto, Indonesia's number one chess player, who skipped the tournament, said the defeat had not been a surprise.
"To lose to an opponent with a class one level below us is not a surprise. It's just natural," he told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Thursday.
Utut, who was awarded a gold medal as the highest scoring player on board one in Istanbul two years ago, opted to compete at the Cap d'Agde tournament in France and, on his way home, stopped over in Bled where he joined a Grand Masters Steering Committee (GMSC) meeting.
"Our team members have been playing normally. There's no need for concern. Despite the team's slump in the standings we should not be bothered, because we are aware that we have sent inexperienced players there," he said.
Speaking about the GMSC meeting, Utut said the forum had proposed to the world's chess governing body, FIDE, a number of changes in the chess tournament format.
"Among other recommendations, we want time control reverted from the current three hours with increments of 30 seconds to five hours without increments.
"We have also put forward an idea for the final encounter at the World Cup to be played between 12 and 16 matches instead of the eight. We want the champion to be the strongest player," he said.
GMSC members include GM Yasser Seirawan (United States), GM Alexander Khalifman (Russia), GM Judit Polgar (Hungary), GM Joel Lautier (France), GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Georgia), GM Michael Gurevich (Belgium), GM Artur Yusupov (Germany) and GM Utut Adianto (Indonesia).