RI's chess teams leave for Moscow today

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian chess teams, set to better the country's rank, depart for Moscow today to take part in the 31st Chess Olympics from Dec. 1 to Dec. 17.

"We just want to improve our ranks," Djamil Djamal, the secretary of the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) said yesterday.

Indonesia is scheduled to compete on the first day of the championship.

Indonesia's men's team finished 40th and its women's team placed 18th at the last Chess Olympics in Manila, the Philippines, two years ago.

Djamal said he hoped the men's team could better its position from the 40th to 25th or 27th. He anticipates that the women's team will included among the best 15.

"I think its a reasonable target and believe it is realistic because both the men's and the women's teams consist of players, whose skills do not differ too much from each other," Djamal said.

Djamal, who serves a non-playing captain for the men's team, said the association was not promising any rewards to players whose performances help boost Indonesia's rank, but hinted that they might receive bonuses.

Djamal's main concern was that Moscow's extremely cold temperatures might disrupt the concentration of the Indonesian teams.

"At five degrees below zero, I still could not fully concentrate even though there were three heaters surrounding me," Djamal recalled his experience when playing in New Zealand many years ago. Yesterday Moscow's temperature was reported at 10 degrees below zero.

Speaking of Asian chess supremacy, he said that the strongest threats would come not only from China, whose men's team finished seventh and whose women's team was in third place two years ago, but also from India and the former Soviet republics.

The chess association's chairman, Akbar Tanjung, who is also the minister of public housing, has named six male players and four female players to represent Indonesia in the Moscow Chess Olympiad.

Among the men are two grand masters, Utut Adianto and Eddy Handoko. The team, including one player in reserve, has five international masters, Nasib Ginting, Ivan Jonathan Situru, Salor Sitanggang and Cerdas Barus.

The women are all international masters. They are Lisa K. Lumongdong, Upi Darmayana Tamin and Maria Ratna Lucia, with Lindri Juni Widjajanti in reserve. (arf)