Susanto, Tirta book opening wins

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Junior players Susanto Megaranto and Tirta Candra registered wins in the opening round of the Gunadarma "elo-rating" chess tournament here on Monday.

The two, 16 years old, who guided Indonesia to the bronze medal at the 2002 World Youth Chess Olympiad in Kuala Lumpur, are currently competing against their seniors in the 16-strong event.

Tirta, who played white, forced Johan Gunawan to give up in 51 moves when the latter was a piece down in the endgame while, Susanto, playing black, appeared to be somewhat lucky in his defeat of FIDE Master (FM) Kasmiran.

Kasmiran was two pawns up over Susanto in the endgame and the material advantage might have provided grounds for a win. However, with control time ticking away, Kasmiran took so long to calculate his moves that he was unaware he had already run out of time.

Kasmiran looked upset and appeared to be reluctant to elaborate when asked to assess his endgame.

"I can't say whether or not the position was a winning one for me. I was beaten by the clock," he said after the match, which extended to as many as 81 moves.

Three grand masters in the tournaments scraped through to victories against their respective opponents, GM Edhi Handoko defeating FM Nurdin Askali, GM Ruben Gunawan stopping FM Sukirman Teddy and GM Ardiansyah pounding Anjas Novita.

Other winners were Tirto over Yoseph Majella and FM Irwanto Sadikin over FM Maksum Firdaus, with Iwan Prihastomo and Hanny Marentek drawing in their match.

The four-category tournament provides non-GM players with a chance of earning an International Master (IM) norm on condition that they manage to score at least 10 points. IM norm is an initial step to earning a full IM title.