Susanto shines in Netherlands

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's rising chess star GM Susanto Megaranto continued his sparkling form on his European tour by finishing tied for first place at the Hogeschool Zeeland chess tournament in Vlissingen, Netherlands on Saturday.

Susanto, whose current rating is 2499, upset Oleg Romanishin (2570) of Ukraine in the final of the nine-round tournament in 50 moves, using a Spanish game, according to a release here.

The Indonesian chess prodigy, who turns 18 in October, collected an overall 7.5 points tied with GM Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, local hopefuls GM Friso Nijboer, GM Daniel Stellwagen, and IM Erwin L'Ami. They earned 875 euro each.

Top seed Krishnan Sashikiran of India, the highest rating holder at 2652, was among a group of four players with 7 points.

Susanto's teammates Tirta Chandra Purnama and Taufik Halay, both also taking wins in their final games, ended up in a group of players with 6 and 5.5 points respectively, but were still happy to obtain additional points to their ratings.

"Susanto got 14 while Tirta had 9 and Taufik 5," Novian Siregar said in a release. Tirta's current rating is 2337 while Taufik 2330.

Susanto, who became Indonesia's youngest player to attain a GM (grand master) title at 17, rolled to a streak of four wins in Vlissingen. He held fourth seed, GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov of Russia, to a draw in the fifth round.

After losing to second seed Konstantin Landa of Russia, the young Indonesian, who was seeded 11th, bounced back with three consecutive wins.

The Vlissingen tournament was one of the Indonesian team's stops on their European tour as part of their preparation for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Manila.

In the previous two tournaments in Amsterdam and Dieren, Netherlands, the three Indonesians put in quite good performances to ensure they improved their ratings.

The team will wrap up the whirlwind tour with two tournaments in Spain before heading back home in early September.