Ruben wins selection tourney

JAKARTA (JP): Grand Master (GM) Ruben Gunawan won the 34th Chess Olympic Games national selection tournament here on Thursday after defeating International Master (IM) Danny Juswanto in sudden death.

Danny, who lost to Ruben on Wednesday in the first match of the final, won the second match of the final in the 44th move to force a play-off. In the ensuing 25-minute rapid chess matches, Danny won the first match and Ruben was victorious in the second.

This forced the players into sudden death, where the person playing the white pieces gets five minutes to plan his moves, while the person playing black is given four minutes to respond. If the match ends in a draw, the person playing the black pieces is declared the winner.

Danny played the black pieces during the sudden-death match and only needed a tie to bring home the Rp 1.5 million (US$175) championship prize. But Ruben triumphed and took home the title.

Both players, along with GM Edhi Handoko and FIDE Master Hamdani Rudin, will join GM Utut Adianto and IM Cerdas Barus at the Chess Olympic Games in Istanbul from Oct. 28 to Nov. 14. (ivy)