Stefanova, Edhi lead at Wismilak chess tourney

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Grand Master (GM) Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria and GM Edhi Handoko shared top place with two points each after registering their second wins at the Wismilak International Chess Tournament in Surabaya, East Java, on Tuesday.

After beating Myanmar International Master (IM) Nay Oo Kyaw Tun on the opening day, Stefanova, 23, overcame local hopeful Susanto Megaranto, 15, in the second round.

"While her opening win showed her high class as a positional player, the second match showed that she is the opening repertoire master," chess columnist Kristianus Liem said.

On move 13, Susanto, playing with the white pieces, sacrificed his knight, which proved to be a miscalculation. But it was not until move 19 that Susanto realized his mistake after his attempt to win back a knight ended in failure.

"His failure was down to Stefanova's capability in playing an accurate sequence of moves," Kris said.

The US$6,000 Wismilak tournament features 12 players, four of whom are from foreign countries.

The only home contender to have collected the same points with Stefanova is GM Edhi, who took their wins at the expense of fellow Indonesians Cecep Kosasih and GM Ardiansyah.

Following behind with 1.5 points were IM Cerdas Barus and FIDE Master (FM) Irwanto Sadikin. 2002 national champion Cerdas edged GM Zaw Win Lay of Myanmar, while Irwanto won over FM Hamdani Rudin.

IM Danny Juswanto and IM Enrique Pacienca of the Philippines have collected one point each, having been content with draws in their two matches, while the players having only scored 0.5 points included Susanto Megaranto, Hamdani Rudin, Zaw Win Lay and Nay Oo Kyaw Tun.

The third round of matches on Tuesday were still underway late last night.