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.