Susanto, Tirta book opening wins

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.