RI suffers loss to Iraq at Chess Olympiad
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).