Susanto off to flying start against Dao
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Teenager Susanto Megaranto chalked up an upset win over Vietnamese Dao Thien Hai in the opening round of their best-of- seven matchup series at the Japfa Chess Festival here on Monday.
The 17-year-old Indonesian stopped Dao, 10 years his senior, with black in 48 moves in around three hours and half.
The tournament was officially opened by State Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs Adhyaksa Dault, witnessed by the secretary-general of the world chess governing body (FIDE) Ignatius Leong, at the former's office in Senayan, Central Jakarta.
The organizers also used the occasion to introduce eight-year- old Aston Taminsyah, who won the under-8 eight group category at the world school championship in Greece last week.
"It's a pleasure to visit Indonesia. And I'd like to say welcome to your boy champion. I think he is going to a strong player in the future," Singaporean Leong said in his speech.
The planned-six day festival features 800 players in nine classes of competition, competing for a total of Rp 80 million in cash prizes.
The main attraction, however, is the matchup between Susanto and Dao.
Susanto managed to shield himself with a solid Slav defense. On move 20, the two players liquidated their queens and after swapping pieces in the next 10 moves, they were almost in a balanced position.
However, Dao acknowledged a poor 37th move of putting the knight on c5.
"I should have opted for a rook on d1," he said later.
With the choice of the move, Dao, whose 2609 is the highest elo-rating in the Southeast Asian region, was forced to retreat to consolidate his defense.
Susanto was unstoppable in building on the attack through a pawn moving forward assisted by the king.
With the clock ticking away, Dao gave away his knight and then congratulated Susanto.
"He might have been daunted by the time running out," said Susanto, who had 15 minutes left on his clock against Dao's few seconds.
The winner will take US$1,500 and the loser $750.
The only surprise in the men's master competition was that top seed Danny Juswanto did not show up for his match and was defaulted.
Other top seeds, including Hamdani Rudin, Edhi Handoko, Salor Sitanggang, Kasmiran, Ruben Gunawan, Ardiansyah, Ivan Situru and Tirta Chandra, were untroubled in defeating lower-ranked foes.
In the women's master competition, which also has 13 contenders, second seed Evie Lindiawati fell to Imasniti, but top seed Lisa Lumongdong and third seed Irene Kharisma won their matches.