Susanto set for Bled chess championship

Susanto set for Bled chess championship

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Susanto Megaranto, at the tender age of 15, recently led
Indonesia's junior chess team to the bronze medal at the just-
concluded international youth chess competition, is likely to
take up another harder task in the immediate future in Bled,
Slovenia.

Bled will be the venue of the chess Olympiad on the senior
level, which will run from Oct. 25 to Nov. 11. Indonesia plans to
send six men's players, one of whom will be Susanto.

"It's very likely Susanto will be the ace of the team for the
Olympiad. It's time for him to play a higher level of
competition," Eka Putra Wirya, the executive director of the
Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi), said after he received
the national junior team at the Sukarno-Hatta International
Airport here on Thursday.

Others present to congratulate the team included Percasi
chairman Machnan Kamaluddin, team manager GM Utut Adianto and
officials from the JAPFA Chess Club, where Susanto and Tirta
Chandra Purnama train.

Susanto, Tirta and other juniors Taufik Halay and Surya
Wahyudi catapulted Indonesian chess to a high after they managed
to finish third behind champion China and second place Ukraine at
the World Youth Chess Olympiad in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

To add to the team's celebration, Susanto managed to win the
silver medal as the second best player on the first board behind
FIDE Master (FM) Wang Yue of China.

Susanto, who along with Tirta, has proven to be toughest
against senior players when he managed to win an International
Master (IM) norm at the Grandmaster Tournament in Surabaya, East
Java, in June.

And Percasi, according to Eka, is eager to see Susanto to
attain an IM title by the end of this year.